Marrying the Irishman: Cultivating the Garden
摘要
The previous chapter in this volume used the strands of synergy (Cornish & Berry, 2025) to provide a framework in which practitioners can apply an Indigenous African-centered approach to healing in Western mental healthcare and “professional helping” contexts. In this chapter, Berry offers an account of what this looks like in practice in her own life by leading readers through a day at her practice. This story highlights key arguments in the text about the importance of relationality, flexibility, and a practitioner’s willingness to address crises as they arrive in a way that honors the humanity of clients while ensuring a high standard of care. In choosing to present this using information using narrative tools, Berry underscores the teachings of Indigenous African-centered philosophy, which prioritize accessibility and positionality over the supposedly objective tools of mainstream research in the social sciences.