A Native American Approach to Healing: Challenging the Western model of Mental Health by Mary Porter

Mary Porter is the co-founder and director of the Looking Glass Peyote Church in Oregon. Mary is a descendant of the Nez Perce; Yakama, Wasco tribes, and is the co-founder of Looking Glass Peyote Church of Oregon. Recognized by the Peyote People in Texas as a non Tribal-4/4th, full blood American Indian with intact knowledge of her ancestral descendancy that spans 50,000 years, a history that has been maintained orally and recently verified scientifically.

Mary's wisdom is transformative. listening to her I can feel new–old truths–arise in me. There is power in her teaching that calls therapists and clients alike to new understanding and responsibility. Mary will speak of the tragic racism she faced as a child and continues today. She will challenge the idea of personal healing in the western model. She will speak of plant-medicine and the use of psychedelics in spiritual healing, a healing that Mother Earth calls us to carry forward; a concept foreign to most of us in the individualized western model of mental health. You are in for a good ride on the Therapy road trip!