New Solutions for Addressing Indigenous Mental Health: A Call to Counsellors to Introduce the New Positive Psychology of Success

Australia’s ‘black ’ history has had and continues to have a pervasive and adverseimpact on Indigenous Australians. In fact, Indigenous Australians arethe most disadvantaged Australians based on all socioeconomic indi-cators that serve to drive life potential. There is also a dearth of schol-arly research available, particularly in relation to Indigenous children in the schooling sector and mental health. However, recent research with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations offers new, potentially potent, solutions. In this article we provide (a) a rationale for Indigenous mental health being a significant social issue of our time, (b) a summary of some recent research findings pertaining to mental health of young Indigenous Australians, (c) outline why a pos-itive psychology approach offers a new solution for intervention with specific reference to the importance of the self-concept construct for Indigenous students, and (d) call upon counsellors, practitioners, and policy makers to implement and evaluate the latter approach. Our country and people have suffered many traumas since colonisation, the magni-tude of which is beyond words. Looking through trauma is like being trapped in the back of a mirror, there is no reflection of self. It is like being trapped in darkness