Pumachang: A Journey Through Cordilleran Indigenous Counseling Practices

The need for counseling from a multicultural perspective is necessary as globalization has allowed people from diverse backgrounds and cultures to form communities that need a more contextualized and responsive approach in helping. This study seeks to explore the experiences of registered guidance counselors in integrating Cordilleran cultural beliefs, values and practices into counseling students and develop a model that can explain indigenous counseling within the Cordilleran culture. This qualitative study adopted the exploratory and critical case analysis approaches conducted in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). The participants were five (5) registered guidance counselors serving senior high schools or Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Results reveal that Cordilleran culture reflected in the counseling process are strong sense of respect for the elders, the community as a strong support system, rituals as part of life, belief in Kabunyan or a God, spirits and its relationship to the living; kindness, nonmaleficence and respect. Indigenous counseling strategies and techniques used are communication through informal dialogue; humor and use of metaphors; acknowledgement of indigenous beliefs and rituals and its role in the counseling process; the use of native tongue to facilitate trust and connection; involving the community in counseling interventions; and directive, practical and empowering approaches in counseling. Indigenous counselors conduct counseling sessions guided by respect for individual and cultural diversity and flexible approach; compassionate service; therapeutic connection; unified principles of helping and interventions; and moral and ethical grounding. A simulacrum entitled GANGSA was developed which signifies Group and community involvement in counseling interventions, Acknowledgment of beliefs and rituals in the counseling process, Native tongue, informal dialogue and metaphors for connection, Guidance of elders, Significance of directive, practical and empowering approaches, Attending to others with kindness, nonmaleficence and respect. Recommendations for counselors, researchers, academic institutions, and government agencies were discussed