Indigenous Emotional Wellness can also be referred to as your social, emotional, and mental wellbeing as Indigenous person living in your community. It emphasizes a person’s interconnectedness and balance between emotional, physical, spiritual, and cultural wellbeing and their relationship with family, community, and environment. IEW highlights the importance of cultural identity and recognizes historical trauma and the multigenerational impacts that colonization has had on Indigenous communities. Indigenous Emotional Wellness is important for our maternal Indigenous communities because it acts as a protective factor to promote perinatal health. Indigenous communities have some of the highest rates of maternal mortality and morbidity, so it is essential that we center culturally-grounded emotional healing practices that support our relatives throughout their parenting journey.

At your initial visit, you and your IEW Bestie will talk about your hopes, dreams, and needs for your Indigenous Emotional Wellness journey. At that visit you will work with your IEW Bestie to set your emotional wellness goals and focuses, as well as determine the frequency of your visits and the best method of communication. From there, your visits will be catered to your needs. These visits can include journaling, sharing a meal, connecting you with resources, check-ins to talk about your emotions and/or how parenting is going, and much more.

How often your IEW Bestie visits is entirely up to you. We have options for your IEW Bestie to come weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly– whatever works for your schedule and needs.  Your visit does not need to happen in your home. This program allows virtual support if home visits are not possible for you, but we can also combine both in-home and virtual visits to meet your needs. IEW Bestie visits can be as long or as short as you need, but they typically last between 30 mins and 2 hours.

That is up to you! As this is a goal-centered program, your time can be determined by your progression towards meeting your emotional goals. Even if you don’t “reach” your goals, your IEW Bestie is here to support you along your Indigenous Emotional Wellness journey.

No, the IEW Bestie Program is a peer support program centered around Indigenous Emotional Wellness. You can work with your IEW Bestie can help you find a therapist or mental health professional that meets your Indigenous needs.

No, you can be on your fertility journey or have experienced a pregnancy loss and/or abortion.