Barbara General

Registered Social Worker
MSW/RSW

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Brantford (Charing Cross) + Virtual:

Are you seeking a confidential, culturally informed space to address the impacts of colonization, child-welfare involvement, justice matters, mental health challenges, or addictions, and to work toward healing, stability, and a stronger sense of identity and wellbeing? If yes, you are invited to meet with a trauma-informed therapist such as myself.

I provide trauma-informed, culturally grounded counselling shaped by more than thirty-five years of frontline work in First Nations communities, including seventeen years as a registered social worker. My experience as an Indigenous frontline counsellor, director, and associate director has allowed me to support individuals and families through the impacts of colonization, residential schools, and child-welfare involvement, while also supervising and mentoring frontline staff to ensure safe, ethical, and culturally responsive practice. My clinical background in crisis intervention, sexual assault counselling, violence-against-women services, and mental health and addictions enables me to assess risk, stabilize acute distress, and support both immediate and long-term healing. I offer a confidential and stabilizing therapeutic environment where clients can process trauma, strengthen emotional regulation, and explore how systemic and intergenerational harms shape their wellbeing. I integrate evidence-based approaches with deep respect for cultural identity, autonomy, and lived experience, helping clients build coping strategies, enhance resilience, and move toward greater stability, connection, and self-determination.

Our work together is not only therapeutic, it is part of a national reconciliation effort. By offering culturally grounded, trauma-informed, Indigenous-led counselling, we together are actively fulfilling the TRC’s vision for healing, justice, and the restoration of wellness in Indigenous communities.

Clients often experience improved emotional stability, greater self-awareness, and a clearer understanding of how trauma, colonization, and child-welfare involvement have shaped their mental health. Many develop stronger emotional regulation skills, reduced distress, and increased confidence in managing anxiety, depression, or trauma responses.

Healing from trauma and violence
My background in crisis intervention, sexual assault counselling, and violence-against-women services supports clients in processing traumatic experiences safely. Over time, clients may experience reduced trauma symptoms, increased feelings of safety, and a stronger sense of personal agency. Clients learn to connect to community and broader social resources.

Progress in mental health and addictions
Clients frequently gain healthier coping strategies, improved insight into their patterns, and greater stability in managing mental health and substance-use challenges. They often report feeling more grounded, more hopeful, and better equipped to navigate triggers and stressors. Appropriate referrals are made on behalf of the client to mental health and addictions programming.

Strengthened identity and cultural connection
Because of my experience and full understanding the impacts of colonization and therefore support cultural reconnection, clients experience a renewed sense of identity, belonging, and cultural pride. This can contribute to long-term resilience and improved wellbeing.

Improved relationships and communication
Clients often develop healthier boundaries, stronger communication skills, and a deeper understanding of how intergenerational trauma affects relationships. This can lead to more stable family dynamics and improved interpersonal connections. Increased safety, stability, and self-determination. My experience supervising and supporting frontline workers in First Nations communities contributes to a practice that emphasizes empowerment and autonomy. Clients may feel more in control of their healing, more capable of making informed decisions, and more connected to their strengths and goals.

More About Me as an Indigenous Therapist

1) The Nation(s), community, or Peoples you are connected to
I am from the Onondaga Nation, Beaver Clan and a member of Six Nations.

2) Where you come from and where you are currently situated
I come from an Onondaga, Beaver mother from Six Nations and a Mohawk, Turtle Father from Tyendinaga. My mother was our Onondaga, Beaver clan mother until 2010 when she passed and now my sister Echtoh carries the title. My mother had 10 children, with 8 alive and living in Canada and in the United States. I maintain relationships with all my siblings. I grew up in Buffalo, New York until I was 18. We spent our summers at Six Nations reserves growing up. I married when I was 18 to a Cayuga Chief and left the marriage when I was 29 years old. I had three sons with him. I currently reside in Brantford, Ontario.

3) Any community relationships or connections you feel are important to share
I have worked at Six Nations on and on for the last 35 years and have several connections with directors and staff from the social agencies in Ohsweken. I have a lifetime of connections with the Ongwehonweh people from Sour Springs longhouse. More people know of me, than I know of them.

4) The pedagogies, teachings, or ways of knowing that inform your practice.
When I began studying social work, I quickly learned that this discipline is fundamentally about helping individuals and supporting them in finding healthier ways to cope with maltreatment, abuse, and trauma. I was struck by the idea that students were being formally educated in how to be kind, respectful, and considerate—how to meet clients exactly where they are emotionally, mentally, and physically. All the other skills we were taught— writing, reporting, research, and evaluation—hold little value if we cannot first build meaningful relationships with clients and with the other providers and professionals who support them.

As Ongwehonweh people, our philosophical foundations are rooted in giving thanks for all that sustains us: the elements of the earth that nourish us daily and the responsibility we carry to share what we have with others. We understand ourselves as individuals who belong to a much larger collective— our cosmos (sun, moon, stars, the Milky Way), our Mother Earth, the waters, fire, air, the plants and other sentient beings that provide sustenance, and the animals. We fulfill our responsibilities when we participate in this collective in ways that sustain harmony for all living things. Offering thanks to the cosmos, to Mother Earth, and to all sentient beings through ceremony and prayer is not only a practice but a vital protocol that keeps us aligned with our responsibilities and our identity.

In this way, meeting clients where they are is not simply a professional expectation—it is a natural extension of our worldview. Listening deeply to their stories and supporting them as they move through crises and trauma is central to the work I do. Approaching this work through an Indigenous lens, while drawing on therapeutic modalities and perspectives, helps guide clients forward in a good way, grounded in respect, relationship, and balance.
I was one of the lucky ones who was able to be raised longhouse at Six Nations, not everyone had this opportunity. I believe there was once 17 operating churches on reserve and four longhouses. My mother experienced the ‘mush hole’ or the Mohawk Institute until she was 14 years old. She returned back to the longhouse when I was very young. The Onondaga Chief and Clan mother titles run through the matrilineal side, and they resided within the Onondaga clan from time immemorial.

5) How relationships, community, and connection to land influence your work
My early experiences of connecting to the land—gardening from the time I was eight years old into adulthood, and paddling on the water—had a profound influence on me. Attending longhouse ceremonies, where we consistently give thanks to Mother Earth, the cosmos, and all sentient beings, also shaped my understanding from a very young age. These teachings were woven into me early and firmly. Paddling on the water leisurely or competitively you absorb the earth’s natural flow and you can feel how all of mother earth’s natural elements work together so you can have the opportunity to paddle.

My beliefs and values are rooted in recognizing and honoring the land we live on, as well as the larger collective of beings and forces that sustain us as human beings. This relationship with the land and the cosmos is not symbolic; it is foundational. It informs how I see the world, how I understand responsibility, and how I carry myself in my work and in my life. We do not own the land (colonial belief and practice) but we are to be stewards of the land. Times have changed indeed, but those are the fundamentals for me in my practice and world view.