Mitch Bourbonniere: Bringing back the village

It is said that the Inuit have forty words for snow. Mitch Bourbonniere would like to have forty words for love to explain the kinship approach to healing work that he inherited from his Metis parents and has continued to expand under the guidance of Indigenous elders like Luc Arquette and Margaret Lavalee. Mitch calls his work with vulnerable youth and young adults "Action Therapy." His philosophy of "lateral empathy" gets people helping themselves by helping others. Circumventing the credentialism that keeps many gifted helpers out of roles in community healing work, Mitch has offered mentorship, inspiration and opportunity for a network of Action Therapists who have become a go-to resource for First Nations Child and Family Service agencies in Manitoba, as "uncles and aunties" for youth in care, and more recently, as supports to Indigenous families in preventing apprehensions in the first place.