Dr. Patricia Vickers

Biography

Patricia Vickers (PhD, RCC, SDI) is an Indigenous consultant and facilitator focusing services to Indigenous nations in British Columbia. Patricia’s doctoral research focuses on the transformative aspects of ancestral law of Ts’msyen peoples of the northwest coast. Ancestral law holds protocol, process, values, and principles for relational existence and is the foundation of guidance for her current research in the application of neurofeedback to support healing from PTSD. As a former Clinical Director of Mental Health and Wellness for the First Nations Health Authority, she developed, managed and facilitated two trauma trainings for over two hundred service providers in Indigenous communities. She recently completed a neurofeedback research study on Haida Gwaii with favorable results.
Vickers received her Interdisciplinary DPhil from the University of Victoria. Following cultural protocol, she returned to her home village of Gitxaala on Dolphin Island where five fluent speakers of the Sm’algyax language affirmed the manuscript. She is of British ancestry on her mother’s side and Heiltsuk, Ts’msyen and Haida on her father’s side. A mother of four and grandmother to nine, and the daughter and granddaughter of the Indian Residential School system, she values ancestral teachings and the mystery in healing.