Restoring Balance: Healing Trauma and Addictions in Indigenous Communities

Many indigenous communities suffer with high levels of substance abuse, alcoholism, poverty and internalized violence. Concepts of balance and relatedness are important factors for healing within traditional structures. Healers need to be able to access these concepts in their practice through the language of relatedness. Access to these concepts to empower and create change involves story, both current and ancestral, along with symbols of animals, plants and natural forces as meaningful aspects of individual and group positive identity.

Scott Thomas, Ph.D., LCSW, LADAC, CDVC3, has been in practice in Santa Fe for over 25 years. His practice specializes in trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety, grief/ loss, and belief conflicts using depth psychology as well as traditional wisdom teachings. He grew up learning from spiritual elders on the Cheyenne River Reservation, and has participated in the Sundance and the Vision Quest/fasting ceremonies which precede them. www.scottthomasphd.com