Why Getting Sober Isn’t Enough: Trauma, Culture & Recovery | J. Carlos Rivera

In 2004, J. Carlos Rivera was homeless, estranged from his three young children, and had lost all hope. He prayed for the first time in years, promising his creator that if given one chance to change his life, he would give his life to it. Four months later, he walked into a treatment center and has been clean and sober ever since. But for Rivera, getting sober was only the beginning. The deeper work, he argues, involves confronting the intergenerational trauma that drove his addiction in the first place—trauma that, for Native American communities, stretches back nearly 600 years.

The Limits of a One-Size-Fits-All Recovery

Rivera spent years traveling through Indian Country using a 12-step model adapted for Native American communities. It helped many people, but he noticed a recurring pattern: the model only took him—and others—so far. "If we don't work on those deep-rooted issues, which is the fear, anger, guilt, shame," he says, "then eventually we will relapse again."