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ANTHC aims to increase public awareness surrounding substance use recovery, mental health, and stigma. By celebrating individuals in recovery and sharing their stories, we spread a hopeful message that recovery is possible. ANTHC Indigenous Ways of Living program staff sat down with Doug and Amy Modig to talk about their journey and the role traditional healing played in their recovery.
Doug Modig has been in recovery for 50 years. He believes recovery isn’t just about “not drinking” but also living a good life and being in good relationships with the people and environment around him.
Doug’s pathway to recovery involved community and communication. When he started his recovery journey, there were no treatment programs specific to Indigenous people, but instead they came together and relied on one another to get sober. By focusing on community and learning from one another, healing became possible.
Through conversations with Elders, Doug discovered the power of talking circles. However, he found that what heals is not only talking, but also listening. Through his community, he learned that shared experiences, strength, and hope are what helped him get and stay sober.
Doug mentioned that the kind of treatment they used to practice was rooted in equality. “The circles we would sit in and the support we would give each other was so personal,” Doug said. “It wasn’t necessary to make the effort to include people because they were already included. There were no barriers or fences, no up here or down there. All relationships were fluid and inclusive.”
Doug then shared that with Western medicine, statistics and results are important and are tracked. But western medicine doesn’t track what matters most: relationships with family, clan, and community. However, strengthening those relationships, day by day, is what aids in your recovery.
Amy Modig shared an analogy between the traditional Native way of recovery and how recovery is framed in modern medicine; she compared it to the berries you pick vs the ones you buy in the stores. Picked berries are a resilient gift from nature, “Much like our Native traditions, which have grown stronger and more vivid because of the equally arduous environments we endure.”
The strength derived from traditional Native ways of recovery will aid in the journey of recovery by encouraging communication and the development of one’s community.
After talking with Doug and Amy, we arrived at the understanding that traditional healing can play a role in recovery, but it can take on many forms for different individuals. “You just have to find the best examples that you can, share them, and try to apply them to your life. Be respectful of individuals and where they are in their journeys, you can’t impose things upon people. No one can predict what someone may hear that could inspire them to start their journey – something will speak to them along the way,” Doug Modig said.
When you want to help people in recovery, it is important to convey a clear message that you are trying to create a non-dependent relationship with them. Beyond focusing on recovery, it is about helping people help themselves.
One final thing to remember as a lesson from our Elders is that traditional healing is not a course to complete or an event to attend, it is a continuous process. Accept that you are the person you are and also the person you want to become. They are one and the same!
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Learn more about our approach to care, our many offerings, including group counseling, and how to become a client at anthc.org/BHWC.
