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Pathways To Spirit is hosted by Dr. Troy Melendez and Dr. Nate Velez of Journey to Recovery, offering an inside look at the people, practices, and purpose behind a culturally grounded approach to healing from addiction. Through conversations with the Journey to Recovery team, the podcast explores the program’s history, its new facility, and the clinical and cultural principles that guide their work. Pathways To Spirit provides a welcoming space to learn how Community, culture, and connection support the recovery journey, and how this program is shaping a path toward wellness and a deeper sense of spirit.
Welcome to Pathways to Spirit. Our journey today seeks to honor the sacred land, revered teachings, and ancestral wisdom that guide us through the path of mental health wellness and holistic recovery. Together, we'll explore the stories of strength, healing, hope, embracing the clinical techniques and cultural foundations that remind us we are never alone on this sacred journey toward wellness and a strong personal connection to spirit. Welcome back to Pathways to Spirit. I'm your host, doctor Troy Melendez, and my cohost this week is miss Jessica Hunter.
Jessica:Greetings. It's it's great to be here. Thank you for having me
Troy:And we have two guests in the studio today joining us, Bowie Leonard and Jared Lewis, they are cultural counselors here in Salt River. Welcome guys.
Bowie:Thank you.
Jared:Thank you.
Troy:So we're gonna talk a little bit about the whole concept of cultural counselors, how they came to be and what you guys have been doing since these roles have been established, as well as kind of what plans are moving forward. Bui, why you tell us a little bit about how you how you got into this position, kind of how you came to work in this capacity in Salt River, and and what your thoughts are going forward. Okay. So I'll start
Bowie:in the beginning. I'm in my name is Bowie Leonard. I am from Salt River. I'm in recovery. And how I started this position was I I it was kind of by chance.
Bowie:I had was asked to share my story at a council meeting, and it just happened to doctor V and Frank happened to be there. And after I was telling my story, then they they approached me and they're like, hey. Why aren't you working with the working with this? And I was like, well, I applied for it and then, you know, they they got me an interview. Nice.
Bowie:And in the beginning, I was I started out as a BHT working in residential. And in our downtime, I would have some song classes. Mhmm. And so one of my biggest things was to, I guess, take away the anxiety of people having to search out and reach out to to practitioners or just have to search out information. And so I freely shared what I knew and I instead of you know, I took out the took that anxiety out and just brought the culture to them or what I knew of it.
Bowie:And I started bringing other people in to facilitate as well. And so from there, I was there for about a year and a half in residential, then I was moved to PHP, PHP, partial hospitalization program, and from there I continued. And I started adding other classes and about a year and a half of that, then the cultural counselor position came up again or came up, and I I applied for it and, yeah, then that's where I'm at. And my whole point was my whole reason for doing it was was for that. You know, through the culture, I was able to find was able to ground myself.
Bowie:I was able to find a purpose in in participating and facilitating and just really participating in the culture and the ceremonies and wherever I can be of help, be of service. And so there's a few people that yeah. I worked with a few people while there, and that was my was my whole purpose was to bring it to the people. Right. And
Troy:yeah. Yeah. You were doing a lot of culturally relevant practices when you started working with us in PHP. Mean, I'd heard you'd been doing some of that and then, in in residential, but we did gourd making. We had a language class.
Troy:You were running wellbriety meetings.
Bowie:Yes.
Troy:So, yeah, you were you were doing some of the cultural counseling before it was even a position with us. I think that's what kinda set you up to take on that role in JTR.
Bowie:Yeah. It's it's it's been a a awesome journey. And, yeah, I'm really looking forward to see where it takes where it goes from here. And, yeah, looking forward to bringing more and getting more involved
Troy:Mhmm.
Bowie:And adding more to the to the the the program.
Troy:Right. Right. That's great. Thanks. Jared, how about yourself?
Troy:I'm not as as familiar with your journey here. You were over at River People in outpatient. Yes. Did you come in as a cultural counselor? Is this something also that kinda grew out of the experience that you were having as an employee and saw that, hey.
Troy:This is a way to kinda integrate what I'm interested in, the role that I'm playing in my community with what I'm doing for employment.
Jared:Yeah. I just came straight in as a culture counselor. I'm from Gila River, from the village of Blackwater in Chukushulduk. I grew grew up there my whole life. My father, in his twenties, started learning about the songs from a handful of elders.
Jared:And with the with that, they started teaching him other cultural things. And, you know, eventually, you know, I was as a teenager, I wasn't I didn't have any cultural knowledge. I didn't really show much interest. Well, I did, but I didn't know where to find it. I didn't know who to ask and, you know, duh.
Jared:I didn't think to just, you know, talk to my father.
Troy:Right.
Jared:So but eventually, as I finally reconnected with him and started learning when I was well, not when I was 18. And so I've been singing ever since. Over time, you know, he would, you know, tell me about things or even take me to places and help participate in different ceremonies and blessings. Mhmm. And so with that knowledge, I was it helped me get my foot into a lot of doors or to it took me to places where that were more culturally relevant.
Jared:You know, the I was a a recreation aid for a while, and during that time, I would include, you know, cultural events. You know, I'm trying to coordinate cultural events. And then after that, I started working at the Gila River Head Start program for a couple of years as a cultural specialist Mhmm. Where I would go into the classrooms and do a lesson for the children. You know, they had four different centers.
Jared:So each day of the week, I would go to one center, and then on Friday, I would do more research and create more lesson plans. And then after that, I started I worked for a for the Gila River education department as a language and cultural curriculum developer.
Troy:Okay.
Jared:And then that's when COVID happened. And during that time, I was like, oh.
Troy:Okay.
Jared:So I kind of fell out of practice for a while for a few years and up until I saw the opening for the cultural specialist or cultural counselor, and I went for it. It turns out at the time, nobody else.
Troy:Was it a whole lot of of interest in that, Jess?
Jessica:No. It was it was interesting. I think back to the first time I met Jared. And this this position was quite a bit of a labor of love, would say, for behavioral health. It took several years for us to work with the community and HHS.
Jessica:And Okay. Ultimately, with support from our assistant community manager, Alina Jackson, we were able to push it through. So it was years in the making. And I think when we we got to the place of we were trying to get ahead of some things that we were noticing in, the health care world in Arizona and things moving to being more inclusive of traditional healing, things that we've known have worked for centuries. And, also, I think we were having conversations around what we know to be true.
Jessica:And if if we live in that value, that means we're putting culture at the front of everything. It's the foundation not only to the services that we provide
Troy:Mhmm.
Jessica:The community and our clients, but also in the ways we engage with each other. So this has really been, I've really had the pleasure of working with Jared and Bui of being innovative in that respect and how do we, infuse this in every aspect of what we do when we show up every day to serve the community. So it really has been, a journey. And the best part about this is both Jared and Bowie have been like, my role as the clinical administrator at Behavioral Health was really just to hold space and allow them to share their experiences, their lived experience, and their ideas, and their wisdom of what is gonna work best for this community, and then how do we get there. So we've come a long way, and also we have a long way to go.
Troy:Definitely. Yeah. It's been a focus of mine since coming to JTR. You and I had had several conversations about, okay, how do we make this more relevant to what they know? What is this we're all these evidence based Western medicine approaches and it's great.
Troy:They're very effective and they're applicable the work that we were doing, but sometimes there's a disconnect or even just a rejection of, Hey, that's too foreign to me. I don't want to have anything to do with that. But we're easily able to see that there were cultural practices, more traditional approaches that were helping to facilitate people's recovery and easily integrate it with the more western approaches that we were taking. Do you guys find that easy to do integrating these two approaches? Does it take some finesse in certain situations or is it kind of a logical, oh, well, yeah, this is what they're talking about.
Troy:It's, you know, it's prayer. It's waking up and greeting the sun. It's, you know, being mindful of our place in nature. You know, it's just there's there's for me, it's been there's certain connections that, oh, that just makes sense. Maybe that's where that came from.
Bowie:Right. I think that finding, you know, the the information that's coming out about a lot of practices that were done a long time ago that sustained us for thousands of years is is coming out, you know, valid. Mhmm. You know, I think trying to get peep like, trying to convince people that other ways other than just being straight clinical Mhmm. Other than what you can just see, and there's also it's a it's a spiritual and emotional thing.
Bowie:Mhmm. So adding that in there and dealing and helping people to heal spiritually and emotionally is yeah. It's a good start. Know, it's it's it's sometimes it's hard to convince people of just that. It's more Sure.
Bowie:People see it in more of a physical thing, you know.
Troy:Right. Yeah. I gotta come here and take care of this problem. But it that fits so nicely into just a holistic approach is, hey, we gotta consider the spiritual aspect of of the person we're working with, the emotional aspect of that. And and sometimes we get to the emotional but maybe not as completely as we can if we're really talking about, okay.
Troy:Well, this is the environment that that you're from. These are the expectations and traditions of the environment you grew up in, and how does that have an impact on you? Jared, how about in in in your experience with kinda integrating these approaches? Or
Jared:Well, I think it does take some finesse to them. You know? You obviously have to think about things about, like, what the person's going through, how they're in what the environment that they grew up in, and also to have some idea of how our people used to live, you know, in the days of our ancestors. Everyone today is always you know, they're attached to to the phones or they're they basically live in their rooms in separate areas. Right.
Jared:Hardly not a lot of interaction going on between family members, like spoke like, face to face interactions. In the days of our ancestors, everybody was included in activities all day. You know, they were they were, you know, from the moment they woke up, they were Mhmm. Greeted the sun. They got up, and they went running.
Jared:You know, they participated in activities. They would go work in the fields or clean out the canals or gather, you know, gather materials for their baskets or
Troy:Mhmm.
Jared:For pottery, you know, scavenging for food. You know, they were the men and the women, they did things separately, but eventually, they came back to the village, and they all communicate or they all participated in activities. They would, you know, sing songs, tell stories
Troy:Mhmm.
Jared:Have dances, and everyone was included. Everyone was involved and engaged. And, you know, we don't have that level of engagement anymore. We don't have that connection. A lot of our our youth, you know, they feel no connection at home.
Jared:They don't feel even within their family. So they we look for connections someplace else. Mhmm. And it usually leads us to, connect with people that, you know, we really shouldn't be hanging around with. Maybe don't have
Troy:our best interests in mind. Yeah. Right.
Jessica:One thing I I've noticed as I've been able to witness Jared and Bui in their practice is that they bring a sense of humility and humbleness, but they intertwine that in the connection of almost like I've I can empathize. I may have been where you've been. I think I've seen some bravery and vulnerability of sharing their own lived experience with wellness and healing and recovery. And to intertwine that with the the teachings that really hit home connection to community Mhmm. And obligation and identity to Mhmm.
Jessica:How we how you serve and how do you connect with others and your role in a community Mhmm. And and giving experiences of from their own life that just make it very human Mhmm. And relatable to people. Because sometimes we we kinda touched on this. We don't know where people are in their learning of the lessons from their ancestors or their relatives.
Jessica:Right. And for some, it's it's new, and there might be a little nervousness about asking for help because they don't wanna feel like shame around they they haven't been raised that way. So I I really appreciate their approach as invitations to learning more about yourself, about your community, and and how to live this life of wellness. So it's been really great to see.
Troy:Yeah. Well, I think it's so appropriate that it comes out of mental health, you know, that it's Mhmm. You we're seeing kind of the results of neglecting this approach for so long in these disorders, in these bad relationships, in these dysfunctional behaviors, and that we have the opportunity to kind of bring people's attention back to, hey, this was a simpler time. You didn't have a phone, You know? You didn't have separate rooms to go hide in.
Troy:You didn't you know, the connection, it wasn't so much that it was forced, but it was just a natural part of the day to day environment. This is what we do. There wasn't even a whole lot of why behind it. But now we take the, you know, the perspective on it and say, well, getting up with the sun is one of the best things you can do in recovery. You know, establish that daily productive intentional schedule for yourself and and, you know, running.
Troy:Get up with the sun and run. Take care of your body. You know, there's so much that we can do to entertain ourselves that doesn't require us to move and evolutionarily, our bodies are designed to move, are designed to use our muscles and work. It's like, you know, it'd be like having a German Shepherd puppy and keeping them locked up in your house. You know, that that dog is gonna get anxious.
Troy:It's gonna chew up everything in sight because of that anxiety because it hasn't been allowed to exercise, to run, to get out that stress, to get out that extra energy. And so, you know, for myself in in coming into this environment and this community, you know, seeing the opportunities that the cultural approach, you know, looking back can have on folks moving forward in their recovery was very encouraging, you know, to see that, yeah, we can we can kinda dismiss all this current stuff that's proving to be a distraction with this focus on what are we rebuilding here. And so I think that this is a great time, you know, for this kind of an effort to come out. And I think, you know, my my idea would be that it'll to flourish, that this will start to make more sense to folks in in a lot of different ways, you know, because even in looking at it traditionally in terms of how people eat, you know, and that's gonna have a big effect on on your physical wellness. Our ancestors didn't eat three times a day and they certainly didn't eat McDonald's.
Troy:And so, really paying attention to, you know, are we eating out of comfort? Are we eating out of necessity? Are we eating because we're bored? You know, it's just it's another thing for us to pay attention to. And I think if we get into more of a a natural, routine, in life, those things aren't as much of an issue.
Troy:You know, we're listening to our bodies. We're meditating and quieting our mind and, you know, paying attention to things that are important for our wellness. So recently, there's been legislation or now now we're able to charge Medicaid. There's medic Medicaid reimbursement for the traditional practices. How do you feel like that's either encouraged these efforts or given a little bit more legitimacy to this kind of work in terms of its part of kind of the western milieu at this point?
Troy:Benefits and and and not so much benefits, like what's been the impact of that?
Bowie:Well, my personal opinion has always been to do it, you know, it's freely give give what was freely given. Mhmm. And so in the beginning, especially in the beginning, like, I had I didn't I didn't I'll just say it. I didn't agree with the billing part of it.
Troy:Yeah. I was serious.
Bowie:Something that It's just something that that I I grew up the way I grew up was we we do we help people when when we can. You know, when someone comes to you and asks for help, it's because they need it and, you know, we figure out a way. And especially with with someone in recovery, when someone stepped like, some at one point, someone came in and helped me and they didn't, you know, they didn't pay for it. I mean, I didn't get paid for it. So you know?
Bowie:But then but it also brings in the, you know, in the the, I guess, the Western medicine part with the it brings in the legitimacy. So I'm for that. I'm for the recognition of it, but then that that was a that was something that was a little hard for me Sure. Was the was the billing part of it. And because I feel like yeah.
Bowie:How do you bill for something? I mean, how do you gauge that, you know? That that was that was one of the things that I I had, you know, I felt some way about in the beginning. Who determines what it's worth Exactly.
Troy:And who's paying for this and yeah, all questions that you really never had to answer before.
Bowie:And like because a lot of the the work is prayers. Uh-huh. Prayers and blessings, and, you know, to charge someone for that is is not is is not how I would have liked, you know and I don't I don't go around like when someone asked me to to help with the blessing, was like, alright. $50. Right.
Bowie:Alright. That'll be $50. Uh-huh. That'll be $50. Well, I did only I only did half a purse, so that's 25.
Troy:Right. You give a discount today.
Bowie:You're my cousin.
Troy:Was distracted.
Bowie:You're my cousin slash 20. You know, so you know that so that yeah. That part was was a little yeah. I felt some way about that. But then, you know, but like I said, it does bring some legitimacy and it does bring some attention to it and it is something that is needed and I'm I'm glad that it's finally happening and that it's, you know, that it's finally people finally see the need for it because it's been a long time coming and that that Western medicine is starting to recognize the need for it.
Bowie:Right.
Troy:Yeah. Not only the legitimacy of it, but the need. Yes.
Bowie:Yeah. It fills a hole. Yes. And my hope is that it continues to grow and that we're able to, you know, not just to get deeper into it and expand and, you know, more cultural practices within recovery and just Western medicine as a whole. Mhmm.
Bowie:Because like I said before, like, a lot of the the stuff that we we've, you know, common common knowledge practice was, you know, is finally being, you know, seen as that it helps, that it works. Sure. Like what you're talking about earlier with the the rising of the sun and, you know, sun gazing and the prayers and Right. Yeah. So all those things are they're they're they're finally pointing out or seeing the benefits of it.
Troy:Right. Western medicine's catching up.
Bowie:Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. So so that's good. Yeah.
Bowie:That's good.
Jared:Yeah. That they're acknowledging that it's it's valid Right. You know, rather than being labeled a new age.
Troy:Right.
Jared:You know?
Troy:Yep.
Jared:Yeah. I think that, you know, like what Bowie said mentioned is that, you know, when we do stuff for people, know, whether it be blessings or, cleansings, songs, the whole thought was we didn't ask we weren't expecting anything in return.
Troy:Right.
Jared:You know, we always did it out of the goodness of our hearts, and, you know, we were happy to provide such a service. Mhmm. Yeah. So if the person felt they really felt that they wanted to give a gift or, you know, then, you know, we we would accept. But Mhmm.
Jared:But we first off, we would tell them we didn't expect anything. Right. You know, because it's just within our nature as awe of them to wanna help Mhmm. To be happy with just providing the services.
Bowie:A lot of times, there's like a plate of food. Yeah. Water.
Jared:Sure. A bag of chamath.
Bowie:Yeah. There you go.
Jessica:I know. I I I see what Bui and Jared are talking about in the way that they provide work because they are ones to step up. You know, in our world, we we use terms like billable or non billable service.
Bowie:Right.
Jessica:And I what I appreciate is we live in an environment where that doesn't necessarily matter. If you're you're gonna do what's right, you're gonna serve, then you do that regardless. And also, you know, Salt River created these positions before funding was available. They they stood up and said, We want this for our people. So I really respect that.
Jessica:And also, it it's nice that we now have a way where the tribe doesn't have to pay for this. We can create a sustainable system by using some of our Western medical practices to ensure access. So what's great about these positions is, yes, there's there's an element of sacredness that happens out in the community. But if we have these positions in the clinic, sometimes that's when people are having their hardest days. They're learning the worst news.
Jessica:And so to have that available when they need it at JTR in the clinic, I just feel like that's one more door
Troy:Right.
Jessica:That we can open. And also and and Jared and Bui do this often. We we don't real they don't rely on, well, who works for HHS that can do this? They're connected to the community and are often sending people back. Like, did you know this person does this?
Jessica:You can do this. And sending back
Jared:Mhmm.
Jessica:To ensure connection to the community, but absolutely to have a service that we can, create a sustainable program that doesn't have the burden on the tribe to fund. And then we have it available not only at HHS, but they often are connecting to social services, connecting to, you know, youth services. How do we reach out? It's just been really amazing to see kind of the the innovation as far as getting everywhere. Like yeah.
Troy:No. I love that because, know, like you said, it it offers the opportunity for folks to get connected to other services they might need. Mhmm. That we're taking this cultural approach and delivering these, you know, evidence based procedures and interventions. But with that cultural component to it, then people are a little more open to it.
Troy:And then through that experience, they might be open to, oh, well, I could talk to this person or I could talk to that person. And so I see it as a benefit. Mhmm. Yeah. Financially, we're not we're not charging the people that are receiving the service, although their insurance maybe gets charged.
Troy:But Right. Yeah. That that way, the state is providing the funding to continue this type of work. And so, yeah, I get the the the kind of the odd, you know, first reaction to it of, wait a minute. We don't that's not how we operate.
Troy:But seeing is like, oh, okay. If we do it like this, then this is the role that it can play, and this is how it can help benefit the community going forward. What are things looking like going forward? You guys are are kinda newly established here. This is is something that's evolving, but what are your what are your plans and dreams for the not too distant future, and when we got cooking up here from a cultural perspective?
Bowie:I guess my planning dream right now is to get more people involved with culture and get it to a point where it's where the the the students start teaching other people. We're right now, we're talking about getting this coming of age ceremony thing together for the young ladies and bringing in the the young men, having this program with the young men. And I'm hoping that one day we're able to, you know, combine them so that we're that we're helping each other so the men will come in and help the help put the stuff together for the young ladies, and the the young ladies will help the men when they're having their stuff going on, they're coming to make And when they're doing this, they're learning and at some point, you know, down the line, they're going to start teaching. So this is how we revitalize things like that in the community. Also, the songs and, you know, just to keep it going.
Bowie:And as far as like with the program and the position, my goal is to start bringing other people in and start teaching them. And I was told this one time that it's too early to start thinking about passing on a baton, but then I think it's it's it's something that needs to happen, like start planning way early. Yes. You know, start like getting people ready because that's what it's about. It's about teaching other people and it's about, you know, getting ready for the future.
Troy:Right. So Having somebody that's that's capable of passing this on to.
Bowie:And just helping people get ready for the for their next step. And that's, you know, as a community, that's what we're one of the things that I feel like we've we've lost well, I wouldn't say it's not it's not lost, but then it's something that isn't as as strong as it used to be. Mhmm. And also bring back the togetherness, you know, the family structure, the balance.
Troy:Yeah. Community and family is such an important part of, you know, good health
Bowie:Yeah. In in any respect. That's what allowed us to thrive for thousands of years. Mhmm. And so yeah.
Bowie:Of course, we can't bring it all back, but then we can bring some of the teachings back. Sure. And that's my my hope and my goal. Mhmm.
Jared:My goal is to just to pass on all the as much information that I've learned over the years that I to our youth, to anyone that wants to to learn, you know, I I feel like, yeah, this is the perfect time now to give everything that I can. You know? Sometimes we hear of people saying that, oh, they what they refer to as gatekeepers. They'll Right. They'll have whole certain knowledge, but they won't they won't disclose everything.
Bowie:Sure.
Jared:But I believe that, you know, in order for people to to flourish, they need to know their history. They need to know even about themselves and their family, gain some kind of, like, identity. You know? So, you know, that gives them their cultural identity. And then, you know, with learning the language, learning the history, learning our cultural teachings, you know, without our cultural teachings, you know, everything falls apart.
Jared:You know, we've seen that through evidence of the boarding school survivors. They grew up without ever knowing hearing anything about their culture because they were there and sent there at a young age coming from a a level living and peaceful environment and thrown into this toxic living and having to live grow up that way Mhmm. You know, their whole lives to and then after they were done, they brought all of that all those negative feelings and all that guilt and shame, and it that's where it all began. You know, the our family structure fell apart. Our cultural, you know, network started diminishing.
Jared:And without it, we we lost a lot of, through the the boarding schools. So that's what I'm trying to do here in my position. I'm trying to introduce our history, you know, from written record, which was when the Spanish first came through here. That's when they started recording history during that time. In those documentations, they described how our people acted.
Jared:Mhmm. You know, how they treated them. They were very kind. They were very generous. They were very helpful.
Jared:They were very close and loving and, you know, growing up, we've all heard of people saying that, watch what you say around this person or, you know, be careful, you know, this person's mean or this person's you know, that way. And yet to know that that's not how our people were meant to be. Mhmm. You know, we were you know, we looked after everybody. You know?
Jared:I hope to bring that that back, to open our eyes, you know, to you know, through our, you know, through our cultural teachings. So the things that they learn, you know, it has meaning. You know, it has a deeper meaning than, you know, just learning learning baskets. So the to know all the things that go into it, all the thoughts and ideas of how the basket's made. They say that the materials that they used to make the baskets were still living.
Jared:And so once they create the basket, they consider the basket to have a life of its own. Uh-huh. Same thing with a lot of our, like, our our rattles, our softcuts. There's teachings that go with the rattle. They say every time you sing a song using your rattle, the spirit of the song enters that rattle and stays with it.
Jared:You know? So it it over time, it gains power, you know, with same thing with our pottery. You know? The time you spent with it, the time you're creating it, you're putting a piece of yourself in it. Oh.
Jared:And that's the idea with everything that we make.
Troy:Sure. Yeah. And it's you know, if we bring it to the the Western perspective, that's intention, you know, that's that's, you know, purposefulness. It's, you know, it's all these things that we know are really good for us, you know, to to recover, to, you know, maintain health. We're seeing that that's that's happened for a long time and we've just moved away from that.
Troy:And so, yeah, bringing this approach back and helping the community to treat the community the way that they used to treat visitors, strangers, I think is gonna have a positive effect for sure.
Jared:When I was working in a cultural specialist, Daisy, in Healy River, they the other culture teachers, they would say that, our language didn't die, you know, our culture didn't die. It just went to sleep. Right. Know? And it's up to us to wake it up.
Jared:Wake it up. I love that.
Troy:So how can listeners reach out or get involved? How do they contact you guys? I know that, you know, Bui, you spent a lot of time with us. Well, Jared, you've been involved in JTR as well. And then over at outpatient in River People.
Troy:But what if somebody's interested in learning more about cultural counseling and the opportunities that that provides? How would they how would they contact you?
Jessica:Well, if you see Bui walking down the street, you can just grab him.
Troy:You just grab him?
Jared:Yeah. Alright.
Bowie:That's that's always been my approach with Bui. Hey.
Troy:Come here.
Bowie:I got a question.
Jessica:But you can contact them through behavioral health. If you were to call any of the numbers, they know how to reach to them by email. You don't need a special appointment to reach out. I think we are always excited about people reaching out for help and connection to culture, but also ideas. This is what we would like to see for the community.
Jessica:And and so we we get a lot of ideas when you talk about, like, what are we excited about for the future? And I know if if you stay till the end of the podcast, we're gonna share an example of kind of the two eyed approach, clinical, blending clinical, and culture. But, this particular one is a is a self care meditation. But there's so many other examples Oh, sure. In in the work that we do that we can infuse culture in everything.
Jessica:So I get very excited about just the mere fact that I don't know all that we're gonna accomplish because
Troy:Right.
Jessica:It's wide open. And so I think I and behavioral health look to Bowie and Jared for their their knowledge and their wisdom, and we invite, other traditional healers and community members to share their vision as well. So this this is ever evolving.
Troy:I love it. That's great. Yeah. I I see it playing a big role in how we reshape our approach to the curriculum at JTR, adding these, you know, more culturally relevant approaches just makes sense. And and if it's going to help our relatives that are seeking treatment with us to more easily engage and find meaning in that, then, you know, I see it as a a big win for all of us.
Troy:Well, I appreciate you guys joining us today. This is, you know, very exciting information and and certainly close to my heart. This is my own healing journey continued coming into this community and I just see so many benefits of taking this approach and moving this forward in in what we're doing both at JTR and outpatient behavioral health. I'm very excited to see where this is all gonna go. Thanks, guys.
Bowie:Yeah. Thank you for having us.
Jared:Yeah. It was nice to be here.
Jessica:Thank you.
Troy:Thank you for joining us on Pathways to Spirit. Remember, within our traditions and our spirit lies connection, support, love, and hope. Let us walk forward together, honoring our paths and supporting one another on the journey toward physical, emotional, and spiritual health and wholeness. Until next time, may the spirits of the ancestors guide you, and may you find peace, healing, and renewal in every step along your journey. Yeah, go ahead.
Jessica:So like I said, in working in behavioral health and mental health and recovery, we often look towards, I think in any scope of practice that you do, meditation is pretty a big one that's been studied well. There's a lot of research to say that it can have a significant impact on your well-being. And so in working with Jared and Bouie, we developed something that infused culture, took a Otham and Piposh, a remembering why approach. So this is one example of a self care routine that we can implement in the work that we do, but also helps ground us. So Great.
Jessica:If you wouldn't mind entertaining me and joining me in this exercise as I share this with you. So we call this returning to center. And so I invite everyone to settle into your seat, feet on the ground if that feels comfortable, hands resting gently, and take a slow breath in through your nose and let it go. And as we reflect on this conversation about purpose and resilience in the community, I just wanna guide us into a moment of grounding, a moment to return to ourselves, to this place, and to the people we serve. Take another slow breath in and exhale fully.
Jessica:And now gently bring your attention to the ground beneath you. Feel the support of the earth, the same earth that has held generations of Otham and Piposh families. The same land that carries stories, teachings, and responsibilities. And with your next breath, imagine your connection to this land growing steadier, stronger, and more rooted. And as you breathe, picture a small warm light at the center of your chest.
Jessica:This is your purpose. This is your why. This light may be bright or soft or still forming. However it shows up is exactly right. With each inhale, imagine that light growing warmer.
Jessica:With each exhale, imagine anything heavy, stress, distraction, self doubt gently releasing. And now I invite you to visualize someone from the community, an elder, a youth, a family, someone who reminds you why you do this work, why you do what you do. See their face or feel their presence and let yourself remember a moment when you felt aligned, useful, or trusted. Breathe into that memory and let it strengthen your sense of purpose. And now imagine that warm light in your chest extending outward, first to the people in this room, then to the community we serve, and then to the generations before and after us.
Jessica:This is resilience, connection, responsibility, and purpose carried together. Take one more slow breath in and long breath out. When you're ready, gently bring your attention back to the room and carry this sense of rootedness, resilience and purpose with you as you go about your day. Thank you for letting me share that with you.
Troy:Thank you for sharing it. It was amazing. Play this back, folks. Rewind. Play it back anytime you need it.
Troy:It's great. Thanks again, folks. Appreciate you.