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We believe culture & spirituality are essential to healing.
Native American traditional healing ceremonies are interwoven with research-based practices throughout our health programs.
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The smell of smoke from the fire and the sound of drumming and songs draw people to the Sweat Lodge as they prepare for the ceremony that provides purification and healing of the mind, body, and soul. Traditional healing practices include:
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As with our ancestors, the Sweat Lodge is a purification ceremony. Preparations are conducted in a sacred manner by cleaning and caring for the grounds, building and tending the fire, and covering the lodge. During the ceremony, hot stones are placed in the center while the leader guides participants in prayer or song. The leader teaches about the ceremony, Native American traditions, and the uses of the hot rocks, heat, sacred herbs, and water. Representing the womb of Mother Earth, this is a sacred place to ask for healing, forgiveness, hope, vision, to give thanks, or anything else participants need during their journey of change in their lives.
As in ancient circles of elders, people sit in a circle, listen deeply, and speak from the heart. The Talking Circle begins with prayer provided by the Traditional Practitioner conducting the ceremony. Participants may smudge or purify with the smoke from sacred herbs. A feather or talking stick is passed around the circle, in a sunwise direction, to each person. Holding the feather serves as an invitation and as encouragement to speak from a place of sincerity and truthfulness. The Talking Circle provides a place for healing and resolving trauma and an opportunity for each person to speak heart-truth without interruption, criticism, or judgment.
NAC integrates medical & behavioral health with Native American healing approaches to provide an environment to heal the mind, body, and spirit. This involves navigating the delicate balance between respecting cultural diversity and incorporating evidence-based methodologies. Traditional healing practices are integrated in all our residential and outpatient addiction treatment programs and services, licensed by the Arizona Department of Health Services since 1978.
Our traditions are the foundation of our organization - explore, learn, and utilize resources available for all.
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Your first step to receiving treatment services at Native American Connections is an intake assessment. Call now, fill out the form below, or visit during walk-in hours and our team will guide you through the assessment process.
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A "chronically homeless" individual is defined to mean a homeless individual with a disability who lives either in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or in an emergency shelter or in an institutional care facility if the individual has been living in the facility for fewer than ninety (90) days and had been living in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven or in an emergency shelter immediately before entering the institutional care facility. In order to meet the ‘‘chronically homeless’’ definition, the individual also must have been living as described above continuously for at least twelve (12) months or on at least four (4) separate occasions in the last three (3) years, where the combined occasions total a length of time of at least twelve (12) months. Each period separating the occasions must include at least seven (7) nights of living in a situation other than a place not meant for human habitation, in an emergency shelter or in a safe haven.
Federal nondiscrimination laws define a person with a disability to include any (1) individual with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; (2) individual with a record of such impairment; or (3) individual who is regarded as having such an impairment. In general, a physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, examples of conditions such as orthopedic, visual, speech and hearing impairments, cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), developmental disabilities, mental illness, drug addiction, and alcoholism.