(575) 825-7222 Las Cruces, NM
Las Cruces Recovery Center serves individuals from throughout New Mexico, a state rich in cultural diversity and home to 23 Tribes, Nations, and Pueblos. In recognition of this heritage, our treatment programming includes a culturally responsive component through the Wellbriety curriculum. Wellbriety offers a spiritual, community-centered approach to recovery from substance use disorders, with a strong focus on healing grief, loss, and intergenerational trauma.
This culturally grounded framework complements our evidence-based clinical services and is integrated into a comprehensive model of care that addresses the mind, body, and community while supporting lasting recovery.
While Wellbriety was created to honor Indigenous teachings and traditions, its principles are universal. Our Wellbriety programming is open to individuals of all backgrounds and belief systems and can be meaningfully applied by anyone seeking balance, connection, and healing in their recovery journey. All Wellbriety groups at Las Cruces Recovery Center are facilitated by staff members who are certified in these curricula, ensuring programming is delivered with integrity, respect, and cultural humility.
Developed by White Bison, the Medicine Wheel & 12 Steps curriculum offers a culturally appropriate adaptation of the traditional 12-Step model. Rooted in the Teachings of the Medicine Wheel, the Cycle of Life, and the Four Laws of Change, this approach weaves Indigenous wisdom together with the familiar structure of the 12 Steps.
The curriculum emphasizes balance across the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of life. Participants are guided to view recovery not simply as abstinence, but as a lifelong process of restoring harmony within themselves and in their relationships. While especially meaningful for Indigenous participants, the Medicine Wheel & 12 Steps offers insights that resonate across cultures and experiences.
Warrior Down is a relapse prevention and recovery support program designed for Native Americans who are completing treatment, reentering the community after incarceration, or continuing their recovery through traditional or 12-Step pathways. The program also prepares participants to support others who may be facing similar challenges.
“Warrior Down” is the call made when a warrior has been wounded or incapacitated and needs help. In the context of recovery, it represents moments when an individual is struggling, at risk of relapse, or disconnected from support.
The Warrior Down curriculum builds a peer-to-peer response system by training individuals in recovery to recognize warning signs, offer meaningful support, and connect others to appropriate recovery and community resources. The program reinforces accountability, shared responsibility, and the understanding that healing is a collective process. While grounded in Indigenous values, Warrior Down’s peer-support model is relevant to anyone who believes in the power of community and mutual aid in sustaining recovery.
Mending Broken Hearts is a culturally based healing program that addresses grief, loss, and intergenerational trauma, particularly within Native communities in the United States and Canada.
Unresolved grief often underlies many social, emotional, physical, and spiritual challenges experienced in Native communities today. These challenges are rooted in historical trauma and the intergenerational transmission of anger, guilt, shame, and fear, creating a shame-based cultural experience that affects both individual and collective wellness.
Using the metaphor of a “sick forest,” Mending Broken Hearts helps participants explore how unresolved grief impacts families and communities and how healing can restore balance and health. Through guided reflection, storytelling, and cultural teachings, participants are supported in processing loss, releasing shame, and reconnecting with cultural strengths. Although developed for Native communities, the program’s core teachings—healing grief, restoring connection, and reclaiming identity—are universal and deeply relevant to anyone navigating trauma and recovery.
At Las Cruces Recovery Center, Wellbriety is one component of a fully integrated treatment approach. These culturally grounded curricula enhance our evidence-based clinical services, offering clients additional tools for meaning-making, connection, accountability, and long-term wellness.
We honor culture as a source of strength and resilience and recognize that healing occurs in relationships with oneself, family, community, and spirit. Individuals from all cultural backgrounds, belief systems, and life experiences are welcome to participate in Wellbriety programming as part of their personalized recovery journey.
