Evelyn Leite

In Growing up Purple noted author and therapist Evelyn Leite discusses addiction and codependency. Reaching across the barriers of race and nationality chemical addiction and codependency create a loss of identity, confusion, denial, shame, and self-destructive behaviors, all of which contribute to living and relationship problems.

This two-part presentation, recorded live at a workshop on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation in South Dakota, discusses how mind, body, and spirit are affected by chemical dependency and answers questions concerning the family dynamics of the disease.

One feature of the presentation is the recovery story of Verlyn Long Wolf a courageous South Dakota Native woman who shares her experience and a message of hope. The presentation also features a series of experiential sculptures which are pictures in human form and depict more clearly the issues faced by individuals touched by the disease.