2026 Sarnat Lecture Examines Recovery, Trauma, and Structural Violence
By Crown Family School
Crown Family School Alum and Lecturer Explores New Pathways to Recovery
During the annual Rhoda G. Sarnat Lecture on May 2, Gabriela Zapata-Alma, AM’12, LCSW, CADC, challenged attendees to rethink how substance use, recovery, and the models that shape both are understood. Held during Alumni Weekend and Reunion in the lobby of Edith Abbott Hall, the lecture explored substance use, trauma, structural violence, and alternative frameworks for recovery and healing.
Gabriela Zapata-Alma, AM'12, LCSW, CADC, challenged an audience gathered on May 2 in the lobby of Edith Abbott Hall for Alumni Weekend and Reunion, to rethink how they understand substance use, recovery, and the models that shape both during the annual Rhoda G. Sarnat Lecture.
Zapata-Alma said they hoped attendees would leave with tools to challenge oppressive narratives and rethink how recovery and healing are understood.
"I'm hoping that people can have some tools to push back on oppressive narratives," they said, "to look at things a different way, and then to inspire people around them to do the same."
Introduced by Deborah Gorman-Smith, PhD, Chief Strategist for Community Engagement and Partnerships, Dean of Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, and Emily Klein Gidwitz Professor, Zapata-Alma spoke on substance use, trauma, and structural violence. The lecture, titled "Beyond a Medical Model: Weaving Pathways of Recovery and Healing," drew on history, clinical frameworks, and lived experiences.
Zapata-Alma explained that the way clinicians understand substance use shapes everything from policy development and implementation to treatment methods and the language used with and about clients.
They traced the history of substance use models from indigenous cultural relationships with sacred plant medicines, through the moral model and Temperance movement, to Prohibition and the racialized enforcement of early drug laws.
The medical model, Zapata-Alma said, marked a meaningful shift in understanding substance use, moving conversations away from deviance and willpower toward brain science and behavioral health parity. But they also noted the model carries limitations.
"If I'm told I have this diagnosis and I either have it or I don't, and if I do it's a terminal illness, I don't want to go get assessed," they said.
In place of a purely medical lens, Zapata-Alma introduced several alternative frameworks, including the Power Threat Meaning Framework, the Drug Set Setting model, and Recovery Capital. Together, the frameworks emphasized that recovery is not a singular experience and does not follow one defined path.
Zapata-Alma outlined multiple pathways to recovery, including mutual aid groups, medication-assisted treatment, faith-based healing, cultural practices, harm reduction, fitness, and what they described as “quantum recovery,” a spontaneous transformation often connected to a profound spiritual experience.
"There is no one pathway that will work or be accessible for everyone," they said, "and there is no one pathway that is better or more morally good than another."
Zapata-Alma closed with a call to action centered on relationships and person-centered care.
"We start at the center," they said. "We start with the person, with forming that relationship, centering what matters most to them, centering their values, their strengths, and honoring everything they've done to make it to this moment."