DONNA RIVERA, OWNER OF THE RUSTIC DOGHOUSE SPA

Donna Rivera, a survivor of sexual abuse suppression, sits down with StacyK in Goliad, Texas at the Presidio La Bahia, built in 1749, with her dog, Arti. Watch as she talks about being sexually abused by her grandfather when she was in fifth grade while she and her sister slept in the bedroom with him. Suppressing the episodes of sexual abuse into her adulthood, she became an intravenous drug user, self-medicating by shooting up cocaine and smoking crack. Looking to drugs and alcohol for relief from her internal pain, those choices led her to a numbness that eventually isolated her from the rest of the world, and she found herself homeless.

Watch her open up about the truth of her life and how God began to use her in a halfway house as a witness to help other survivors, which led her to giving up her pipe along with all her other possessions as she rebuilt her life. Now ten years sober, she’s honest about the urge to use again, but she chooses to stay clean so she can help others overcome their past.