I agree with Mike. Recovery is not about re-living the past. Nor is it about burying the past or denying history.
In my case, I need to accept the reality of what happened and that it s***ed. This was harder than it sounds - I remembered trauma but had no emotions connected to those memories. In order to let go of the past, I had to admit how much of it I was still holding onto, in the form of nameless, formless anxieties and fears and other behaviors that made me act as bad as the alcoholic (and without a drink in my hand).
The old saying 'those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it" applies to our individual lives. I think my brain will keep repeating the emotions of past events until I connect them to past events. This is much harder than it sounds, especially for one like myself who is so very skilled in the use of numerous little shovelfuls of lies to bury the past.
I used to think that re-living the past was re-living resentments and blame on people long since dead or whom I want to respect for the good they did accomplish. Actually, it is putting the focus on myself.
There is a sharing that I read (in a book or on the net somewhere) in which a woman recalled a bitter argument she was having with her recovering alcoholic mother, who had already confessed her many incidents of past abuse and neglect. Her mother looked her in the eye and said 'Yes, your problems may have my name on them, but the solutions have your name on them.' So very true.
Whatever you do, therapy or a 12-step group, or something else, recovery is a precious gift you give yourself, and it is possibly the best gift you can ever give.