Search

Women's recovery can differ from men's, and each person's recovery is in many ways unique. That's why Stephanie Covington has designed the A Women's Way Through the Twelve Steps Workbook to help women and gender-expansive people each find their own path—and find it in terms especially suited to the way women experience not just addiction and recovery but also relationships, self, sexuality, and everyday life.Deepening and extending the lessons of a book that has helped countless women and gender-expansive people, this workbook makes A Women's Way Through the Twelve Steps that much more measured, meaningful, and clear. Unlike many''rewritten''Twelve Step interpretations for women, this workbook begins with the original Step language, preserving its spirit and focusing attention on its healing message. In sections devoted to each of the Twelve Steps, Covington blends narrative, self-assessment questions focused on women's definitions of terms such as''powerlessness''and''letting go,''guided imagery exercises, and physical grounding activities. Designed to be used in conjunction with A Women's Way Through the Twelve Steps, this workbook helps deepen and extend the lessons taught there and further empowers each woman to take ownership of her recovery process as well as her growth as a person. It is also designed to be used in conjunction with A Woman's Way through the Twelve Steps Facilitator Guide in facilitated groups in residential or outpatient treatment programs for substance use disorder or other addictive disorders.

Uses the hero's journey as the path on which to travel for overcoming addiction and crisis and rescuing your own story. This is a book about becoming heroic. A hero is a person who faces great danger, overcomes incalculable odds, and accomplishes that which would have been thought (especially by the hero) to be impossible to achieve. Considering the fear and pain that a person must experience in such an adventure, it is a role that few would desire for themselves. And yet, more of us find ourselves in circumstances demanding heroism than one might imagine. In fact, people who are never called upon to be heroic at some point in their lives are in the minority, if they exist at all. This is not a book for people who might want to become heroic someday. It is for people who are in the midst of a crisis, and who must make a decision about whether they are going to face their situation, survive, rise above themselves, and share their newfound knowledge with others who may need salvation. And it is for those who are already traveling such a journey and who would like to gain a new understanding of themselves, what their journey was and is about, and why it is so important.Using the twelve step framework for understanding the inner work a person must do in order to overcome addiction, Michael Cowl Gordon walks readers through the journey to inner salvation and peace. Using the hero's journey as the path on which to travel through these steps, he uncovers the deep work that it takes to be the hero in your own story.

By offering an empowering personal program of self-care in recovery, this book provides guidance for everyone affected by widespread modern'addictiveness'.The book explores Ayurveda's understanding of both the problem of our'one addiction process'and its solution. It offers holistic techniques that enhance any of the traditional recovery pathways and beyond any of the common diet/exercise dogma from mainstream media. It covers the stress/addictive tendencies of the doshic types, and links this to how stress affects metabolism, the main determinant of health. The program offered in the book is an integration of the philosophy, psychology and physical practices of Yoga and Ayurveda to help people shift their life trajectory.With Yoga of Recovery, author Durga Leela presents a complete resource for working with individuals recovering from addiction.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary, analysis and review of the book and not the original book.Holly Whitaker's first book is a seamless blend of personal narrative, science, spirituality, and self-help aimed at creating a new dialogue around alcohol in America, getting rid of the term'alcoholic'for good, and helping anyone who wants to, create a better, sober, more fulfilled life for themselves.What Does this Start Publishing Notes'Summary, Analysis, and Review Include?Summary of the original bookEasily digestible takeaways distilling the main ideasActionable advice to help start your journey to sobriety todayWhitaker's personal story and perspectives on sobriety, spirituality, addiction, and social justiceIn-depth Editorial Review & AnalysisBackground on Holly WhitakerAbout the Original Book:Quit Like a Woman is more than just a self-help book on sobriety. It is a call to action for all of America—and the world—to realize how poisonous alcohol is, and just how much it is truly affecting our lives. Whitker's personal story drives a moving narrative from addiction to recovery, but more than that, she creates an alternative path to holistic healing. She believes AA isn't the answer for most, that no one is really an'alcoholic,'and that the stigma surrounding alcoholism should and can be lifted. She believes in a world, much like the'post-cigarette'world we live in today, where the majority of people choose a sober life, not because they are addicts, but because they believe in healthier, more fulfilled living. Through her work, she inspires and creates an easy-to-follow path for anyone to join her.DISCLAIMER: This book is intended as a companion to, not a replacement for, Quit Like a Woman Start Publishing Notes is wholly responsible for this content and is not associated with the original author in any way.

Discover how yoga and the twelve steps can help you find freedom from addiction, exist peacefully in your body, and create a truly joyful life.If you're in recovery from alcohol or substance abuse—or if you're thinking of seeking help—you should know that there are many resources available to you. Traditional twelve step programs have become the standard in substance abuse treatment; however, these programs often lack one crucial ingredient for lasting recovery from addiction: a way to relate to the body so you can live comfortably in it—without the need to numb it.This is where yoga comes in.In Yoga for Addiction, yoga teacher Katy Cryer offers a gentle yoga practice that supports and complements the twelve steps, so you can manage emotions, stay present with your body, and stay firmly on the path to recovery. You'll also find breathing and relaxation techniques to help you manage stress, and tips for dealing with cravings when they seem overwhelming.Whether you're already in recovery from addiction and are interested in using yoga to support your journey; or practice yoga and think you may have a problem with alcohol, substances, or compulsive behaviors—this book has everything you need to harness the power of yogic wisdom for a full recovery of both body and mind.

Similar to The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Life with Hope thoroughly explains the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions as they relate to marijuana addicts and those with cannabis use disorder. This is an essential resource for anyone seeking recovery through Marijuana Anonymous (MA).'How can we tell you how to recover? We cannot. All we can do is share with you our own experiences and recovery through the Twelve Steps of Marijuana Anonymous.'The text includes the 12 Steps and the 12 Traditions, fifteen personal stories from Marijuana Anonymous members, and the section, A Doctor's Opinion about Marijuana Addiction. Life with Hope is an essential resource for the marijuana addict and for anyone with a cannabis use disorder who is seeking recovery through Marijuana Anonymous (MA). The text is ideal for newcomers, people who are in active addiction, and anyone interested learning more about how marijuana addiction affects people's lives.

An inclusive, research-based guide to working the 12 steps: a trauma-informed approach for clinicians, sponsors, and those in recovery.Step 1: You admit that you're powerless over your addiction. Now what?12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) have helped countless people on the path to recovery. But many still feel that 12-step programs aren't for them: that the spiritual emphasis is too narrow, the modality too old-school, the setting too triggering, or the space too exclusive. Some struggle with an addict label that can eclipse the histories, traumas, and experiences that feed into addiction, or dismisses the effects of adverse experiences like trauma in the first place. Advances in addiction medicine, trauma, neuropsychiatry, social theory, and overall strides in inclusivity need to be integrated into modern-day 12-step programs to reflect the latest research and what it means to live with an addiction today.Dr. Jamie Marich, an addiction and trauma clinician in recovery herself, builds necessary bridges between the 12-step's core foundations and up-to-date developments in trauma-informed care. Foregrounding the intersections of addiction, trauma, identity, and systems of oppression, Marich's approach treats the whole person--not just the addiction--to foster healing, transformation, and growth.Written for clinicians, therapists, sponsors, and those in recovery, Marich provides an extensive toolkit of trauma-informed skills that:Explains how trauma impacts addiction, recovery, and relapseCelebrates communities who may feel excluded from the program, like atheists, agnostics, and LGBTQ+ folksWelcomes outside help from the fields of trauma, dissociation, mindfulness, and addiction researchExplains the differences between being trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive; andDiscusses spiritual abuse as a legitimate form of trauma that can profoundly impede spirituality-based approaches to healing.

Recovering Benedict encourages us to nourish our physical and spiritual lives using the Rule of Benedict and the twelve-step recovery principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.As the “father of Western monasticism,” Benedict pulled together various strands of monastic spirituality into a single handbook for holiness. Alcoholics Anonymous presented an equally innovative way to address alcoholism based on twelve steps drawn from numerous spiritual sources. While it took a sixth-century Italian collating various sources to produce a handbook for spiritual life, it likewise took a twentieth-century American to pull together the spiritual principles to recover one's physical life. John E. Crean, Jr. brings both traditions together in one handbook for living: daily meditations are inspired by the down-to-earth wisdom of the Rule of Benedict, and AA's template for sobriety and humbleness.A thoughtful daily devotional for all who wish for deeper healing, for personal use, or group study.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An unflinching examination of how our drinking culture hurts women and a gorgeous memoir of how one woman healed herself.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed“You don't know how much you need this book, or maybe you do. Either way, it will save your life.”—Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEOThe founder of the first female-focused recovery program offers a groundbreaking look at alcohol and a radical new path to sobriety. We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at baby showers and work events, brunch and book club, graduations and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol's ubiquity—in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn't drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don't imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but. When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety, but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What's more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Fueled by her own emerging feminism, she also realized that the predominant systems of recovery are archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women and other historically oppressed people—who don't need to lose their egos and surrender to a male concept of God, as the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous state, but who need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own identities and take control of their lives. When Holly found an alternate way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their way as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it. Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit Like a Woman is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again.

A lifestyle plan that integrates nutrition, exercise, and spiritual practices into the proven method of twelve-step recoveryPersonal trainer and sports nutritionist Tom Shanahan outlines a program of action to energize, reboot, and strengthen one's recovery, especially those who feel they may have hit a wall in their program. Spiritual Adrenaline imparts the importance of a holistic approach to fitness, good eating habits, and connection to a personal higher power. Shanahan delivers engaging, instructive, and thoughtful meditations that provide positive coping mechanisms to help readers optimize the guiding principles of the Twelve Steps and reinforce relapse prevention.

An active and personalized way for people in recovery to extend and strengthen their yogic investigation of the Twelve Steps.Designed for use as a companion to Yogic Tools for Recovery, this workbook allows a person from any fellowship to document his or her progress through the Twelve Steps. In the introduction of each step, yogini Kyczy Hawk focuses on a recovery concept and breaks down its healing message, utilizing the wisdom of the yoga sutras. Then, she leads readers through a self-exploration of the yogic principles aligned with the step, providing introspective questions along with activities such as poses, visualizations, breath practices, and meditations.By working the steps in this manner, both men and women, regardless of age and physical ability, will learn how to synthesize the artifacts and memories of addiction in a new, holistic way, leading to contentment as they find their true path.

Recovery is hard, but it doesn't have to be complicated.If sobriety were easy, everybody who wanted to be sober would be. And especially for those who are just starting out in Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, or another Twelve Step program, the prospect of trying to change drinking, using, or other harmful behaviors can seem overwhelming. The good news is there are just three key things we need to focus on. Trust God. Clean house. Help others. Three Simple Rules offers a new take on this valuable slogan and explains how these rules can help anyone find fulfilling recovery. Author Michael Graubart also knows that those six short words are packed with meaning and may not sound so straightforward. Luckily, you don't have to figure it out on your own. Michael uses wit and wisdom gained in more than twenty years of Twelve Step recovery to explain what worked for him so you can figure out what works you. In Michael's experience, if you follow the Steps, and focus on the three simple rules, you'll be changed by the process.

Twelve Secular Steps features biology based explanations of both addiction and of the 12 Step recovery process. As a Step working guidebook the author, a scientist and recovered addict, emphasizes an active role for the recovering addict. Science and faith come together in this adaptation of the approach used by Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. And they do so in a way that neither promotes nor discourages religion; it simply focuses on sobriety.

“Old stories are universal and want to be told. To bring those stories out into the world as a vehicle for navigating sobriety and recovery is a glorious thing. I was hired to be an addictions counselor for the therapeutic community at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center. Susan Gordon encouraged me to tell them stories. I thought she was crazy, but I trusted her judgment and told them stories. The impact those stories had on those men changed my life. I worked in addictions for 15 years, taking those stories with me to very agency in which I worked. The women at the Center 4 Clean Start in Salisbury, MD were every bit as receptive to story as the men who were in jail.” --Beth Ohlsson

Experience the benefits of recovery through the practice of yoga.Recovery from active addiction is a lifelong journey that can take many paths. By aligning yoga philosophy and poses with each of the Twelve Steps, Kyczy Hawk presents a physical and spiritual guide that complements and augments any twelve-step practice.Highlighting her own yogic journey through the steps, Hawk provides an enlightened way of thinking that allows readers to investigate how they think, feel, and believe by using a new vocabulary to process traditional recovery principles.Current findings increasingly support yoga and mindfulness as promising complementary therapies for addictive behaviors (Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2013).Provides clear and concise instructions requiring no prior knowledge and enabling people to experience the benefits of this ancient practice in the comfort and privacy of their own home. Key yoga terms are explained clearly and all poses are accompanied by illustrations.Consistent practice will lead to a more positive outlook on life and help eliminate harmful attitudes and behaviors. It can also create a balanced lifestyle, bringing greater harmony, stability, and enjoyment.Anyone can benefit from yoga, regardless of ability, age, belief system, or life circumstance.Kyczy Hawk is a certified yoga instructor. She lectures on yoga and recovery throughout the Bay Area and has been a presenter at the Art of Yoga Project and Niroga Institute's Yoga Therapy teacher training. As the Success Over Addiction and Relapse (SOAR) yoga teacher specialty-training founder, she has taught yoga instruction workshops throughout the United States. She hosts a weekly yoga recovery meeting on In The Rooms and manages the Willow Glen Yoga Studio in San Jose, CA

Twelve Step programs can sometimes be intimidating. Before you walk into that meeting, you want to know the scoop and what it's really like to work a Twelve Step recovery program. Michael Graubart is here to tell you.If you're ready to take the first steps in a new direction, you don't have to walk them alone. Step up to your best life, alongside the millions of people who have embraced Twelve Step programs as a way to gratefully recover from their substance use, alcoholism, and addictions. In Step Up: Unpacking Steps One, Two, and Three with Someone Who's Been There, the first book in Hazelden Publishing's Step In to Recovery Series, Michael Graubart provides straightforward explanations on working a Twelve Step program, starting with the first three Steps. Graubart honestly addresses the most common questions about the Twelve Step fellowship. As someone who's been where you are today, he shows you what it's like to not only maintain sobriety, but to find a different way of life through a Twelve Step program.

Being of service is essential to staying sober and can add a new level of perspective and gratitude to your life. Learn about the power of Step 12 and how to weave service into your day-to-day.“Nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail.”—Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book) The culmination of all of the steps, Step 12 calls on each of us to complete our transformation from a self-centered existence fueled by addiction to one of joy and freedom through service to others. In Walk the Talk with Step 12 Gary K. explores the the history of Step 12 and redefines what it means to practice this critical step in modern times. Through inspiring testimonials, including the author's own dramatic story as a survivor of 9/11, we learn how a life of service extends far beyond helping other alcoholics and addicts, and reveals the power of such practices as honesty, tolerance, and love in stabilizing and supporting long term recovery. With passion and insight, Gary K. incites each of us—sponsors and sponsees, newcomers and old timers alike—to define our own paths of service and experience the rewards of community and connection.

These inspirational meditations, prayers, and stories are written by an Ojibwe Elder and alcohol and drug counselor to speak with clarity, wisdom, and care about the everyday experience of recovery. The author combines Ojibwe and Twelve Step spiritual principles and practices with stories from Indians at all stages of recovery to help readers navigate the challenges and rewards of living sober.Each of this book's 52 meditations includes a short reflection, a related story'from the rooms'of AA, and seven prayers—one for every day of the week. Grounded in reliance on the Creator, the wisdom of Elders, and the support of the sober community, this unique collection is intended to provide daily strength and hope for the recovery journey and counteract the harsh realities of poverty, violence, and broken relationships that are too often fueled by alcohol and other drug use. Readers will recognize the value of spiritual laws like Honesty, Sharing, Kindness, and Strength as well as the power of traditional rituals such as offering tobacco with prayers. Whatever our culture, we can apply this book's wisdom to our recovery and life.

Gain a clear understanding of the science and latest research behind the success of the Twelve Steps, a critical program used by millions of people around the world to stay sober and one of the greatest social movements of our time.Since the publication of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939, the Twelve Steps have been central to staying sober for millions of people around the world. Countless recovery and treatment organizations have adopted the Steps as their program for abstaining from addictive behaviors. But recently a growing chorus of critics has questioned the science behind this model. In this book, Nowinski calls upon the latest research, as well as his own seminal Project MATCH study, to show why systematically working a Twelve Step program yields predictable and successful outcomes. Whether you're thinking of joining a Twelve Step group, or simply want to understand the science fueling one of the greatest social movements of our time, this book is for you. As any AA member will tell you, “It works if you work it.”

“These inspirational lessons... not only invite reflection but encourage readers to improve their own and others'lives.” —Library JournalThe world doesn't always slow down when we want it to. This twelve-step guided meditative handbook by bestselling author Karen Casey shows how to find calm amid the chaos using the power of daily contemplation, especially as we get older, gain wisdom, and move into a new stage of life.Exploring such topics as fear and love, resistance and acceptance, willpower, and discernment—and with accompanying questions and prompts—each of the seventy-five essays in this book addresses an aspect of life that helps you move one step closer to happiness and peace. We don't know what the future holds, but if we dwell on the future we miss our chance to appreciate the present and all the beauty it contains. Benefit from this inspirational guide that contains:Daily meditation and prayer practicesA Twelve-Step “Course in Miracles”Guidance on how to live the best life you can live and much more

A powerful exposé of Alcoholics Anonymous, 12-step programs, and the rehab industry—and how a failed addiction treatment model came to dominate America.“A humane, science-based, global view of addiction... an essential, bracing critique of the rehab industry and its ideological foundations that we have much to learn from.” —Gabor Maté M.D., author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts Alcoholics Anonymous has become so infused in our society that it is practically synonymous with addiction recovery. Yet the evidence shows that AA has only a 5–10 percent success rate—hardly better than no treatment at all. Despite this, doctors, employers, and judges regularly refer addicted people to treatment programs and rehab facilities based on the 12-step model. In The Sober Truth, acclaimed addiction specialist Dr. Lance Dodes exposes the deeply flawed science that the 12-step industry has used to support its programs. Dr. Dodes analyzes dozens of studies to reveal a startling pattern of errors, misjudgments, and biases. He also pores over the research to highlight the best peer-reviewed studies available and discovers that they reach a grim consensus on the program's overall success. But The Sober Truth is more than a book about addiction. It is also a book about science and how and why AA and rehab became so popular, despite the discouraging data. Drawing from thirty-five years of clinical practice and firsthand accounts submitted by addicts, Dr. Dodes explores the entire story of AA's rise—from its origins in early fundamentalist religious and mystical beliefs to its present-day place of privilege in politics and media. A powerful response to the monopoly of the 12-step program and the myth that they are a universal solution to addiction, The Sober Truth offers new and actionable information for addicts, their families, and medical providers, and lays out better ways to understand addiction for those seeking a more effective and compassionate approach to this treatable problem.

Integrating 12 Steps and Psychotherapy: Helping Clients Find Sobriety and Recovery presents a practical and applied approach to working with substance dependent clients. Designed to be accessible to a wide and multidisciplinary audience of helpers at all skill levels, this text helps future practitioners fully understand the clinical challenges with substance dependence, adjust their thinking and technique in order to match their client′s phase of recovery, and optimize client retention and treatment outcomes. Utilizing educator, training, and practice perspectives, authors Kevin A. Osten and Robert Switzer explore relevant theory and techniques in integrating 12-Steps across a broad range of clinical issues including: the assessment and treatment of resistant and ambivalent pre-recovery clients; boundary setting, undoing antisocial adaption; processing counter transference reactions; and the intersection between biological functioning and ability in early recovery.

Paul Williams is an alcoholic.Tracey Jackson is not.But together, these two close friends have written Gratitude and Trust, a book designed to apply the principles of the recovery movement to the countless people who are not addicts but nevertheless need effective help with their difficulties and pain.Williams, the award-winning songwriter, actor, and performer, has embraced a traditional alcoholism recovery plan for more than two decades of sobriety. Jackson, a well-known TV and film writer—and veteran of many years of traditional therapy—has never been a drunk or a drug abuser, but she realized that many of the tenets of Williams's program could apply to her. In Gratitude and Trust, Williams and Jackson ask: What happens to those who struggle with vexing problems yet are not full-blown addicts? Are there any lessons to be learned from the foundational and time-tested principles of the recovery movement?Whether you're tethered to your phone or you turn to food for comfort; whether you're a perfectionist and can't let things go or are too afraid to fail to even try; whether you can find intimacy only on the Internet or you've been involved in a string of nasty relationships—the first step toward feeling better about yourself and your life is the realization that you are what's standing in your way. Williams and Jackson have designed a new, positive program, based on a half-dozen new affirmations, that can help conquer your vices, address personal dysfunction, and start to brighten the darkest moods. Gratitude and Trust is an essential, inspirational, and uplifting guide to identifying and changing maladaptive behaviors in order to uncover your most productive, healthiest self.

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, who developed the organization's twelve-step program. In 1939, they published this volume, which sets forth the cornerstone concepts of recovery and relates stories of those who have overcome alcoholism. Informally known as'The Big Book,'it has gone through numerous editions, and as a lifeline to millions worldwide, it is the most widely used resource for recovering alcoholics. This edition features an Introduction by Dick B., an active recovered member of the Alcoholics Anonymous Fellowship.

An accessible basic text written in today's language for anyone guided by the Twelve Steps in their recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.For decades people from all over the world have found freedom from addiction--be it to alcohol, other drugs, gambling, or overeating--using the Twelve Step recovery program first set forth in the seminal book Alcoholics Anonymous. Although the core principles and practices of this invaluable guide hold strong today, addiction science and societal norms have changed dramatically since it was first published in 1939. Recovery Now combines the most current research with the timeless wisdom of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and other established Twelve-Step program guides to offer an accessible basic text written in today's language for anyone recovering from addiction to alcohol and other drugs. Marvin D. Seppala, MD, offers a “doctor's opinion” in the foreword to Recovery Now, outlining the medical advances in addiction treatment, and updating the Big Book's concept of addiction as an allergy to reveal how it is actually a brain disease. Regardless of gender, sexual orientation, culture, age, or religious beliefs, this book can serve either as your guide for recovery, or as a companion and portal to the textbook of your chosen Twelve Step Program.

The Essence of Twelve Step Recovery: Take It to Heart, was written in gratitude to the Jellinek patients at Hazelden, whose lives, struggles and pain are witness to what spirituality is all about. Dedicated to Sandy McElrath, Damian's wife of 26 years, the book defines spirituality and the essence of Twelve Step living--and the essence of Hazelden.McElrath begins his Hazelden-published book with a quote from the Big Book:'The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.'(Alcoholics Anonymous, page 83). He goes on to eloquently provide his view of spiritual fitness.'The person seeking recovery must reconnect with his true self, with others, and with his Higher Power--the God of his understanding,'he writes.He addresses'the spiritual protocols of recovery'in separate self-contained chapters: (1) The Community, (2) The Spirituality of Addiction, (3) The Twelve Steps--Relational Spirituality, (4) Benchmarks for Spiritual Growth, and (5) The Cultivation of the Interior Life.Gail Gleason Milgram, EdD, director of the Center for Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University, endorses the book:'Damian is a born teacher. He presents complicated and difficult content in a clear and concise fashion. He helps the reader understand that'the heart of what makes us human/spiritual beings is our search for integrity, purpose and meaning.'This book is a gift to all who are in search of the meaning of life.'Says Craig Nakken, author of The Addictive Personality:'Damian has written a simple but profound guide for addicts that goes to the very heart of what is needed for recovery. The book has purpose and meaning beyond its pages. It's a must read for those looking to embrace or deepen their recovery. Follow the spiritual protocol!'

Popular recovery author Allen Berger, PhD, guides us in working three of the most challenging of the Twelve Steps to reap the abundant rewards of making amends.Letting go of resentment and forgiving ourselves for our past wrongs are critical to recovery from alcohol and other drugs. Yet, Steps Eight, Nine, and Ten, which focus on making amends, can be some of the most challenging to work, because we must face ourselves and those who we have hurt or damaged. In 12 Hidden Rewards of Making Amends, Allen Berger, PhD, uses the same supportive, down-to-earth style as in his popular book 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery. His creative tools and tips will help us let go of anger, heal strained relationships, and make financial and emotional restitution. Through this transformative process we can: recover and maintain integrity; resolve or complete unfinished business; restore trust, self-esteem, and self-confidence; deepen our spirituality and peace of mind; and reinforce a strong commitment to recovery. By being accountable for our words and actions and moving forward with a compassionate and constructive approach to the world, we decrease our chance of relapse and learn to maintain a healthy, balanced life.

A revised and expanded edition of the recovery classic by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D., a leading expert on addictive behaviors.It was out of his reverence and respect for the wisdom and therapeutic value of the Twelve Steps that Carnes wrote A Gentle Path through the 12 Steps, now a recovery classic and self-help staple for anyone looking for guidance for life's hardest challenges. Hundreds of thousands of people have found in this book a personal portal to the wisdom of the Twelve Steps. With updated and expanded concepts and a focus on the spiritual principles that lead to lifelong growth and fulfillment, Carnes's new edition invites a fresh generation of readers to the healing and rewarding experience of Twelve Step recovery.

Addiction medicine specialist Dr. James Fenley, Jr. shares powerful life lessons and spiritual truths he's learned from twenty-five years of practice and from his own recovery journey through chronic depression, anxiety, and his wife's addiction.

Self-healing through self-parenting, a concept introduced a generation ago, has helped thousands of adult children of alcoholics who are codependent and have conflicts in their primary relationships. Now Patricia O'Gorman, Ph.D., and Phil Diaz, M.S.W., authors of the classic book The 12 Steps to Self-Parenting for Adult Children and its companion workbook, expand the reach of that successful healing paradigm to anyone who has suffered from any kind of trauma. Whether they grew up in a dysfunctional home, were victims of violence, or suffered other types of acute distress, many people struggle to determine the impact of earlier trauma on current adult decision making. O'Gorman and Diaz show how trauma is a driver of dysfunctional behaviors and linked with codependency, and they offer a concise yet detailed resource for survivors and thrivers as well as the professionals who work with them. Through a process modeled after the 12 Steps of AA, Healing Trauma Through Self-Parenting: The Codependency Connection offers help to a broad array of readers (not just those who are ACOAs) by healing the wounded inner core and helping readers reconnect to their inner child.

Discover the six guiding principles that are key to lasting recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs. Learn why they're important, how they relate to the Twelve Steps, and why they work.Anyone who has recovered from addiction to drugs or alcohol knows that getting sober is only the beginning. Working the Steps, patching life back together, and living sober are where the real work lies. While the Twelve Steps provide a program of lifelong recovery, recovery experts Sterling Shumway and Thomas Kimball have identified six essential values, or principles, that reinforce the Steps and that are key to achieving lasting recovery: Hope: A reawakening after despair; to live with greater confidence Healthy Coping Skills: Managing the pain and stress of life Sense of Achievement and Accomplishment: Moving beyond the limits of addiction toward personal goals Capacity for Meaningful Relationships: The positive support and connection with family and peers Unique Identity Development: The emergence of a unique positive identity Reclamation of Agency: The internal knowledge that you have choices in your behavior Using their research, personal stories, and guided journals and exercises, Shumway and Kimball thoroughly unlock these complex principles for recovering addicts and their families, and provide practical steps for applying them to a long-term recovery program.

The powerful practice of yoga, with all its diverse approaches and time-honored traditions, meets twelve-step recovery.Those in recovery who yearn to connect more fully in the suggested'prayer and meditation'of Step Eleven will welcome this delightful book from a fresh voice in recovery literature. Kyczy Hawk's experiences of addiction and recovery make her a relatable, compassionate guide to an integrative practice that addresses the threefold aspects of addiction―body, mind, and spirit―for a new experience of recovery and of physical and spiritual health.

Renowned addiction expert Patrick Carnes, PhD, author of A Gentle Path through the Twelve Steps, outlines twelve guiding principles to help those in recovery develop an essential skill set for life.Renowned addiction expert Patrick Carnes, PhD, author of A Gentle Path through the Twelve Steps, outlines twelve guiding principles to help those in recovery develop an essential skill set for life. Twelve Steps. Twelve Traditions. And yes, Twelve Principles. The Steps outline the actions that lead to extraordinary healing. The Traditions exist as guides to the functioning of the Fellowship. Embedded in both is a series of Principles by which to measure your progress. Anyone who lives a Twelve Step way of life will recognize the principles passed on in A Gentle Path through the Twelve Principles. They have existed among fellowships as a hidden curriculum of fundamental truths about recovery for decades, but never before have they been distilled into a succinct set of values that, when practiced, help each of us to develop an essential skill set for life. The principles--such universal touchstones for human self-realization as acceptance, awareness, responsibility, openness, honesty, courage, commitment, and meaning--are concepts that enable a deep inner study and focus to make a new life happen in recovery. Recovery means reengineering your life with a focus on renewal. The Twelve Principles are designed to help you get there.

For newcomers and experienced Twelve Steppers alike, this valuable guidebook will guide you in finding the right home group so you can make the most of your meetings. The first advice most people hear when beginning a Twelve Step program is'Go to meetings.'But as most people who have attended several Alcoholics Anonymous or other peer recovery groups will tell you, not all meetings are created equal.The fact is that a group that's perfect for one person can send someone else running for the door. In this essential guidebook for newcomers and experienced Twelve Steppers alike, James G. describes the various kinds of meetings available, discusses what typically happens in those meetings, and outlines practical points for evaluating groups to identify the best one to meet your personal needs.With the idea in mind that chemistry is as important as content, James provides practical advice born of decades of solid recovery--years in which he has attended a wide variety of meetings--as well as the experience of other Twelve Steppers interviewed for this book.James G. is a writer working in the fields of advertising, journalism, and fiction. He credits the wonderful people in his AA home group with helping to save his life--and opening up a whole new world in the process. He lives in a large Midwestern city with his wife, daughters, and Fluffy the cat,'recipient of many a midnight confession.'This is his first book.

One of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world—and the bestselling author of such acclaimed books as A History of God, Islam, and Buddha—now gives us a thoughtful, and thought-provoking book that can help us make the world a more compassionate place.Karen Armstrong believes that while compassion is intrinsic in all human beings, each of us needs to work diligently to cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion. Here, she sets out a program that can lead us toward a more compassionate life.The twelve steps Armstrong suggests begin with “Learn About Compassion” and close with “Love Your Enemies.” In between, she takes up “compassion for yourself,” mindfulness, suffering, sympathetic joy, the limits of our knowledge of others, and “concern for everybody.” She suggests concrete ways of enhancing our compassion and putting it into action in our everyday lives, and provides, as well, a reading list to encourage us to “hear one another's narratives.” Throughout, Armstrong makes clear that a compassionate life is not a matter of only heart or mind but a deliberate and often life-altering commingling of the two.

This study guide for The Little Red Book gives newcomers to AA the structure needed to live tthe Twelve Steps.Designed as an aid for the study of the Big Book, The Little Red Book contains many helpful topics for discussion meetings. Drawing from the practical experience of alcoholics who found peace of mind and contented sobriety by following a way of spiritual life set forth in Alcoholics Anonymous, The Little Red Book can help members quickly develop an acceptable 24-hour schedule of AA living. Based on the many past study guide formats and beginner classes for The Little Red Book and modeled after Twelve Step instruction programs offered at AA meetings, this new study guide provides a solid and comprehensive study structure for men and women in AA Twelve Step groups and for individuals studying The Little Red Book on their own. While The Little Red Book interprets the Twelve Steps, the Guide gives newcomers to AA the structure needed to live them.

For those who don't believe in God—or don't know whether they believe—New York Times best-selling author Marya Hornbacher offers an insightful, moving approach to the concept of faith.Many of us have been trained to think of spirituality as the sole provenance of religion; and if we have come to feel that the religious are not the only ones with access to a spiritual life, we may still be casting about for what, precisely, a spiritual life would be, without a God, a religion, or a solid set of spiritual beliefs. In Waiting, Hornbacher uses the story of her own journey beginning with her recovery from alcoholism to offer a fresh approach to cultivating a spiritual life. Relinquishing the concept of a universal'Spirit'that exists outside of us, Hornbacher gives us the framework to explore the human spirit in each of us--the very thing that sends us searching, that connects us with one another, the thing that'comes knocking at the door of our emotionally and intellectually closed lives and asks to be let in.'When we let it in and only when we do, she says, we begin to be integrated people and can walk a spiritual path. There will be many points along the way where we stop, or we fumble, or we get tangled up or turned around. Those are the places where we wait. Waiting, you'll discover, can become a kind of spiritual practice in itself, requiring patience, acceptance, and stillness. Sometimes we do it because we know we need to, though we may not know why. In short, we do it on faith.

Renowned therapist, eating disorder specialist and recovering food addict Kay Sheppard helps countless individuals win their battles over food addiction—people for whom diets, pills and purging have become a way of life. In 1993, her groundbreaking book,, explained the illness of food addiction from the physiological origins through recovery. Today, obesity is on the rise. In addition to the 300,000 overweight people in this country, millions more who may not look overweight are unable to control their eating. Sheppard's follow-up book, From the First Biteoffers the latest medical insights into food addiction coupled with time-tested, practical advice. Unlike other books that are very dry in nature, this book includes compelling personal stories and do's and don'ts from other recovering and relapsed food addicts, including the author herself, who began her own recovery in 1967. The book explains how to avoid the physiological and situational triggers that lead to relapse; how to confront the emotional issues behind food cravings; how to establish a balanced food plan that eliminates cravings; and how to avoid hidden dangers in cleverly packaged foods. The book also includes a handy Twelve-Step workbook. Just as Sheppard's first book broke new ground, her latest work offers a critical first step for food addicts on the road to physical, emotional and spiritual recovery.

A friendly, first-ever guide to making the most of your Twelve Step meetings.Mel B's 101 Meeting Starters is a friendly, first-ever guide to making the most of Twelve Step meetings. Anyone who has participated in a Twelve Step meeting knows the benefit of these confidential forums for sharing the experience, strength, and hope that sustain recovery. Sometimes, however, meetings get sidetracked by irrelevant topics, dominant speakers, or other distractions, leaving attendees feeling frustrated or unfulfilled. This collection of dynamic Twelve Step'meeting starters'brings focus and meaning to group discussions with topics including'Dealing with Rejection,''Attracting Trouble,''Happy Coincidences,'and'Live and Let Live.'

Marya Hornbacher, author of the international best-sellers Madness and Wasted, offers an enlightening examination of the Twelve Steps for those with co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders.In this beautifully written recovery handbook, New York Times best-selling author Marya Hornbacher applies the wisdom earned from her struggle with a severe mental illness and addiction to offer an honest and illuminating examination of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous for those with co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders. Relaying her recovery experiences, and those of the people with whom she has shared her journey, Hornbacher guides readers through the maze of special issues that make working each Step a unique challenge for those with co-occurring disorders. She addresses the difficulty that many with a mental illness have with finding support in a recovery program that often discourages talk about emotional problems, and the therapy and medication that they require. At the same time, Hornbacher reveals how the Twelve Steps can offer insights, spiritual sustenance, and practical guidance to enhance stability for those who truly have to approach sanity and sobriety one day at a time.

A fresh interpretation of the healing process established by the Twelve Steps, with an eye toward the social, cultural, and psychological factors that affect men--and thus their recovery from addiction.A fresh interpretation of the healing process established by the Twelve Steps, with an eye toward the social, cultural, and psychological factors that affect men--and thus their recovery from addiction. In A Man's Way through the Twelve Steps, author Dan Griffin uses interviews with men in various stages of recovery, excerpts from relevant Twelve Step literature, and his own experience to offer the first holistic approach to sobriety for men. Readers work through each of the Twelve Steps, learn to reexamine negative masculine scripts that have shaped who they are and how they approach recovery, and strengthen the positive and affirming aspects of manhood. This groundbreaking book offers the tools needed for men to work through key issues with which they commonly struggle, including difficulty admitting powerlessness, finding connection with a Higher Power, letting go of repressed anger and resentment, contending with sexual issues, and overcoming barriers to intimacy and meaningful relationships. A Man's Way through the Twelve Steps offers practical advice and inspiration for men to define their own sense of masculinity and thus heighten their potential for a lifetime of sobriety.