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 relapse Celebrates communities who may feel excluded from the program, like atheists, agnostics, and LGBTQ+ folks Welcomes outside help from the fields of trauma, dissociation, mindfulness, and addiction research Explains the differences between being trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive; and Discusses spiritual abuse as a legitimate form of trauma that can profoundly impede spirituality-based approaches to healing.

Your definitive trauma-sensitive guide to working the Steps: skills for understanding your addiction, processing your trauma, and navigating your recovery journey—the anticipated companion to Trauma and the 12 Steps. This addiction recovery workbook from clinicians Jamie Marich, PhD, and Stephen Dansiger offers skills to prevent relapse, enhance recovery, and understand how trauma impacts alcoholism, drug dependency, and even other types of addictions. Working the Steps for the first time can feel scary and unfamiliar—and depending upon the experiences you’ve had at AA or NA, you may question whether the 12 Steps are right for you. Here, Marich and Dansiger help you get to the root of your addiction while offering skills and exercises for an inclusive recovery program. Unlike some 12-Step programs, this workbook is open to all—regardless of your background, history, identity, or spiritual beliefs. It also recognizes that for most of us on recovery or sobriety journeys, each Step isn’t made to be worked through only once: this workbook is designed to support your individual needs, whether that’s practicing one step on a day-to-day basis, revisiting another at different times throughout your recovery process, or using the exercises as part of a yearly check-in. The workbook begins with a self-care inventory, then moves through each of the 12 steps with prompts, meditations, journaling reflections, and body-based exercises. The authors also offer coping skills and an open-minded approach that acknowledges that your recovery is as unique as you are: one-size-fits-all doesn’t apply. Compassionate, trauma-responsive, and grounded in the latest behavioral and neuroscience research, this workbook is your go-to addiction recovery toolkit.

This guide to the Twelve Steps from Dr. Stephanie S. Covington, a pioneer in the field of women’s issues, addiction, and recovery, preserves the spirit of the Alcoholics Anonymous program with a focus on healing language with women’s needs in mind. Published in 1994, A Woman's Way through the Twelve Steps has long been a unique resource that helps women find their own paths in recovery—paths shaped by the way women experience not only addiction and recovery, but also relationships, self, sexuality, spirituality, and everyday life. Now, stories from five new voices expand the perspective of this recovery classic. Over the past thirty years, what it means to identify as a woman in recovery has broadened to include transgender, nonbinary, and other gender-diverse people. This new edition includes updated, inclusive language to be more trauma-sensitive and welcoming to all women. This compilation of diverse voices and wisdom from real people illuminates how women understand the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and offers inspiring stories of how they travel through the Steps and discover what works for them. The book can be used alone or as a companion to AA’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. By identifying and addressing the special issues that recovery presents for women, this book empowers women to take ownership of their own journeys and to grow and flourish in recovery.

Unhealed trauma is a blocking factor and why many people in recovery stop short of engaging in step work. Jamie and Steve seek to break down the process in a gentle yet action-oriented manner. Each step contains:?A personal reflection from both Jamie and Steve on how they work the step?A teaching on how unhealed trauma blocks may make a step difficult, with solutions for how to address?Brainstorming activities for writing, guided by questions?Expressive arts options offered in place or in addition to writing?A specially-prepared meditation for each stepThis step workbook also offers variations for people who are working the step for the first time, and for those who may be on a repeat journey through the steps.

A Gentle Path through the Twelve Steps Updated and Expanded

The basic principles of many of the popular twelve step programs are combined in this book into one easy text, covering problems with: Alcohol, Drugs, Gambling, Anger, Food, Relapse, People, Places, & Things. This book will benefit anyone suffering from these destructive behaviors by using a series of open-ended questions to work the twelve steps of recovery programs.

A guide to all kinds of addiction from a star who has struggled with heroin, alcohol, sex, fame, food and eBay, that will help addicts and their loved ones make the first steps into recovery “This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud...My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse.” —Russell Brand With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his fourteen years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction—from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not “Why are you addicted?” but "What pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running—into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person’s arms?" Russell has been in all the twelve-step fellowships going, he’s started his own men’s group, he’s a therapy regular and a practiced yogi—and while he’s worked on this material as part of his comedy and previous bestsellers, he’s never before shared the tools that really took him out of it, that keep him clean and clear. Here he provides not only a recovery plan, but an attempt to make sense of the ailing world.