12-Step Program

What is the 12-Step Program for Addiction?

The 12-step program was originally developed for alcoholism by Alcoholics Anonymous but has since expanded to help those struggling with other addictions as well. The goal of the 12-step program is to provide individuals with peer support as they maintain sobriety and learn new coping skills to prevent relapse. The 12-step program emphasizes community and acceptance in long-term recovery from addiction.

The 12-Step Process

The 12-step process provides an incredibly useful template for our counselors to expand upon. In their simplest form, the 12 steps emphasize honesty, personal accountability, repairing the damage done through addiction, and helping others. It is from this simple foundation that our staff endeavors to help clients work through the recovery process by confronting their past, being content with the present, and embracing their future.

• Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable
• Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
• Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God
• Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
• Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs
• Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character
• Step 7: Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings
• Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all
• Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
• Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it
• Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out
• Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

The 12 Traditions

The Twelve Traditions of the 12-step program provides guidelines for relationships between twelve-step group members, other groups, and society as a whole.

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole
5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose
7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities

Walk Each Step with Into Action Recovery

Recovery starts now. You’re never too late to begin sobriety and return to living a fulfilling life. We offer treatment for drug and alcohol addiction in the form of inpatient, outpatient, and partial hospitalization programs. 

Whether it’s you or a loved one you’re concerned about, you can rest assured that our team has the tools and expertise necessary to overcome addiction.

Contact us today to begin your journey to recovery.