12 Step Facilitation Process

What is Alcoholics Anonymous?

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global community-based program that was created to help those struggling with problematic drinking to get sober with the support of their peers through daily meetings and discussions surrounding addiction. AA gives men and women a place to come together and share their experiences, recover from alcoholism, and maintain sobriety. The concept of sobriety revolves around the principle that alcoholism is an illness that can be managed, but not controlled.

Bill Wilson and Doctor Bob Smith founded AA in 1935 and published an Alcoholics Anonymous text which explained it’s philosophy and methods. We know this today as the 12 steps of recovery. Over the years, the 12 steps have been adapted by other self-help addiction recovery groups.

The 12 Steps also work significantly well with several other clinically based approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Interviewing (MI). 12 Step facilitation therapy begins to develop and guide the individual into thinking and living that changes the individual from the internal perspective. The twelve steps help those work on their self-esteem, denial, defense mechanisms, and overall spirituality. It enables the individual to develop maturity, integrity, and honor through a practical manner of living one day at a time. When properly implemented, the results are dramatic and noticeable.

What Are The Requirements?

There are no requirements for AA other than having a desire to quit drinking. Alcoholics Anonymous is not associated with any organization, denomination, institution, or politics. Those joining AA either make the commitment to join voluntarily as a form of therapy or through a court order.

What Are The 12 Steps of AA?

AA’s 12 step approach follows a set of guidelines or “steps” towards recovery. A member can revisit these steps at any time.

Admit we were powerless over alcohol and our lives had become unmanageable.
Believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Decide to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Be entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings.
Make a list of persons we had harmed and become willing to make amends to them all.
Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Have spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

AA Meetings During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Information regarding meetings can be found here. Virtual support meetings to help those stay connected. There is a private Facebook group to help keep up to date and stay connected for future meetings. Additionally, Northlake is open and able to help those searching for recovery or those needing support.

If you or anyone you know is suffering from substance use, please call our admissions team to set up an appointment.

985.626.6300