Trauma and the 12 Steps : Exercises and Meditations for Addiction, Trauma Recovery, and Working the 12 Steps

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.

JAMIE MARICH, PhD, travels internationally speaking on EMDR therapy, trauma, addiction, expressive arts, and mindfulness while maintaining a private practice in Warren, Ohio. Marich is the author of several books, including Dissociation Made Simple and Transforming Trauma with Jiu-Jitsu. STEVE DANSIGER, PsyD, is a consultant, clinician, and meditation teacher. Developer of the MET(T)A Protocol--a design for mental health agency treatment using Buddhist Mindfulness and EMDR Therapy, which is used in trauma and addiction treatment centers nationwide--Dansiger is the author of several books.