We, eight compulsive overeaters and ordinary OA members, recently completed a sixteen-week workshop using the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve Step Workshop and Study Guide. We found the process so transformative in our lives and recovery that we want to share our extraordinary experience. We hope everyone finds the strength and profound intimate connection we found, for we now believe the saying “connection is an antidote to addiction.”

At our regular meeting, a visitor from out of town had shared so excitedly about OA’s new green workbook that we decided on the spot to host a workshop ourselves. Each member left that day with an assignment: secure a location, order workbooks and materials, develop a flyer, and announce the workshop at meetings. Enthusiasm carried us far, but we did run into roadblocks. We were unable to secure a suitable meeting space, so we accepted with some reservations a member’s offer to host the workshop at her home (this limited the number of participants we could accommodate to ten). These seeming obstacles turned out to be God-shots from the very beginning.

We filled the workshop easily within a week of it‘s announcement and sadly had to turn away many members. Our introductory session focused on getting acquainted, planning, agreeing on guidelines for working together, and completing the “Readiness Assessment Questions” on page 10 of the Study Guide. We would complete weekly homework assignments and share them with our sponsor and another member of the workshop before we reconvened. Each weekly session would last two hours and cover one Step, except Step Four which would take three sessions to complete. Two participants withdrew for health reasons, but this too turned out to be a God-shot, enhancing the intimacy of group sharing. In fact, although the Study Guide can be structured for one-to-one sharing, we opted for group sharing so no one missed anyone’s experience. This change greatly enhanced our group bonding.

When we started, we were eight individuals in varying stages of recovery, and most of us were lacking any sense of urgency about this disease. What happened, though, was a powerful, transformative experience. We found an end to isolation through group sharing in workshop sessions and one-on-one sharing outside. We received affirmation when we worked our Steps, really trusted our HP, and shared our defects and strengths. We developed admiration for others and appreciation for their positive feedback, and we learned to see ourselves as others saw us. We found our tribe—friends we can count on and go to when in need! We ended the workshop spiritually awakened.

Thanks to this deep level of engagement, we are all abstinent, sponsoring, carrying the message, and sharing fellowship and fun. Recovery is the result of working the OA Twelve Step program!

It was a new experience to do such an intense, deep dive into the Steps as part of a group, and the Workshop really energized our programs. We were fortunate to begin with a member volunteer who’d already had experience using the Study Guide with a sponsor, and as we all became comfortable and confident with the process in the group, others became able to share in the leadership. Now, some of us have begun using the Twelve Step Workshop and Study Guide with our own sponsees, individually or in groups of two or three, and we’re finding it very helpful there as well.

Because of the transformative power of this workshop, we strongly encourage others to include it in their programs. As noted, it works as well for individuals as it does for groups. The only misuse of this Study Guide would be not using it at all. We hope our experience helps!

— Cynthia, Wendy, Cheryl, Liz, Jan, Chris, Alaina, and Courtney, Las Vegas, Nevada USA

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