Steps & Traditions - The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Chapter 9
Updated 11.20.23
The Twelve Steps of Chapter 9 - Couples In Recovery Anonymous
(adapted from The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous)
Click the red pdf icon to download a copy.
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We admitted we were powerless over our partners and relationships—that our lives had become unmanageable.
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Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us and our relationships to sanity.
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Made a decision to turn our will, our lives, and our relationships over to the care of God as we understood God.
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Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves as partners and of our relationships.
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Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being or couple the exact nature of our wrongs.
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Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
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Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
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Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
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Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
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Continued to take inventory of ourselves as partners and of our relationships, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
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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.
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Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to couples in recovery, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The Twelve Traditions of Chapter 9 - Couples In Recovery Anonymous
(adapted from The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous)
Click the red pdf icon to download a copy.
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Our common welfare should come first; recovery as a couple depends upon Chapter 9 unity.
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For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as God may be expressed through our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
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The only requirements for membership are a commitment to the relationship and that at least one partner is in another Twelve Step fellowship.
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Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or Chapter 9 — Couples In Recovery Anonymous as a whole.
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Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to couples in recovery who still suffer.
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A Chapter 9 group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the Chapter 9 — Couples In Recovery Anonymous name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
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Every Chapter 9 group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
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Chapter 9 should forever remain non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
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Chapter 9, as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
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Chapter 9 has no opinion on outside issues; hence the Chapter 9 — Couples In Recovery Anonymous name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
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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.
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Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
