About 12 STEP programs
12 STEPS – A 12-step program can support you or your partner in your day-to-day recovery wrok, in addition to therapy – but it can’t replace qualified therapy.
A 12-step program encourages you to turn to your own spiritual life; rethink what you can control and what you can’t, and to take personal responsibility for your own healing, and even though we have been victimized by deception and betrayal, helps us avoid staying in “victim mode.”
12-step programs provide educational and inspirational literature and other tools to help you navigate your personal recovery. S-Anon is an example of one such group dedicated to healing of the spouse of a sexually addicted person.
S-Anon reinforces you are not to blame, and not the cause of your own trauma, or your spouse's addiction, and that focusing on your own health and healing is healthy and nothing to feel guilty about. It helps get you out of isolation that is so common in all trauma and especially betrayal trauma, and helps you see that you're not alone in this experience.