About Reason and Recovery
The Power Of Two of us together is our strength.
We concur that a fellowship of recovered members is a power greater than ourselves alone.
The only requirement for membership is a desire for total abstinence from alcohol and other mind altering chemicals.
We are alcoholics and addicts who gather and honestly share our recovery experience.
In this group, we do this without reliance upon religious, spiritual, or magical frames of reference.
We are not here to argue, convert, condemn, or debate agnostic or religious beliefs.
We are here to demonstrate that recovery is possible without a religious foundation.
We recommend following any step program with guidance from a sponsor or tutor.
This group suggests an adapted 6 step version of A.A.’s 12 steps.
Step 1. ADMISSION
We admit defeat. We admit we lost the power of choice concerning alcohol and drugs. We admit our lives were unmanageable.
Expanded:
This step is about getting honest with ourselves. No more rationalizing, blaming, or minimizing. We stop pretending we’re in control and accept that our way isn’t working. This isn’t weakness—it’s the start of clarity. And we don’t do it alone. We admit this to another alcoholic or member of the group, recognizing that isolation kept us sick, but connection starts the healing. Together, we stand on more solid ground than we ever could alone.
Step 2. WILLINGNESS
We choose to be willing to keep an open mind, take action, and follow suggestions.
Expanded:
This is where change becomes possible. We don’t need to have all the answers—we just need the willingness to try something different. We lean on the group. We listen to others in recovery who’ve walked this path and let their experience guide us. That might mean showing up even when we don’t want to, or doing things we don’t fully understand yet. Willingness opens the door; the shared experience of others helps us walk through it.
Importantly, this is not a buffet where we pick and choose what we like and ignore the rest. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking and using, but the point of being here is to learn how to do life differently. That means doing the work—all of it. The steps are suggestions, but they are the kind of suggestions that long-term sober people have consistently followed. If you want what we have, do what we do.
Step 3. DISCOVERY
We make an honest personal inventory; focusing on resentments, fears, and self centered behaviors.
Expanded:
This is where we begin to uncover the patterns that held us back. We don’t do it in a vacuum. We work with another alcoholic, someone who has done this work themselves, who can help us stay honest and thorough. We write it down and talk it through, knowing we are not the only ones who have felt or acted this way. We learn what’s been running the show and begin to see ourselves with clearer eyes and greater compassion.
Step 4. EXPOSURE
We share our personal inventory with a sponsor. With their aid and experience, we gain clarity of our issues and destructive patterns, and an understanding of our part in creating roadblocks to change.
Expanded:
We speak our truth to another person. Secrets lose their power in the light of shared experience. This isn’t about confessing to be judged, it’s about sharing to be understood. A fellow alcoholic listens not to fix us, but to relate. In that connection, we start to see our patterns more clearly. We find that we are not broken beyond repair. We are not alone. And that makes change feel possible.
Step 5. RESTITUTION
We make restitution with guidance, to the best of our ability, to anyone we have injured. We refrain from creating additional injury to others and ourselves by doing so.
Expanded:
We take responsibility, not just in theory but in action. We make amends where we can—guided by others in recovery who help us do it thoughtfully, not impulsively. The group helps us keep it grounded and honest. This is not about erasing the past, but about showing up differently today. We clean up our side of the street so we can walk forward without shame weighing us down.
Step 6. SPONSORSHIP
We maintain abstinence, and continue to practice personal discovery and exposure, seeking honesty, humility, and tolerance while sponsoring others to follow this course of action.
Expanded:
Recovery doesn’t end—it grows in depth and purpose. We stay in the work, side by side with others. Sponsorship is not a role of authority, but of shared experience. We walk with others as others walked with us. The power of two—or more—is greater than what we could ever summon alone. The group is our higher power, our compass, and our community. Through service and connection, we stay sober and keep the cycle alive.
This is not group therapy. This is a shared path of change through mutual self-discovery and a willingness to take the same actions that worked for others. Recovery doesn’t happen by watching from the sidelines. It happens when we participate, practice, and pass it on.
Nathan's 5 year anniversary talk about our history:
