Sponsorship
benefits & challenges
“This the sponsor promptly proves by talking freely and easily, and without exhibitionism, about his own defects, past and present.” Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions 46
This being the year of the CFC, we are highlighting the value of the SA program for members inside correctional institutions.
Discussion Topic: Is everyone in your group being sponsored and sponsoring others?
I’ve read the letters of many imprisoned females seeking help for our addiction. I have had the privilege of sponsoring someone in prison, and it has been a gift and a blessing to my recovery.
The road of our recovery started when a more experienced member accepted entry into a very special relationship with us: the relationship of one reco- vering sexaholic helping another recovering sexaholic. We can’t make it on our own.
For the last four years I have been serving women who have decided to change their lives with the help of the Twelve Steps. During this time, I started working Steps with more than 30 women.
I surrender in a place where I least expected it—sponsorship. I thought that, working on principle, under the guidance of the Twelve Steps and Traditions, I was safe from my character defects.
I began sponsoring when I was almost 18 months’ sober and was working on Step Six. I was hesitant because there was, and there remains, no formal guidance on how to sponsor, but my mentor told me it was time for me to step up to the plate.
Through recovery, I have experienced several negative to positive change experiences. Below are some of them. First Experience: From the very first day when I joined SA and attended my first face to face meeting, I was surprised that I am surrounded by 25 men.
When I first arrived in SA, I asked a man who had several years of sobriety to be my sponsor. A few months later, when I was ready to start Step 4, I discovered that he had never worked the Steps.
My name is Catherine and my sobriety date is 31 March, 2021. Since I was a very young child, I have used my imagination to escape from reality. At a very early point that I can’t remember the impetus for, I began to be fascinated by and create narratives around corporal punishment.
