🔼: [[⭐️ Community]]. [[🛡️ People-Pleasing]], [[💡 Trauma|Trauma]], [[💡 Complex PTSD]] ##### Adult Children of Alcoholics / Dysfunctional Families (ACA/ACoA) ACA's is known as “The Trauma Fellowship.” Its focus is healing from childhood [[💡 Trauma|Trauma]], [[🪨 Inherited Burdens]], [[🛡️ People-Pleasing]], and [[🛡️ Codependency]], making it especially useful for those of us who live with [[💡 Complex PTSD|Complex PTSD]] and an excellent way of finding [[⭐️ Community]]. It pairs exceptionally well with [[⭐️ Parts Work]] / [[⭐️ Internal Family Systems]]. ACA refers to this as a “spiritual, not religious” program. I was *extremely* skeptical of this, but in my experience it is true. There is even a 12-Step exercise of drawing out your family tree and assigning [[💡 Labeling (CBT)|Labels]] like “addict,” ”thief,” and “depressed,” to various family members in order to recognize that we have [[🪨 Inherited Burdens]]. One of those labels is “Religious.” - [Official Website](https://adultchildren.org/) - [Find Online Meetings](https://adultchildren.org/virtual-meetings-calendar/) - [[🕯️ ACA 12 Steps]] - [[ACA Laundry Lists]] - [[ACA - The Problem]] - [[ACA - The Solution]] - [[ACA - The Twelve Traditions]] - [[ACA - The Promises]] - [[📖 🌕 The Loving Parent Guidebook - The Solution is to Become Your Own Loving Parent]] > [!NOTE] > There is a lot of good in ACA, though there is also room for improvement. I find some of its language borderline, if not outright shame-based and antiquated. This comes as no surprise since the Big Red Book was written many decades ago. The newest piece of literature, [[📖 🌕 The Loving Parent Guidebook - The Solution is to Become Your Own Loving Parent]], borrows heavily from [[⭐️ Internal Family Systems]] but still puts an ACA filter over it. I have also found the program seems to accidently strengthen [[🛡️ Presence-ing]]. > > ACA isn't technically an [[⭐️ Internal Family Systems|IFS]] group, but its perspective on trauma and healing is similar enough to IFS that it may well be a good option for some of us. It's also free and a fantastic way to find [[⭐️ Community]] and form [[⭐️ Relationships|relationships]] with people who can relate to us. I just wish it were integrated with what’s been learned since its inception. ###### Related - [[💡 Puer Aeternus|Puer Aeternus]]