AA Origins & History
The names of AA's two co-founders.
Who are Bill W. (Bill Wilson) and Dr. Bob (Dr. Bob Smith)?
This AA member acts like a mentor, guiding a newcomer through the Twelve Steps.
What is a sponsor?
This type of AA meeting may be attended by anyone — including students and clinicians as professional guests.
What is an open meeting?
This treatment is designed to systematically link clients to, and engage them in, community-based 12-step groups.
What is Twelve-Step Facilitation (TSF)?
This is the year and U.S. state where AA began.
What is 1935, in Ohio?
AA's main text carries this two-word nickname; its first 11 chapters have stayed unchanged since 1939.
What is the "Big Book"?
Called "sanctuaries in the heart of the community," these centers form an emerging "third tier" of recovery-oriented care.
What are Recovery Community Centers (RCCs)?
This landmark study was the first TSF developed for clinical research and one of the largest psychotherapy trials ever.
What is Project MATCH?
This founding insight (i.e. that you stay sober by reaching out to other alcoholics) became the engine of the whole movement.
What is "helping others helps oneself" (mutual support)?
AA insists this concept doesn't have to be religious — it can even be the group itself or your sponsor.
What is a "Higher Power"?
This abbreviation refers to free, peer-led mutual-help organizations.
What are MHOs?
ABCT's signature tool is this structured daily agreement between partners, including daily abstinence affirmations.
What is a Recovery (Sobriety) Contract?
AA has been adopted across North America and is now active in roughly this many countries.
What is over 150 countries?
Bill W.'s "Three Legacies" of AA are Recovery, Unity, and this third one, drawn from the 12th step.
What is Service?
The three broad pathway categories into recovery are clinical, self-managed, and this non-professional one.
What is non-clinical?
ABCT aims to flip this self-reinforcing trap, in which drinking fuels conflict that then triggers more drinking.
What is the destructive cycle (of substance use and relationship problems)?
Bill Wilson got about six months of early sobriety with the help of this Christian fellowship movement.
What is the Oxford Group?
While the Twelve Steps guide the individual, these capture AA's organizational policies, like anonymity and being self-supporting.
What are the Twelve Traditions?
This secular, CBT-based alternative to AA stands for Self-Management and Recovery Training.
What is SMART Recovery?
This relationship factor is an absolute contraindication for couples therapy, making a case "not suitable."
What is intimate partner violence (a high risk of injurious/lethal violence)?