The Twelve Steps
1. We admitted we are powerless over our addiction; and that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. We came to believe that a power great than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of God, as we understood God.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God, as we understood God, remove all these defects of character.
7. We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. We made direct amends whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us, and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry the message to other sex workers, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The only way to stop returning to active addiction is to refuse that first transaction. When we use sex, in any form, or exchange, or substitute one kind of commercialized sex for another, we release our addiction all over again. Many of us have found freedom from the sex industry, even after we have quit, until we surrender to the spiritual tools of the 12-Steps. This is just an outline of the Steps. We need to learn to apply them in our daily lives in order to find true recovery.
The Twelve Traditions
While the program an individual works is between them, the God of their understanding, and their sponsors’ - how the group is run is everyone’s’ concern. The Traditions are here to save us from ourselves, and are not negotiable or "suggested" only. Many of us have no idea how to participate in life, other than relying on our old, sick ways. The Steps show us a new way of life, and the Traditions guide us in how to share that with others.
If we are powerless over our addiction personally, imagine the force of the disease in a room full of us? It has been our experience that groups that do not follow the Traditions carefully will eventually fold. Since our "primary purpose" is to be there for the suffering sex worker, it is vital that we listen to these guidelines in order to protect the group, thereby making our arena for recovery safe and possible. As long as the ties that bind us together are stronger than the forces that would tear us apart - all will be well.
1. Our common welfare should come first; our personal recovery depends on SWA unity.
2. For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority, a loving God as God may express itself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop prostituting ourselves, and find recovery after having done so.
4. Each group is autonomous, except in matters affecting other groups, as SWA as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose, to carry the message to the sex worker who still suffers.
6. An SWA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the SWA name to any related facility, or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every SWA group out to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. SWA should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. SWA, as such, ought never be organized, but we may create boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. SWA has no opinion on outside issues, hence the SWA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction, rather than promotion, we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Note: The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions are reprinted with permission from Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to reprint and adapt the Steps and Traditions, does not mean that AA in any way is affiliated with our program. AA is a program of recovery from alcoholism; use of the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions in connection with programs and activities patterned after AA, but which address other problems, does not imply otherwise.
If you wish to formally "work" your steps in writing - just contact us to get started.
