Starting An In-Person SSA Meeting

Why Are There No In-Person Meetings of SSA?

The most frequent question received through the SSA website is “Are there any in-person SSA meetings in _______________.”  At present there is only one in-person meeting and that is the one we have started here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

This is surprising since, in my experience, the stories of so many 12 step people include the language, patterns and behaviors of Self Sabotage.  The difficulty, in my opinion, is that few members of the 12 Step fellowship identify self sabotage as their primary issue. As a result there are so few in-person meetings and further the onus for one falls on the individuals who consider themselves self sabotagers.  This article describes the process we went through to create our Calgary meeting.

Starting A SSA Meeting

To summarize our experience here, to start a meeting it takes one person who really wants it and is willing to work at it.

 Four years ago when I first joined SSA there was already a live meeting here in Calgary (again the only one in North America).  That meeting was started by one member who made a commitment to find a room and to show up once a week for a year no matter what happened.  A room was secured in a local church for a very reasonable rent (a number of churches and other locations will rent out a room for a donation) and this member and an interested friend met each week to read Anne Katherine’s book and discuss how self sabotage issues played out in their lives.  When I found out about this meeting I immediately joined and then there were 3.  In spite of the size the experience, strength and hope found in that room was very real.  As many of us have found, though we may be involved in other fellowships, nothing is as relevant to our situation as SSA.  This is were we truly belong. 

Our membership grew eventually to 5 when I brought a couple of friends who, while not considering themselves self sabotagers, were interesting in looking at and discussing their lives in terms of self sabotage.

Over the course of the year the 2 original members left and I decided that it was important enough to me to make the same commitment, to find a room and show up for a year whether anyone else came or not.  At first we met in coffee shops or where ever we could  but after a year I  find a room that accepted a donation for rent.  We have been in that room for almost 18 months now and I have only been alone on 3 nights.  We have a 2 people who are there every week, 2 others who are frequently there and probably another 3 who come from time to time.  I need to repeat that even though the numbers are small by comparison with other 12 step fellowships the power  and recovery found in this meeting have been profound.

So our experience has been that one motivated person can get a meeting started.  It is probably also significant that in both situations here that person who instigated the meeting had a friend who was interested in getting together once a week to talk about life.  In my case I have also been very willing to share my story as a compulsive self sabotager with anyone who is interested and I have found that usually others can relate very well to self sabotage issues.  As others become aware of self sabotage, hopefully, our membership will grow.

In conclusion, our  experience here in Calgary has shown that: 1) it takes one motivated person to start a meeting and 2) the effort to start a meeting is totally worth it. 

I quickly add that our phone-in meetings are, in spite of the inherent challenges of that format, are tremendous sources of inspiration, hope and, very definitely, recovery but there is something extra that can happen when people sit in the same room with the earnest desire to improve the quality of their lives. 

So my recommendation to anyone who has though about getting a meeting going is Do It.

If you would like any other information or encouragement or if you have your own story to share
please get in touch at this link.