Sisters

I currently attend 3 Adult Children of Alcoholics and Disfunction meetings. 

London, Helsinki and Munich are my consistent go to’s. Somehow I ended up chairing the Munich meeting. It is full of a group of lovely Germans but the one American is hosting it. This meeting is structured, with a specific focus on the survival traits we developed in the family home and how those affect us now. It suits me well.

The other week, for some strange reason, there wasn’t a single man in the meeting. It suddenly, by default, became a women’s meeting. The dynamics changed. It was quite  lovely to watch. We became a sisterhood of support and encouragement that had not been present otherwise.  

This week the men were back. I’m glad that they were there as I’ve grown to care for them but I missed what we had the week before. It was special. 

Comments

  1. Debra She Who SeeksJanuary 18, 2022 at 8:56 AM

    A circle of women definitely has a different spirit and energy than a mixed circle. I love women's circles!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marie SmithJanuary 18, 2022 at 9:28 AM

    A book club of women is different than one with men and women. Women understand…

    ReplyDelete
  3. JeanieJanuary 18, 2022 at 10:05 AM

    I always find group dynamics interesting and how they can change with the absence of certain group (as you saw) or even one person who either sucks the life out of the room, may appear judgmental whether they are or not, or who takes control and the others feel marginalized. I would you that you'd be a marvelous facilitator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shari BurkeJanuary 19, 2022 at 10:35 AM

    definitely a different vibe!

    ReplyDelete
  5. amOctober 6, 2022 at 2:32 AM

    O my goodness. You are in ACA, too. Just noticed ACA in your label list and began reading this thread. I began attending a women-only ACA meeting by phone in July of 2020, apprehensive about ACA meetings with men, having gone to one in-person ACA meeting in my small town in the late 1980s and not felt at all safe with the men in the room. The women-only ACA phone meeting was carefully screened to assure safety. They read Tony A's steps at each meeting and studied the Big Red Book, a few paragraphs at a time. I began to heal from the first meeting. When I expressed my fear of ACA men, I was encouraged to take the risk of attending a meeting with men when I felt ready, that there were good men in ACA. When I could no longer attend that phone meeting, I found an early morning daily ACA meeting, based in Sacramento, which has a diverse international following We read from the Daily Affirmations book. I'm noticing that you are in AA, too. I'm going to one AA meeting a week and ACA the rest of the days. Thank you so much for commenting on my blog. I'm grateful to have found your blog and am relating to so much of what you write about.

    ReplyDelete

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