Women have unique bonds with one another that are not like any other relationships. The feminine psyche, the ability to express emotions and feel deeply help create bonds that are not only powerful but can also empower one another. Within recovery, the ability to have women to lean on is invaluable. For this reason, The Ho Tai Way – Recovery For Women, created a peer support group for women in any type of recovery called She Recovers.
The Benefits of Women Empowering Women
Both treatment for substance abuse and the recovery process is very personal. Issues come up that you may not have even been conscious of. Emotions run the entire range, sometimes even from minute to minute. During this time, you want the best support that you can find. As women, that support is most likely going to come from other women.
Many women have strengths in critical areas of emotional support such as empathy, intuition, and expressing love naturally. These strengths are ideal during the healing process of addiction recovery. Strong emotional bonds of love and trust can be created, allowing women to share and learn from one another. This will enable women to empower each other, beginning in treatment and extending to long-term recovery. That is one of the concepts behind She Recovers.
Focusing on Female-Specific Issues
Choosing to heal from addiction with other women allows you the opportunity to focus on issues that are specific to females. Women face barriers to treatment based on lower-income, lack of insurance, and a lack of childcare for those with children. Many women develop substance abuse and other addictions due to relationship issues with their families or partners. There are also biological factors that impact when women begin using substances, how much they use, and more.
Other factors are even more predominant amongst women who drink alcohol or use drugs, such as the high rate of women suffering from trauma or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to childhood abuse or neglect. For example, amongst women who have an alcohol dependency, 26-27% have PTSD, whereas only 14-24% of men who are alcohol dependent have a PTSD diagnosis. For other Substance Use Disorders (SUD), 50-53% of women have PTSD, with only 14-32% of men showing co-occurring PTSD. Whether emotional, physical, or sexual, trauma is a common link between women and substance abuse. Sharing these similar issues helps women reconnect with themselves and others and heal together.
Removing Societal Gender Inequality
Within society, particularly in the workplace, gender inequality is a reality for most women. While some cultures, families, or environments are worse than others, women face challenges and disadvantages at every turn. This can be true even within treatment and recovery, so sharing recovery with other women levels the playing field and provides a safe place to heal.
For women who have suffered abuse, trauma, or discrimination due to gender differences, attending recovery groups or 12-Step meetings with men can be triggering. She Recovers is an opportunity for women to come together from all backgrounds, cultures, and types of recovery to empower one another without society’s shackles.
Establishing Distance from Relationship Dysfunction
Women with substance abuse or other addictions often have a history of relationship dysfunction. Whether it be with family or a partner, particularly male-female relationships, women are often trying to heal from poor relationship habits as well as substance abuse. Attending meetings or treatment with both genders can complicate healing because women with relationship dysfunction will often be distracted in a dual-gender situation. She Recovers offers peer support from other women, many of whom understand relationship dysfunction. Thus, she can provide strength and share experiences while removing the distraction of relationship dysfunction.
The Benefits of a Non-12-Step Support Group
While 12-Step support groups work well for many in recovery, they are not for everyone. Healing should be tailored to the individual’s needs. Some people need the support of their peers without the more strict guidelines of a 12-Step group meeting. Others do better in a group setting that allows them to access support and offer support differently.
The most important factor to consider is you. If you are a woman in any type of recovery, and you would feel more comfortable, safe, and willing to be vulnerable to healing in a non-12-Step group, then you should do what is best for you and your recovery. She Recovers is available to you as an alternative to 12-Step support groups and allows a female-focused opportunity for women to empower other women.
Women offer levels of support in healing that are not the same as in dual-gender addiction recovery. Having the opportunity of a non-12-Step meeting just for women allows women from all types of recovery to take advantage of the healing power of women empowering women. The Ho Tai Way – Recovery For Women created the She Recovers peer support group for women to create an open, safe place to meet and support one another in recovery. This is a place to focus on women-only issues and heal from substance abuse or other addictions. We know that 12-Step meetings are not for everyone, and while we do also offer trauma-informed 12-Step meetings for women, She Recovers is simply open to women in recovery. Call us today at (714) 581-3974 to find out more about our She Recovers meetings. You can find the support you need and be the support that someone else needs, too.
