Answers to Your Recovery Questions: SAL 12-Step Conference Q&A

Tara McCausland shares the final Q&A from the April 2026 SAL 12 Step Conference and announces registration for the 2026 SA Lifeline Women’s Workshop (September 18–19 in Mapleton, Utah). Panelists discuss how addicts can own harm  by listening, staying regulated, and doing shame work, often with therapeutic support. They address sitting with discomfort through sponsor help, prayer, and “pendulation,” and clarify surrender as active trust in a higher power rather than apathy. Steven distinguishes lapse (timely honesty and accountability) from relapse (secrecy and misrepresentation). The panel notes limited women-specific addiction groups and recommends SA plus qualified therapy. Betrayed partners are urged to disclose to safe people (often group, sponsors, therapists), set boundaries, and focus on their own recovery when disclosure feels incomplete. They cover defensiveness, step four challenges, deepening connection with God, reframing holidays and anniversaries after discovery, and the importance of sponsorship, humility, and ongoing meetings to heal individuals and families.

Register for the S.A. Lifeline Women's Workshop HERE.

02:32 How to Own the Harm
04:22 Sitting With Discomfort
06:35 Pendulation and Regulation
08:04 Surrender Without Apathy
10:42 Lapse vs Relapse
14:27 Women and Addiction Resources
16:01 Safe Disclosure and Support
20:37 Step Four Balanced Inventory
22:22 When Disclosure Feels Incomplete
25:41 Honesty After a Lapse
27:20 Holding Space Not Fixing
27:58 Defensiveness And Regulation
30:39 Working Steps With Sponsor
34:18 Reframing Holidays After D Day
38:03 Anniversaries And Honest Disclosure
42:27 Connecting With the God of Your Understanding
46:53 Why Step Four Feels Brutal
50:47 Closing Hope And Keep Coming