Welcome, you are wanted and needed.

Welcome to the Self Harm Recovery Group. We are a nonprofessional Twelve Step based support group for people that injure themselves. The primary purpose of this group is to have a solution-based meeting where we discuss the 12 steps and 12 traditions of recovery regarding self harm and how we apply them to our daily lives. If anyone is in their first SHRG meeting ever, we ask that you please share what it was like, what happened and what it's like now if you are called on. 

This is an open Self Harm Recovery Group meeting and anyone is welcome to attend as observers. It is our custom to welcome any non-self harming visitors, members of other 12-step programs, family members of those who self harm or education communities here to learn about SHRG. Is there anyone here who fits this description?

Not to embarrass you, but so we can get to know you better, would anyone here for your first, second or third meeting of the Self Harm Recovery  Group like to introduce yourself by your first name? You can raise your hand physically or digitally or use the chat function. *(PAUSE - write down new member names) 

Welcome to everyone. We are glad you are all here and hope you come away with a better understanding of what the Self Harm Recovery Group is. 

Please join me to open this meeting with a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer. (Pause) - Please see the chat entry for those that are not familiar with the words. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Please see the link that will be dropped in the chat function for the list of 12 Steps & 12 Traditions of SHRG if you would like to follow along. I have asked ______ to read the 12 Steps of Self Harm Recovery Group. I have asked _______ to read the 12 Traditions of Self Harm Recovery Group.

As stated in the 7th Tradition: We are fully self-supporting through the voluntary contributions of our own members. These funds are put towards expenses to help sustain the meeting. A link is being posted in the chat to our PayPal account for the convenience of our members. If you are not a member of SHRG, we recommend your contributions be directed to your own home group. 

The Self Harm Recovery Group holds its monthly business meeting on the last Wed. of each month directly after the regular meeting. The next date will be: (LAST SAT. OF THE MONTH) This is for members only and if you’d like your voice to be heard about how the meeting is run, please attend. 

The format of this meeting is to have a speaker discuss their story for approximately 15 minutes in a general way of what they used to be like, what happened and what they are like now. They will then pick one of the 12 steps to discuss for an additional 5-10 minutes. Upon finishing, the moderator will then call on members to share their experience with this step until about 55 minutes after the hour. If no newcomers are present, we will choose a topic for group discussion. Please be mindful of the time you speak when called upon and limit your share to 3-5 min. We ask that you please speak in a general way when referring to your self injuring behavior. This is done so that we may stick to the format of this meeting which is to focus on the solution of recovery. If you exceed the 3-5 min. limit, we will indicate a sign of “TIME” to remind you to quickly wrap it up. Just as a reminder (*** after speaker – IF -> Since there is someone present is in their first SHRG meeting ever, please share what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like now.***) participation in SHRG meetings is limited to members only. 

I would now like to introduce our speaker tonight: 

After speaker is done: I would like to thank ___________ for sharing their story. 

Here at the Self Harm Recovery Group we highly suggest that you work the Twelve Steps with a sponsor. A sponsor is someone who is currently working the 12 steps of SHRG and is willing to share their experience, strength and hope with another to help them get better. Please stay on after the meeting ends to discuss this with someone. This group believes strongly in the meeting-before-the-meeting and after. This room opens up 30 min. before the start of each meeting and stays open as long as two or more are logged in.

I will now close the meeting with the following statement: Please see the Chat section for those that would like to say it with us. 

“We had to go where we went and do what we did to get where we are at, we are neither proud nor ashamed. We are simply here now.”

*Please remember, what you see here, what you hear here, let it stay here.*

SHRG is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from self harm. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop harming ourselves. There are no dues or fees for Self Harm Recovery 

Group membership; we are self -supporting through our own contributions. SHRG has no opinion on the way other groups address recovery from self harm. We do not offer advice regarding specific forms of treatment for the various types of emotional or mental illness. Nor do we seek to replace any kind of therapy or medication program you may have established currently.  The Self Harm Recovery Group is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stop self injury and help others to achieve freedom from self harm. *If you are feeling suicidal and need help now, we have listed a link to a hotline that may better support your needs. (Please see below for details)

1. We admitted we were powerless over self-harm, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of this higher power as we understood it. 
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 
5. Admitted to our higher power, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 
6. Were entirely ready to have our higher power remove all these defects of character. 
7. Humbly asked our higher power to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. 
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with a higher power, as we understood it, praying only for knowledge of this higher power’s will for us and the power to carry that out. 
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others who self-harm and to practice these principles in all our affairs.  

*AA’s 12 Steps and 12 Traditions adapted with permission of AA’s World Services, Inc. 

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon the Self-Harm Recovery Group unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority, a loving higher power as it may express itself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for SHRG is a desire to stop self injury.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or Self Harm Recovery Group as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose, to carry its message to the person who still suffers from self harm.
6. A Self Harm Recovery Group ought never endorse, finance or lend the SHRG name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every Self Harm Recovery Group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. The SHRG should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. SHRG, as such ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. The Self Harm Recovery Group has no opinion on outside issues; hence the SHRG 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.

*As 12 Steps and 12 Traditions adapted with permission of AA's World Services, Inc.