‘Growing Recovery Worldwide’ Forum Workshop (WSBC 2018)

Develop and grow recovery in our worldwide OA Fellowship. Use this workshop to identify obstacles and diversions on your own road to recovery, then find ways to use the OA program to get back on track and help others on the journey.

Recovery Roadmap Participants

Each participant will be given a Roadmap indicating some places we might go on our recovery journey—not all of which will bring us to our desired destination: recovery from compulsive eating. Participants will hear various members (“Travelers”) share some of the paths they took, roadblocks they encountered, and stops they made; and ultimately how they got back on the road to recovery.

Questions for reflection are provided below. Participants may make notes as they go along so they can make their journey smoother.

  1. What locations are on my own Roadmap? What’s limiting my recovery now?
  2. What things and places would I like to add to my recovery journey?
  3. Can I add them to my Roadmap? If so, how?

Recovery Roadmap Table Travelers

Each table will accommodate an approximately equal number of participants. They will be visited in turn by Recovery Road Travelers, each sharing experience, strength, and hope in that table’s selected topics.

At each table, Travelers will follow these steps:

3 minutes: Share their story and identify a diversion or roadblock on their own Roadmap.

7 minutes: Qualify about how the path they took or roadblock they encountered affected their life and recovery, then share how using the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, and OA Tools helped them achieve and maintain recovery.

7 minutes: Facilitate open sharing and answering of participants’ Roadmap questions.

Each Traveler will then move to the next table until all tables have had Roadmap discussions.
4 tables are suggested; adjust as needed.

Recovery Roadmap workshop timeline

Introductions and Instructions (10 minutes)

Table Discussions (68 minutes)
(If 4 tables participate: 17 minutes (3+7+7) per table x 4 = 68 minutes)

Travel Time (10 minutes)
(Travelers move from table to table)

Open Sharing Workshop Wrap-Up (25 minutes)

Summary and Closing (7 minutes)
Total workshop time: 2 hours

Possible topics for Recovery Roadmap Travelers

  1. Acceptance Airfield
  2. Control Corner
  3. Cravings Creek
  4. Depression Drag
  5. Desire to Stop Rest Area
  6. Diet Mentality Desert
  7. Dishonesty Federal Prison
  8. Food Fantasy Island
  9. Footwork Hiking Trails
  10. Half Measure Hills
  11. Higher Power Service Station
  12. Humility Hollow
  13. Island of Isolation
  14. Judgment Junction
  15. Keep Coming Back Hotel
  16. Meditation Meadow
  1. Mount of Lies
  2. Perfectionists Pass
  3. Relapse Ridge
  4. Resentment Road
  5. Self-Pity Falls
  6. Self-Sufficiency Lodge
  7. Sound of Silence Canyon
  8. Spiritual Awareness State Park
  9. Sponsorship Springs
  10. Stepwork Stables
  11. Swamp of Fear
  12. Terminally Unique Boutique
  13. Three-Legged Stool School
  14. Tools Rest Stop
  15. Worry Wharf
  16. Writing Campsite

Recovery Roadmap Workshop Script

Welcome to this Recovery Roadmap Workshop. We invite you to put your hand in ours and spend some time walking the road of recovery.

Let’s start with the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

Thank you.

Recovery Roadmap workshop procedures and concepts

This Recovery Roadmap workshop, in keeping with the OA World Service strategic plan, will focus on developing and growing recovery in our worldwide Fellowship.

Participants will be given a Roadmap indicating some places we might go on our recovery journeys, not all of which would bring us to our desired destination: recovery from compulsive eating. Today we will hear from several members—our Recovery Road Travelers—about various roads, paths, or stops they took along the way, and how they ultimately got back on the road to recovery.

When we first came into the OA program, we sometimes heard and read about people who were “struck abstinent.” We may have wished so much that we were one of those people!However, many of us were not. Fortunately, recovery and the solution to our issues with food is available to all.

We read the literature and learned that recovery is a journey and the Twelve Step program is the road we travel together in OA. We also read that, for most of us, recovery requires patient and persistent commitment to a glorious-but-hard journey. And the miracle is we don’t have to travel alone.

We know that we ourselves must be willing to go to any lengths to recover, but we also know we have help. This is a “we” program. In addition to a loving Higher Power, we have fellow travelers whose wisdom we can use when we find ourselves stuck or gone astray.

The only way to fail is to give up. We know we must keep coming back to the path of recovery. We know too that overcoming our slips, cravings, and even our relapses can also benefit others. Because we keep our recovery by sharing it.

Our hope is that at the close of today’s activities, you will have recognized and identified some of the specific roadblocks that limit your own recovery. You will also have gained and shared wisdom about ways to use the OA program and Tools to overcome obstacles and diversions on your personal road to recovery.

Our Travelers will provide experience, strength, and hope about some of their paths, blocks, or stops on the road to recovery. You can follow along and add to your own Roadmap as we go. Our goal is that you will leave this workshop with new insight, awareness, and knowledge to use to grow your own recovery and help others on their journey. Together we get better.

Recovery Roadmap activity instructions

Today we have ________ [number of Travelers) OA members who have graciously agreed to share with us parts of their particular recovery journey. We thank them profusely and are truly grateful for their courage and commitment. Please listen to each Traveler and add to your own maps along the way.

  1. A Recovery Road Traveler will visit your table for 17 minutes. Each Traveler will share a short version of their story and identify a specific path or roadblock they encountered. (3 minutes)
  2. The Traveler will explain how this affected them and how they used the OA Steps, Traditions, and Tools to get moving again on their recovery journey. (7 minutes)
  3. Your Traveler will open sharing at your table. You’ll have a chance to answer Roadmap reflection questions and add to your maps. (7 minutes)
  4. Another Traveler will visit.

A timer will let you know how we are progressing. Please cooperate and adhere to time constraints so we may move along smoothly.

Everyone, please listen and participate with an open mind and open heart.

You have questions for reflection in front of you. They will also be shown onscreen. Add to your own Roadmaps as we go along.

Travelers, here is your timeline:

  • For 3 minutes: Please begin your individual story and share your Roadmap topic.
  • For 7 minutes: Next, explain how the OA program helped you with your topic.
  • For the last 7 minutes: Facilitate open sharing at your table and help participants consider their own Recovery Roadmaps.

After open sharing, Travelers move to the next table. Everyone else remain seated.

Let’s get going on Recovery Road!

Recovery Roadmap reflection questions

Note: you may want to create a worksheet of these questions for participants.

  1. What locations are on my own Roadmap? What’s limiting my recovery now?
  2. What things and places would I like to add to my recovery journey?
  3. Can I add them to my Roadmap? If so, how?

Recovery Roadmap

Download the English PDF

After the Journey: Recovery Roadmap Workshop Wrap-Up

General sharing: now that you have been visited by several Recovery Road Travelers who are with us on this road of happy destiny, we’d like to open the floor for positive shares on your experiences here today. The time of each share should be no more than minutes. _________ Sharing your new recovery insights will surely help OA grow recovery worldwide.

Please come to the front of the room.

Closing

Travelers, thank you so very much for your service and for helping us better understand how you navigate your recovery. And thanks to everyone for your participation today.

We hope you are leaving this workshop with new insight, awareness, and knowledge that you will use to grow your own recovery and help others on their journeys. Remember, together we get better.

We will close with the OA Promise:

“I put my hand in yours, and together we can do what we could never do alone. No longer is there a sense of hopelessness, no longer must we each depend upon our own unsteady willpower. We are all together now, reaching out our hands for power and strength greater than ours, and as we join hands, we find love and understanding beyond our wildest dreams.”

Table Traveler Instructions

Dear Table Traveler,

Thank you for volunteering to do this service. This workshop will foster the growth and development of recovery among our worldwide Fellowship by concentrating on individual and shared recovery journeys. The participants’ goal for this workshop is to find some paths to take and pitfalls to avoid on their own roads to recovery. You have graciously volunteered to do this service by sharing your own story, discussing specific paths or roadblocks in your recovery, and sharing how the OA Steps, Traditions, and Tools helped you get back on track.

Your focus is:__________

The organizers of this workshop are truly grateful for your service.

We will have __________ tables accommodating __________ participants at each table. As a Table Traveler, you’ll have experience in that table’s selected topics.
Please visit each table in turn.

  1. (3 minutes) Share a short version of your story at the table. Identify a specific path or roadblock that you encountered on your recovery journey.
  2. (7 minutes) Qualify about how this path or roadblock affected your life and recovery Explain how working OA’s Twelve Steps, honoring our Twelve Traditions, and using our nine Tools helped you get back on track.
  3. (7 minutes) Facilitate open sharing at your table. Help participants answer Roadmap questions.
  4. Move to the next table on your schedule. (2 minutes)

In total, you’ll lead the above scenario at _______________ different tables.

Table Traveler Forms

Traveler: __________ Your tables are: #__________

(3 minutes) Share a short version of your story at the table. Identify a specific path or roadblock you encountered on your recovery journey.

(7 minutes) Qualify about how this affected your life and recovery. Explain how working OA’s Twelve Steps, honoring our Twelve Traditions, and using our nine Tools helped you get back on track.

(7 minutes) Facilitate open sharing at your table. Help participants answer Roadmap questions.

Move to the next table on your schedule. (2 minutes)

In total, you’ll lead the above scenario at _______________ different tables.

Thank you so very much for your service.

OA Board-Approved. © 2018 Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. All rights reserved.