Spirituality and the 12 Steps of Substance Abuse Recovery

Abstract

Numerous treatment modalities incorporate spirituality as an important part of treatment. The 12-step program is one such program which claims to enhance one's spirituality, yet empirical support is limited. This preliminary study compared clients in 12-step outpatient programs to clients in non-12-step outpatient programs to assess the programs’ impact on spirituality. From scores on the Spiritual Well-Being Scale, no significant differences between 12-step programs and non-12-step programs were found, yet both treatments were found to lead to a significant increase over time of client spirituality. Individuals who prefer programs not based on the 12 steps may still experience an increase in their spirituality. Since participants in both treatment groups experienced a significant increase in spirituality, further support is found for the presence of spirituality in all clients. This finding supports the appropriateness of addressing spirituality openly in treatment.