We have a couple in our group. He’s an ex Marine and a tough loveable old Jarhead. Just gave him his 38 yr CHIP last Friday. His wife will be getting a 35 yr CHIP in May.
They met in AA some 30+ years ago. Nice story.
That is lovely-a nice story, and the first time I’ve ever heard such.
To your point of the members not being therapists-people who are emotionally unhealthy, or have strong personal agendas are going to take advantage of the more submissive, timid individuals in a group like that where there is no therapist to keep such a thing from happening.
Even with rules in place, as a therapist for a co-dependent group that meets once a week, you end up spending a lot of time keeping those individuals from preying on the more timid ones-it is just what people like that try to do-it is why they are going to therapy in the first place.
It was a free for all in the meetings my supervisor and I were at-those “sponsors:” were most definitely not there to “guide” or “help” those women-they acted like lounge lizards at a bar-one guy had his hands all over a young woman’s butt while she was talking, crying-obviously vulnerable-she left with after the meeting-I can guess where that ended up.
I’m sure your own experience with AA was just as you say-but I saw no such altruistic motives or actions when I went there with my boss to observe.