Are there secular alternatives to Al-Anon?
As mentioned above, SMART Recovery is secular peer support recovery organization. They have recently added expanded support for "Family and Friends" and offer an online meeting.
Meetings incorporate CRAFT principles and SMART tools. This might be what you’re looking for if searching to an option other than Al-Anon: http://www.smartrecovery.org/resources/family.htm
HARM LESS is an alternative to Al-Anon for people who wish to reduce the harm caused by a loved one’s drinking. HARM LESS utilizes the principles of Harm Reduction, Motivational Interviewing, and Cognitive Behavioral Techniques to help you to cope and to encourage your loved one to change. For more information please visit Al-Anon Alternatives – HARM LESS.
http://hamsnetwork.org/harm-less/
These are the biggest secular recovery organizations: SMART recovery: www.smartrecovery.org and lifering recovery: http://www.unhooked.com/index.htm I am highly knowledgeable about addiction issues and I have to say, I have never heard of an Al-Anon alternative that is nonreligious and the non-12-step recovery organizations themselves tend to be very small and to be primarily online, so I’d imagine any family support organizations they have are even smaller. That said, there is a form of family therapy called Community Reinforcement and Family Therapy (CRAFT) that is completely secular that might be of use. You can find information about it and about harm reduction approaches (which do not require abstinence but do not oppose it either– they ‘meet the addict where he’s at’) here: http://behaviortherapy.com/ And I did a book with an addiction expert at U Penn called Recovery Options: The Complete Guide
Seconding the idea of trying out different Al-anon meetings, though the more rural you are the harder time you’ll have finding finding more secular meetings. Secular Al-anon meetings do still reference higher powers, but people’s higher powers tend more towards “wisdom of the people who went before me,” and “the ideal me that I’d like to become,” etc. There are also higher powers like Gaia, the ocean, nature, the universe… Not sure where those fall on the secular-spiritual continuum.
