Professional meetings

History of SAA professional meetings

The first meeting, the green book tells us in the stories, “of the first ten members, nine were involved some way with mental health services.” It was also reported that in 1980, eleven of the twelve worked as some kind of Health Care professional, and one was a Judge. Their need for anonymity was very high. Clearly, they would be called a Professional Meeting today.

On the meeting registration form, meetings can choose “Closed/12/New” or “Closed/12/All”:
“Closed/New” meeting locations are not published. Newcomers must meet with a member of the group before attending.
“Closed/All” meeting locations are not given to anyone. To attend, a local member must be contacted.

Suggested reading:

• “Dear Grace” article, “I’m a professional in my community …” on page 29 in The Outer Circle for October 2008

“As a fellowship, Sex Addicts Anonymous is open to anyone with a desire to stop addictive sexual behavior. Some groups, however, have made the autonomous decision to gear their meetings towards a specific group within the fellowship. For example, there are meetings for men, women, gays and lesbians, sexual anorexics, professionals, and those who have committed felonious behaviors. Such meetings are to allow those of us who attend them to speak more freely, to get the opportunity to meet with others who may understand us better, or to better protect our anonymity.”

— Sex Addicts Anonymous, Tradition Three, page 82.; (Emphasis added.)

“When asked about “Boundary Meetings” recently, an ISO staff member responded: “A boundary meeting is one with a specific requirement to attend, for example, a meeting for helping professionals only. There was once (maybe still is) a boundary meeting for very highly visible addicts, such as actors or politicians.”