Hosting Healthy Meetings

The focus of a healthy meeting is to share our experience, strength, and hope with the families and friends of addicts.

Nar-Anon’s Blue Book has a reading entitled ‘Keeping our Meetings Healthy’ that details ‘the three destructive forces that can create dissension and ultimately destroy the group’. It might be helpful to read this section and discuss it occasionally at your group meetings.

What to Encourage

Nar-Anon Literature – It is important to use only Conference Approved Literature (CAL) during the meetings.
Involvement of Members – It is important to get all members involved in leading the Group Meetings. Some groups utilize a Meeting Leader sign-up sheet, while others just ask members who have attended a least a few meetings if they would be willing to lead. An easy-to-follow meeting outline is provided in the Guide to Local Services and online. This can be modified to suit your needs but the general guidelines should be included in any modifications.
It is also suggested that you encourage members to share their contact information. If a member is struggling during the week, it is important that they can reach out to other members for support. As with everything in Nar-Anon, a member has the right to choose whether to share their personal information.
Variety of Meetings – There are other types of meetings that your group can have besides the sharing type. Some of these are shown below.
- Speaker Meetings A Speaker or Speakers will share their individual experiences in more detail.
- Step Meetings A more detailed study of the Twelve Steps
- Beginner Meeting A meeting that is geared more toward the Newcomer
- Business Meeting A meeting where the Group’s business matters are discussed
- Group Conscience Meeting An introspective look at the path and the programs the Group is undertaking

What to Try to Avoid

Giving Advice We comfort other members by sharing our experience, strength, and hope – not by telling them what they should do. Each member has to decide for themselves what path they want to take and the timeline for taking that path.
Crosstalk Making spontaneous comments either during or after someone shares should be avoided. Brief, encouraging comments such as “Keep coming back” or “You’ve come to the right place” are permissible but you should avoid asking questions or offering your opinion about another member’s sharing during the meeting. You can initiate a discussion with members individually after the meeting if you need further clarification.
Outside Literature It is important to use only Conference Approved Literature (CAL) during the meetings. There are many excellent books and articles that deal with addiction; however, these should not be discussed during the meetings. Nar-Anon meetings should be devoted to sharing our experiences, strength, and hope and not conducting book or article reviews or offering comments about other literature. Again, these items can be shared after the meeting on an individual basis.
Treatment Programs Nar-Anon does not offer opinions about how to “fix” our addicts. Our main focus concerns helping family members and friends of addicts.
Group Challenges Occasionally there will be challenges that come up for every group, i.e. someone trying to dominate the meeting, financial problems, low attendance, inappropriate discussion topics, etc. It is important that you use contacts gained through active participation in the region or calls to the WSO to help get you through these rough times. Everyone in Nar-Anon wants to see your meeting be a success and will offer suggestions about what can be done to help you through challenging times. Following are some suggestions to help with some of these challenges:
- Dominate sharing during the meeting – having a time-keeper, passing a stone, or a lit candle, to keep people aware of the amount of time they are sharing.
- Financial Problems – Have a 7th Tradition Meeting and share where the donated money is being used.
- Low Attendance – Review the section – Getting the Word Out About Your Meetings and do one of the Outreach Monthly Challenges.
- Inappropriate Discussion Topics – Review the reading entitled “Keeping our Meetings Healthy” in the Blue Book.

Resources for New Groups

Many documents that can help with promoting healthy meetings may be found on the Service Literature page of the World Services website. All of these can be either purchased or downloaded as a PDF. Documents of particular interest for a new group are shown below:

Appropriate Sharing & Crosstalk (S-308)
Group Conscience and Business Meetings (S-305)
Guidelines for Healthy Meetings (S-303)
Let’s Talk About Anonymity (S-307)
Sample Format for Nar-Anon Meetings (S-314) – This format is a good guide to use starting out. This can be modified as the group grows.

*Disclaimer: All images used on this website are licensed images; any persons depicted in said images are models and are not actual Nar-Anon members.

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