[5] Some traditional twelve-step meetings include Christian prayers and the assumption of a masculine higher power, leading to difficulty in finding supportive sponsors by pagans who do not share those beliefs.
[7] A.A. itself states that any person who "has a desire to stop drinking" may declare themselves a member of A.A.[8] The focus in alternative groups tends to be on tolerance, balance, building better boundaries, healing old wounds, making amends, taking our power back and right action.
As a result, these groups tend to be more in tune with Pagan, New Age, Native American, humanistic, feminist, and Buddhist and Hindu teachings, as well as with the more progressive versions of the mainstream faiths.
For example, Kasl and others in the field of addiction have long noted that characteristics of adult children of alcoholics[9] and the list known as "The Problem" in ACA,[10] read at every ACA meeting, focus strongly on "character defects" and do not adequately support the creation or celebration of character strengths, strengths which are often the result of surviving these very systems.
Many twelve-step programs, such as Narcotics Anonymous, have special interest groups, typically meetings specifically geared towards young people, men, women, gays and lesbians, etc.
[11] Alcoholics Anonymous has also started meetings specifically for Native Americans which accommodate those views of spirituality.