12 Step Retreats

12 Step Retreats 12 Step Retreats are for anyone in recovery who wishes to spend a weekend in beautiful Santa Cruz wi John passed away in 1993 at 79.

These retreats were started in 1972 by John Ratner, a member of AA who wanted to provide a place where those in AA and Al-Anon (especially couples) could go for a spiritual weekend and hear talks, have meetings, share one on one, in a beautiful peaceful setting. He found Presentation Center in the Santa Cruz mountains and the retreats were born. Because John was a travelling salesman, he brought p

eople from all over, and before long, the retreats which started with 20 people once a year, grew to 120 people six times a year, with a waiting list! He found recovering priests and other recovering speakers to lead and do one-on-one counselling. The retreats have continued in the same fashion, but without his dynamic draw, the numbers have slipped down to 3-4 a year. We now invite members of all 12 step programs to attend. When requested, we arrange for additional meetings, such as NA or OA. My father's legacy will continue as long as there is a need, and as long as these retreats fulfill that need.

04/19/2026
Feelings can be expressed kindly for healing.
10/12/2025

Feelings can be expressed kindly for healing.

🌼🍃🍂✨

05/03/2025

After exercise class, some of the women meet in a room at the Senior Center for coffee. It’s a judgement free zone where everything that’s said is confidential. I love the conversations we come up with! They flow organically, sometimes with outbursts of laughter and at other times deep listening. I’m grateful for the way life brings joy and wisdom to me. ~ Rev Jane Beach

02/21/2025

“I had always thought that I needed to get him to change—really to obey me—and then I thought I would be happy. Maybe someone from the [Al-Anon] meeting could tell me a different way to talk to him. Or I thought that maybe someone from the meeting could come home with me and make him behave. No one ever did.”

“I Learned To Love Myself through Service,” “The Forum” June 2018

Do you love an alcoholic? Maybe Al-Anon can help you.

Meeting info:

🔹 US/Puerto Rico/Bermuda/Canada: goo.gl/DcR3qn

🔹 Other areas: goo.gl/V4319R

🔹 Online/phone: https://bit.ly/3j10N09

01/04/2025
01/04/2025

Let's play!

01/01/2025

“Alcoholism was very active in my home. I had not found any recovery, when a decision was made to move countries because I truly believed that moving would not only bring opportunities for my career, but help my partner find sobriety. Surely his drinking was linked to the habits he had formed in the environment in which we had been living. Moving to a different part of the world with new opportunities and a lifetime of dreams was also going to be the solution to the drinking.

“My partner did not find sobriety because we moved, but I did find Al-Anon. This brought up a question: was there Al-Anon where I had lived before? I knew there was Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), but I had not heard of nor found Al-Anon in my home country.”

“Unified Worldwide,” “The Forum,” November 2024

Read this Al-Anon member’s story about how she discovered how truly global Al-Anon Family Groups are.

🔹 https://al-anon.org/blog/unified-worldwide/

Looking for a meeting? Look for your country in our worldwide contact list:

🔹 https://al-anon.org/al-anon-meetings/worldwide-al-anon-contacts/

12/16/2024

Address

Santa Cruz, CA
95066

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