JOLEENE WOUK, DD

Certified Conflict Mediator

Relationships Consultant

Addiction Specialist

We welcome you to Co-Dependents Anonymous —a program of recovery from codependency where each of us may share our experience, strength and hope in our efforts to find freedom where there has been bondage and peace where there has been turmoil in our relationships with others and ourselves. Most of us have been searching for ways to overcome the dilemmas of the conflicts in our relationships and our childhood. Many of us were raised in families where addictions existed —some of us were not. In either case, we have found in each of our lives that codependency is a most deeply-rooted, compulsive behavior and that it is born out of our sometimes moderately, sometimes extremely dysfunctional family systems.

We have each experienced in our own ways the painful trauma of the emptiness of our childhood and relationships throughout our lives. We attempted to use others —our mates, our friends, and even our children —as our sole source of identity, value, and well-being and as a way of trying to restore within us the emotional losses from our childhood. Our histories may include other powerful addictions which at times we have used to cope with our codependency.

We have all learned to survive life, but in CoDA we are learning to live life. Through applying the Twelve Steps and principles found in CoDA to our daily life and relationships, both present and past, we can experience a new freedom from our self-defeating lifestyles. It is an individual growth process. Each of us is growing at our own pace and will continue to do so as we remain open to God’s will for us on a daily basis. Our sharing is our way of identification and helps us to free the emotional bonds of our past and the compulsive control of our present.

No matter how traumatic your past or despairing your present may seem, there is hope for a new day in the program of Co-Dependents Anonymous. No longer do you need to rely on others as a power greater than yourself. May you instead find here a new strength within to be that which God intended, Precious and Free.

Passage is taken from the "big book" of CoDependents Anonymous

As America's psychologist, Dr. Phil is one of the best relationship counselors
of our time.

Be sure to watch the Dr. Phil show daily on nbc & cbs.  check local listings for times in your area.