Power of Five

8-Week CoDA Emotional Sobriety Group

A branded group guide that includes your opening format, volunteer readings, CoDA guide to sharing, group guidelines, donation section, suggested weekly format, and your 8-week emotional sobriety reflection series.

Group Intention: This group is designed to help members reflect on codependent patterns with honesty, compassion, emotional sobriety, and willingness. Members are encouraged to share from personal experience, listen without fixing, and honor emotional safety.
Power of Five Meeting Format

Opening Format

Read Opening Statement

Good evening (morning, afternoon) and welcome to the meeting of Co-Dependents Anonymous. My name is __________ and I am a codependent. I am your meeting leader tonight (today).

CoDA asks those with cell phones and pagers to please turn them off or place them on silent for the duration of the meeting, so we can keep our focus on the meeting without interruptions.

Please help me open this meeting with a moment of silence followed by:

The CoDA Opening Prayer ©

In the spirit of love and truth, we ask our Higher Power to guide us as we share our experience, strength, and hope. We open our hearts to the light of wisdom, the warmth of love, and the joy of acceptance.

Meeting Readings

Volunteer Readings

Ask for volunteers to read the following:

CoDA Preamble

Open Reading

12 Steps

Open Reading

CoDA 12 Promises

Open Reading

Introduce Material: Host should post the meeting material and ask for volunteers to read if needed.
Meeting Safety

CoDA Guide to Sharing

As we pursue our recovery, it is important for each of us to speak, as we are able. Many of us find speaking among others, especially strangers, a very difficult task. We encourage people to begin slowly and carefully.

It is the intention of every CoDA member and group not to ridicule or embarrass anyone. Nothing that is shared is unimportant or stupid. The sharing of our experiences is best done with “I” statements. “Crosstalk” and “feedback” are discouraged.

What is Crosstalk?

Crosstalk can be: giving unsolicited feedback, advice-giving, answering, making “you” and “we” statements, interrogating, debating, criticizing, controlling, or dominating. It may also include minimizing another person’s feelings or experiences, physical contact or touch, body movements such as nodding one’s head, calling another person present by name, or verbal sounds and noises.

Safety Reminder: In our meetings we speak about our own experience, and we listen without comment to what others share. We work toward taking responsibility in our own lives, rather than giving advice to others. Crosstalk guidelines help keep our meeting a safe place.
Commitment & Reflection

Group Guidelines

Commitment

  • Group begins promptly at 7:00 PM EST.
  • Please arrive on time and ready to participate.
  • Coming in late can disrupt the safety, flow, and connection of the group.
  • Consistency and commitment are important to the healing process.
  • If you miss more than two meetings, we kindly ask that you sign up for another future Power of Five group when you are able to fully commit.

Reflection

This group is an opportunity to practice mindful listening, self-awareness, and emotional honesty.

As others share, we encourage you to:

  • Listen with compassion and without judgment.
  • Notice what emotions, thoughts, memories, or reactions arise within you.
  • Reflect on how you identify with the shares and what truths may be surfacing for your own recovery.
  • Share from your personal experience rather than giving advice or fixing others.
Healing Reminder: Healing often begins by simply becoming aware of what comes up inside of us.
7th Tradition

Group Series Donation

In keeping with CoDA’s 7th Tradition, this group is fully self-supporting. While there are no dues or fees, we do have expenses, and contributions are appreciated.

A one-time suggested donation of $20 is welcome for this series. If you’re unable to give, please keep coming back — your presence matters more than your contribution.

PayPal

Donate Through PayPal

Zelle

Name: ES CoDA Group

Phone: 914-907-7493

Meeting Structure

Suggested Weekly Format

Each session may be adapted for a 75-minute or 90-minute group. The purpose is not to answer every question perfectly, but to allow each member to choose the questions that most resonate with their recovery.

Opening • 5 Minutes

Spiritual Check-In

Hand over chest, close your eyes and say: “In this moment I feel _____________?”

Reading • 10 Minutes

CoDA Readings

Readings: CoDA Preamble, 12-Steps, and CoDA 12-Promises.

Weekly Theme • 10 Minutes

Introduce the Week

Read the theme and introduce the focus of the week.

Sharing • 7 Minutes

Member Sharing

Members share from the questions of the week.

Reflections • 1 Minute

1-Minute Reflection

Members can write or reflect from their personal experience back to the member who shared only if it resonates.

Closing

Final Emotional Check-In

Hand over chest, close your eyes and say: “In this moment I feel _____________?”

Leader Note: Remind members of time. If there’s no other reflection for about a minute, go on to the next person who would like to share next. Also, thank each member for sharing.
Week 1 Step 1 Focus

Awareness & Personal History

Theme: Becoming aware of how codependency began and how it has shaped my life.

Purpose: To gently identify early patterns of overgiving, control, self-abandonment, and losing myself in others.

Focus Questions

  1. When did I first begin to notice patterns of overgiving, control, or losing myself in others? How did those experiences shape who I am today?
  2. In what ways have my relationships affected my energy, time, or self-worth? What have I been trying to fix, prove, or hold onto?
  3. What parts of myself have I abandoned in order to maintain connection or avoid conflict?
  4. How have my codependent behaviors once protected me? How are they limiting my life today?
Reflection Time: Choose one question that feels most alive for you. Write honestly and gently.
Closing Intention: I am willing to become aware of my patterns without judging myself.
Week 2 Step 1 Focus

Patterns, Control & Emotional Impact

Theme: Understanding control, avoidance, fear, shame, and emotional unmanageability.

Purpose: To explore how codependent behaviors affect my emotional life and relationships.

Focus Questions

  1. Where do I try to control people, outcomes, or situations? What am I afraid would happen if I let go?
  2. Where do I avoid—people, emotions, or truth? What am I unwilling to face?
  3. How do fear and shame show up in my life? What behaviors do they drive?
  4. When I make a mistake, how do I speak to myself? Can I begin to separate “what I did” from “who I am”?
Reflection Time: Notice whether control or avoidance is protecting you from fear, shame, grief, rejection, or uncertainty.
Closing Intention: I can make a mistake without becoming a mistake.
Week 3 Step 1 Focus

Relationships & Support

Theme: Moving from isolation or overdependence into balanced support.

Purpose: To explore what healthy connection and recovery support look like.

Focus Questions

  1. What does healthy support look like for me? Am I open to receiving it?
  2. Where do I isolate or rely too heavily on one person instead of building balanced connections?
  3. What would it look like to create a “Power of Five” — a circle of safe, supportive people in my life?
Reflection Time: Write down five types of support you may need: emotional, spiritual, practical, recovery-based, or friendship-based.
Closing Intention: I am allowed to receive safe, healthy, balanced support.
Week 4 Step 1 Focus

Boundaries, Identity & Self-Worth

Theme: Learning the difference between loving others and abandoning myself.

Purpose: To explore boundaries, self-worth, identity, and equality in relationships.

Focus Questions

  1. What is the difference between being loving and being self-abandoning in my life?
  2. Where do I lack boundaries—and what am I afraid will happen if I set them?
  3. In what ways do I feel “less than” or “better than” others? How do these beliefs affect my relationships?
Reflection Time: Choose one relationship where you often lose yourself. Write what a healthy boundary might sound like.
Closing Intention: I can love others without abandoning myself.
Week 5 Steps 2 & 3 Focus

Higher Power, Surrender & Trust

Theme: Becoming open to support beyond control, fear, and self-will.

Purpose: To explore belief, trust, surrender, and a safe understanding of Higher Power.

Focus Questions

  1. Where have I placed my trust in people or outcomes instead of something greater than myself?
  2. What would it feel like to believe that I don’t have to control everything to be okay?
  3. What does surrender mean to me right now—not as a concept, but as a daily practice?
  4. What would I want a loving Higher Power to be like? What qualities feel safe, supportive, and guiding?
Reflection Time: Write a list of qualities you would want in a loving Higher Power.
Closing Intention: I am willing to become open to trust, guidance, and support.
Week 6 Steps 2 & 3 Focus

Letting Go & Emotional Responsibility

Theme: Releasing what causes pain and learning to care for myself emotionally.

Purpose: To explore letting go, emotional awareness, and the HALT self-care tool.

Focus Questions

  1. What am I holding onto that is causing me pain? Am I willing to begin letting it go?
  2. When I feel overwhelmed, how can I pause and care for myself? HALT: hungry, angry, lonely, tired.
  3. What feelings am I avoiding today—and what might they be trying to teach me?
Reflection Time: Use HALT as a check-in. Ask yourself: Am I hungry, angry, lonely, or tired?
Closing Intention: I can pause, listen inward, and care for myself before reacting.
Week 7 Daily Recovery Practice

Daily Practice & Growth

Theme: Practicing recovery through small daily actions.

Purpose: To shift from perfectionism into progress, self-responsibility, and growth.

Focus Questions

  1. What does “progress, not perfection” mean in my recovery today?
  2. What small action can I take today that supports my healing?
  3. How can I begin to take responsibility for my emotions without taking responsibility for others?
Reflection Time: Write one small, realistic recovery action you can practice this week.
Closing Intention: I do not need to recover perfectly. I only need to keep practicing.
Week 8 Integration & Moving Forward

Reflection & Moving Forward

Theme: Integrating what I have learned and choosing what I am ready to release and receive.

Purpose: To reflect on emotional sobriety, growth, and the next stage of recovery.

Focus Questions

  1. What does emotional sobriety look like for me?
  2. What am I learning about myself through this process?
  3. What am I ready to release—and what am I ready to receive?
Reflection Time: Write a closing reflection beginning with: “Through this 8-week process, I am becoming aware that…”
Closing Intention: I am ready to release what no longer serves me and receive the support, peace, and healing I deserve.
Meeting Closing

Closing Format

Closing Statement

As we bring this meeting to a close, I would like to remind you that CoDA is an anonymous program. We ask that you respect the anonymity and confidentiality of each person in this meeting. We ask that what you see here, what is said here, when you leave here, let it stay here.

Close with the Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; and Wisdom to know the difference.

Final Group Intention

Recovery is not a straight line. It is a daily practice of awareness, honesty, surrender, support, boundaries, and self-compassion.

I am learning to return to myself one day, one choice, and one loving action at a time.