1. Home
  2. AWG Self-Esteem

AWG Secular 12 Step Self-Esteem Group 🚀


Access this page in bionic reading here. 

Looking for the old site? All of the original materials are still available on https://awg12steps.wordpress.com/

On this page:

Zoom access and meeting times Meeting description Workbook Readings
Zoom access and meeting times

Meetings are every Tuesday from 11 am to 12 pm Eastern US Time. See Meeting Time in a Different Time Zone (normal calendar)


* Zoom link not working? Search the meeting ID below in the Zoom meeting database and then use the code to sign in: 

Meeting ID: 824 1142 4876
Code: 781927


Emails will be sent out to mailing list members in the rare case of a cancellation.
Get a weekly email reminder for meetings

Submit your email to receive a reminder each week about the upcoming AWG Self-Esteem group meeting
Your email address is only used to send you our newsletter and information about our activities. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Meeting description

This is a secular 12 Step meeting focused on self-esteem recovery for late-identified autistic women and members of all other marginalized genders (nonbinary, gender fluid, MTF/FTM trans, agender, autigender, and more). 

We meet each Tuesday on Zoom, practice the AWG 12 Steps using the AWG 12 Step Workbook, share in response to weekly readings, and participate in the optional co-mentorship program if we so desire. 

It is not mandatory to turn on your mic or camera. Coming to listen is totally fine. By taking part, we hold space for others, and ourselves, to participate in a way that is manageable for us as we exist right now.

It is not necessary to actively be doing the AWG 12 Steps in order to be a full participant. Any contact with the group and its resources can be beneficial as long as it’s sustainable for each of us as individuals. Many of us participate simply by attending meetings.

As we participate in this meeting over time, we might find ourselves seeking to…

  • Find our own concept of self-esteem and grow toward it
  • Come to discover a more realistic sense of our place in the world
  • Reassess our relationships, especially in terms of our responsibilities towards ourselves and others
  • Come to understand personal boundaries, their roles in our lives, and how to develop and maintain healthy boundaries
  • Understand the concept of nonviolent detachment and how and when to enact it
  • Develop more manageable lifestyles
  • Develop a sense of self that leads to more health, well being, and manageability in our lives
  • Release others from the responsibility of defining or reinforcing our sense of self-esteem
  • Form personal goals about self-esteem and self-concept based on our own understanding of our own needs, as they exist today

AWG 12 Step Self-Esteem Readings

Making friends with my torso

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

But my expanded awareness of myself and my self-concept means that my shape, weight, and wardrobe are no longer life-defining in the way they used to. Part 4 of 4 readings on body image.

If I had to tell you I'm a Millennial without telling you I'm a Millennial, I could do it in two words:

Bare midriff!

The craze for low-rise jeans and crop tops started when I was about 10, just hitting puberty. With the style trends and my physical changes, there was suddenly no place for me in clothing stores, changing rooms, or anywhere people could see me (or so I felt at the time). My curvy torso, apple body shape, and healthy weight just felt wrong. So wrong!

It really did a number on my mental health. My torso is the most central part of my body. It faces towards anyone I'm interacting with. There's no way I can hide it or change how it looks. And with a lack of spoons and no internet yet, I wasn't able to do the research to "dress for my body" as I was urged to.

The body positivity movement has done a lot to help me embrace my shape, and the affirmation has changed my life for the better. So has learning I am autistic and finding autistic friends who aren't overly fussed about clothes or evaluating me based on how I dress. Even one of my friends who has clothes as a special interest sees me as me, not my wardrobe or on my shape. I feel a lot more relaxed and able to be myself. My self-concept has been able to expand to include more positive things than just my body or how I dress.

I still have stress around the shape of my torso and shopping, for example, around special events like weddings. But my expanded awareness of myself and my self-concept means that my shape, weight, and wardrobe, and how they happen to show up at that one event, are no longer life-defining in the way they used to. My relationship with my torso is not perfect, but it's much more manageable.

Share questions:

  • What is your present relationship with your torso, and how does it fit into your self-esteem and sense of self? 
  • Have your thoughts and feelings about your torso changed over time? 
  • Why have they changed? Was it due to outside influences, like the body positivity movement? Interactions with other individuals and groups, like finding affirmative friends? Self-care, like expanding your self-concept so body image is only one part of it? Other? 
  • Has your relationship with your torso changed since you learned you are autistic? 
  • Any tools, resources, or strategies to share? 
  • Anything else to add?
No comments yet

AWG 12 Step Self-Esteem Workbook

Step 1

We admitted that despite our efforts, many of the factors affecting our sense of self and self-esteem seemed out of control, leading to increased unmanageability in our lives.

Step 2

Coming Soon

Step 3

Coming Soon

Step 4

Coming Soon
Search
This website may use cookies and external scripts. More information