Find a meeting

Please give Al-Anon a fair try

It is important to attend several meetings before deciding if Al-Anon is for you. Every meeting is different. Each meeting has the autonomy to be run as its members choose, within guidelines designed to promote Al‑Anon unity. We suggest you attend 6 to 8 meetings. Try various meetings to see where you may feel comfortable.

If you are concerned about someone’s drinking, you may attend ANY Al‑Anon meeting. While some groups choose to have certain attendees selected, they will welcome anyone looking for help.

What if no-one is at a meeting site?

The members of Al-Anon try hard to make sure someone is at each meeting to open the door, set up the room, chair the meeting, and make newcomers and members alike feel welcome. However, we aren’t perfect. Sometimes attendance drops off at a particular meeting or some unforeseen circumstance prevents people from attending.

If you come to a meeting, and the door is locked or no one else is in attendance, please accept our apologies, and please let us know. Call or e-mail us and we will let you know if a particular meeting is operating and/or help you find another that is. You can also use the contacts provided by each meeting on the list before heading to the site.

Find an English-spoken meeting in The Benelux

Here are a few things to keep in mind at your first meeting

Al‑Anon is a mutual support group. Everyone at the meeting shares as an equal. No one is in a position to give advice or direction to anyone else. Everyone at the meeting has experienced a problem with someone else’s drinking.
You are free to ask questions or to talk about your situation at your first meeting. If you’d rather just listen, you can say “I pass,” or explain that you’d just like to listen.
Al‑Anon is not a religious program. Even when the meeting is held in a religious center, the local Al‑Anon group pays rent to that center and is not affiliated in any way with any religious group. Your religious beliefs—or lack of them—are not a subject for discussion at Al‑Anon meetings, which focus solely on coping with the effects of someone’s drinking.
It will take some time to fully understand the significance of anonymity to the Al‑Anon program. But at its simplest level, anonymity means that the people in the room will respect the confidentiality of what you say and won’t approach you outside the room in a way that compromises your privacy or the privacy of anyone who attended an Al‑Anon meeting.
The meeting will likely begin with a reading of the Twelve Steps of Al‑Anon. It will take some time to fully understand how the Twelve Steps can be a helpful tool in recovering from the effects of someone’s drinking. But Al‑Anon gives you the opportunity to grow at your own pace.

Resources for meetings

Attending an Al-Anon meeting can be the first step in breaking our isolation by coming into contact with peers who understand the problem of alcoholism as perhaps few others can.

There is a suggested format that can be used as a guideline by groups to conduct their meetings. You can find it here. You can also check it out to get an idea on what to expect at an Al-Anon meeting.
AIS provides a list of English-spoken meetings available in Benelux. However, it may be the case that there are no meetings available nearby your location. Al-Anon provides an alternative in the form of online meetings. You can use the electronic meeting finder to get a list of the next available meetings in your local time zone. It also provides information of meetings held in different languages.
Al-Anon also has a mobile app to support individual recovery and to provide fellowship opportunities between members. Among other resources, it provides a platform for electronic meetings. Click here to get further information and download the app.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse