The SOS Story
Jim Christopher - A Brief
Biography
James
Christopher, a sober alcoholic since April 24, 1978, originally
attended Alcoholics Anonymous, but broke from AA early in his
recovery due to his discomfort with the AA approach. Staying
sober with his own “Sobriety Priority” program, he went on to
found SOS (Secular Organizations for Sobriety / Save our Selves)
in 1985. He arranged for the first SOS self-help support group
to be held in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on a
Monday evening in November, after giving numerous public
lecturers and authoring numerous articles dating back to 1984.
the key article “Sobriety without Superstition” was published in
the national periodical Free Inquiry and received
worldwide responses from recovering alcoholics and addicts,
treatment professional and the media.
James Christopher has since
authored four books : How to Stay Sober (Prometheus
Books, 1988), Unhooked (Prometheus Books, 1989), SOS
Sobriety (Prometheus Books, 1992) and Escape from
Nicotine Country (Prometheus Books, 1999). He was also a
contributor to Substance Abuse : A Comprehensive Textbook
(Williams and Williams, 1997).
SOS has grown from one
meeting in Los Angeles to a data base of over 20,000 members
worldwide. Each SOS meeting is autonomous and held on an
anonymous basis at no charge to participants and stresses James
Christopher’s “Sobriety Priority” abstinence-based,
self-empowerment.
James Christopher has appeared on over 300 radio and television
shows and the SOS alternative has received extensive coverage in
hundreds of print media feature articles including the Los
Angeles Times, the New York Times, the British Guardian,
Newsweek, the Journal of the American Medical Association,
Glamour, Playboy, Modern Maturity, Professional Counselor and
Sober Times.
James Christopher worked as a
Program Director for Priority One, an outpatient treatment
facility in Beverly Hills, California for two years. He moved
the SOS International Clearing House to Buffalo, New York, in
June 1990, accepting sponsorship by CODESH, an international
humanist organization. The SOS movement is separately
incorporated as a non-profit organization and has been
publishing a quarterly newsletter since 1987.
The US Department of Health
and Human Services, Public Health Service, Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration includes SOS in its
official literature; the US Congress Employee Assistance Program
subscribes to the SOS Newsletter, and since 1987, the Los
Angeles Court system, as well as numerous courts across the US,
have offered SOS as a viable recovery choice to persons mandated
to attend a self-help program.
In February 1995 James
Christopher returned to the Clearing House to Los Angeles and
currently divides his time among three activities : SOS Clearing
House duties, holding recovery workshops across the US and
abroad, and doing research on the evolution of the SOS
Sobriety Priority program, described by James Christopher as
the “CVS Method” (Cognitive / Visceral Synchronization).
SOS - A BRIEF HISTORY
"During my first years of sobriety I questioned a number of
alcoholics, searching for the common thread of their successes
in maintaining a lasting sobriety. When I was about three years
into my sobriety I began to challenge the concepts of Alcoholics
Anonymous.... By the time I was sober five years I had compiled
an extensive file of responses and, four years to the present
day, I've collected data from more than two thousand « sobrietists ».
Both from this research and my own experience of recovery, I
have put together a specific secular approach to achieving and
maintaining long-term sobriety. I call it the « Sobriety
Priority ». I wish to offer it here as « a » way (beware of
anyone who offers « the » way) to achieve and maintain sobriety
for life” James Christopher, 1986.
The SOS movement began with an article in the Summer 1985 issue
of FREE INQUIRY magazine, the leading secular humanist journal
in the USA. James Christopher, the son of an alcoholic, and a
sober alcoholic himself, wrote « Sobriety Without
Superstition », an account of the path he took to sobriety.
This path led Christopher from seventeen years of a fearful and
guilty alcoholism to a fearful and guilty sobriety with
Alcoholics Anonymous. Christopher felt that there must be other
alcoholics who wanted to achieve and maintain sobriety through
personal responsibility and self-reliance. He also felt that
turning ones life over to a « Higher Power » was not compatible
with current research which indicated that addiction is the
result of physiology, not psychology.
As a result of the tremendous response to the article from those
who wanted to maintain sobriety as a separate issue from
religion, Jim Christopher founded the Secular Organizations for
Sobriety.
Today there are SOS groups meeting in every state in the USA and
throughout the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia and Israel.
SOS has gained official recognition from health professionals,
clinics and US court system. In 1987 the California courts
recognized SOS as an alternative to AA for recovery programs and
the Veterans Administration has adopted a policy which prohibits
mandatory participation in programs of a religious nature. In
1998, the American Association of Psychiatrists published a
chapter written by James Christopher in its main professional
textbook "Substance Abuse".
Secular Organizations for Sobriety
James Christopher, C.A.S., D.A.P.A, Founder and
Executive Director
International Advisory Board
Steve Allen, Humorist, Author
Ed Batis, C.A.S., Community Activist, Educator,
Domestic-Violence Issues, Drug and Alcohol Diversion, Los
Angeles
Joseph D. Beasley, M.D., Director Comprehensive Medical
Care, Amityville, NY; Bard Center Fellow in Medicine and
Science; Director, Institute of Health Policy and Practice of
the Bard College Center
Kenneth Blum, Ph.D., President and C.E.O., SynerGene
Global Inc., San Antonio, Texas
Bonnie Bullough, Ph.D. (1927-1996), Professor of Nursing,
University of Southern California
Vern L. Bullough, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor
Emeritus, State University of New York; Visiting Professor of
Nursing, University of Southern California
Mauro Ceccanti, M.D., Instituto di Clinica Medico VI,
Italy
Veronica Redd, Television Actress
Elizabeth Hartigan, Co-Founder of SHARE! (Self-Help and
Recovery Exchange)
Lew Hollman, Esq., Attorney at Law
Ruth Hollman, Co-Founder of SHARE! (Self-Help and
Recovery Exchange)
Patricia Campbell Hughes, Chartered Counseling
Psychologist, North Wales, UK
Charlotte Davis Kasl, Ph.D., Psychologist, Author
Morris Kight, Commissioner, Commission for One,
California; Commissioner on Human Rights, County of Los Angeles;
Founder, Van Ness Recovery House; Founder, Gay and Lesbian
Center, Los Angeles
Paul Kurtz, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, SUNY Buffalo
Zdzislaw Kutymski, Director, Federacja Klubow
Abstynenckich w Polsce, Poland
John C. Langrod, Ph.D., A.C.S.W., Director of Admissions
and Evaluation, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva
University
Gerald Larue, Ph.D., Professor, Emeritus, University of
Southern California
Christopher Lyon, Esq., Solicitor of the Supreme Court,
North Wales, UK
James Monroe, Esq., Attorney at Law
Manijeh K. Nikakhtar, M.D., M.P.H., C.E.O. and Medical
Director, SAT Health Center (Substance Abstinence Treatment),
Beverly Hills, California
Wallace Sampson, M.D., Professor, Stanford University
Valerie White, Esq., Attorney at Law
Edward Tabash, Esq., Attorney at Law
William L. White, Ph.D., Psychologist, San José, Costa
Rica
Betty B. Zavon, B.S.R.N., Senior Consultant, Ophthalmic
Support Services
Mitchell R. Zavon, M.D., President, Agatha Corporation,
Managing Partner, Ophthalmic Support Services |
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James Christopher
Marquis Who’s Who
in the World,
since 1995
Named International
Man of the Year,
1993, by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, UK
Dictionary of
International Biography,
since 1995 (International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, UK)
Included in Five
Thousand Personalities of the World,
1994/95 (American Biographical Institute, Inc)
Certified
Addictions Specialist (C.A.S.),
American Academy of Health Care Providers in Addictive
Disorders, Cambridge M.A.
Certified Diplomat
in Psychotherapy ( D.A.P.A),
American Psychotherapy Association, Washington D.C.
Member,
American Counseling Association
Member,
American Council on Alcoholism
For further information
5521
Grosvenor Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90066, USA
Tel : (310) 821-8430 / Fax : (310) 821-2610
email :
mailto:sos@cfiwest.org
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