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The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps: Finding Joy, Sensuality, and Pleasure in Recovery
An embodied, trauma-sensitive companion to the Twelve Steps: body-based exercises for enhancing recovery, preventing relapse, and understanding the root of your addiction
For readers of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and Trauma and the 12 Steps.
Considering addiction through a trauma-informed lens, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps offers an accessible, lyrical, and practical guide to Twelve-Step recovery that elevates a somatic approach rooted in healing, relationship, and Earth connection. Somatic and spiritual counselor, educator, and writer Nina Pick shows how addiction is rooted in survival strategies that protect us from overwhelmingly painful experiences.
Pick draws on attachment theory, polyvagal theory, somatics, trauma therapy, Jewish and integrative spirituality, and her own long-time experience in recovery to expand Twelve-Step practice beyond the conventional cognitive approach into one that centers relationship, ecological connection, and mind-body healing.
With practices designed to complement the literature and tools offered by your specific program, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps shows you how to
■ Explore powerlessness and unmanageability
■ Develop Earth-based and body-centered practices to cultivate self-compassion
■ Explore dance, vocalization, and other creative arts to enhance your recovery
■Create transformative ritual and ancestral healing practices
■Expand your ideas of Higher Power and prayer
■Forgive yourself and others
■Cultivate daily practices for reflection and meditation
■Understand the intersections of addiction, developmental trauma, and inter-generational trauma
Drawing on plant medicine, mindfulness, poetry, touch, ritual, and guided imagery, the reflections and exercises in The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps nurture an embodied and heart-centered path to recovery and healing in the vein of Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and Arielle Schwartz.
For readers of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and Trauma and the 12 Steps.
Considering addiction through a trauma-informed lens, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps offers an accessible, lyrical, and practical guide to Twelve-Step recovery that elevates a somatic approach rooted in healing, relationship, and Earth connection. Somatic and spiritual counselor, educator, and writer Nina Pick shows how addiction is rooted in survival strategies that protect us from overwhelmingly painful experiences.
Pick draws on attachment theory, polyvagal theory, somatics, trauma therapy, Jewish and integrative spirituality, and her own long-time experience in recovery to expand Twelve-Step practice beyond the conventional cognitive approach into one that centers relationship, ecological connection, and mind-body healing.
With practices designed to complement the literature and tools offered by your specific program, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps shows you how to
■ Explore powerlessness and unmanageability
■ Develop Earth-based and body-centered practices to cultivate self-compassion
■ Explore dance, vocalization, and other creative arts to enhance your recovery
■Create transformative ritual and ancestral healing practices
■Expand your ideas of Higher Power and prayer
■Forgive yourself and others
■Cultivate daily practices for reflection and meditation
■Understand the intersections of addiction, developmental trauma, and inter-generational trauma
Drawing on plant medicine, mindfulness, poetry, touch, ritual, and guided imagery, the reflections and exercises in The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps nurture an embodied and heart-centered path to recovery and healing in the vein of Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and Arielle Schwartz.
- GenresSelf HelpSpirituality
224 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2023
10 people are currently reading
1820 people want to read
About the author
Nina Pick
12 books9 followersNina Pick is a somatic healing practitioner, group facilitator, and integrative counselor dedicated to helping individuals with early relational wounds develop healthy relationships and full, embodied lives.
She received an MA in counseling psychology with a focus on marriage and family therapy and an MA in comparative literature. She is a certified NeuroAffective Touch practitioner and a Safe and Sound Protocol provider, with additional training in a range of modalities spanning psychotherapy, somatics, spiritual leadership, and energy medicine.
Her books include Sober Secure and The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps. She lives in Massachusetts, where she enjoys hiking, dancing, and spending time with her cat. To learn more about her work, visit www.ninapick.com.
She received an MA in counseling psychology with a focus on marriage and family therapy and an MA in comparative literature. She is a certified NeuroAffective Touch practitioner and a Safe and Sound Protocol provider, with additional training in a range of modalities spanning psychotherapy, somatics, spiritual leadership, and energy medicine.
Her books include Sober Secure and The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps. She lives in Massachusetts, where she enjoys hiking, dancing, and spending time with her cat. To learn more about her work, visit www.ninapick.com.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 14, 2023
Thank you North Atlantic Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in return of my honest review.
I was drawn to this book through a desire to learn and understand somantic healing. Although based on the 12 step program this book was helpful for me and clearly explained how to become more aware of the mind body experience. I came away with a better understanding of somantic healing and for this I recommend this book.
I was drawn to this book through a desire to learn and understand somantic healing. Although based on the 12 step program this book was helpful for me and clearly explained how to become more aware of the mind body experience. I came away with a better understanding of somantic healing and for this I recommend this book.
November 11, 2025
Inspiring, beautifully written. I'm so grateful I found this book. I've recommended this book to several people.
November 10, 2024
The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps Finding Joy, Sensuality, and Pleasure in Recovery--Integrative spiritual and somatic practices for healing from trauma and addiction
by Nina Pick
The author's thorough explanation of how to address addictions by incorporating the mind body and spirit is just making sense to me as I work my 12 step program. In my personal study of MSC Practice I am learning that incorporating all our senses are key tools that I have been missing trying to have a stable recovery. Meditation. Somatic Movement and Mindfulness are so underrated. This book can or should be added to all the programs within 12 steps and should be part of the universal literature in these programs. These tools can help with our addictions/trauma responses and are great self-care tools for a balance existence. Learning how to sooth, release and keep trauma at a distance while trying to maintain a healthy experience when seeking and keeping recovery can build the resilience needed to take life/recovery one day at a time. This is definitely a great resource that can help folks before, during and after considering or participating in any 12 Step Program. #NetGalley #SelfCare #holistic #Addiction #Recovery
An embodied, trauma-sensitive companion to the Twelve Steps: body-based exercises for enhancing recovery, preventing relapse, and understanding the root of your addiction
For readers of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and Trauma and the 12 Steps.
Considering addiction through a trauma-informed lens, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps offers an accessible, lyrical, and practical guide to Twelve-Step recovery that elevates a somatic approach rooted in healing, relationship, and Earth connection. Somatic and spiritual counselor, educator, and writer Nina Pick shows how addiction is rooted in survival strategies that protect us from overwhelmingly painful experiences.
Pick draws on attachment theory, polyvagal theory, somatics, trauma therapy, Jewish and integrative spirituality, and her own long-time experience in recovery to expand Twelve-Step practice beyond the conventional cognitive approach into one that centers relationship, ecological connection, and mind-body healing.
With practices designed to complement the literature and tools offered by your specific program, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps shows you how to
■ Explore powerlessness and unmanageability
■ Develop Earth-based and body-centered practices to cultivate self-compassion
■ Explore dance, vocalization, and other creative arts to enhance your recovery
■Create transformative ritual and ancestral healing practices
■Expand your ideas of Higher Power and prayer
■Forgive yourself and others
■Cultivate daily practices for reflection and meditation
■Understand the intersections of addiction, developmental trauma, and inter-generational trauma
Drawing on plant medicine, mindfulness, poetry, touch, ritual, and guided imagery, the reflections and exercises in The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps nurture an embodied and heart-centered path to recovery and healing in the vein of Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and Arielle Schwartz.
by Nina Pick
The author's thorough explanation of how to address addictions by incorporating the mind body and spirit is just making sense to me as I work my 12 step program. In my personal study of MSC Practice I am learning that incorporating all our senses are key tools that I have been missing trying to have a stable recovery. Meditation. Somatic Movement and Mindfulness are so underrated. This book can or should be added to all the programs within 12 steps and should be part of the universal literature in these programs. These tools can help with our addictions/trauma responses and are great self-care tools for a balance existence. Learning how to sooth, release and keep trauma at a distance while trying to maintain a healthy experience when seeking and keeping recovery can build the resilience needed to take life/recovery one day at a time. This is definitely a great resource that can help folks before, during and after considering or participating in any 12 Step Program. #NetGalley #SelfCare #holistic #Addiction #Recovery
An embodied, trauma-sensitive companion to the Twelve Steps: body-based exercises for enhancing recovery, preventing relapse, and understanding the root of your addiction
For readers of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and Trauma and the 12 Steps.
Considering addiction through a trauma-informed lens, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps offers an accessible, lyrical, and practical guide to Twelve-Step recovery that elevates a somatic approach rooted in healing, relationship, and Earth connection. Somatic and spiritual counselor, educator, and writer Nina Pick shows how addiction is rooted in survival strategies that protect us from overwhelmingly painful experiences.
Pick draws on attachment theory, polyvagal theory, somatics, trauma therapy, Jewish and integrative spirituality, and her own long-time experience in recovery to expand Twelve-Step practice beyond the conventional cognitive approach into one that centers relationship, ecological connection, and mind-body healing.
With practices designed to complement the literature and tools offered by your specific program, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps shows you how to
■ Explore powerlessness and unmanageability
■ Develop Earth-based and body-centered practices to cultivate self-compassion
■ Explore dance, vocalization, and other creative arts to enhance your recovery
■Create transformative ritual and ancestral healing practices
■Expand your ideas of Higher Power and prayer
■Forgive yourself and others
■Cultivate daily practices for reflection and meditation
■Understand the intersections of addiction, developmental trauma, and inter-generational trauma
Drawing on plant medicine, mindfulness, poetry, touch, ritual, and guided imagery, the reflections and exercises in The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps nurture an embodied and heart-centered path to recovery and healing in the vein of Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and Arielle Schwartz.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews