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Reclaiming the Self: 12-Steps, a Higher Power, and Inner Healing

August 4, 2025
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For many, recovery through the 12 Steps is about more than sobriety; it's about learning how to come home to yourself. Whether you're working through addiction, trauma, or long-term patterns of disconnection, the concept of a Higher Power can be a bridge not just to spirituality, but to your inner world. This can support your healing, by deepening your self-understanding and connection with yourself. The 12-Steps can be a powerful framework for reconnecting with different parts of the self, especially for those who feel fragmented, lost, or emotionally shut down.

Understanding Parts Work

Before we explore more about the 12-Steps, it’s helpful to lay the foundation of parts work. Internal Family Systems (IFS), developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, views the self as made up of many “parts”—each with its own story, motivation, and emotional tone. Some parts are protective, others are exiled or wounded. Some are young and need care. Some are angry, afraid, or overwhelmed. In IFS and other depth-oriented therapies, healing happens not by erasing these parts but by relating to them differently: approaching them each with curiosity, compassion, and care.

How the 12-Steps Support Parts Work

In Step 2 of the 12 Steps, we are asked to come to believe that “a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” For some, this is a God associated with a specific religion. For others, it might be the natural world, the collective wisdom of a group, love, or even a deeper, truer Self.

No matter how you conceptualize it, this idea of a Higher Power can support inner healing by providing a(n):

When you apply this lens to your inner world, it’s like offering the parts of yourself, especially the ones that carry pain, fear, or shame, a trustworthy caregiver. The Higher Power can become the internal parent, mentor, or guide that helps you feel loved, cared for, held, or protected.

Many people go through life with internalized harsh beliefs about themselves. "I’m too much." "I’m broken." "No one will ever truly accept me." These narratives often come from wounded inner parts shaped by trauma, neglect, or invalidation.

By working the 12-Steps with each of your parts, you can begin to rebuild trust with yourself.

For example:

This shifts the recovery process from self-punishment and condemnation based in fear of being defective to self-discipline and compassion based in love and gratitude of becoming whole.

Man wearing a hat with his face lifted toward the sky as he thinks through the 12 steps and inner healing.

A Trauma-Informed Reframe: What If Your Parts Are Already Trying to Help?

For people who have survived trauma—particularly relational or developmental trauma—the idea of surrendering to a Higher Power can feel impossible or unsafe.

But what if you didn’t need to surrender your power, but recognize the powerlessness that comes with isolation?

What if the parts of you that overachieve, self-destruct, numb out, or stay silent are actually trying to keep you safe?

When the Higher Power is not punitive or external, but rather a source of wisdom, love, or sacred inner connection, it can create space for these protective parts to step back. Healing doesn’t mean erasing them; it means they no longer have to do it all alone.

Reconnection Isn’t Always Comfortable—And That’s Okay

Reconnecting with your inner parts often stirs up vulnerability. You may feel grief for what was lost. Anger at those who failed to protect you. Tenderness toward younger parts who still carry unmet needs.

These aren’t signs that something is wrong, rather it lets you know you are touching on something meaningful and important to your healing. Using the Higher Power as a steady, compassionate force can help you stay grounded as you navigate emotions, memories, or beliefs with your parts.

Here are some ways you can explore bringing your Higher power into your parts work:

Reconnection in Community: The Group as Higher Power

In many 12-Step communities, especially for those who are agnostic or ambivalent about spiritual language, the group itself can serve as the Higher Power. There’s wisdom in collective experience. There’s safety in not having to figure it all out alone.

This mirrors the idea in many therapeutic modalities that healing happens in relationship. Being witnessed, held, and heard is not just comforting, it’s validating and reparative.

When your inner parts feel too much, too messy, or too damaged, others can remind you: that you and your parts are not too much or too broken, and that they are welcome and cared for in that space.

Wholeness Is Possible

The journey toward wholeness is not linear, and it doesn’t require you to have it all figured out. What it does require is a willingness to turn inward and be open with yourself.

Applying the aspects of a Higher Power from the 12-Steps can be a profoundly supportive tool for reconnecting with yourself and your inner world. You don’t need to have a clear-cut spiritual belief system. You can begin with an openness to relate to yourself in a new way, with more curiosity and compassion.

Whether or not you’re in recovery, this work can help you connect with your parts and become someone that your inner child, your protector parts, your wounded self (all of them) can trust.

Seattle therapist and client sitting in chairs near large windows during a session exploring the 12 steps.

Find Support in Seattle and Across Washington State

At Existential Psychiatry, Dr. David Zacharias helps people reconnect with the parts of themselves they’ve had to bury, silence, or hide. Whether you're navigating addiction, trauma, or the complexities of being human, he’s here to provide compassionate, patient-centered care. For over two decades in healthcare, Dr. Zacharias has supported individuals from all walks of life as they find healing. If you’re interested in therapy that incorporates parts work or the 12-steps, please reach out to schedule a free consultation today.

Written by Existential Psychiatry Staff

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