Co-Dependents Anonymous

Co-Dependents Anonymous (CoDA) is a twelve-step program for people who share a common desire to develop functional and healthy relationships.^[1][2][3] Co-Dependents Anonymous was founded by Ken and Mary Richardson and the first CoDA meeting attended by 30 people was held October 22, 1986 in Phoenix, Arizona.^[3][4]

'...I had completed hundreds of evaluations for co-dependency on patients and family members and found a great many of these people were not adult children or friends, family members, or relatives of alcoholics.' ^[5]

Within four weeks there were 100 people and before the year was up there were 120 groups.^[6] CoDA held its first National Service Conference the next year with 29 representatives from seven states.^{[3]: 567 [6]} CoDA has stabilized at about a thousand meetings in the US, and with meetings active in 60 other countries and dozens online that can be reached at www.coda.org.^[7]

CoDA meeting indexes managed independently^[8] include:

Alternative Format VE (Virtual meetings) Australasia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Netherlands, South Africa, United Kingdom, France, other francophone countries

See also

• Alcoholism in family systems
• Adult Children of Alcoholics
• Al-Anon/Alateen
• Codependency
• Emotions Anonymous
• List of twelve-step groups
• Nar-Anon
• Self-help groups for mental health
• Twelve Traditions