What is Big Book Step Study?

Big Book Step Study (also known as BBSS or “The Hyannis Method”) is 2 things:

1. A format for going through the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
2. A style of meeting centered around discussing experience with going through that format

These concepts were created at a meeting in Hyannis, MA. Much more information can be found at bbstepstudy.org.

The most important thing to know about Big Book Step Study is that it is only one approach. It is not for everybody. For me, however, nothing else has come remotely close to providing me the quality and directness of information.

Prior to BBSS, I hoped someone would ask me to sponsor them (for my ego), but I very little to offer any prospect and wouldn’t have known how to direct them if they’d asked. After having going through the steps in BBSS format, there is a clear process of what I did, straight out of the Big Book that I can simply share with another person. I don’t have to guess or provide opinions – just share my experience.

The most infamous quality of BBSS meetings is that if you haven’t gone through the Steps with a BBSS sponsor, you are not allowed to share at those meetings. While I can’t opine on whether this is a good or bad policy for other people, I can say that it was good for me.

I thought I had a lot of great things to share before I did the Steps this way. Now that I have, I look back and think that those things were of limited use. Most were regurgitations of things that I had heard other people say that I thought would make people think highly of me. They were almost exclusively about making me feel good. The idea of sharing exclusively as an act of service to others had never even entered into my mind.

The rules and the people in BBSS arent for everyone, but it was for me and helped me more than anything else in my life.