Let’s break the stigma.

“When you stand and share your story in an empowering way, your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else.” Iyanla Vazant

When I got sober I had this feeling that maybe, just maybe my voice could help someone and  that recovering out loud would be healing. I am an ordinary woman, with an ordinary life, you would walk past me in the street and not think anything, but I had a lot of secrets and it helped to talk about them. Which led me to thinking maybe my story could help someone else,  that the self-shaming cycles I had put myself through,  which had crippled my whole life, well, maybe I wasn’t alone on that. That maybe if I spoke out about my depression, social anxiety and the links I had made to alcohol, it might resonate with others and help them feel less alone. So, I began to post about my life and my struggles on Instagram.

I started to talk about work life balance, burnout and trying to change your life, people listened and responded which helped me, and seemingly helped them too. It took a HUGE leap to talk about suffering from PTSD and my trauma from sexual violence, but again when I added my honest truth, when I could finally say out loud #metoo, a weight lifted,  it created a space for conversation and it has become important to me to continue to speak about my experiences.

I was listening to a lot of podcasts, they were, and still are a huge part of my toolkit in terms of personal development and sobriety; I get inspired, find comfort and feel less alone by listening to them. This power of conversation encouraged me to ask Kate to start the Love Sober Podcast and take our secret anonymous conversations into a more public space with the hope it may help. With Kate we recorded over 100 episodes together between 2017 and 2022.

As a SHE RECOVERS © designated coach one of the intentions and guiding principles is ‘when we’re ready we recover out loud so that women who are struggling can find and join our movement.’ So I continue to speak openly about my story.

I have been greatly honored to organise and facilitate panels and Latitude Festival and The Club Soda Mindful Drinking festival and be featured on workshops, panels and events on subjects such as sobriety, parenting, mental health, trauma and shame.

If you think my story may resonate with your audience or you need help organising an event and bringing together a high-quality and diverse group of speakers, let’s make it happen.

The more we speak openly about our struggles, the less alone people will feel, and the more lives we will save, that’s my core belief.