I Was the Daughter and Partner of a Porn Addict Anonymous “If your partner or child tells you that your use of porn is causing them harm, it might be harmful for you too.” People with substance use disorder are increasingly recovering out loud, but when it comes to...
The Power in Healthy Boundaries | Mental Health Monday With Darlene Lancer Originally Aired on Monday, November 21, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST The Power in Healthy Boundaries Healthy boundaries are a critical tool in our recovery toolbox. If we are to succeed in overcoming...
Unlocking the Mystery of Why We Do What We in Relationships | Mental Health Monday With Rosemary O’Connor Monday, September 12, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Releasing the Chains that Bind You: Unlocking the Mystery of Why We Do What We in Relationships with Rosemary...
The Superpower of Codependency By Lisa Wall, Director of Community Engagement & Online Programs | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Recovery gave me the opportunity to focus on my strengths instead of my defects. It helped me to identify and nurture the more balanced and...
UnAddicted to You: Loving through the Darkness | Mental Health Monday With Etel Leit Originally Aired on Monday, June 27, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST UnAddicted to You: Loving through the Darkness with Etel Leit Addiction doesn’t just impact the person struggling with...
Codependency: Why Others Are Sometimes So Much More Important Than Ourselves | Mental Health Monday With Beverly Conyers Originally Aired on Monday, June 6, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Codependency: Why Others Are Sometimes So Much More Important Than Ourselves With Hazelden...
If You Leave Me, Can I Come With You? | Mental Health Monday With Misti B Monday, March 21, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST If You Leave Me, Can I Come With You? with Misti B “If You Leave Me, Can I Come with You?” is the rally cry, the anthem, the reason-to-be for codependents...
Sex in Recovery | Mental Health Monday With Dufflyn Lammers Monday, February 14, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Sex in Recovery with Dufflyn Lammers In this Valentine’s Day session, relationship coach Dufflyn Lammers will cover all things sex in recovery! She will answer the...
When she was three years old, my friend Christina refused to hug her grandfather. From that moment on, she was known in her family as someone who did not like hugs. She does not have a memory of this moment. It is a story she was told, and retold about herself, many...
We are so excited to share this guest post by Ester Nicholson. Ester is a recovery coach, author, speaker and recording artist. You can find more about her and her work at her website, esternicholson.com. You can also listen to this post, and the beautiful prayer she...
You can listen to this blog here: This story has a happy ending. I need to tell you that here at the top of the page, because things will happen in the paragraphs below that will make you doubt the ending. I don’t care for tension, so I am taking it out here for both...
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” – Desmond Tutu When my boys still wore diapers and could not eat grapes safely, we moved to a small seaside town in Italy....
My 200-year present I recently heard a theory about how we each live in a 200-year span of history. You mark the beginning of your span, your “200-year present,” by thinking of the oldest person who could have held you as a baby (my great grandmother, born in 1900)....
“Your birth altered my whole posture on this planet … because of you, I couldn’t die and couldn’t monster myself, either. So you were the agent of my rescue – not a job for somebody barely three feet tall.” –– Mary Karr writing about her son in Lit: A Memoir Last...
The fallacy of the ideal mother I was a reluctant mother. Unless they are just bathed, dressed in clean pajamas and holding their own warm bottle in their tiny hands, I don’t like babies very much. Before I had my two sons, I would see moms in the Walmart with their...
My mom was only 68 years old when she died from leukemia on April 27, 2000. Most days it feels like forever since we lost her, but I still wake up once in a blue while (her saying, not sure where it came from) and forget that she is gone. And it hurts so hard. I...
Show me a woman in her late 30s/40s, whose life partnership is at least a decade old and whose kid(s) is out of diapers, and I’ll show you a woman who is about to say, “Wait. What?” to her life. This woman has done life mostly by the rules. She did both what was...
For the past few weeks I have been consumed by negative thoughts about the world and worries about my family. Life’s headlines – both inside and outside of my house – have had me holding my breath, waiting (almost wishing) for “the other shoe” to drop. My son is...
“To succeed, most people need a community of support.” – Cheryl Strayed Many of us are working on our recovery alone or piecing it together from various programs, therapies and online resources. These tools are powerful, but they do not replace the need for actual...
The truth pattern of recovery: Clarity. Rock Bottom. Acceptance. Gratitude. Lately I have developed a healthy fear of answers. Answers seem to have too much rigidity around them. Black and White. You’re Wrong, I’m Right. Answers tend to turn ugly, quickly. I much...
“Relationships change.” My father-in-law’s new wife gifted me with this life truth a few months after she married into our family. I had just honestly and gently shared with her that my husband, her new son-in-law, and his brothers were feeling abandoned by their...
You do not have to spend too much time in recovery before the Good Things come. Refugees from a foreign land, they arrive slowly. Just one tiny, quiet Good Thing at first. Then, because word gets out that you are accepting Good Things, others follow. Faster. Bigger....
Guest Blog Post by Caroline McGraw Oh honey, I know what you’re like. You are a driven, high-achieving woman trying so very hard to be perfect. You have a staggering helping of responsibilities on your plate. You’re the conscientious planner, the purposeful...
The baby is crying, the dog is barking, your husband is snoring, and you look over at the clock and realize you went to bed just five hours ago. You grab the baby; let the dog out, and sleepwalk to the coffee pot. The dishes from the night before are still piled high...
No matter how far down the road to recovery I go, I find myself from time to time, in a hole. Or, I notice that I am acting out in behaviors that are unhelpful to me. When these things become apparent to me I nearly always discover it’s because my balance is...
Today is my 25th wedding anniversary. Just writing that blows my mind. About 27 years ago I walked into a marathon meeting at a 12 step convention being held for recovering addicts in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) and a male voice from the corner of the room said...
I’m going to tell you a story that, in all the years I’ve been writing about addiction and recovery, I’ve never published anywhere. It’s the backstory to my new book, Sex in Recovery. Two or three years into sobriety, it became impossible for me to take my clothes...
GUEST POST BY ALAINA BASKERVILLE-BRIDGES Last night my thirteen-year-old daughter’s Snapchat app bumped her out of her account. She clomped down the stairs to the living room where I had just settled in to watch the second season of Homeland on Netflix, and she thrust...
Shelly Dimitrijevic’s professional and philanthropic activities have always focused on improving the lives of others. She began her nursing career at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis and went on to become a LifeFlight nurse specializing in neonatal, pediatric, and cardiovascular intensive care.
Shelly has been involved with numerous charities focusing on children and education including the Charlee and the Chocolate Factory gala, The Venus Orbit, Design For A Cure, Jackson Memorial, and Impact Oasis. In 2010 she founded the Lotus program, a program that focused on educating parents on the nutritional needs of children and basic child development. Shelly also served on the Frost Science Museum gala committee for 7 years before Co-Chairing the event in 2015.
After a diagnosis of Celiac disease and subsequently receiving Certification as a Nutritional Consultant, Shelly recognized that topically applied products have an effect on her Celiac Disease and overall health. She turned her focus to developing skincare that was free of toxic and hormone-disrupting ingredients.
Since she lost her only sibling in 2012 Shelly has been determined to find a way to contribute to the recovery community in a way that can make a great impact and ensure that others have the resources necessary when they are struggling.
Shelly's substantial contributions to SHE RECOVERS of both time and resources have been instrumental and deeply appreciated.
As a result of being introduced to SHE RECOVERS through retreats and meet-ups, Kirsten will be starting her yoga teacher training in the fall. These retreats also led her to become more deeply involved with SHE RECOVERS in a volunteer capacity. Kirsten was instrumental in setting up some of the Foundation's grassroots groups and currently volunteers her time helping SHE RECOVERS Foundation to design and implement the Volunteer Chapter Network.
Kirsten and her husband recently moved from Southern California to Roswell, Georgia to be closer to Kirsten's sister and two young nieces. When she isn't spending time being an aunt, you can find Kirsten hanging out with their rescue Labrador or exploring their new state.
Mary Beth is a founding member of SHE RECOVERS Support for Legal Professionals and is active at the local level with SHE RECOVERS in the Bay Area. Mary Beth has been living a sober life in recovery for over 26 years. She also has a history of trauma and abuse, from which she’s worked hard to recover as well. 6 years into her recovery, Mary Beth attended Berkeley Law. She worked at a large firm in Silicon Valley, then litigated class actions for the federal government. In 2014 Mary Beth was appointed an Administrative Law Judge. She recently retired, so she could devote her time to completing her writing and being more active in the recovery community.
She regularly speaks on behalf of LifeRing and develops relationships with organizations supportive of the multiple pathways approach. In August 2020, Mary Beth had an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, I Beat Addiction without God, where she described building a personal recovery plan by combining ideas from LifeRing, Women for Sobriety, and Narcotics Anonymous. In November 2020 she had an op-ed published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, I was a federal judge, and I support Safehouse. Here’s why. She is currently working on a full-length memoir.
Taryn Strong is a founder of SHE RECOVERS® Foundation as well as a trauma-informed yoga instructor, recovery coach, aromatherapist, and herbalist (and daughter to Mama Dawn). Taryn has developed a unique yoga retreat program and led over 40 yoga for recovery retreats since 2012. She is also the host of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast and most recently created and taught the inaugural trauma-informed SHE RECOVERS Yoga Teacher Training Program. Operating from a trauma-informed lens and a firm believer in anti-oppressive practices, Taryn brings an empathic and invitational approach to healing - empowering women to find and follow individualized pathways and patchworks of recovery.
Taryn's courageous vulnerability and passion for recovering out-loud has made her an influential voice in the global recovery movement - smashing the stigma often associated with substance use and mental health issues. Taryn creates and lives with her beloved and two dogs within the ancestral and unceded traditional territory of the Hul’qumi’num and SENĆOŦEN speaking peoples (Saltspring Island).
Susan is an architect of hope and healing with over 30 years of experience in providing executive-level leadership to heart-centered teams in the non-profit realm. Since joining SHE RECOVERS® Foundation as Executive Director in April 2020, Susan continues to weave her experience with her passion to help other women receive what she has been so graciously given – long-term recovery from substance use disorder, body image issues, codependency, perfectionism, and moral injury.
Susan’s work in the treatment industry quickly revealed how stigma kept women struggling with mental health issues and addiction from seeking help, and the lack of resources available to them once they did. Having served as a founding employee of Susan G. Komen for the Cure for 20 years, playing an integral role in creating the global grassroots movement that changed the way breast cancer is talked about and treated, she felt called to utilize that experience to do the same for women struggling with mental health and substance use disorders.
Celebrating more than 27 years of continuous sobriety, Susan is a Certified Peer Support Worker (CPSW) in the state of New Mexico to provide resources and peer support to those in or seeking recovery. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her fur family of four, Alex, Chaco, Bodhi, and Gracie.
Dawn Nickel, Founder of SHE RECOVERS® Foundation, is a thought leader in the women's recovery sphere as well as an accomplished leader, dedicated researcher, and visionary in the recovery moment. She holds a Ph.D. in health care policy with extensive experience in researching and writing about women experiencing substance use disorders, mental health challenges, and intimate partner violence. Dawn started her own journey of recovery from a substance use disorder and domestic violence in 1987. She is also in recovery from anxiety, grief, trauma, overworking, and cancer. Dawn's tell-it-like-it-is wisdom has created a ripple effect where you will often hear her quotes "the shit you did is just the shit you did - it's not who you are" and "recovering from all the things" resonating throughout many recovery realms.
Currently working on her first book, Dawn is living proof that in a world where all women in or seeking recovery are celebrated, supported, and deemed essential to healthy communities - anything is possible. She is fondly referred to as Mama Dawn in the SHE RECOVERS Community and to her daughters Taryn and Ashley. Dawn lives, works, and plays with her beloved grandchildren on the traditional territories of the Lkwungen speaking peoples on Vancouver Island.
Nika is just one of more than 325,000 women in the She Recovers Community.
“Alcohol is what brought me into recovery but for me, it didn't tell the full story. That is why I love SHE RECOVERS so much. We don't just talk about our demons and the drugs and the alcohol, we talk about the real issues that led us to using those things in the first place.”— Nika
When she was ready to deal with her past traumas and what drove her to drink, SHE RECOVERS was there. Sadly an estimated 34 million women are suffering from mental health/substance use disorders.
