Recognizing Nicole Pinky Patterson as a SHE RECOVERS Gem SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Volunteer Recognition “Being a SHE RECOVERS Foundation Volunteer means that I have an amazing platform in which to be a voice for recovering women. It means that all the pain I...
Recognizing Jen Olmos as a SHE RECOVERS Gem SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Volunteer Recognition “I was so isolated in my addiction. I am living proof of what a welcoming and supportive community for women like me can do. Being a volunteer in this community is the...
Amplifying Women’s Stories in Recovery Advocacy SAVE THE DATE | IN HONOR OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY The SHE RECOVERS® Foundation invites you to write a new story this March in honor of International Women’s Day. As women, our stories of recovery are about...
To Our Beloved LGBTQ+ Community SHE RECOVERS® Team “Every human in the LGBTQ+ community deserves to feel safe to be who they are, wherever they are.” To Our Beloved LGBTQ+ Family, We see, hear and love you. We are devastated by the mass shooting in Colorado Springs...
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...
My Journey With Postpartum Depression Sara Nelson | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation “With postpartum depression, I couldn’t stop my mind from telling me stories of fear, unworthiness and despair.” It was World Mental Health Day 2018. I was scrolling through my...
How to Manage Traumatic Memories of a Loved One’s Overdose By Dr. Sachi J. Ananda, PhD, LMHC, MCAP | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Traumatic memories can get compartmentalized and put away into boxes until they are ready to be opened. It can be helpful to start...
Politics – What’s Recovery Got to Do With It? By Kelly Fitzgerald Junco, SHE RECOVERS Marketing Team | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Not only do politics play a role in our trauma and what we’re recovering from, but it can also impact how we heal.- Kelly...
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...
Who’s Driving Your Bus? : Family Systems | Mental Health Monday With Margaret Swift Thompson Originally Aired on Monday, June 20, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Who’s Driving Your Bus? : Family Systems with Margaret Swift Thompson If there are 21 million people in...
How I Healed My Inner Validation Junkie By Arlina Allen, SHE RECOVERS Coach | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation I keep coming back to the idea that there are limitless versions of me and they all see me the way I now see my Mom. I only care about the good parts of her. That’s...
Grief is Love | Mental Health Monday With Marisa Renee Lee Originally Aired on Monday, June 13, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Grief is Love with Marisa Renee Lee Marisa Renee Lee has an eye-popping resume: Harvard grad, Wall Street whiz kid, staffer in the Obama Administration...
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...
The 5 Stages of Healing | Mental Health Monday With Jill Rathburn Originally Aired on Monday, May 23, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST The 5 Stages of Healing With Jill Rathburn Just as there is a progression of addiction, there is a progression of recovery. In fact, recovery is a...
How Divorce, Addiction, & Abuse Helped Me Find My Power | Mental Health Monday With Cam Kashani Originally Aired on Monday, May 16, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST How Divorce, Addiction, & Abuse Helped Me Find My Power With Cam Kashani We all have innate divine power and...
Collectively Learning About Psychological Trauma | Mental Health Monday With Candace Alley Monday, May 9, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Collectively Learning About Psychological Trauma With Candace Alley We are all recovering from something and many of us are recovering from...
Recovery in the Workplace | Mental Health Monday With Kelsey Moreira Originally Aired on Monday, May 2, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Recovery in the Workplace: A Q&A With Kelsey Moreira Kelsey is a woman in recovery and entrepreneur of her dessert company, Doughp. She is...
Finding Your Sexy Self in Recovery | Mental Health Monday With Cindi Roberts Originally aired on Monday, April 11, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Finding Your Sexy Self in Recovery With Cindi Roberts SHE RECOVERS Coach and Sex Educator, Cindi Roberts, also known as the Sober...
Good Enough Mother | Mental Health Monday With René Syler Monday, April 4, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Good Enough Mother With René Syler After 20 plus years of chasing deadlines, Rene Syler discovered the real secret to success in life is just being “good enough”....
Navigating ADHD in Recovery | Mental Health Monday With Irina Gonzalez Originally Aired on Monday, March 14, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Navigating ADHD in Recovery with Irina Gonzalez Irina knows intimately about the intersections of recovery, mental health, and parenthood....
Celebrating Women in Recovery | Mental Health Monday With Caroline Beidler Originally Aired on Monday, March 7, 2022 @ 11:00 am PST Celebrating Women in Recovery with Caroline Beidler Caroline has created the first Women’s Recovery Round Table Event in honor of...
Recovering From Intimate Partner Violence By Dawn Nickel, SHE RECOVERS Founder | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Recovering out loud – in detail – about my past relative to intimate partner violence is new to me. But I am also realizing how important it is to me. And so here...
SHE RECOVERS Out Loud: My Magic Carpet Ride Jane Pinto, First Crop Visionary & Founder “To all of my sacred sisters, thank you for sharing your stories of recovery with me and for receiving mine. I am with you. This is my SHE RECOVERS Out Loud story.”...
Finding Our Way Home Through Trauma Informed Dance By Payton Kennedy, SHE RECOVERS Dance Creator | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation National Dance Day is an annual celebration dedicated to dance, that encourages individuals of all ages to incorporate dance into their lives....
4 Ways We’re Celebrating Recovery Month Kelly Fitzgerald Junco | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation “You don’t have to recover alone and September is a month to celebrate your recovery journey.” Recovery is something to be celebrated, but this wasn’t always...
Recover Out Loud & Share Your Story By Kelly Fitzgerald Junco & Lisa Wall | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation “When we’re ready we recover out loud so that other women can find and join our movement.” ~ SHE RECOVERS Intention & Guiding Principle...
How I Broke the Cycle of Addiction & Became a SHE RECOVERS Coach By Kathleen Smigels, SHE RECOVERS® Coach We are all as unique as our fingerprints. This is also true for our individual recovery paths and patchworks. I believe an optimal system of treatment and...
A Peek Behind the Curtain of SHE RECOVERS What it takes to keep a global lifeline organization going. By Susan Carter, Executive Director, SHE RECOVERS® Foundation I’ll never forget the feelings I had as a young girl when Toto pulled back the curtain to reveal the...
From Shaky in Sobriety to Rooted in Recovery : Celebrating One Year of SHE RECOVERS Together Online By Kaitlin Walker Before SHE RECOVERS I had been on my recovery journey for a few years but felt really shaky in my sobriety. ~ Kailtin Walker ~ In 2017 I sent an email...
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.