Recovering From Self-Doubt Julie “That voice [ of self-doubt ] is the wounded little girl who experienced abuse and trauma and never got the love and care she needed and deserved. She is lost and scared and desperately trying to protect herself.” It has...
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...
Give the gift of recovery this holiday season and ensure no woman has to recover alone. SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Nika is just one of more than 325,000 women in the SHE RECOVERS® Community. When she was ready to deal with her past traumas and what drove her to drink,...
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...
73 ways to celebrate and create connection with yourself ( body, mind, emotions & spirit!) “Recovery is a journey to wholeness. We learn to take care of our body, mind, and spirit.” ~ SHE RECOVERS Foundation, Intention & Guiding Principle ~ In celebration of...
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...
Day 2 of #12DaysofRecovery SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Accessible, Inclusive Online Support & Expanded Recovery-Focused Resources It’s day 2 of the #12DaysofRecovery. Today is all about celebrating accessible and inclusive support. When the pandemic started, we...
Recovery is a gift—and so are you. SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Give the gift of recovery this holiday season by making a donation on #GivingTuesday and receive SHE RECOVERS Partners & Friends of the Foundation holidaydiscounts and SHE RECOVERS special offers as a...
Mending Hearts: Healing From Addictive & Exploitative Relationships | Mental Health Monday With Marissa Boyce Monday, December 6 @ 11:00 am PST Mending Hearts: Healing From Addictive & Exploitative Relationships With Marissa Boyce During this session of...
Entrepreneurs Igniting Change Through Recovery | Mental Health Monday With Elora Kindred & Emily Lynn Paulson Originally Aired on Monday, November 29 @ 11:00 am PST Entrepreneurs Igniting Change Through Recovery With Elora Kindred & Emily Lynn Paulson...
Recovering From Pregnancy Loss Kelly Fitzgerald Junco | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation My name is Kelly and I am in recovery from pregnancy loss. I am 1 in 4. We do not have to recover alone. We are all recovering from something. Many of us are recovering from pregnancy...
Every Child Matters – Recognizing & Honoring National Truth & Reconciliation Day By Kelly Fitzgerald Junco | SHE RECOVERS® Foundation Previously known as Orange Shirt Day, today marks the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The vision of...
Seeking a Graphic & Web Designer to Join the SHE RECOVERS Team! Are you a creative spirit with a passion for social change, smashing stigma, and making a significant impact through your work? We have an opportunity for a Graphic & Web Designer to join the SHE...
CBD Made Simple: What You Need to know About Hemp-Derived CBD By First Crop “CBD, which stands for cannabidiol, is a natural, non-intoxicating compound that is predominately found in hemp extract. Although one of many phytocannabinoids found in hemp, CBD is the most...
Greenhouses of Grace By Elora M. Kindred, SHE RECOVERS® Coach in training, SHE RECOVERS Friend of the Foundation, & SHE RECOVERS Support for BIWOC Community Member “At first glance, I am a middle-aged Black woman. Belonging to a fellowship such as the SHE...
22 Recovery-Focused Black, Indigenous, & Women of Color to Follow Every person deserves to feel seen and heard. This is true in relationships, work places, families, and it’s especially true in recovery. In order for that to happen, people need to see themselves...
Live Without Apologies:I Found My Voice and I’m Going to Use It By Abigail Johnson, SHE RECOVERS Community Member “There is power in rediscovering your own voice, and I had forgotten that…But luckily my girls, my girls reminded me of that. They reminded me of my...
LGBTQIA2+ Recovery Matters. Shout Out the Truth! By Elizabeth A. Stanard, Community Member, SHE RECOVERS® Foundation “As we celebrate Pride this month, let’s shout out the truth that LGBTQIA2+ recovery matters. Until we identify and eradicate all of the systemic,...
A Lesbian in Recovery Sits in this Chair By Cary Kelley Wright, Volunteer Facilitator, SRF Support For LGBTQ+ “My name is Cary Kelley Wright, and I am a 57-year-old lesbian in recovery from alcohol use disorder.” There were so many times during the years when I was...
Recovery Coaching within a Recovery Oriented System of Care By Kelly Fitzgerald Junco, SHE RECOVERS® Coach If you don’t look fast enough, you might miss it. The recovery community is moving at the speed of light – in what direction you ask? Towards change....
#ChoosetoChallenge Celebrating International Women’s Day International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s...
Be Brave, Go Deep, & Grow : Honoring Our Black Herstory By Ester Nicholson My reflections on being brave, going deep, and growing in recovery – in honor of Black History Month. I think I was a slave in another life time. I was either a slave or a slave owner...
The Impact of Pronouns in Women’s Recovery Spaces Honoring Trans Women & Non-Binary Individuals in the SHE RECOVERS® Community SHE RECOVERS® Foundation She / Her / Hers + They / Them / Theirs are pronouns you will hear resonating within the SHE RECOVERS...
Understanding Harm Reduction September is Recovery Month and interviewing Michelle Bilan about Harm Reduction was definitely a highlight of the month for me. Michelle, a member of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses is an RN, BN, MN, ACRN and has worked in Saskatchewan...
First of all – and this is an important point – I am one of you. For the past thirty years I’ve attended and been involved with a twelve-step recovery program for people who struggle with addiction. I’ve probably attended thousands of meetings, done years’ worth of...
I graduated from college in May 1995 and immediately departed the East Coast for Wyoming, where I had lined up a job cleaning cabins at a dude ranch. I had earned two degrees but had no idea what I wanted to do in the world, or what I wanted to say to the world. The...
SHE RECOVERS founder Dawn Nickel shares what “we are all recovering from something” means to her as well as some fundamental truths she has discovered over her three decades of recovery. If I’ve learned anything over the past three decades of my own...
“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...
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.
