Dave G. enjoys his sobriety. He runs, dances, and swims in the open sea. He gives back by talking at schools about his experience with addiction and recovery, and through his involvement in Toastmasters, he is working on improving his speaking skills even more. As we talked, I noticed a recurring theme throughout our conversation—language. […]

Jamie Salsburg is the host of “The After Gambling Podcast.” He is a former problem gambler who hasn’t gambled since July 15th, 2010, and he created the website and podcast “After Gambling” to help people who are struggling with compulsive gambling. He also provides peer support for recovering gamblers, as well as their friends and […]

Barb was adopted into a conservative, Catholic family where she had a happy home life with parents who cared and provided for her. There wasn’t anything in her childhood that was especially traumatic, but she did get pregnant in high school and put her baby up for adoption. It was a Catholic school, and though […]

In this episode, we meet Tara Boyce who shares her personal story of recovery and talks about her podcast “Addicted to Recovery: The Interactive Memoir.” Her podcast has a unique format that involves Tara reading from her own memoir and then discussing her feelings about what she wrote. She also responds to listener comments and […]

In this episode, I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Joseph Volpicelli about the idea that some people in the early stages of losing control over their drinking may benefit from therapy and naltrexone as a means of not stopping but instead, moderating their drinking. This may be a controversial topic among those of us […]

Mary Beth O’Connor from Life Ring Secular Recovery and the She Recovers Foundation, teams up with Adrienne Miller from Women for Sobriety to discuss the importance of respecting multiple paths to recovery, and issues specific to women in recovery. Topics Discussed The origins and purpose of Women for Sobriety. Life Ring Secular Recovery. The She Recovers Foundation. The importance of […]

The book Alcoholics Anonymous written in 1939 describes alcoholics as power-driving egomaniacs who are self-centered in the extreme. The idea put forth in the book was that recovery from alcoholism would require crushing this oversized ego and learning to live with humility. This may have been an apt description of the less than 100  mostly […]

Serge Prengel is a therapist and life coach, and co-founder of the Integrative Focusing Therapy Online Training Program. He is also the author of The Proactive Twelve Steps: A mindful Program For Lasting Change. The sixth edition of the book was recently published and Serge visited with me to talk about what is new and why. […]

Jan Winhall is a Clinical Social Worker and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto in the Department of Social Work. She is also the author of Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model: A Bottom-Up Approach. In this episode, Jan explains how and why addiction becomes a way of coping with […]

Timothy Clancy is an independent Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Counselor who specializes in self-destructive behaviors such as substance abuse and eating disorders. He is a certified SMART Recovery meeting facilitator and the author of The Road to Sobriety: A Personal Experience. In this episode, Timothy shares his story and discusses alcoholism, treatment, and recovery. What we […]