We’re excited to introduce our new series, Ask the Expert, where your host, Ashley Loeb Blassingame, exchanges views with and picks the brains of industry leading experts. 

Our first episode of the series features Dr. Adi Jaffe.

Adi Jaffe, Ph.D. is a #1 best-selling author and a nationally recognized expert on mental health, addiction, relationships and shame. He lectured in the UCLA Psychology department for the better part of a decade and was the Executive-Director and Co-Founder of one of the most progressive mental health treatment facilities in the country - until he started IGNTD.

Dr. Jaffe, through IGNTD, is changing the way people think about, and deal with mental health issues. His passion in the role of shame destroying lives is the philosophy behind IGNTD Recovery and its aim to greatly reduce the stigma of addiction and mental health. 

Dr. Jaffe attended UCLA, graduating with a B.A. in psychology. It was during his undergraduate career that Adi began struggling with drug issues himself, eventually leading to a 4 year hiatus from studies and into the Los Angeles drug-dealing world where he became quite successful. During that period of his life, Adi's days looked more like a re-enactment of a beatnik novel or a Quentin Tarantino film than the life of an upper-middle class suburban kid. Following a SWAT team arrest in his apartment, and extended court case and a year-long jail sentence, Adi began rebuilding his life. This eventually led to his attainment of a Ph.D. from UCLA's top-rated doctoral program in psychology, where he graduated with honors. Even before he graduated Dr. Jaffe’s name had become known through his online and academic writing. His views on addiction and his research on the topic have been published in dozens of journals and online publications and he has appeared on numerous television shows and documentaries discussing current topics in addiction and the problem of addiction as a whole.

Dr. Jaffe now writes a blog on Psychology Today, and several other online and print sources. His goal is to bring the latest knowledge about addiction to the people who could benefit from it most – those who are suffering because of it. His writing combines personal experience with a decade’s worth of fine-detail research regarding the mechanisms involved in the addictive process. Dr. Jaffe has been featured in CNN, The Huffington Post, Bustle, Los Angeles Times, KTLA.

Episode Resources

Connect with Dr. Adi Jaffe

Connect with Us  at The Courage to Change

Looking for Online Support?

• Lionrock.life provides a variety of aa meetings and aa alternative meetings via Zoom. View Lionrock’s comprehensive meeting schedule here.

Listen & Subscribe to The Courage to Change

Raised in a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada, Craig Pothier loved playing sports. Excelling at hockey and baseball gave him the confidence he needed to fit in as a child. When he transitioned from elementary school to high school, he realized that people cared more about partying than sports. He quickly discovered that alcohol gave him the self-esteem boost he needed.

At the age of 27, after moving from Canada to New York City, a town of millions, he found himself frequenting bars to make friends. When he was on the cusp of losing his job and his sanity, at the age of 36, he finally checked into a rehab facility and began a recovery journey that took time, perseverance, and courage. Craig now resides in Austin, TX and has dedicated his life to helping others as a Sober Life Coach at Mind Uncaged where he helps people clear a path to an alcohol free life without limits.

Episode Resources

• Lionrock's CommUnity Meetings | lionrock.life/meetings

Connect with Craig Pothier

Connect with Us  at The Courage to Change

Looking for Online Support?

Listen and Subscribe to The Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast

Mike Govoni shared his story on The Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast in Episode 94. Ashley Loeb Blassingame invited him back for a pointed discussion on psychedelic therapy.  Throughout the discussion Mike shares his experience with psychedelic therapeutics including MDMA,  ketamine, psilocybin, and ayahuasca.

Episode Disclaimer

This episode covers a wide variety of topics related to psychedelic therapy. These topics are controversial and can be difficult or triggering for some people, so use your best judgement when listening to the show. We are not psychedelic therapists or psychedelic health professionals. Information shared on this show is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek professional and or specialist advice for guidance on these topics.

The information contained in this episode represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of  Lionrock Recovery or its affiliates.

Episode Resources

Connect with Mike Govoni

Connect with Us  at The Courage to Change

Looking for Online Support?

Listen & Subscribe to The Courage to Change

Being raised by a single father who was a defrocked Catholic Priest, Mike Govoni’s childhood was anything but traditional. He began using opiates and other substances at a young age to mask the feelings he had associated with childhood trauma. This led him down a path of substance use and addiction until he discovered an unorthodox approach to recovery.

Now, having lived in recovery for over 16 years, Mike is passionate about helping people in recovery experience healing and transformation. His experience includes supporting three major hospital emergency rooms in Boston and helping patients with substance abuse and related complications. He works with individuals and groups both in-person and virtually. 

Mike currently has a thriving private practice working as an Integrative Holistic Recovery Coach. He is able to see through the lens of trauma and believes that helping people create a feeling of safety and connection within their own body is essential to becoming well and achieving long term recovery.

Connect with Mike Govoni

Connect with Us  at The Courage to Change

Looking for Online Support?

Listen & Subscribe to The Courage to Change

Join Ashley, Christiana, and Ashley Jo for this bonus After the Episode where they review Ashley Jo Brewer's episode from this week. They'll cover everything from the paternity scandal she walked through to how to communicate with someone who has experienced a great loss. 

Toward the end of this episode, Ashley Jo gives some great insight into what has been helpful (and what has not) when discussing the loss of her 10-month old son, Cornelius. The ladies also unpack why it's so difficult to discuss certain topics in society, and Ashley helps give special insight on how we  can start changing the conversation. There is so much to cover in this After the Episode. Let's do this! 

Episode Reviewed

Resources Mentioned

• Marina Loeb's piece on grief | What is Life? Grief

Connect with Us at The Courage to Change

Looking for Online Support?

Listen and Subscribe to The Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast

As the 2nd of four girls born to a conservative Christian family in a small town in Iowa, Ashley Jo's upbringing was filled with music, family and church.  She was raised to love God and live by traditional family values that carried her through to her college years, until one night, her world came crashing down.  After being drugged at a college party, everything Ashley Jo had lived for was thrown out the window.

Instead of finding healing, she found a marriage that eventually broke from alcoholism and enduring the most painful loss of her life - the loss of her 10 month old son to a debilitating disease.  Ashley Jo’s story is nothing short of inspirational - tune in to hear her talk about how she found healing and recovery from being the wife of an alcoholic, then later healing from suffering from alcohol abuse herself, along with self-harm, codependency, and grief and loss.  You will be moved to both laugh and cry as you hear her incredible journey to sobriety and recovery, and how she is helping others who are hurting today

Episode Resources

• Lionrock's CommUnity Meetings | lionrock.life/meetings

Connect with Ashley Jo

Connect with Us  at The Courage to Change

Looking for Online Support?

Listen and Subscribe to The Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast

Join Ashley, Christiana, and Ashley Jo for this bonus After the Episode where they unpack all of the details shared by the Loeb sisters. They'll cover everything from making amends and restoring relationships to using personal experience to help others. 

In this special episode, Ashley Loeb Blassingame shares how she has restored her relationship with Marina through a living amends and discusses some of the repercussions still felt in her relationships today after 15 years of long-term sobriety. 

The Loeb sisters touched on a topic we haven't covered much before - the perspective of a sibling. There is so much to cover in this After the Episode. Let's do this! 

Episode Reviewed

• S3 E92 - The Loeb Sisters:  A Tell-All on Growing Up with a Sibling Struggling with Substance Use Disorder

Connect with Us at The Courage to Change

Looking for Online Support?

Listen and Subscribe to The Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast

In this special episode, Ashley Loeb Blassingame sits down with her sisters Victoria (Tory) and Marina to discuss what it was like growing up with a sibling struggling with substance use disorder. 

This is a 'no holds barred' episode where Marina and Tory tell-all and share intimate details about growing up with Ashley. They discuss participating in family therapy sessions, watching Ashley overcome her addiction, and seeing  her discover what she was meant to do in life by helping others in recovery.  

Join us in this heartfelt episode where we take a look at addiction from a different vantage point and share a story that beautifully captures the healing and restoration brought to relationships by recovery. 

Episode Resources

• Lionrock's CommUnity Meetings | lionrock.life/meetings

Connect with the Loeb Sisters

Connect with Us  at The Courage to Change

Looking for Online Support?

Listen and Subscribe to The Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast