9 Jun

Writing for Recovery & Connection with Clover Stroud

In this honest, open, and reflective conversation, Sunday Times bestselling author, journalist, and podcast host Clover Stroud joins Mandy Manners, SHE RECOVERS Trusted Advisor and Coach, to discuss writing as a tool for recovery, letting go of shame through sharing our story, and how it can help as a way to connect with and help others. Clover talks about her process as a writer to connect with her emotions and how it has helped her through grief, motherhood, and change. She talks about what has shifted since becoming sober. How she has found it a powerful tool for creativity and connection. Clover discusses how her sister Nell inspired her sobriety journey in the years before she sadly died from cancer at the age of 46 in 2019. Together, Clover and Mandy discuss growing up in the UK in the 90s and the hedonism of that time, especially both growing up in the English countryside. They discuss what home means to them whilst living abroad, which was the subject of Clover’s fourth book, The Giant on the Skyline, and how belonging may not necessarily be a place or a person, but a specific feeling. Clover talks about learning to find new ways to connect in sobriety through crafts and her Substack community. She discusses what being sober has given her in terms of connection with her children and her marriage, and how it is something she feels proud to talk about. About Clover: Clover Stroud is a Sunday Times bestselling writer, journalist, and host of her own podcast, Tiny Acts of Bravery. Her first book, The Wild Other, was shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize. Her critically acclaimed second book, My Wild & Sleepless Nights: A Mother's Story, and third book, The Red of My Blood, were instant Sunday Times bestsellers and rated amongst the best books of the year in which they were published. Her fourth memoir, The Giant on the Skyline, was published in May 2024. Having spent the past three years living in Washington, DC, with her husband and the youngest three of her five children, she recently returned to her UK home in Oxfordshire. https://www.cloverstroud.com/ https://www.instagram.com/clover.stroud https://cloverstroud.substack.com/ https://shows.acast.com/tiny-acts-of-bravery About Mandy: Mandy Manners is a certified life and recovery coach. A qualified coach supervisor, trainer, speaker, and author. She is a certified SHE RECOVERS Coach and Trusted Advisor for Education and Pedagogy for the SHE RECOVERS Foundation. https://www.mandymanners.com Resources Mentioned in Episode: https://sherecovers.org/recovery-storytelling-workshop/ SHE RECOVERS Retreat: From Memory to Memoir Looking to heal with writing or recover with words? Find your voice, write your recovery, or begin your memoir on retreat with award-winning author and psychotherapist Ann Dowsett Johnston. Over 5 days in a cozy chalet in the maple forest of Québec, you’ll explore healing through daily writing practice, embodied movement, nature, deep rest, and meaningful connection with like-hearted folks. Step into your story this autumn. Explore this retreat here. About SHE RECOVERS® Foundation SHE RECOVERS Foundation is a non-profit public charity and a global grassroots movement serving thousands of women and non-binary individuals in or seeking recovery from life challenges, including mental health issues, trauma, and substance use. SHE RECOVERS is dedicated to redefining recovery, inspiring hope, ending stigma, and empowering women to increase their recovery capital, heal themselves, and help other women do the same. If you found this conversation helpful and you are able, please consider donating to our lifeline organization or sharing it with others who may benefit. We would love to also receive your rating and review of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast on your favorite platform. Visit sherecovers.org to donate today.

54 min

19 May

Sobriety, Breathwork, and Reclaiming Indigenous Roots with Ariana Fotinakis

In this warm and wide-ranging conversation, Taryn Strong sits down with coach, breathwork facilitator, and Decolonize and Rize Co-founder Ariana Fotinakis — a woman whose truly integrated healing journey weaves together sobriety, burnout recovery, cultural reclamation, and nervous system awareness. Ariana shares the quiet but pivotal mirror moment that led her to get sober after a decade of drinking and substance use. She expounds upon years of trading alcohol for fitness and work, and the breathwork session six years into her sobriety that she now considers the true beginning of her recovery. Ariana also opens up about growing up as the daughter of a Sixties Scoop survivor, carrying internalized shame and what it has meant, and still means, to reclaim her roots and find belonging on her own terms. Ariana's powerful conviction that healing our nervous systems and healing our world are not separate endeavors, and that gentleness, not intensity, is often the most radical and lasting path forward for our individual, collective, and global recovery. In this episode, we talk about: Getting sober after 10 years of drinking and substance use — without hitting a dramatic rock bottomThe mirror moment — really seeing yourself and knowing something has to changeTrading alcohol for fitness and work — and how cross-addiction and escapism can quietly shift formsBurnout as a turning point and the body's wisdom in forcing us to slow downThe first breathwork experience that cracked open everything numbed and unfeltWhy gentle, nervous-system-informed breathwork can be more transformative than intense sessionsBeing the daughter of a Sixties Scoop survivor — what that history means personally, physically, and relationallyGrowing up disconnected from Indigenous identity— internalizing shame in the absence of culture or representationThe ongoing journey of cultural reclamation — finding community, returning to the land, being led by willingnessBelonging vs. assimilation — why true belonging never asks you to leave parts of yourself behindThe Seven Generations principle and how it invites slowness, intention, and long-horizon thinkingBridging nervous system healing with social and systemic change — and the tensions that can emerge"Hard on systems, soft on people" — a framework for creating change without replicating harmAriana's June 30th workshop in SHE RECOVERS Foundation’s Inclusive Recovery Training: Anti-Racist Spaces of Belonging Series — Decolonizing Recovery: Belonging with Body, Land & Community with Ariana Fotinakis EPISODE RESOURCES Ariana Fotinakis: coaching, breathwork, and moreDecolonize and Rize: programs and resources for individuals, teams, and organizationsFollow Ariana on Instagram: @arianafotinakis June 30 - SHE RECOVERS Foundation’s Inclusive Recovery Training: Anti-Racist Spaces of Belonging — Decolonizing Recovery: Belonging with Body, Land & Community with Ariana Fotinakis (sign up for newsletter for more details soon!)ABOUT ARIANA Ariana Fotinakis (she/her) is the Co-founder of Decolonize and Rize, a trauma-responsive coach, breathwork facilitator, and devoted advocate for decolonized well-being. With Anishinaabe (Aamjiwnaang) and Greek ancestry and as the daughter of a Sixties Scoop survivor, she is deeply committed to reclaiming her roots and supporting others on their journeys of healing and transformation. For over a decade, Ariana has worked with hundreds of individuals and organizations globally, offering a grounded and compassionate approach to personal and collective change. Her work integrates nervous system awareness, cultural reclamation, and systemic change, creating spaces where people and teams can build resilience, deepen self-awareness, and cultivate sustainable well-being. ABOUT SHE RECOVERS® Foundation We are a non-profit public charity and a global grassroots movement serving more than 325,000 women and non-binary individuals in or seeking recovery from life challenges including mental health issues, trauma, and substance use. SHE RECOVERS is dedicated to redefining recovery, inspiring hope, ending stigma, and empowering women to increase their recovery capital, heal themselves, and help other women to do the same. If you found this conversation helpful please consider donating to our lifeline organization or sharing it with others who may benefit. We would love to also receive your rating and review of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast on your favorite platform. Visit sherecovers.org to donate today.

58 min

27 Apr

Recovering From Overcoming with Emi Nietfeld

In this rigorously honest conversation, author, speaker, advocate, and young woman in recovery Emi Nietfeld joins Dr. Tiffany Wynn to challenge the cultural narratives that equate suffering with strength and healing with achievement. Together, they explore what it means to reject recovery as a redemption arc and to release the pressure to turn pain into proof of worth. Emi shares her journey through foster care, homelessness, and significant mental health struggles, alongside the complex reality of later achieving many of the success markers society celebrates. She reflects on the dissonance of being seen as a story of resilience while still living with the lasting impacts of trauma, and how ambition can become entangled with survival, shame, and the need to justify one’s suffering. Together, Emi and Dr. Tiffany unpack the myths of toxic resilience culture, including the expectation that trauma survivors package their pain into inspirational narratives. They explore the importance of creating communities where young women can be honest about struggling without feeling broken or behind, and how healing is shaped not only by individual effort, but by systems, relationships, and spaces that offer truth, connection, and a sense of belonging. Woven throughout the conversation are reflections from Emi’s memoir, Acceptance, and a reminder that recovery is not about becoming stronger, more successful, or more palatable in the aftermath of pain. It is about telling the truth, being witnessed in our humanity, and remembering that we are always worthy of love and belonging—even when we are still healing. About Emi Emi Nietfeld is the author of Acceptance (Penguin Press, 2022), a memoir chronicling her journey through foster care and homelessness while interrogating the true meanings of resilience, ambition, and success. After graduating from Harvard in 2015, she worked as a software engineer, an experience she wrote about in her viral New York Times essay, “After Working At Google, I’ll Never Let Myself Love a Job Again.” Emi’s passionate about mental health, helping young people navigate their careers, and the connection between engineering and creativity. A dynamic, sought-after speaker, she regularly appears on podcasts, delivers conference keynotes, and speaks at universities and companies. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Teen Vogue, Fortune, The Information, and other publications, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, noted in The Best American Essays, and taught in classrooms from high schools to MFA programs. Connect with Emi: https://www.eminietfeld.com/ About Dr. Tiffany Dr. Tiffany Wynn is a behavioral health leader with a PhD in Counsellor Education who focuses on trauma and resiliency, behavioral management, leadership, and professional development. She serves as trainer and consultant for academic and treatment organizations and is also a woman in long-term recovery. Connect with Dr. Tiffany Wynn: https://www.newexperiencescc.com/ Episode Resources: SHE RECOVERS Support for the Next Generation: https://sherecovers.org/support-for-the-next-generation/ Acceptance, A Memoir: https://www.eminietfeld.com/books “After Working At Google, I’ll Never Let Myself Love a Job Again.” New York Times Essay: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/opinion/google-job-harassment.html

36 min

31 Mar

From Hiding to Healing with Nadine Machkovech

In this honest and deeply human conversation, speaker, author, prevention advocate, and Executive Director of RISE TOGETHER, Nadine Machkovech, joins Lisa Wall of Mission Programs & Community Care at SHE RECOVERS. Together, they explore what becomes possible when we loosen our grip on perfection and the pressure to hold it all together as recovery advocates, leaders, mothers, partners, and friends. They reflect on recovering out loud with honesty and courageous vulnerability as a pathway to healing, connection, and empowerment. Nadine shares her journey of entering recovery in her early twenties, navigating the expectations of being a visible voice in the recovery space, and the profound loss of her teenage son to overdose. She speaks to the turning points that invited her to stop hiding her pain and grief, and to the role that connection and storytelling have played in her healing, especially in reaching and supporting the next generation. Together, Nadine and Lisa delve into what it means to redefine recovery, to listen to intuition as a guide, and to permit ourselves to show up just as we are. They also offer a clear reminder that we do not have to wait to hit rock bottom to pursue recovery. Woven throughout the conversation are reflections from Nadine’s book, Enough Already: A Journey from Hiding to Healing, along with an invitation to consider authenticity, community, and self-compassion as essential forms of recovery medicine. Nadine reminds us that no one should have to navigate their struggles alone, and that sharing our stories can create a ripple effect of meaningful change. About Nadine Machkovech Nadine Machkovech is a TEDx speaker, author of Enough Already, and Executive Director of RISE TOGETHER. She leads evidence-backed, connection-centered prevention work informed by research published and indexed through the NIH, validating the power of storytelling and trusted relationships in strengthening youth mental health. Through lived experience and practical tools, Nadine helps audiences build resilience, deepen connection, and turn vulnerability into meaningful action. Having transformed personal pain into purpose, she has reached over one million people with her message of self-worth, healing, and courageous truth-telling. Episode Resources: NadineSpeaks.com: Featuring Nadine’s books, workshops, and resources Book: Enough Already, A Journey from Hiding to Healing TedX Talk: The Secret to Being Enough RiseTogether: a peer-led, connection-centered prevention model that helps communities create spaces where young people feel safe speaking honestly. EmpowerHER: Organization dedicated to redefining care, reclaiming health, and empowering women. SHE RECOVERS Support for the Next Generation is here for you. If you’re a young woman or non-binary individual aged 18-35 who is navigating recovery, you don’t have to do it alone. Facilitated by SHE RECOVERS Certified Professionals, this monthly online support group and gathering was designed to meet the needs of young adults like you. Learn more here.

52 min

10 Feb

Hold Nothing: Elena Brower on Recovery from Cannabis, Shame & Grief

In this intimate conversation, Taryn Strong sits down with beloved teacher, writer, and artist Elena Brower to explore the layered realities of recovery—including cannabis dependency, tobacco addiction, grief, and shame. Elena shares the self-abandonment loop that kept her stuck, the moment of truth that helped her stop hiding, and the simple, powerful practices that helped her rebuild trust with herself. Together, they also open into grief as a lived practice—not something to power through but something to move with—and they explore how shame can stunt our inner world…and how repair, compassion, and do-overs can restore what shame disconnects. Woven throughout is the heart of Elena’s book and journal, Hold Nothing, and the recovery medicine of storytelling, service, and self-honesty. In this episode, we talk about: Recovery from cannabis and the quiet dependency many struggle to nameThe daily internal battle: “You can do it. No, you can’t.”The role of hiding in addiction - and how shame feeds secrecyWhat helped Elena quit cannabis (and what replaced the ritual)Recovery from tobacco and the emotional roots underneath the habitWhy substances often function as a stand-in for connection and solitudeGrief as a practice - learning to respect pain and exhaustion as pathways of healingBuilding altars, talking to loved ones who have died, and honouring impermanenceShame stress, nervous system repair, and the power of relational “do-overs”The phrase ‘how human of me’ as an empathy-based pattern interrupterElena’s service work: hospice volunteering, teaching yoga in prison, and supporting formerly incarcerated womenA loving invitation for anyone quietly questioning their relationship with a substance or behaviourResources Mentioned: Elena's website here: books, workshops, resourcesBook: The Grieving Brain by Mary-Frances O’Connor Research on shame stress referenced: Allan SchoreNonviolent communication: Judith Hanson LasaterDeath doula course: Sierra CampbellOn The Inside: nonprofit providing rehumanizing and healing programming to incarcerated women while reducing recidivism and intergenerational incarcerationAbout Elena Brower: Elena Brower is a bestselling author, artist, mentor, and yoga/meditation teacher. Known for her depth, honesty, and devotion to practice, Elena creates resources that help people meet themselves with clarity, compassion, and courage—including her journals and the book Hold Nothing. About SHE RECOVERS® Foundation SHE RECOVERS Foundation is a non-profit public charity and a global grassroots movement serving thousands of women and non-binary individuals in or seeking recovery from life challenges including mental health issues, trauma, and substance use. SHE RECOVERS is dedicated to redefining recovery, inspiring hope, ending stigma, and empowering women to increase their recovery capital, heal themselves, and help other women do the same. If you found this conversation helpful and you are able, please consider donating to our lifeline organization or sharing it with others who may benefit. We would love to also receive your rating and review of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast on your favorite platform. Visit sherecovers.org to donate today.

1hr 1min

02/12/2025

All The Way to the River with Elizabeth Gilbert

In this candid and deeply human conversation, SHE RECOVERS® co-founder Dr. Dawn Nickel sits down with Elizabeth Gilbert to explore the intertwined threads of love and sex addiction, codependency, drug dependence, and recovery - core themes of Liz’s newest book, All the Way to the River. Liz shares openly about her own compulsive relationship patterns, her partner Rayya's relapse, and the moment that brought Liz to her knees. Together, Dawn and Liz explore 12-step recovery, emotional repair, and what it means to start again in the aftermath of profound loss. What emerges is a raw, insightful look at addiction, grief, and the deep courage it takes to heal and return to oneself. EPISODE RESOURCES: Book - All The Way to the River: available at Indigo, Powells.com, bookshop.org/shop/elizabeth_reads, and at your local independent bookstore. Elizabeth's website: www.elizabethgilbert.com Elizabeth's Substack: https://elizabethgilbert.substack.com/ SHE RECOVERS: www.sherecovers.org Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous: https://slaafws.org/ Narcotics Anonymous: https://na.org/ Al-Anon: https://al-anon.org/ SHE RECOVERS® Foundation is a non-profit public charity and a global grassroots movement serving more than 325,000 women and non-binary individuals in or seeking recovery from life challenges including mental health issues, trauma, and substance use. SHE RECOVERS is dedicated to redefining recovery, inspiring hope, ending stigma, and empowering women to increase their recovery capital, heal themselves, and help other women to do the same. If you found this conversation helpful please consider donating to our lifeline organization or sharing it with others who may benefit. We would love to also receive your rating and review of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast on your favorite platform. Visit sherecovers.org to donate today.

1hr 29min

11/05/2023

Episode 75: Workaholism: The "Respectable" Addiction with Dawn Nickel, PhD

Have you gone above and beyond at your job? To the point of sacrificing sleep, personal plans, and perhaps, your moral values? Overworking, also known as workaholism, is when someone is addicted to work. It can also be described as incessant internal and external activity with the underlying belief that if you're not always active, you don't have the right to exist. In this recovery educational series replay, Mental Health Monday, SHE RECOVERS co-founder Dr. Dawn Nickel explains overworking and how to recover from it. She offers support, tools and resources for this addiction that is often thought of as respectable. ABOUT DR. DAWN NICKEL: Dr.Dawn Nickel is a Certified Professional Recovery Coach, with a PhD and consulting expertise related to women and health care policy and the author of SHE RECOVERS Every Day. In her work as a researcher, Dawn has focused largely on exploring how best to support women who experience substance use disorders, mental health issues, and intimate partner violence. Dawn currently identifies as being in active recovery from anxiety, grief, workaholism, and the patriarchy. When she isn’t writing, working as a healthcare and social policy consultant, or helping to grow the movement she started, Dawn can be found hanging out at home with her family, walking or hiking, and doing puzzles. Her life goals include “graduating” therapy, writing more books and a screenplay, completing her travel bucket list, and spending quality time with family. EPISODE RESOURCES SHE RECOVERS in Chicago SHE RECOVERS Every Day Meditations for Women SHE RECOVERS Together Online Zoom Gatherings Workaholics Anonymous SHE RECOVERS® Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity and a global grassroots movement serving more than 325,000 women and non-binary individuals in or seeking recovery from life challenges including mental health issues, trauma, and substance use. SHE RECOVERS is dedicated to redefining recovery, inspiring hope, ending stigma, and empowering women to increase their recovery capital, heal themselves, and help other women to do the same. If you found this conversation helpful please consider donating to our lifeline organization or sharing it with others who may benefit. We would love to also receive your rating and review of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast on your favorite platform. Visit sherecovers.org to donate today.

1hr 5min

27/04/2023

Episode 74: Bisexual and Sober with Tawny Lara

When we get sober, many things come to light and we're faced with knowing ourselves fully for the first time. This includes getting more acquainted with our sexuality. In this candid conversation, our podcast host, Dr. Tiffany Wynn, speaks with writer, podcast host, and "sober sexpert," Tawny Lara, about Tawny's journey to uncovering her bisexuality once she got sober. A self-described love and sex addict, Tawny describes her transformation from finding self-worth in relationships (prior to sobriety) to discovering and leaning into her true personality and sober dating. Tawny also describes how she remains a sober party girl who loves life and still enjoys attending events. She goes into detail on that topic in her first book Dry Humping, which is set to be released this fall. ABOUT TAWNY LARA: Tawny Lara is a NYC-based millennial writer / public speaker who is known in the recovery realm as The Sober Sexpert. Her book, Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without Booze, comes out September 19, 2023. She co-hosts the Signal Award-winning “Best Buddy” podcast Recovery Rocks. Invitation to subscribe to her weekly column Beyond Liquid Courage about all things sober dating and relationships. Her writing is featured in Playboy, Men’s Health, Huffington Post, and two essay collections: Sex and the Single Woman and The Addiction Diaries. Visit her website here: https://www.tawnylara.com/ Subscribe to her newsletter here: https://tawnylara.substack.com/ Pre-order Tawny's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/730665/dry-humping-by-tawny-lara/ EPISODE RESOURCES SRF Support For LGBTQ+ SHE RECOVERS in Chicago Recovery Rocks Podcast SHE RECOVERS® Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity and a global grassroots movement serving more than 325,000 women and non-binary individuals in or seeking recovery from life challenges including mental health issues, trauma, and substance use. SHE RECOVERS is dedicated to redefining recovery, inspiring hope, ending stigma, and empowering women to increase their recovery capital, heal themselves, and help other women to do the same. If you found this conversation helpful please consider making a donation to our lifeline organization or sharing it with others who may benefit. We would love to also receive your rating and review of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast on your favorite platform. Visit sherecovers.org to donate today.

49 min

SHE RECOVERS Podcast

Writing for Recovery & Connection with Clover Stroud

Sobriety, Breathwork, and Reclaiming Indigenous Roots with Ariana Fotinakis

Recovering From Overcoming with Emi Nietfeld

From Hiding to Healing with Nadine Machkovech

Hold Nothing: Elena Brower on Recovery from Cannabis, Shame & Grief

All The Way to the River with Elizabeth Gilbert

Episode 75: Workaholism: The "Respectable" Addiction with Dawn Nickel, PhD

Episode 74: Bisexual and Sober with Tawny Lara

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SHE RECOVERS Podcast

Episodes

Writing for Recovery & Connection with Clover Stroud

Sobriety, Breathwork, and Reclaiming Indigenous Roots with Ariana Fotinakis

Recovering From Overcoming with Emi Nietfeld

From Hiding to Healing with Nadine Machkovech

Hold Nothing: Elena Brower on Recovery from Cannabis, Shame & Grief

All The Way to the River with Elizabeth Gilbert

Episode 75: Workaholism: The "Respectable" Addiction with Dawn Nickel, PhD

Episode 74: Bisexual and Sober with Tawny Lara

Ratings & Reviews

About

Information

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