A woman in Derry has used her life experience to help women tackle sobriety.
Joanne Nash is a certified Life and Recovery Coach, owner of The Sober Coach, specialising in helping individuals change their relationship with alcohol.
Having grown up familiar with alcoholism, binge-drinking and using recovery coaches in her own life, Joanne wanted to add to the chain of recovery by forming a specialised programme for struggling women.
Joanne spoke with MyDerry to discuss her own experience with alcohol and establishing the Sober Coach.
She said: " I've gone through my own journey in relation to alcohol where I struggled with binge drinking. On a night out, I was never a one or two kind of person and I drank to get drunk.
"Having grown up with alcoholism at home, I knew the dangers of alcohol and where it could lead. Towards the end of my drinking, I was experiencing blackouts, hangovers which were awful and could last for days and my mental health was getting worse.
"I 'dabbled' in living an alcohol-free life since 2013 until 2018 when I finally decided that I was better without.
"I worked with recovery coaches to help me on the journey. I knew that I wanted to help others and therefore began my journey to becoming a Certified Recovery Coach and created The Sober Coach."
The Sober Coach specialises in helping female clients, as Joanne felt that the life balance that often comes in a woman's life can provide a unique path into relying on alcohol to blur out the pressure.
Joanne stressed that, of course, her services are open to male clients as well.
An important aspect of the work that Joanne does is tackling society's contribution to drinking culture, and the reactions towards those who decide not to drink.
Joanne said: " Alcohol is so normalised in our society. It is very heavily marketed which then plays into our beliefs around alcohol.
"All the advertisements show everyone having alcohol making it look cool, fun, sexy. They never show anyone drunk, acting out of character or throwing up obviously because that won't sell.
"A major struggle which I found on my own journey and one which my clients experiencing is how others react to their decision to stop drinking. Often, we can be shamed for making the choice to not drink with statements.
"There is also the fear of the shame and stigma if we were to be more honest about our decision to stop. Society has created a perception of what it is to have struggles with alcohol and people don't want to be labelled in this way."
Joanne discussed how her clients have different paths and needs in their journey in sobriety.
She said: "I have supported clients with different goals. One example would be where I worked with a female who's drinking had increased during lockdown.
"She previously drank only at the weekends but this had become daily during alcohol. Her goal was to get her back to a better place. We worked together and she took a month off drinking and reaped the benefits.
"She broke the cycle of daily drinking, gained tools to help her move forward and she felt back in control.
"I feel that my services are unique as I work with individuals within the 'grey area' where alcohol has become too much of a habit and the person is unsatisfied with the role it is playing within their lives.
"There is no definitive approach to my coaching services as we are all individuals with different values, needs and beliefs.
"I would love to build a local community where women can come together and support each other and enjoy life without the alcohol."
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