Be the Change Coaching blog cover for Shame, Guilt and Self-Compassion in Recovery, featuring the quote “Self-compassion allows us to face difficult truths without abandoning ourselves in the process” with blue, teal, yellow and red design elements.

Supporting Your Mental Health and Recovery means caring for both your emotional wellbeing and your recovery at the same time. Explore practical ways to recognise warning signs, regulate emotions, strengthen daily routines, reach out for support and know when professional help may be needed.

“Take a deep breath.” It is usually offered with the best intentions. Sometimes it helps enormously. At other times, you are sitting there with your chest tight, your thoughts racing and somebody encouraging you to breathe while you wonder whether they have noticed that breathing is already part of the problem. Perhaps you have tried meditation and spent the entire time wanting to leave the room. Perhaps counting things you can see feels useful on one day and irritating on an

When emotions, cravings or triggers feel overwhelming, the urge to react can seem immediate. Explore practical DBT-informed skills that can help you pause, regulate, check the facts and choose a response that supports your recovery, wellbeing and the life you are building.

Your body often knows you’re struggling before your mind has found the words. Explore how stress, emotional overload and recovery challenges can appear as physical signals, and learn to respond with curiosity, compassion and practical care.

Cravings can feel urgent, but they do not have to make the decision. Learn how urge surfing can help you notice, understand and ride the wave of a craving while creating space for safer, more supportive choices.

Cravings can feel urgent, convincing and overwhelming — but they are not commands. Learn how mindfulness, curiosity and practical recovery tools can help you understand what a craving is telling you and create more space between urge and action.

Recovery takes more than determination. Sustainable change is built through structure, supportive systems, healthy habits, connection and practical tools that still work when motivation is low. In this post, we explore how moving beyond willpower can help you build a recovery that is realistic, resilient and designed to last.

When What Does Sustainable Recovery Look Like in Everyday Life? I think we sometimes imagine sustainable recovery as a version of recovery in which we finally become really good at everything. We have a solid morning routine, exercise regularly, eat properly, sleep eight hours a night, attend all the right meetings, meditate, journal, maintain healthy relationships, manage our stress beautifully and remain calm and emotionally regulated regardless of what life throws at us...

Recovery is not only about what you leave behind. It is also about what you begin to build — healthier routines, stronger relationships, greater self-awareness, meaningful goals and a life that feels worth showing up for.

One of the things I have become increasingly certain of, both through my own recovery and through the years I have spent working with people affected by substance use and addiction, is that there is no single pathway to recovery. There is no one programme, philosophy, fellowship, treatment centre, therapist, coach, medication or spiritual practice that is going to work for every person. Yet when someone is struggling with alcohol or other drugs, families are often desperate t

Working as a substance use professional is deeply meaningful to me. It is not simply a career I chose; it is work that connects closely with my own lived experience of recovery.

Self-love is a term we hear in recovery, personal growth and development circles all the time, but what does it really mean?

Once upon a time I was a chronic binge drinker. So let’s call it what it is – an alcoholic. It’s a cringey type of word that elicits images of piles of vodka bottles and day drinking. That’s not really my story, and it’s what kept me unwell for so long. I wasn’t a day drinker, I didn’t drink alone, and I didn’t drink every day, and that was enough to keep me in denial for many, many years. I went to treatment and accepted the fact that I had a problem with alcohol and my life

Building your self-worth in recovery is an important part of your healing process. If you're in the early stages of recovery...

Abstinence, moderation management or harm reduction as a recovery choice. Dr Gabor Maté, a leading expert on addiction and trauma, uses three criteria in his definition of addiction: Craving the addictive substance or behaviour. Engaging in the addictive substance or behaviour to experience pleasure or temporary relief from some kind of pain. The inability to give the substance or behaviour up. Addiction is an attempt to solve a problem. It is the symptom of a deeper malaise,

Will I be boring now that I've stopped using? So you’ve decided to try recovery and stopped using drugs and/or alcohol!?

What I've learned in my recovery and healing process: It's okay to not be okay! I celebrated 16 years of sobriety on 1st January 2024, except it wasn’t a time of much celebration. My business partner and friend died unexpectedly in December and left a massive void in many people’s lives, including my own. To be honest, I wasn’t much in the mood for celebrating anything at the time and although I am trying to be okay, I am still not in much of a joyful, celebratory frame of mi

Mastering the Art of Stress Management: Healthy Coping Strategies for Overcoming Anxiety in Your Recovery Recovery is a process filled with ups and downs, highs and lows, challenges, and triumphs. As you learn to operate in this new space, you're bound to encounter stress and anxiety along the way. These emotions are your body's natural response to the significant changes you're going through and the challenges you're probably facing. You can learn to understand the sources o

Rising Above the Stigma: A Guide to Overcoming Shame and Embracing Addiction Recovery What is addiction? And how come I ended up with this particular disease? If you've found yourself grappling with this question, know that you're not alone. Millions of individuals worldwide are impacted by addiction and addictive disorders, a complex condition that extends far beyond physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and mental boundaries. What makes addiction even more exhausting to o