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Supporting Your Mental Health and Recovery at the Same Time
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.
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Nov 311 min read


Completing the Stress Cycle Instead of Carrying Stress Into Tomorrow
Stress does not always end when the stressful situation is over. Explore what it means to complete the stress cycle, why the body can stay activated, and practical ways to support recovery through movement, breathing, connection, grounding and gentle end-of-day transitions.
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Oct 159 min read


Fight, Flight, Freeze and Fawn: Recognising Your Recovery Survival Responses
There are moments in recovery when our reactions seem to arrive before we have had a chance to think. Somebody’s tone changes and we immediately become defensive. A difficult conversation leaves us wanting to escape. We agree to something we do not want because disappointing another person feels unbearable. We receive an upsetting message and suddenly find ourselves unable to move, speak or decide what to do next. Later, when the intensity has passed, we may look back and won
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Oct 511 min read


The Pause Between Feeling and Acting: Where Recovery Choices Begin
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.
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Oct 19 min read


Urge Surfing: Learning to Ride a Craving Instead of Fighting It
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.
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Sep 109 min read


The Early Warning Signs of Relapse We Often Miss
Relapse often begins long before someone drinks, uses or returns to an addictive behaviour. This post explores the early warning signs we can easily miss — from denial and isolation to slipping routines, resentment and complacency — and how recognising these patterns sooner can give us more time, support and choice in recovery.
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Sep 115 min read


Beyond Willpower: Building Sustainable Recovery
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.
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Aug 2813 min read


Recovery Capital: What Do You Have to Lean On When Life Gets Difficult?
There are times in recovery when life feels relatively manageable. We are sleeping reasonably well, our routines are working, relationships feel settled and we have enough emotional capacity to deal with the ordinary challenges that come our way. During these periods, recovery can begin to feel more natural. We know what helps us, we are practising it consistently and we may feel increasingly confident in our ability to navigate life without returning to the substances or beh
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Aug 2613 min read


What Does Sustainable Recovery Look Like in Everyday Life?
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...
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Aug 1811 min read


Recovery is more than Stopping: What are You Actually Building?
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.
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Aug 1310 min read


Caring for Myself While Caring for Others
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.
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Jul 116 min read


Living My Purpose: Becoming a Recovery Coach
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
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Aug 14, 20246 min read


Will I be boring now that I've stopped using drugs and alcohol?
Will I be boring now that I've stopped using? So you’ve decided to try recovery and stopped using drugs and/or alcohol!?
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Mar 28, 20249 min read


What Does it Really Mean to be in Recovery?
Sobriety and recovery are not the same thing. Clean time and wellness are different. Being clean and sober doesn't necessarily equate to...
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Mar 7, 20216 min read


You are not a car! And you are not broken!
I am committed to my work as a coach; supporting my clients in their recoveries from substance use and addiction disorders. I strive to...
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Feb 26, 20217 min read


Are You in the Arena Getting Your Ass Kicked?
Are you out there doing your own personal work? Or sitting on the sidelines running commentary while others show up and do theirs?
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Feb 2, 20214 min read


What's in the Space?
...And it's also been a very challenging year for anyway courageous enough to be starting their recovery process.
Leigh-Anne Brierley
Nov 21, 20205 min read
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