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 name
• The daily internal battle: “You can do it. No, you can’t.”
• The role of hiding in addiction - and how shame feeds secrecy
• What helped Elena quit cannabis (and what replaced the ritual)
• Recovery from tobacco and the emotional roots underneath the habit
• Why substances often function as a stand-in for connection and solitude
• Grief as a practice - learning to respect pain and exhaustion as pathways of healing
• Building altars, talking to loved ones who have died, and honouring impermanence
• Shame stress, nervous system repair, and the power of relational “do-overs”
• The phrase ‘how human of me’ as an empathy-based pattern interrupter
• Elena’s service work: hospice volunteering, teaching yoga in prison, and supporting formerly incarcerated women
• A loving invitation for anyone quietly questioning their relationship with a substance or behaviour

Resources Mentioned:

• Elena's website here: books, workshops, resources
• Book: The Grieving Brain by Mary-Frances O’Connor
• Research on shame stress referenced: Allan Schore
• Nonviolent communication: Judith Hanson Lasater
• Death doula course: Sierra Campbell
• On The Inside: nonprofit providing rehumanizing and healing programming to incarcerated women while reducing recidivism and intergenerational incarceration

About 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.

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.

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.