Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast I Love Being Sober

He was a Versace model living at the Clevelander on Ocean Drive, drinking fifty drinks a day for free because his friends tended bar, and getting handed cocaine because the dealers knew he knew everybody. He worked five times a year. The rest of the time was idle.

Then the hangovers started lasting five days.

Troy Casey — The Certified Health Nut — grew up a ward of the state, started drinking and smoking weed at thirteen, and spent four and a half years cycling in and out of sobriety before it finally held in 1999. What made it hold was not a program. It was an hour on a cushion the morning after a fight, and then, two weeks later, ten days of silence at a Vipassana retreat.

Thirty-five years into holistic health, his position in the wellness industry is not what you would expect from someone who looks like he does: the things that actually move the needle are mostly free. Sleep. Sunlight. Walking. Water. Breathing through your nose. He is blunt about the rest of it — peptides, Ozempic, TRT, the twenty-supplement stack — and blunt about why a person in recovery in particular should be careful with all of it.

Recorded live in front of our clients and staff at Camelback Recovery in Phoenix. The room does a breathing exercise together at 42:30 that is worth doing along with them.

What we get into:

• the fashion industry’s open bar and what it did to a young man with no supervision
• why he calls the friends who told him he was wasting his potential “love incarnate”
• the four and a half years of relapse before it stuck
• what ten days of silence actually does
• the nine pillars, and how to shrink them to three when you are thirty days sober
• why he thinks biohacking can become the same disease in a lab coat
• the seven factors of stress
• how to breathe like your nervous system depends on it, because it does.

Everybody in treatment eventually gets the insight. They can tell you why they drank. They can name the childhood, the trauma, the trigger. And then they wake up the next morning and do the same thing they did yesterday.

Natalie Hunter has spent more than twenty years studying why that happens. Her position is blunt: insight alone does not change anybody. What she teaches instead is behavior over belief — that change comes from doing something different, not from finally thinking differently.

In this episode, she walks through her Six Stages of Conscious Change, including the one almost everybody misses: the distance between wanting to change and being willing to change. She lays out what she calls the Four Core Human Wounds. And she is direct about where coaching stops and a doctor starts — including for people whose medication is the reason they are alive.

Tim also ends up in the chair. What starts as a question about guilt and shame turns into an unplanned, on-air look at a pattern he had never traced before: stealing candy as a kid, the adrenaline, and what he was actually reaching for.

Recorded live in front of our clients and staff at Camelback Recovery in Phoenix.

What we get into:

• Why you can say all the right words in a coaching session and still not change
• The difference between desire and willingness
• The “horrification moment” and why it is fuel rather than shame
• The four wounds underneath every limiting pattern
• Why the feeling you are having about your behavior is often the wrong feeling
• What an energy shift actually looks like from the outside
• Where coaching ends and psychiatric care begins

You got sober. You did the work. And you still wake up exhausted, foggy, flat, and unmotivated — and everyone around you says give it more time.

Sometimes that’s the right answer. Sometimes something underneath is actually broken.

Dr. Amie Hornaman spent her twenties competing in bodybuilding and figure competitions. Then the scale started going up while she was training twice a day and tracking every macro. Six different doctors inside a major medical system looked at her labs and told her she was normal — eat less, exercise more. The seventh doctor was the first one to physically touch her throat. She found nodules, and a diagnosis.

Today Dr. Amie is “The Thyroid Fixer,” founder and CEO of the Advanced Thyroid and Hormone Clinic, host of The Thyroid Fixer podcast, and author of The Thyroid Fix.

In this conversation she makes a case our clients hadn’t heard before: getting sober is a physiological stressor, and stressors are exactly what flip thyroid and hormone problems from dormant to active. Pregnancy does it. Perimenopause does it. Divorce and grief do it. So does removing a substance your body has spent years adapting to. Which is why she argues thyroid and hormone testing belongs in early recovery — not eighteen months later when you’re wondering why you don’t feel the way everyone promised you would.

What we get into

• Why six doctors missed it, and what the seventh did differently
• Why TSH alone is not a thyroid test — and the full panel to ask for
• What long-term alcohol and substance use does to cortisol, blood sugar, liver detoxification, and sex hormones
• Why thyroid dysfunction looks almost identical to burnout, depression, anxiety, and post-acute withdrawal
• What alcohol does to estrogen in men, and why testosterone often can’t be fixed without addressing it
• SHBG, and why your hormones can test “normal” and still not be reaching your cells
• Why she says you can’t put hormone therapy on a dumpster fire
• The 30/60/90-day timeline for feeling different
• And why chasing every biohack can raise the same cortisol you’re trying to lower

Tim also shares his own experience — two to three years sober before anyone checked his thyroid, and what changed 90 days after they did.

FREQUENTLY ASKED

Can getting sober cause thyroid problems? Dr. Hornaman’s position is that sobriety doesn’t cause thyroid disease, but it acts as a major physiological stressor — and stressors are what activate a dormant autoimmune thyroid condition. She places getting sober in the same category as pregnancy, perimenopause, andropause, grief, and divorce.

Why do I still feel tired after getting sober? Persistent fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, low mood, and low motivation in sustained sobriety overlap almost completely with the symptoms of hypothyroidism and low sex hormones. Her recommendation is to test rather than wait it out.

What thyroid tests should I ask for? Dr. Hornaman names six: TSH, free T4, free T3, reverse T3, and the two antibodies — TPO (thyroid peroxidase) and TGA (thyroglobulin). She argues TSH alone is a pituitary measurement, not a thyroid measurement.

Does alcohol lower testosterone in men? In her clinical experience, yes — and it simultaneously raises estrogen, both directly and by burdening liver detoxification. She describes a case with an estradiol of 343 in a man in his fifties.

How long until I feel better? Her typical timeline: mental clarity and energy around 30 days, changes on the scale and early hair regrowth around 60 days, and the full effect around 90 days.

Dr. Sharon Stills started drinking at twelve. By nineteen she was sitting in a parking lot in the Hamptons, too high to walk into the party — and that was the night it broke. She got sober at twenty, without AA, without rehab, and thirteen years later became a naturopathic medical doctor.

In this episode she explains addiction the way she sees it after twenty-five years of practice: not as a moral failure and not purely as a brain disease, but as a nervous system trying to regulate itself. Which is why, as she puts it, we don’t quit addiction — we graduate from one to the next. She’s blunt about her own: coffee, work, the phone, hot yoga.

Recorded live in front of our clients and staff at Camelback Recovery in Phoenix, with about twenty-five minutes of unscripted audience Q&A at the end.

WHAT WE GET INTO:

• Why the physical body has to be fed before trauma work can land
• The nutrient deficiencies she finds over and over in newly sober patients
• What’s actually happening when someone says they’re crawling out of their skin
• How progesterone, testosterone and estrogen drive cravings through GABA, dopamine and serotonin
• Perimenopause as an unrecognized relapse risk
• The “backpack” model of toxic load
• Why she’d rather you eat a Big Mac in joy than organic food in stress.

ABOUT DR. SHARON STILLS, NMD — Naturopathic medical doctor, 25 years in practice. Graduate of Sonoran University (2001). Trained in European biological medicine under Dr. Thomas Rau at the Paracelsus Clinic in Switzerland and served as a co-lead North American lecturer for the Paracelsus Academy. Board member, Bio-Regulatory Medicine Institute; former board member, the Archive of Healing at UCLA. Former host of The Science of Self-Healing podcast. She practices at Lasting Wellness Center in Scottsdale, Arizona alongside her son, Dr. Ben Stills.

FIND DR. STILLS — Website and newsletter: drstills.com · Instagram: @drsharonstills · Her free five-day online summit opens for signup September 1 and runs live starting September 12, with 40+ expert interviews. Join her newsletter at drstills.com to get the invitation.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST — Tim Westbrook is the founder and CEO of Camelback Recovery and holds an MS in Addiction Counseling. The I Love Being Sober Podcast records live every Wednesday at 10 AM in front of the clients and staff at our Phoenix outpatient center.

If any of this sounds like your situation, a conversation could be a reasonable next step: camelbackrecovery.com

This episode is educational content and is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and it is not a substitute for clinical assessment by your own physician. Products and brands mentioned are named at the guest’s discretion; Camelback Recovery has no sponsorship, affiliate, or financial relationship with any of them. Views expressed by guests are their own.

On this episode of the I Love Being Sober podcast, recorded live in front of a client audience at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with master life coach, speaker, and labyrinth designer Elaine Glass, author of the bestselling book Get Quiet: 7 Simple Paths to the Truth of Who You Are, published by Hay House and endorsed by Dr. Mark Hyman and Stanford behavioral scientist BJ Fogg.

Elaine spent three decades as a dental hygienist, sitting one-on-one with more than 40,000 patients, while living what looked from the outside like a perfect life: a house in Paradise Valley, a surgeon husband, two sons in private school. Inside, she was waking up alone and afraid, getting physically sick, and, in her words, becoming a shell of a human being. She describes the moment she finally asked for a divorce, what it cost, and how she rebuilt from nothing.

The turning point came from a stranger at a Phoenix coffee shop, a man in addiction recovery who told her to visit the Franciscan Renewal Center. There, in the desert behind the property, she found a labyrinth: a 4,000-year-old meditative walking path with one way in and one way out. She almost turned around at the gate. What she heard when she finally walked it changed the direction of her life.

Elaine is clear that she never had a substance addiction. What she had was a behavioral addiction to looking away from the truth of her own life, a pattern she calls close to universal. The conversation digs into why we are so afraid to sit alone in a quiet room, what rushes in to fill the space when a substance is finally gone, how to tell the calm voice of the soul from the racing voice of fear, and why she believes abandoning yourself is a slow death of the soul. She also shares the twelve-month experiment that rebuilt her confidence after her divorce, starting with a single Toastmasters meeting, and walks the room through her seven paths and the body-centered energy points behind them.

For anyone in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or beyond who is navigating addiction recovery, sobriety, grief, burnout, or the quiet work of finding out who you are without the noise, this episode is a practical and deeply human roadmap to getting quiet.

Camelback Recovery is a leading sober living and outpatient addiction treatment provider serving Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona.

On this episode of the I Love Being Sober podcast, recorded live in front of a client audience at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with Marine combat veteran, speaker, and mental performance coach Akshay Nanavati, author of Fearvana, a book endorsed by the Dalai Lama.

Akshay came home from Iraq carrying PTSD, depression, and an alcoholism that escalated to a bottle of vodka a day and, one morning, a knife in his own kitchen. He walks the room through that rock bottom moment and the slow, non-linear climb out of it. This is not a story about a single decision that fixed everything. He broke his sobriety many times before the change held.

The conversation digs into why he believes the mainstream approach to mental health gets it wrong, how he reframed his diagnosis from post-traumatic stress disorder to simply post-traumatic stress, and why inner peace is the acceptance of chaos rather than its absence. He explains Fearvana, the idea that fear is not the enemy but the doorway to a meaningful life, and how the same principle that carried him across Antarctica applies to anyone in early recovery: the only way out is through.

Along the way he shares the science and spirituality behind his darkness retreats, his world-first 60-day solo expedition dragging a 420-pound sled across Antarctica, and practical tools anyone can use today, from choosing your future self first to sitting with hard feelings instead of numbing them. For anyone in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or beyond who is navigating addiction recovery, sobriety, trauma, or mental health, this episode offers a hard-won, practical roadmap for turning suffering into fuel.

Camelback Recovery is a leading residential inpatient and outpatient addiction and mental health treatment provider serving Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona.

What does it take to survive what should have killed you and come back stronger? In this live episode of the I Love Being Sober Podcast, recorded in front of an audience at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with speaker, coach, and author Kevin J. Parker.

Born into generational addiction and trauma, Kevin spent four months in a hospital fighting for his life. He flatlined three times, a priest read his last rites, and he lost his leg to addiction. Doctors said he would never walk again. Two weeks later he took his first steps, two months after that he was running, and he has since run an eight-minute mile on a prosthetic leg.

Kevin shares how he traded a victim identity for radical responsibility, why forgiving himself was the hardest and most freeing work of his life, the daily discipline that keeps him grounded, and how serving others became the foundation of his purpose. For anyone navigating addiction recovery, sobriety, or mental health in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or anywhere along the way, this conversation is living proof that rock bottom can be a firm foundation. Kevin is the founder of True Warrior Success and the author of Winning Against All Odds: Discovering the True Warrior Within.

What happens to your relationships when you get sober? In this episode of the I Love Being Sober podcast, recorded live at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Phoenix, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with Melissa Nanavati, a TEDx speaker, author, and relationship coach for executives and high performers.

Melissa’s story will resonate with anyone navigating sobriety and connection. After graduating college at nineteen, she began drinking heavily to fit in, was clinically diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and struggled with anxious attachment and people pleasing. She went on more than 100 first dates over ten years, about fifty of them completely sober, before meeting her husband. Now eight years sober, she hosts alcohol-free gatherings of 80 people in the Scottsdale area, had a dry wedding with 100 guests on the dance floor, and teaches the neuroscience of connection to high achievers around the world.

Tim and Melissa dig into why your romantic relationship is either the biggest energy leak or the biggest force multiplier in your life, and how unresolved friction always falls into one of three buckets: unmet needs, unseen efforts, or unresolved issues. Melissa breaks down the four types of relational courage most people never consciously practice, then walks through her complete BRAVE framework for having hard conversations: Begin within, Request the time, Affirm and ask, View and validate, and End with action, including why you should always be seated, touching, and why a thirty-second hug changes everything.

For couples rebuilding after addiction, Melissa explains the three neurochemicals behind chemistry and desire, dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin, and the practical weekly habits that rebuild the spark. For singles learning to date sober, she shares how to create real chemistry without alcohol, why hiking dates and daytime dates work, and how she made a goal to never have a bad date again. The live audience Q&A covers healing while dating, dating apps, and how to meet value-aligned people in person.

Whether you’re in recovery in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or anywhere in the world, this conversation is a masterclass in building secure, resilient relationships in sobriety. The I Love Being Sober podcast is produced by Camelback Recovery, a leading provider of addiction treatment, mental health support, and sober living in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Recorded live in front of clients at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient addiction treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, this episode of I Love Being Sober brings host Tim Westbrook together with Michael Roviello, U.S. Navy veteran, certified Wim Hof Method instructor, and co-founder of Optimyze, a natural wellness company with four locations across the Phoenix Valley.

Michael grew up in a rough part of Queens, New York, where blackout drinking and drugs were normal by his early teens. At 20, a Navy recruiter found him day-drinking in a Long Island bar and offered him a way out: helicopter search and rescue. Michael went on to fly combat search and rescue missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, deploying on the first aircraft carrier in the war zone after 9/11. But he came home carrying more than he realized: PTSD, severe insomnia, crippling anxiety, chronic pain from a cervical spine injury, and a drinking habit the military culture had only reinforced.

After emergency spinal fusion surgery, a growing dependence on pain pills, and a surgeon telling him a second surgery was the only option, Michael drew a line: nothing from a pharmacy. In this conversation, he shares what happened next, from the Landmark Forum and Dr. John Sarno’s mind-body work to plant medicine ceremonies in Brazil and Peru, the Wim Hof Method, and the daily cold plunge and breathwork practice that has kept him off pain medication, out of pain clinics, and away from a second surgery since 2012.

Tim and Michael dig into the science of cold water therapy: nervous system regulation, the norepinephrine and dopamine response, why the ice bath is a trust exercise, and how to use the suggestible theta brainwave state for mantras and affirmations. They also cover the single most underrated recovery tool Michael ever used: learning to say no, changing his environment, and letting the wrong people leave his life. The episode closes with live audience Q&A from Camelback Recovery outpatient clients on insomnia, restless leg syndrome, cold plunge timing, sauna for sleep, and nasal breathing.

Whether you are navigating recovery from drugs and alcohol in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or anywhere in Arizona, or you are looking for natural tools to manage anxiety, chronic pain, trauma, or sleep issues in sobriety, this conversation is a masterclass in healing from the inside out.

Connect with Michael Roviello: Instagram @michael_roviello | Optimyze on Instagram @optimyze.me | OPTIMYZE.me | Optimyze locations in Arcadia, North Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe | Jungle Rhythms wellness festival, August 1 at Mountain Shadows Resort

Learn more about Camelback Recovery: CamelbackRecovery.com | Sober living and outpatient addiction treatment in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona

Click Here for more information about Camelback Recovery

What does your spine have to do with staying sober? More than you think. In this episode of I Love Being Sober, recorded live at Camelback Recovery in Scottsdale, Arizona, Tim Westbrook sits down with Dr. Marc Blackstone, a board-licensed chiropractic physician with more than 25 years of clinical experience who has spent the past five years bringing chiropractic care into mental health and addiction treatment settings.

Dr. Blackstone breaks down the mind-body connection in plain language: how a chiropractic adjustment affects far more than the joint being treated, why addiction and mental health conditions keep the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) nervous system stuck in overdrive, and how adjustments help activate the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) response that lowers cortisol, reduces anxiety, and supports better sleep in early recovery.

He also delivers one of the most important warnings of the episode: unresolved chronic pain is a real relapse risk. With more than half of chronic pain patients likely to use opioids, treating the physical damage people carry into recovery isn’t a luxury. It’s relapse prevention.

In this episode, you’ll learn: how a rugby injury at age 14 led Dr. Blackstone to chiropractic; what he sees treating clients in recovery settings versus traditional practice; what actually happens in your body during an adjustment; why the body reverts to old patterns (and why one visit isn’t enough); how chiropractic supports people detoxing from opioids, amphetamines, and alcohol; the forgotten history of chiropractic sanitariums treating mental health in the 1920s; his advice for anyone in early recovery dealing with pain; and what it would take to bring chiropractic care into every treatment center in America.

Whether you’re navigating substance use disorder, supporting a loved one in recovery, or running a treatment program and wondering what holistic care really looks like, this conversation makes the case that recovery has to include the body, not just the mind.

Connect with Dr. Marc Blackstone: info@azchiropracticservices.com | drblackstone.com

I Love Being Sober is hosted by Tim Westbrook, MS, founder and CEO of Camelback Recovery, an addiction and mental health treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona. Learn more at CamelbackRecovery.com.

Click Here for more information about Camelback Recovery

What if addiction isn’t a moral failure — and it isn’t just a brain disease either? What if it’s the natural expression of a terrain that never got the support it needed?

In this episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down with Dr. Nasha Winters — naturopathic oncologist, bestselling author, and 35-year stage IV ovarian cancer thriver — for one of the most clinically rich and emotionally honest conversations this podcast has ever hosted. Recorded live at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, in front of a live audience of clients and staff.

Dr. Winters scored a perfect 10 out of 10 on the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) scale. She came from a family shaped by alcoholism, addiction, mental illness, and trauma. She was days from death when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer at 19 — and she was sent home to die. Instead, she spent the next three decades building one of the most comprehensive frameworks in integrative medicine: the Terrain Ten.

This conversation bridges two worlds that rarely talk to each other: terrain-based medicine and addiction recovery. And the overlap is exact.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why sugar and ultra-processed food activate the same dopamine receptors as cocaine and heroin — and how that keeps recovery stuck
• How unstable blood sugar mimics and worsens the craving cycle in early sobriety
• Why Dr. Winters now puts mental and emotional health FIRST in her Terrain Ten — flipping the framework she published in 2017
• The ACE score, what it predicts, and why a score of 3 or above dramatically increases disease risk
• What intermittent fasting actually does to the brain in recovery — and how to start without white-knuckling it
• The emerging field of metabolic psychiatry and why ketosis has reversed bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and addiction in clinical trials
• Why being “never sick” is a red flag, not a health flex
• How chronic stress puts the body in a state where treatments “bounce off” — and what to do about it
• EMDR, ibogaine, and psychedelic-assisted therapy in the context of trauma and addiction recovery
• The two things that showed up as universal common denominators across 500 cancer and mental health patients: not feeling seen, and not feeling heard

The audience Q&A goes even deeper — covering sleep and metabolic health, keto and depression, sexual abuse and trauma processing, and what it takes to rebuild a life after violence and addiction.

This is not a light episode. It’s a complete one.

Resources mentioned:

Website: Dr. Nasha Winters | Tend the Terrain

YouTube & Podcast: Tend the Terrain Podcast with Dr. Nasha

Instagram: Instagram.com/drnashawinters

Substack: Tending the Terrain: Reflections by DrNasha(TM)

Facebook: Facebook.com/drnashainc

Book: The Metabolic Approach to Cancer

Book: Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind — Dr. Georgia Ede

Book: Brain Energy — Dr. Chris Palmer

Book: The Circadian Code — Dr. Satchin Panda

Camelback Recovery outpatient treatment: CamelbackRecovery.com

#AddictionRecovery #SoberLiving #MetabolicHealth #TraumaHealing #MentalHealth #DualDiagnosis #SubstanceUseDisorder #ILoveBeingSober #CamelbackRecovery #Scottsdale #Phoenix #TerrainTen #DrNashaWinters #BloodSugar #DopamineRecovery #IntermittentFasting #MetabolicPsychiatry #ACEScore #SoberLife

Click Here for more information about Camelback Recovery

What actually keeps women from walking through the door of a treatment center — and what keeps them from staying once they’re in? Tim Westbrook sits down with Dr. Whitney Howzell, a licensed clinical social worker, US Army veteran, certified sexual therapist, and Vice President of Inpatient Operations at Meadows Behavioral Healthcare, for one of the most honest conversations about recovery this podcast has ever had.

Dr. Howzell breaks down why shame is gendered and shows up completely differently for women than for men, why emerging adults struggle to engage in treatment even when the consequences are right in front of them, and why the prefrontal cortex matters more than most treatment programs acknowledge. She talks candidly about digital culture, dopamine, and how recovery has to evolve to meet a generation that was born into the internet age.

The conversation goes deep on intimacy — not the physical kind, but the kind most people in recovery have never learned: eye contact, vulnerability, what it means to let someone actually see you. Dr. Howzell also discusses her work treating sexual trauma, sexual compulsive behavior, and the new Willow Healing Center at Meadows Behavioral Healthcare, a combined women’s program that integrates eating disorder treatment with intimacy disorder treatment after clinicians discovered the two were almost always co-occurring.

This episode is for anyone in recovery, anyone who loves someone in recovery, or any clinician who wants to understand why the one-size-fits-all treatment model keeps failing the people who need it most. Recorded live at Camelback Recovery in Scottsdale, Arizona with a live audience of clients and staff.

What if the part of you that wants to drink, use, or self-sabotage isn’t the enemy — it’s just trying to protect you the only way it knows how?

In this episode of I Love Being Sober, recorded live at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient center in Scottsdale, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with licensed professional counselor and IFS therapist Kristy Crabtree for a deep conversation on trauma, healing, and what it actually means to recover from the inside out.

Kristy breaks down Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy in plain language — explaining why we all have protective “parts,” why no part is bad (even the addictive ones), and how to work with your inner world instead of fighting it.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What IFS therapy is and why it works for addiction and trauma
• The difference between a “manager” and a “firefighter” — and which one is driving your behavior
• Why your addictive urge has a positive intention (and how to redirect it)
• How trauma gets stored in the body and blocks spiritual growth
• A simple breathwork technique to regulate your nervous system right now
• How to begin healing the inner child without becoming overwhelmed

Kristy Crabtree is the founder of Inner Light Counseling in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area and Sacred Revolution, a consciousness expansion practice. She is the author of Sacred Revolution and Reclaiming Eden, and host of the Transcendence Talks podcast.

In this episode of I Love Being Sober, recorded live at Camelback Recovery’s outpatient treatment center in Scottsdale, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with Michael Bernoff — founder of the Human Communication Institute, developer of Human Interaction Technology™, and author of Average Sucks. Michael has been alcohol-free since New Year’s Eve 2016, not because he hit a rock bottom, but because he made a clear-eyed decision: there was nothing good about drinking, and he refused to be an influence that pulled anyone else toward it.

This conversation goes deep into the psychology of language and identity in recovery. Michael breaks down why the words ‘sober’ and ‘addict’ can quietly keep people stuck, why ‘learning to live differently’ is a more powerful frame than ‘getting sober,’ and what it actually means to raise your average when you’ve been running on empty. The live audience at Camelback Recovery joins in with real questions — and Michael works through them in real time, demonstrating exactly the kind of powerful, in-the-moment coaching that has impacted hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

Topics covered: the decision to stop drinking, language and identity in recovery, Human Interaction Technology, raising your average, the word ‘addict’ and why it may be working against you, learning to live differently, self-image, communication strategies, CORE Live event, and what it means to become an example for someone else.

If you’re in recovery or considering treatment in the Phoenix or Scottsdale area — or anywhere in the country — this episode will challenge the way you think about sobriety and give you practical tools you can use today.

#ILoveBeingSober #CamelbackRecovery #MichaelBernoff #AverageSucks #SobrietyPodcast #RecoveryPhoenix #RecoveryScottsdale #ArizonaRecovery #LiveDifferently #HumanInteractionTechnology #AddictionRecovery #SoberLife #LanguageMatters #IdentityInRecovery #PersonalDevelopment #OutpatientTreatment #CORELive

What if the substance was never really the problem? In this episode of the I Love Being Sober Podcast, recorded live at Camelback Recovery Treatment Center in Phoenix, Arizona, host Tim Westbrook sits down with Dr. Marcus Earle, Clinical Director of Psychological Counseling Services (PCS) — one of the most respected behavioral health practices in the country.

Dr. Earle has spent over 35 years treating individuals, couples, and families struggling with sexual addiction, trauma, OCD, compulsive behavior, and dual diagnosis mental health issues. The PCS Intensive Program has over 40 years of experience pioneering the week-long intensive therapy model, with a multidisciplinary care team of 25+ clinicians and individualized treatment plans designed to promote lasting growth and change.

In this honest, eye-opening conversation, Tim and Dr. Earle explore:

• What sobriety really means in sex addiction recovery — and why it’s far more nuanced than abstinence
• How unresolved trauma drives addiction, compulsive behavior, and relapse
• The connection between OCD, process addiction, and substance use disorder
• What dual diagnosis and mental health treatment looks like when you go beneath the surface
• Why so many people in addiction recovery are also carrying issues they’ve never named
• What long-term, thriving recovery actually looks like — not just white-knuckling it

Whether you’re in recovery from alcohol or drugs, struggling with a process addiction, dealing with trauma or mental health challenges, or loving someone who is — this episode will meet you where you are.

Recorded live in front of clients at Camelback Recovery’s Outpatient Treatment Center, this is the I Love Being Sober Podcast — real stories, real healing, real recovery.

🌐 Learn more about the PCS Intensive Treatment Program: www.pcsintensive.com

🌐 Camelback Recovery: www.camelbackrecovery.com

#ILoveBeingSober #AddictionRecovery #SexAddiction #TraumaRecovery #OCD #DualDiagnosis #MentalHealth #SubstanceUseDisorder #SoberLife #RecoveryPodcast #PhoenixArizona #CamelbackRecovery #OutpatientTreatment #PCSIntensive #RealRecovery #SoberPodcast #HealingTrauma #ProcessAddiction #RecoveryIsPossible #OneDayAtATime

At 18 years old, Elijah Kai put a loaded gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. It didn’t fire. What followed was two decades of searching — therapy, religion, hustle, two marriages, a felony, and a life spent building a character convincing enough that nobody, including him, could see the pain underneath.

In this episode of I Love Being Sober, we sit down with spiritual teacher, Divine Architect, and author Elijah Kai to talk about the moment everything changed — and the truth he discovered on the other side of suffering.

Elijah breaks down why the traditional approaches to healing, recovery, and sobriety so often fall short, what recidivism really tells us about identity, and why the peace you’ve been chasing your entire life has been underneath you this whole time.

If you’re in recovery, fighting to stay sober, or simply trying to understand why you keep returning to old patterns — this episode will crack something open in you.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why 20 years of therapy, religion, and hustle couldn’t fix what wasn’t broken
• The difference between thought and thinking — and why it matters in recovery
• What recidivism reveals about identity and the cycle of relapse
• How to remember who you were before the world got its hands on you
• The moment Elijah stopped trying to fix himself and found he was already whole

Resources mentioned:

Already Whole by Elijah Kai — available now

elijahkai.com

Belief Theory Institute

Hannah Keller lost three siblings, battled addiction, and hit rock bottom before finding recovery at Camelback Recovery in Phoenix, Arizona. In this episode of I Love Being Sober, host Tim Westbrook sits down with Hannah to talk about what it really takes to rebuild your life from the ground up. Hannah was a patient at Camelback Recovery. Today, she’s an employee helping others find healing. This conversation covers grief and loss in recovery, how motherhood became her turning point, the role of faith and spirituality in staying sober, what people misunderstand about addiction recovery, mental health and dual diagnosis treatment, and what it means to find your identity and purpose after addiction.

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health, this episode is proof that recovery is possible and that your story isn’t over.

Camelback Recovery is a Joint Commission accredited dual diagnosis and addiction treatment center in Phoenix, AZ offering inpatient, outpatient, sober living, TMS therapy, EMDR, medication-assisted treatment, and holistic therapies.

Learn more at camelbackrecovery.com

Follow Hannah: @hannahmkeller

Follow Tim: @_timwestbrook

Follow Camelback Recovery: @camelbackrecovery

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What if addiction is not a failure, but a signal? What if the cravings, anxiety, and emotional spirals you've been fighting are actually your body trying to tell you something? Tim Westbrook sits down with faith-led wellness guide, registered dental hygienist, and author Melissa-Sue Methven for a conversation on addiction recovery, emotional suppression, nervous system regulation, and the hidden language of the body.

After losing her husband to suicide following a long struggle with mental health and addiction, Melissa-Sue began asking the deeper question — why. That single word led her into the work she now shares around the world: helping people reconnect to their bodies, regulate their nervous systems, and move out of shame and into awareness.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why addiction is best understood as a signal from the nervous system, not a moral failure
• How emotional suppression silently drives cravings, anxiety, and chronic illness
• Practical nervous system regulation tools you can use the moment a craving or panic wave hits
• How to create real internal safety — the precondition for any lasting recovery
• A live breathwork practice you can return to anytime
• How faith, surrender, and self-trust support healing without dogma
• What families of loved ones lost to addiction or suicide most need to hear

Whether you're in early recovery, long-term sobriety, supporting someone you love, or simply curious about the mind-body connection in healing, this conversation offers a compassionate reframe and tools you can use today.

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What if everything you’ve been told about addiction treatment is wrong?

In this powerful episode of I Love Being Sober, recorded live at Camelback Recovery, host Tim Westbrook sits down with Jimmie Applegate — transformational consultant, treatment center owner, U.S. Air Force veteran, and author of Addicted to Failure: Why the Rehab System Doesn’t Work and What Must Change — for a conversation that challenges everything the addiction treatment industry doesn’t want you to hear.

Jimmie pulls back the curtain on a $16 billion industry with a 60–90% failure rate, exposing why so many people relapse after completing rehab — even when they do everything right — and why the system keeps blaming the patient instead of fixing the model. Drawing on neuroscience, personal lived experience, and years of frontline treatment work, Jimmie makes the case that the 30-day treatment model is not just ineffective — it’s incompatible with how the brain actually heals from addiction.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why rehab keeps failing people — and who’s really responsible
• The biggest myths about addiction still being taught in treatment today
• What neuroscience actually says about how long recovery takes
• What genuinely personalized, individualized care looks like
• How to reframe repeated relapse as a system failure — not a personal one
• The 10forAddiction movement making treatment accessible for everyone

Whether you’re in recovery, supporting a loved one, or working in behavioral health, this episode will challenge your assumptions, validate your experience, and leave you with a completely new lens on what healing really requires.

🎙️ Listen now. Share with someone who needs to hear it.

📖 Addicted to Failure is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

🔗 jimmieapplegate.com | beaconcharities.com | 10foraddiction.com

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In this powerful episode of I Love Being Sober, we dive into the reality of mental health, pressure, and personal transformation in today’s fast-paced, social media-driven world – and how one mental reset can help deal with it all.

Recorded live at Camelback Recovery, this conversation explores what happens when success on the outside doesn’t match how you feel on the inside. We talk about the breaking point that forces change, the courage it takes to step away and focus on mental health, and what it really looks like to rebuild your life from the ground up.

You’ll hear insights on managing stress, navigating identity in the age of social media, and redefining what “mental strength” actually means. This episode also breaks down common misconceptions about treatment and highlights practical tools that can be used every day to create balance, clarity, and long-term growth.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, stuck, or like you’re constantly pushing through without slowing down—this conversation is for you.

What You’ll Learn:

• The hidden mental health challenges behind success and social media
• How to recognize when it’s time to step back and reset
• Tools for managing stress, pressure, and daily life
• The truth about treatment and personal growth
• How to build a more balanced, intentional life

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In this powerful live episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Camelback Recovery for a deeply personal and thought-provoking conversation on addiction, recovery, and the future of mental health care in America. Known globally for his work in law, public health, and policy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also brings decades of personal experience in recovery. In this candid discussion, he shares his journey through addiction, what it took to get sober, and the daily practices that have helped him maintain long-term recovery.

Together, Tim and Robert explore what real recovery looks like beyond abstinence, the role of community and purpose, and why addiction must be treated as a chronic condition—not a short-term crisis. They also dive into critical issues facing the current system, including where treatment is falling short, the need for long-term, outcomes-driven care, and how aligning incentives could transform recovery outcomes across the country.

Recorded live in front of clients and staff at Camelback Recovery, this episode concludes with an open and honest Q&A, offering insight, connection, and hope for anyone on the path to recovery.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s personal recovery journey
• What it really takes to get and stay sober
• The role of community, service, and purpose in long-term recovery
• Why the current addiction treatment system is broken
• What real, lasting recovery should look like
• The future of addiction and mental health care in America

About this episode

This episode was recorded on April 4, 2026, at Camelback Recovery's residential treatment campus in Peoria, Arizona, during U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Arizona visit as part of the "Take Back Your Health" tour.

The visit is documented in an official HHS press release, which states that "Camelback Recovery in Peoria welcomed Secretary Kennedy on a tour of the facility's residential treatment campus," and that "Secretary Kennedy then joined Camelback Recovery chief executive and co-founder Tim Westbrook to record an episode of the I Love Being Sober podcast."

Read the HHS release: https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/secretary-kennedy-advances-maha-agenda-arizona-focus-prevention-recovery-tribal-health.html

In this episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down with Andrew Engbring, co-founder of Reflection Family Interventions, to break down why most addiction interventions fail—and what families can do differently to create real, lasting recovery.

Too often, families are told to wait for “rock bottom” or simply attend support groups while their loved one struggles. But according to Andrew, this outdated approach can actually make things worse—delaying recovery, increasing risk, and leaving families without the structure and guidance they truly need.

Drawing on years of experience leading high-stakes interventions and working with hundreds of families, Andrew shares a powerful, family-centered model that reframes intervention as a process—not a one-time event. This conversation dives into the critical role families play in recovery, the biggest mistakes that lead to relapse, and how early, structured intervention can change the trajectory of someone’s life.

If you’ve ever tried to help someone you love and felt stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure what to do next—this episode will give you clarity, direction, and hope.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why most interventions fail to create lasting change
• The truth about “rock bottom” and why waiting is dangerous
• How addiction impacts the entire family system
• What effective, structured family involvement actually looks like
• The biggest mistakes families make when trying to help
• How to take action—even if your loved one doesn’t want help yet
• This episode is for individuals in recovery, families navigating addiction, and anyone who wants a deeper understanding of how healing actually happens.

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Most people in recovery assume they have a broken brain, and it hinders them from getting better. But it is not the case. Every person in recovery always has a chance to succeed – all they need is the right support and treatment methods. Tim Westbrook is joined by Dr. Jason Giles, founder of Addiction Doctors, who has been helping people recover from addiction not just through clinical expertise but also real-life experience. He shares how he discards the notion of having a broken brain after going through addiction, and instead focuses on a long-term, intergenerational approach that focuses on the actual root of the problem. Dr. Giles also dispels the misconceptions about willpower, the three important things that make a difference in recovery, and how breathwork and meditation can lead to a powerful mindset shift.

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This episode is a little different, and it might be exactly what you need. Instead of just talking about addiction recovery, self-love, and healing. We’re inviting you to experience it. Donny Starkins is here to offer a powerful conversation on self-love in recovery, exploring why so many people struggle with unworthiness, shame, and low self-worth, especially in early sobriety. You’ll learn how self-abandonment shows up in everyday life, what self-love actually looks like in action, and how mindfulness, discomfort, and presence can become powerful tools for growth. Then we shift.

This episode transitions into a live, guided self-love workshop with Donny, designed to help you reconnect with yourself, regulate your nervous system, and build real confidence and inner worth from the inside out. If you’ve ever felt like you’re not enough, either you have struggled with guilt or shame, or are looking for practical tools to support your mental health and recovery journey, this episode is for you. This isn’t just something to listen to. It’s something to experience.

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In this episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down with Dr. Jack Wolfson, a board-certified cardiologist known as the Natural Heart Doctor, for a powerful conversation about heart health, longevity, and the lifestyle habits that truly prevent disease.

Dr. Wolfson spent years practicing conventional cardiology in one of Arizona’s largest heart groups before questioning the traditional medical model. Today, he focuses on root-cause medicine, helping people prevent and reverse heart disease through nutrition, lifestyle changes, environmental awareness, and holistic health practices.

Recorded live at Camelback Recovery Outpatient Treatment Center, this conversation explores the deep connection between mental health, stress, addiction recovery, and cardiovascular health.

Tim and Dr. Wolfson discuss why modern medicine often treats symptoms instead of causes, how chronic stress and trauma impact the heart, and what people in recovery can do to rebuild both their physical and mental health.

If you care about longevity, natural health, mental wellness, and living a sober lifestyle that supports long-term vitality, this episode will give you practical insights you can start applying immediately.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why heart disease remains the leading cause of death
• The connection between stress, mental health, and heart health
• Lifestyle habits that support longevity and disease prevention
• The role of nutrition and inflammation in cardiovascular health
• Environmental toxins and their impact on the body
• How people in addiction recovery can rebuild physical health
• Simple daily habits that support long-term wellness

About Dr. Jack Wolfson

Dr. Jack Wolfson is a board-certified cardiologist, bestselling author of The Paleo Cardiologist: The Natural Way to Heart Health, international speaker, and founder of Natural Heart Doctor. His work focuses on preventing heart disease through natural and holistic approaches that address the root causes of illness.

Learn more and assess your own heart attack risk here

About the Podcast

I Love Being Sober is a podcast hosted by Tim Westbrook, exploring addiction recovery, mental health, biohacking, and the lifestyle practices that support a fulfilling sober life.

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In this powerful live conversation recorded at Camelback Recovery, Tim Westbrook sits down with Dr. Don Middleton to explore the intersection of faith, addiction medicine, and lasting transformation.

Dr. Middleton is a board-certified physician with more than 30 years in family medicine and currently practices addiction medicine at the internationally renowned Meadows Behavioral Health in Wickenburg, Arizona. He also serves as medical director at Vital 4 Men and was named Arizona Physician of the Year at the state medical convention.

In this episode, we dive into his book The Dunamis Effect: When Your Higher Power Is Jesus and discuss what happens when Christian faith becomes the foundation of 12-step recovery.

This conversation covers:

• Christian 12-step recovery and the meaning of “Dunamis”
• The role of Jesus as a Higher Power in addiction recovery
• Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and faith-based recovery
• The balance between science, scripture, and sobriety
• Rebuilding identity after addiction
• Overcoming shame after relapse
• The future of Christian recovery ministries

Dr. Middleton also shares his perspective on the controversy surrounding medications in recovery and how medical science and spiritual transformation can work together — not against each other.

Whether you’re early in recovery, a treatment professional, part of a Christian recovery ministry, or simply curious about the role of faith in sobriety, this episode offers practical insight and hope.

Learn more about Dr. Middleton’s work:

📘 The Dunamis Effect: When Your Higher Power Is Jesus (Available on Amazon)

🌐 https://dunamisinitiative.com

📱 Follow “Dunamis Initiative” on Facebook and YouTube

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In this powerful episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down with award-winning singer/songwriter, vocal coach, and woman in recovery Shylah Ray Sunshine for an honest conversation about sobriety, childhood trauma, motherhood, and the healing power of the human voice.

Raised by parents struggling with alcoholism, Shylah shares how early exposure to addiction shaped her life — and how finding 12-step recovery helped her break generational patterns and begin deep emotional healing. She opens up about becoming a mother while navigating her own trauma recovery, balancing career and spiritual growth, and what it truly means to “come home to yourself.”

Together, Tim and Shylah explore:

• Growing up in an alcoholic household and finding recovery
• The role of 12-step programs in healing trauma
• Breaking generational cycles through sobriety
• Motherhood and recovery
• Quitting smoking and reclaiming the physical voice
• How trauma lives in the body — and in the voice
• Music as medicine and facilitating healing through sound
• Using breath, vibration, and expression as tools for transformation

Shylah also shares insights from her work as a professional vocal coach and creator of Soul Voice Singing, explaining how reconnecting with your voice can unlock emotional freedom, self-expression, and spiritual alignment. This episode bridges addiction recovery, trauma healing, creativity, and spirituality — offering hope and practical insight for anyone seeking deeper healing. If you’ve ever struggled to speak your truth, break unhealthy patterns, or reconnect with your authentic self, this conversation is for you.

About the Guest

Shylah Ray Sunshine is a multi-award-winning Neo-Soul and R&B artist, DJ, professional vocal coach, and proud First Nations Algonquin woman based in Los Angeles. Her music has been shared worldwide, and her work focuses on healing, empowerment, and authentic expression.

Learn more about Shylah Ray Sunshine and her Soul Voice Singing work at:

www.shylahraysunshine.com

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In this episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down with Grammy Award–winning composer and sound healing pioneer Barry Goldstein to explore how music can be used as medicine for mental health, nervous system regulation, sleep, and addiction recovery.

Barry is the creator of Acousticeuticals™—therapeutic music designed to support emotional regulation, reduce stress, and guide the brain into more coherent and regulated states. His work has been used in hospitals, treatment centers, medical practices, and research settings, and he has collaborated with leaders such as Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Joe Dispenza, and Dave Asprey.

Tim shares his personal experience using the sleep playlist Barry created with Dr. Daniel Amen, which he listens to every night as part of his recovery and mental health routine. Together, they break down why certain music works, how sound impacts the brain and nervous system, and how people in recovery can use music intentionally to calm anxiety, quiet negative self-talk, and improve sleep.

This conversation blends neuroscience, frequency, energy, and practical tools, making it especially relevant for anyone navigating anxiety, trauma, burnout, or addiction recovery.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How music regulates the nervous system
• The science behind sound, frequency, and brain states
• Why music can reduce anxiety and emotional overwhelm
• How to biohack your brain with intentional music
• The role of music in trauma healing and recovery
• Why sleep-focused music improves sleep quality, not just sleep duration
• How to build a simple music practice for mental health and recovery

Whether you’re in recovery, a mental health professional, or someone looking for natural tools to support emotional regulation and sleep, this episode offers a powerful new way to think about music as medicine.

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In this episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down in person with Jaime Vinck, President of The Meadows Behavioral Healthcare, to have an honest, no-hype conversation about addiction treatment and recovery.

Jaime is the author of The Rehab Playbook: Demystifying Addiction Treatment, a guide written to help people in treatment and their families understand what rehab actually does, why it sometimes falls short, and how to approach recovery with clarity instead of confusion.

Recorded live at Camelback Recovery Treatment Center in front of outpatient clients, this conversation speaks directly to people who are:

• Currently in treatment
• Early in recovery
• Returning to treatment after relapse
• Skeptical due to past treatment experiences
• Family members trying to help without causing harm

Together, Tim and Jaime explore why rehab isn’t a “fix,” how trauma and mental health influence addiction, what accountability really means in recovery, and why aftercare and daily structure matter more than motivation alone.

This episode also addresses common misconceptions about rehab, including:

• Why treatment doesn’t always work the way people expect
• How broken or poorly matched programs can impact recovery
• Why relapse is not a moral failure
• What ethical, effective addiction treatment actually looks like

If you or someone you love is navigating addiction treatment, recovery, or the decision to seek help, this conversation offers realistic hope, practical insight, and a clearer understanding of the recovery process — without shame, fear, or false promises.

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Tim Westbrook sits down with entrepreneur and CEO Tommy Mello, founder of A1 Garage Door Service, who shares what it really takes to build a high-growth company and how working nonstop could lead to self-destruction. He opens up about workaholism, burnout, identity, and the moment he realized that performance alone was not enough. They explore how ambition can quietly become a coping mechanism, why work is often a socially acceptable addiction, and what it looks like to create success without sacrificing health, relationships, or peace of mind. They also discuss lifestyle changes, stress management, stepping away from alcohol for clarity, and the role of boundaries, values, and purpose in long-term well-being. This episode is for anyone asking: How do I stay driven without destroying myself?

Topics covered:

• Workaholism and burnout
• Mental health and high performance
• Stress, pressure, and coping strategies
• Alcohol, lifestyle changes, and clarity
• Identity, purpose, and sustainable success

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In this episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down with Kathryn Elliott, alcohol mindset coach, speaker, and founder of The Alcohol Mindset Coach, to share how she discovered a scientifically proven yet rarely discussed link between alcohol and increased breast cancer risk. Together, they discuss what the research actually says about “moderate” drinking, how alcohol affects hormones, inflammation, and sleep, and why you do not need a diagnosis or a rock bottom moment to reconsider alcohol’s role in your life. Kathryn also explores how to approach these conversations without fear, shame, or self-blame, and how clarity, confidence, and well-being often improve when we choose ourselves first.

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In this episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down with Estil Wallace, founder of Cornerstone Healing Center, for an honest, live conversation about recovery, mental health, and what it really takes to build a life in sobriety. Estil shares his personal journey through addiction, the role the 12 Steps have played in his recovery, and how lived experience – not theory – shapes the way he shows up today. Together, they talk about experience, strength, and hope, navigating early recovery, staying grounded as life gets bigger, and why recovery is about much more than just not using. This episode is for anyone who’s struggling, early in the process, or looking for proof that meaningful change is possible one day at a time.

Addiction is typically addressed in a harsh and imposing manner, and compassion is often thrown out of the window. Heather Ross, a family recovery coach and podcaster, joins Tim Westbrook, MS to discuss how parents should support children struggling with substance use without confrontation or shame. Delving deep into family recovery, they break down how children struggling with addiction positively respond to connection, communication, and emotional regulation. Heather also explains that tough love often backfires, how nervous system regulation impacts the entire family, and how parents can set boundaries that build connection instead of distance.

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Anxiety will always be a part of the roller coaster of life. However, suppressing it will only lead to frequent panic attacks and a more emotionally unstable you. Joining Tim Westbrook, MS is Dr. Nicole Cain, ND, MA, a licensed naturopathic physician in Arizona and a leading expert in trauma-informed and integrative mental health. Together, they discuss how to turn anxiety into intelligent signals from the body that lead to healing. Dr. Nicole also breaks down the four steps of reprogramming, the nine different types of anxiety, and how to listen to your symptoms. Find out how to treat anxiety not as an enemy but as a messenger you should closely listen to.

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Choosing a medical provider in recovery can be a life-and-death decision, and for those newly sober, an uninformed choice could create a dangerous path back to old habits. Dr. Ravi Chandiramani, a pioneering naturopathic physician and expert in integrative addiction medicine with over 20 years of clinical experience, joins us to issue a crucial warning about the growing trend of biohacking, peptide therapy, and hormone replacement that is being pitched to vulnerable people in early recovery. Dr. Chandiramani explains the dangerous “more is better” mindset that makes controlled substances like testosterone and stimulants like Phentermine a slippery slope, detailing the real risks of non-FDA-approved peptides, and why it is essential to partner with a doctor who knows your full addiction history.

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Addiction may bring you to your rock bottom, but it does not mean jumping back is impossible. Learn how to find your path to recovery and love yourself all over again with bestselling author and podcaster Arlina Allen. She joins Tim Westbrook to share how she helps redefine the recovery process through her Sober Life School, her book The 12 Step Guide for Skeptics, and The One Day at a Time Recovery Podcast. Learn how to embrace solutions-based approaches that go beyond traditional recovery techniques to deliberately create a better future for yourself. Arlina also explains how to live above the line and get rid of your limiting beliefs to start transforming your life and embrace an authentic, sober identity.

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The era of saying “you got yourself here, now get yourself out” is over—the true future of data-driven addiction recovery is paved with objective science. Tim Westbrook, MS welcomes Dr. Evelyn Higgins, a certified addictionologist, former Olympic team doctor, and founder of Wired BioHealth™, who is moving the entire field past its stigmatized, trial-and-error past. Dr. Higgins dives into how understanding an individual’s unique biological blueprint, including 85 biomarkers and genetic snips, provides clinical proof that addiction is a healthcare problem. Discover how this scientific validation takes the shame out of the equation and empowers individuals with personalized protocols for optimizing their physiology, making different decisions, and sustaining long-term sobriety.

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How do you turn 35 years of absorbed pain and rage into peace? It all starts with the radical act of healing from shame and complex trauma. Tim Westbrook sits down with his personal therapist, Ken Wells, a nationally recognized expert in treating sex addiction, intimacy disorders, compulsive behaviors, and trauma. Ken shares his raw journey from a cult-like childhood, abuse, and clinical depression to 35 years of sobriety. He explains his powerful method of giving shame back to its source. Learn how he transformed his rage into compassion and found unconditional self-worth by focusing on managing behavior not shaming the person. Ken also reveals the single common denominator among all his clients—from everyday people to celebrities and billionaires—is the universal struggle of losing their true identity. Tune in for insight, practical tools, and a powerful message of hope for your own recovery journey.

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Deep personal healing requires facing the self with as much courage as one faces the world. Former US Senator and trailblazing military leader Martha McSally, the first American female fighter pilot and the first to command a US Fighter Squadron, shares her raw, intimate story of navigating profound loss, emotional volatility, and a painful cycle of abuse that began after the death of her father and childhood dog. She discusses the critical shift from seeking external saviors to taking radical responsibility for her own recovery, a journey that involved disconnecting from a victim frequency and pursuing a spiritual path to “unpack her trauma.” Martha details the simple, yet vital, daily habits—including breathwork, gratitude, and “morning rubs” with her rescue dog—that she uses to regulate her nervous system, raise her energetic frequency, and live a life grounded in resilience and peace.

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You must know the right type of depression that a person is going through to provide them with appropriate treatments – but not with TMS. Tim Westbrook, MS sits down with Dr. Robbie Westerman, who breaks down how Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation works even without knowing someone’s exact medication or diagnosis. He explains how TMS rebalances neurotransmitters without limitations of traditional pharmacologic approaches to help patients freely feel their emotions. Dr. Robbie also discusses how TMS differs from ketamine-assisted therapies and what must be done to make this treatment method more accessible to the public.

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Ketamine therapy has become a turning point for many who once believed change was impossible—and for Chad McLean, it opened the door that changed everything. After years of addiction, trauma, and self-destruction following a devastating military accident, Chad found healing and clarity through his recovery journey and the transformative effects of ketamine therapy. He shares how this experience helped him break lifelong patterns, rediscover purpose, and channel his renewed strength into Mental Joe, a movement that uses apparel to start conversations about mental health, addiction, and healing. His story is a raw and inspiring look at how courage, compassion, and a willingness to do the hard inner work can transform even the darkest moments into light.

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Embracing your most authentic version is not about adding things to yourself, but instead removing everything that is not you. Through healing and mindfulness, unleashing the real you is possible. Joining Tim Westbrook, MS is composer and musician Jason Campbell, who guides people on cultivating awareness, emotional balance, and peace through the power of breath and presence. He shares his work at Zen Wellness, where he teaches how breathwork and meditation can quiet the mind, reconnect the body, and open the heart. Jason also presents how he uses his musical skills to elevate meditation practices to achieve better nervous system regulation and stress management.

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Sobriety does not only free you from your addictions – it can also level up your entrepreneurship approach. Tim Westbrook is joined by Narelle Gorman, a powerhouse business strategist and global speaker in long-term recovery. She explains how her recovery journey plays a huge role in building her purpose-driven brand and maintaining her integrity despite the many challenges along the way. Narelle also reflects on her humble beginnings and the traumatic experiences she went through that intensified her compassion, shaped her resilient mindset, and transformed her into a heart-led entrepreneur.

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Healing is more than just treating your wounds or feeling better. By going beyond surface-level fixes, you also address your biggest internal suffering. Joining Tim Westbrook in this insightful conversation is practitioner, speaker, and founder of Breakthrough Performance and Rehab Wesley Kress. He dispels the myth of the “inaccurate body” and the right way to deal with unresolved trauma, the most overlooked factor in every disease. Wes also emphasizes the importance of never shying away from difficult conversations, the positive benefits of meditation, and why self-love should always be one of your top priorities. If you want to learn how to live a more meaningful life, brave your storms, and find your best path to healing, this one is for you.

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There is no one path in healing, and it may come into your life in the most unexpected ways. For Andrew Murdoch, he spent a huge chunk of his recovery on YouTube. In this enlightening conversation with Tim Westbrook, he shares how watching educational videos online greatly helped in healing the wounds from his messy marriage, getting rid of his alcoholism and gambling addiction, and rebuilding his finances. Andrew also talks about how he helps financial professionals create engaging video content through his own YouTube marketing solution, YT Era. Discover how a non-traditional recovery journey can still lift you from a rock bottom situation.

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The recovery journey is not just about yourself, but also about making ripples to change other people’s lives for the better. Tim Westbrook sits down with Matthew Handy, who shares how he is paying forward as a recovery leader after everything he went through. Breaking down his philosophy of “debt of recovery,” he explains how he used his first-hand experience with addiction treatments to build the vision and practices of his very own Handy Treatment Centers and Harmony Grove Behavioral Health. Matthew also discusses why suffering has its own share of benefits, the role of pain in achieving lasting transformation, and why there is still enlightenment to be found in relapses.

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Everything begins and ends with your gut health, from your daily mood to the body’s ability to heal itself. Tim Westbrook explores this interesting topic with global educator and keynote speaker Dr. Donese Worden, NMD. She explores the gut-brain connection that directly impacts a person’s mental health, which is especially crucial for someone recovering from addiction. Dr. Donese breaks down practical tips to support your mitochondrial health, the truth about the living bugs in our body, and why you should check your pool every single day. If you want to optimize your gut health to live a healthier and more vibrant life, this is a must-listen discussion.

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Recovery isn’t just about sobriety—it’s about rebuilding identity, regulating the nervous system, and learning how to live with radical honesty. Automotive business owner and radio personality Dave Riccio, also known as the “Automotive Therapist,” joins to share how his journey through sex addiction, multiple sclerosis, and deep-rooted shame became a path to healing. As co-host of Bumper to Bumper Radio and owner of Tri-City Transmission, Dave opens up about meditation, movement, community, and vulnerability as the cornerstones of sustainable recovery—and why health, not hustle, is the new success.

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Is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) the revolutionary mental health treatment you’ve been hearing about, or just another fad? Dr. Robert Westerman, a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner with a seriously powerful backstory from Camelback Integrated Health and Wellness, joins Tim Westbrook to cut through the BS and give it to us straight. In this episode, we ditch the medical jargon and get real about how TMS actually works, using magnets—not electricity like those scary ECT movies!—to fire up neurotransmitters and tackle issues like depression, anxiety, OCD, and PTSD. Dr. Westerman, who’s seen it all and treated thousands, breaks down why this could be a game-changer for folks struggling with those “treatment-resistant” conditions, plus spills the tea on the different ways you can access this treatment, making it more flexible and affordable than you might think.

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Personalized parent coaching and effective intervention strategies offer a vital lifeline for families grappling with addiction, paving the way for hope and healing. In this episode, we’re honored to feature Christopher Doyle, the dedicated Founder of Why Intervention, who brings an authentic and deeply compassionate perspective to the complexities of addiction recovery. Chris, a retired New York City firefighter and former Head Substance Abuse Counselor for the FDNY’s Employee Assistance Program, shares his unique journey and the impactful “Stop Dreaming Framework” and “Four-Part Connection Formula” he’s developed to guide families through crisis. Tune in as we delve into the realities of addiction, the power of leverage, and the crucial role families play in leading their loved ones toward a path of sobriety and a brighter future.

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