You know that sinking feeling when you wake up with a hangover and think: “I’m never doing this again”? We’ve all been there. But what happens when you follow through? Sonia Kahlon and Kathleen Killen can tell you, because they did it! They went from sisters-in-law, to Sisters in Sobriety. In this podcast, Sonia and Kathleen invite you into their world, as they navigate the ups and downs of sobriety, explore stories of personal growth and share their journey of wellness and recovery. Get ready for some real, honest conversations about sobriety, addiction, and everything in between. Episodes will cover topics such as: reaching emotional sobriety, how to make the decision to get sober, adopting a more mindful lifestyle, socializing without alcohol, and much more. Whether you’re sober-curious, seeking inspiration and self-care through sobriety, or embracing the alcohol-free lifestyle already… Tune in for a weekly dose of vulnerability, mutual support and much needed comic relief. Together...
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In this episode of Sisters in Sobriety, Sonia and Kathleen dig into what it really takes to move from white-knuckling it to building a life rooted in calm, purpose, and—yes—joy. They’re joined by Cheryl Pasieka, author of Climbing the Stairs: My Journey from Addiction to Pure Joy, who shares how rehab, mindfulness, and a fierce commitment to self-care helped her stop hiding behind alcohol and start living on her own terms. Cheryl brings hard-won wisdom and practical tools for women in recovery.
Across the conversation, they explore the fears that surface in early sobriety (What if I fail? What will people think?), how to set boundaries with negative energy, and what it means to choose sustainable joy over short-term relief. They touch on midlife purpose, rebuilding self-esteem, creating accountability, and why sharing your story can become someone else’s survival guide. Expect talk of relapse risk, root causes, nervous-system regulation, and using community, routine, and self-inquiry as anchors.
Listeners will learn about reflective journaling (and the game-changer of rereading old entries), building a sobriety plan you revisit every six months, using mindfulness, yoga, and meditation to regulate stress, and creating accountability check-ins with trusted friends. Cheryl explains how to identify triggers, let go of resentments, and replace people-pleasing with “put your own oxygen mask on first.” You’ll also hear a refreshing definition of joy—a daily practice of noticing, gratitude, and positive reframing—that helps prevent drift into rumination or “I’ll just have one” thinking.
Cheryl opens up about losing her mother, the spiral that followed, and the decision to go to rehab on Vancouver Island—phone surrendered, excuses stripped away.
This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.
00:00 – Toronto roots, quick hellos, and Cheryl’s book intro, Climbing the Stairs
02:05 – “I wanted sustainable joy”—why grief and stress made moderation impossible
03:10 – Vancouver Island rehab: no phone, no running, just the work
04:12 – The first two years: fear of failure, meetings, yoga, and perseverance
05:06 – “What if I fail publicly?”—accountability and shame in early sobriety
06:02 – Why “just cut back” advice from some doctors misses the disease entirely
07:20 – Oxygen mask first: releasing people-pleasing and caring less what others think
08:05 – The quote that sparked the memoir and a surprising push from a psychic
09:18 – From private journaling to “maybe this can help one person” publishing mindset
10:45 – Telling family and friends—acceptance, boundaries, and letting some people drift
12:02 – Owning the past: divorces, resentments, and the freedom of self-acceptance
15:04 – Root causes: self-esteem, secrets, and climbing into the hole when alone
16:10 – Defining joy: reframing the day, gratitude, and the Tim Hortons “rain vs spring” story
18:02 – Calm as part of joy: taking things as they come instead of spiraling
19:06 – Protecting energy: stepping back from chronic negativity without guilt
21:02 – The morning stack: journal, meditation, movement, and a girlfriends’ daily check-in
22:40 – Weekly accountability now, occasional counseling as needed—right-sizing support
23:36 – “Planting my own garden”: self-care as not waiting for permission (or flowers)
24:12 – Midlife meaning: six-month reviews, giving back, quilting for folks in need
27:02 – The power of rereading journals: past you showing present you the way through
Sonia and her guest, Dr. Jyothi Rao, are diving into the kind of whole-body wellness that actually sticks. Dr. Rao is the Medical Director of Shakthi Health and Wellness Center in Maryland, blending science and compassion to help people get to the root of what’s going on in their bodies. She has over 25 years of experience helping patients turn their health around—plus she’s the author of Body on Fire and Body on Fire Cookbook.
They’re talking about the big picture: why your energy might still be low even after ditching alcohol, how stress and sleep are secretly running the show, and what small daily shifts can make the biggest difference. Expect an easy-to-follow chat about inflammation, gut health, circadian rhythm, and what’s really going on with midlife hormones.
Dr. Rao breaks down what actually works when it comes to lowering inflammation, balancing blood sugar, and building the kind of energy you can count on. You’ll learn how light exposure affects your sleep, why protein timing matters, and how things like strength training, hydration, and even acupuncture can help your body feel like yours again. This isn’t about overhauling your whole life—it’s about finding simple, doable steps that build on each other.
This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our Substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.
Episode Highlights (time-stamped)
00:00 — Why integrative medicine matters in sobriety
02:18 — Dr. Rao’s journey from conventional to functional medicine
05:12 — What “root cause” care actually means
07:45 — The inflammation–fatigue connection after alcohol
10:03 — Balancing blood sugar without overcomplicating meals
12:26 — Mitochondria and how to get your energy back
14:58 — Light, timing, and your circadian rhythm
17:40 — How to set yourself up for better sleep
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How to Ditch Dating Drama with Carleigh Ferrante
Monday, June 23, 2025 • Duration 54:55
This week on Sisters in Sobriety, Sonia and Kathleen are diving deep into the wild world of dating—minus the drinks. They're joined by Carleigh Ferrante, host of the Mostly Dating podcast. Carleigh talks about what it really means to date with intention, honesty, and clarity—especially when you're sober. From starting over after a long-term relationship to swiping through the chaos of dating apps, they're talking about it.
Together, they explore how to spot emotional availability, navigate red flags, and decode whether your new connection is fueled by real chemistry. They ask big questions like: Can attraction grow? How can you tell if someone’s emotionally mature or just really charming? How long should you “get to know” someone before deciding to be exclusive? And what does flirting even look like when you’re sober?
You'll walk away with tangible, empowering insights like how to start meaningful conversations on dating apps, how to plan sober-friendly first dates, and how to protect your peace when things don’t go as planned. Carleigh shares practical tips for setting physical and emotional boundaries, flirting without alcohol, and recognizing when someone just isn’t your person—even if nothing seems “wrong.” You'll also learn how to gauge emotional maturity versus availability and the importance of aligned values in long-term compatibility.
On a personal note, Sonia and Kathleen open up about their own dating experiences and reflect on what it felt like to date sober for the first time, and how vulnerability, awkwardness, and self-awareness reshaped their views on intimacy and connection. Carleigh adds her own behind-the-scenes stories from dating app disasters to moments of surprising self-growth.
This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our Substack for extra tips, tricks, and resources.
Time-stamped Highlights
[00:01:00] Carleigh Ferrante joins the show to talk all things dating
[00:02:00] Sonia and Kathleen share their contrasting Bumble experiences
[00:04:00] Carleigh’s go-to formula for dating app openers that actually work
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Food Junkies in Recovery: The Truth About Sugar Addiction with Dr. Vera Tarman
Monday, June 16, 2025 • Duration 56:19
Is it really just emotional eating—or could it be addiction? In this week’s episode of Sisters in Sobriety, we speak with renowned expert Dr. Vera Tarman to unravel the science, psychology, and stigma surrounding sugar and flour addiction, and how we can truly recover. As the Medical Director of Renascent, one of Canada’s largest substance abuse treatment centres, Dr. Tarman brings a wealth of clinical insight—plus her own recovery from both alcohol and food addiction. She is the author of Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction and cohost of the Food Junkies Podcast.
What’s the real connection between alcohol and sugar? Why do so many people transfer their addictions to food when they get sober? And what do terms like “intuitive eating,” “emotional eating,” and “abstinence” actually mean in the context of recovery?
Dr. Tarman also breaks down the difference between emotional eating and food addiction, outlines what recovery from food addiction really requires, and offers practical insight into why abstinence—not just moderation—is the key for many. Expect to learn about the dopamine pathways, the food-addiction spectrum, the role of ultra-processed foods, and the concept of “food serenity.”
Finally, Dr. Tarman shares her deeply personal story— her own early experiences with alcohol and marijuana, and how she navigated her own recovery from binge eating and bulimia while practicing as a doctor. Her journey is vulnerable, relatable, and a reminder that healing is possible—even when it’s not linear.
This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our Substack for extra tips, tricks, and resources.
Time-stamped Highlights
00:00 – Welcome and guest intro: Dr. Vera Tarman, addiction medicine expert and author
01:55 – Her first addiction: sugar or alcohol?
03:30 – Growing up with an alcoholic mother
04:45 – Alcohol and academic life: why she quit in med school
05:50 – Binge eating, bulimia, and how food replaced alcohol
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Date Selfishly, Love Authentically: Matchmaking Wisdom from Daphney Poyser
Monday, June 9, 2025 • Duration 59:24
Have you ever stared at your phone wondering where all the emotionally available adults are? In today’s episode of Sisters in Sobriety, we have Daphney Poyser, the founder and CEO of Fern Connections—a values-driven, LGBTQIA+ and ally-inclusive matchmaking and dating coaching company. Daphney’s mission is help people date with intention and build meaningful relationships rooted in authenticity. Today, she’s here to help us navigate dating—especially while sober—with more clarity and confidence.
We dig into the real-life challenges of dating in recovery, touching on everything from emotional prep work to the myths we carry from childhood about what love should look like. What does compatibility really mean? Is it okay to have expectations? And what does it mean to “selfishly date”—and why is that a good thing?
You'll s will walk away with tools for building more conscious relationships—whether you’re using a dating app, working with a matchmaker, or stepping out into the sober dating world for the first time.
You’ll also hear Daphney’s personal story—how becoming a widow in 2019 led her to pivot out of corporate America and into founding Fern Connections, a service inspired in part by her queer daughter and family members. Daphney shares her own journey of finding love again later in life, learning to set boundaries, and building a business that centers care, consent, and clarity.
This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our Substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.
Episode Highlights
00:02 – Meet Daphney Poyser, and how losing her husband led her to start a matchmaking company
00:04 – Why Fern Connections was created to serve the LGBTQIA+ and ally community
00:07 – Discussing sober dating and what it means to show up without numbing
00:09 – Why you shouldn’t have to dull yourself to go on a date
00:10 – The importance of emotional safety and matching clients with aligned values
00:12 – What to do when someone says they’re fine with sobriety—but turns out they’re not
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The Missing Link Between Clarity, Energy, and Sobriety With Christie Dames
Monday, June 2, 2025 • Duration 52:56
What if your sugar cravings, chronic fatigue, or lack of clarity weren’t just random symptoms—but signs of deeper imbalances that could be blocking your recovery? On this episode of Sisters in Sobriety, Sonia is joined by strategist, speaker, and sober advocate Christie Dames. With over 38 years of sobriety and a career helping high-performers unlock their potential, Christie shares how her lived experience and research intersect to shed light on the brain-body connection.
Today, they talk about why what you eat—and what surrounds you—matters deeply when it comes to emotional clarity, energy, and healing. How does what we eat impact our emotional sobriety? What’s the role of metabolic health in our ability to regulate mood and access clarity? And how do toxins—whether in food, electronics, or water—quietly sabotage our healing efforts?
Listeners will learn about the connection between mitochondrial health and long-term sobriety, how refined sugars and processed foods derail emotional regulation, and the invisible toll environmental toxins like PFAS and EMFs take on our well-being. Christie also shares practical tools for lowering your toxic load—think organic swaps, safer tech habits, and why red light bulbs might become your new best friend.
And yes, as always, we go there—into the personal stories. Christie opens up about her own path to sobriety, including her recovery from misdiagnosis, withdrawal from neuroleptic medication, and the chronic pain that shaped her understanding of emotional vs. physical hunger. From healing trauma to navigating relapse triggers, she helps us see our cravings not as flaws but as clues.
This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our Substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.
Episode Highlights:
00:01:00 — Christie introduces the idea that sugar cravings can block emotional sobriety
00:02:30 — The physical trauma that set the stage for addiction
00:03:45 — Why alcohol felt like an elixir for Christie’s fractured sense of self
00:04:55 — Mold exposure and neurological misdiagnosis compound her health issues
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The Truth About Sober Dating, Sex, and Love with Kaitlin Henry
Wednesday, May 28, 2025 • Duration 18:16
In this episode of Sisters in Sobriety, we’re back with another installment of our no-filter mini-series where past guests answer 10 revealing questions about what it’s really like to date without alcohol in the picture.
This time, Sonia chats with Kaitlin Henry, wellness advocate and host of the Step Zero podcast. Kaitlin busts the myth that you have to hit rock bottom before you can change—and now, she’s opening up about love after divorce, how getting sober changed her approach to relationships, and why acts of service are her love language.
From awkward first sober dates to realizing that two-drink limits are non-negotiable, Kaitlin shares the red and green flags she looks for, the playlist track that sums up her love life, and her favorite sober date idea (hint: it involves a boat and no wine list).
Get ready for some serious honesty, relatable stories, and a few laugh-out-loud moments. Whether you're newly sober, sober curious, or just navigating dating without defaulting to “grabbing drinks,” this one's for you.
🌐 Kathleen’s Website Kathleen does not endorse any products mentioned in this podcast
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Helping Without Hurting: Family Recovery That Works
Monday, May 26, 2025 • Duration 48:20
This week on Sisters in Sobriety, Sonia and Kathleen are taking on one of the trickiest parts of recovery: what happens at home. Their guest, Amber Hollingsworth, is a licensed professional counselor, family recovery expert, and the brain behind the YouTube channel Put the Shovel Down. With over 20 years of experience, she helps families deal with the chaos of addiction—without burning themselves out in the process.
If you’ve ever tried to help a loved one and ended up feeling like the bad guy (or totally powerless), this conversation is going to hit close to home. Amber explains why the old-school intervention model often backfires, how shame and blame keep people stuck, and why the people closest to someone struggling with addiction often have more influence than they think.
There’s a better way—and Amber walks us through it. From her “Invisible Intervention” method to a strength-based approach that helps people reconnect with their values, she shares real tools that actually work. You'll hear how she encourages people to stop focusing on what’s going wrong and start noticing what’s still right—and how families can become part of the solution without getting dragged down by the drama.
Sonia and Kathleen also open up about their own experiences trying (and failing) to stage an intervention, what they’d do differently now, and why it's so hard to step out of the “rescuer” role when someone you love is hurting. It’s raw, it’s real, and honestly—it’s the kind of conversation that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew about helping someone get better.
This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our Substack for extra tips, tricks, and resources.
Episode Highlights (Time-Stamped):
00:01:00 – How Amber got into addiction counseling (hint: not the usual story)
00:02:30 – Growing up surrounded by addiction, and not realizing it until much later
00:04:45 – Why she started Put the Shovel Down and how it became a mission
00:05:55 – Why families often have more power than they think
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The Truth About Sober Dating, Sex, and Love with Whitney Combs
Wednesday, May 21, 2025 • Duration 15:42
In this special mini-episode of our spicy new series: The Truth About Sober Dating, Sex, and Love, we have Whitney Combs. A nationally board-certified health and wellness coach, wife, and mom of three. Whitney opens up about rediscovering intimacy without alcohol, why honesty became her ultimate non-negotiable, and how she chooses restaurants based solely on dessert and mocktails (relatable). Oh—and she’s got a concert horror story you won’t forget.
If you’ve ever wondered how to navigate sober sex, sober dating apps, or what to say when someone asks, “Why don’t you drink?”—this episode is for you.
When Family Hurts: The Truth About Estrangement With Dr. Sharon
Monday, May 19, 2025 • Duration 50:17
Navigating family dynamics can be one of the hardest parts of recovery—especially when the relationships we’re told are “unbreakable” feel anything but safe. In this episode of Sisters in Sobriety, Sonia and Kathleen are joined by Dr. Sharon Martin, psychotherapist and author of Cutting Ties with Your Parents and The Better Boundaries Workbook. With over 25 years of experience, Dr. Martin helps us unpack what it really means to set boundaries with family, the complexities of estrangement, and how these issues often resurface in sobriety.
Together, we explore some big questions: How do you know when it’s time to go no-contact with a parent or family member? What’s the difference between estrangement and avoidance? How do you deal with the guilt, grief, and judgment that come up when you make that choice? And how do old family wounds start to resurface once we get sober? From emotional manipulation to the pressure to reconcile, we talk through the many layers that come with stepping away from dysfunction.
Dr. Martin offers practical tools and insights for healing—whether you’ve already gone no-contact or are just beginning to question what’s healthy for you. We talk about building self-trust through small, everyday actions, reparenting yourself when you never got what you needed growing up, and what it looks like to maintain sobriety while navigating painful family dynamics. You'll also learn why grief can show up even when you never had the kind of relationship you're mourning.
This episode is also deeply personal. Sonia opens up about grieving the mother-daughter connection she never experienced, and Kathleen shares what it feels like to question whether estrangement is truly healing or just a form of self-protection. It’s a thoughtful, honest, and empowering conversation—especially for anyone trying to make peace with their past while protecting their present.
20 TIME-STAMPED HIGHLIGHTS
[00:01:00] Meet Dr. Sharon Martin and how she found this work
[00:03:00] Growing up with alcoholism and how it shaped her path
[00:05:00] Why trauma always finds its way into therapy
[00:06:30] When a family relationship stops feeling emotionally safe
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20:22 — The gut–brain link and how it impacts cravings
23:05 — Staying hydrated without overdoing water
25:41 — Navigating perimenopause symptoms with lifestyle tweaks
28:09 — How stress affects your body (and how to calm it)
30:52 — When acupuncture can help
33:17 — Why strength training is a game changer in midlife
36:01 — Functional lab tests: worth it or not?
38:34 — What “liver detox” really means
41:10 — A real-life patient success story
44:02 — Habit stacking to make changes stick
47:19 — Building your own healthcare dream team
50:11 — Using wellness habits to help prevent relapse
[00:08:45] Estrangement isn’t a rash decision—it’s the last resort
[00:10:30] Facing guilt, judgment, and societal pressure
[00:12:00] Why other people’s opinions don’t always reflect reality
[00:14:30] How emotional manipulation becomes normalized
[00:17:30] What healthy estrangement can actually look like
[00:20:00] When reconciliation is worth considering—and when it’s not
[00:22:00] Why false hope and outside pressure often backfire
[00:23:30] Navigating milestone events like weddings and funerals
[00:25:30] Estrangement vs. avoidance—how to tell the difference
[00:29:00] Grieving the family fantasy you never had
[00:31:00] Why complicated grief around family is valid
[00:34:00] The importance of processing feelings through movement and expression
[00:35:30] Keeping your sobriety solid while navigating emotional landmines
[00:37:00] Emotional wounds adult children of dysfunction carry
[00:40:00] Rebuilding self-worth through small, doable commitments
[00:44:00] Why early sobriety can bring childhood trauma to the surface
This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Head to our Substack for extra tools, reflections, and mocktail recipes to support your journey.
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