Limitless Healing with Colette Brown

192. Finding Freedom: Rewiring Your Relationship with Alcohol and Yourself with Silvia Subirana

• Season 1 • Episode 192

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In this inspiring episode, Colette Brown speaks with clinical psychologist and holistic wellness advocate Silvia Subirana about reshaping our relationship with alcohol, listening to our bodies, and living with deeper self-awareness. Silvia shares her personal journey from anxiety and gut health struggles to helping people worldwide create healthier, more intentional lives through the My Dry 30 app. This conversation offers actionable steps for anyone seeking positive change, healing, and empowerment.

Timestamps and Highlights:
0:30 Meet Silvia Subirana, clinical psychologist and head of content at My Dry 30
0:54 Silvia’s childhood memory that led her to psychology
2:30 Growing up in Barcelona and spending weekends surrounded by nature
3:54 The impact of nature on emotional awareness and personal development
5:30 Discovering a passion for psychology during university
6:30 Silvia’s struggle with anxiety, gut health issues, and ignoring early symptoms
7:51 Finding a holistic doctor who addressed root causes rather than just symptoms
9:30 The role of alcohol in gut health and Silvia’s decision to stop drinking
10:52 How her personal healing journey led to working with My Dry 30
12:30 How cultural diversity strengthens the My Dry 30 team
13:30 Overview of the My Dry 30 program: Hypnotherapy, journaling, reading, and movement
14:44 Addressing the unconscious and conscious mind for deeper transformation
16:30 How self-awareness helps reshape habits around alcohol
19:48 Typical age groups engaging with My Dry 30
20:30 Three actionable steps listeners can take today before starting a program
23:30 Understanding your motivation before drinking alcohol
25:30 Importance of finding a support system or friend to make changes with
26:55 Silvia’s final message: Take things easy and embrace life's natural rhythms

Resources Mentioned:

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Connect with Colette:

Instagram: @wellnessbycolette

Website: love-colette.com

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In Health,
Colette

[00:00:00] With a [00:01:00] deep passion for personal transformation, she combines clinical expertise with holistic practices to help people build healthier habits and deeper self-awareness. As a clinical psychologist and head of content development at the My Drive 30 app, she designs tools that support users in reshaping their relationship with alcohol and living more intentional lives.

Colette Brown: At the heart of this powerful mission is my next guest, Sylvia Riana. Welcome, Sylvia. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for being here. It's a pleasure to have you. One thing I like to do first with my guests is take us back to a favorite childhood memory that may have pushed you in the direction of where you're at today, or just something in general that in really defined you.

Silvia Subirana: I think that one of the things that led me. On to choose psychology because I was a bit lost on what to do with my life. And then I remember talking to a teacher and then the teacher [00:02:00] getting a list of all the majors and we went one by one saying yes or no. So it took a while, but then eventually we arrived to psychologyand I stood there.

I was like, oh wait, I hadn't really considered doing psychology. And then we started chatting what it was about and all that. And I was like, actually that really suits me. 'cause without me even noticing that it was a, like a job or a profession I loved helping people. I loved understanding how they were feeling, and for me It was so shocking and so interesting how two people, like when the same thing happened in the same situation, could react so differently. I remember that time with my teacher just with a massive list of majors, very fondly because that's when it clicked. That's when I was like.

How can I have not seen this before? And I'm just thinking about it now. And that's when I decided what I wanted to do with my life. And I am very grateful for [00:03:00] that moment. 'cause I love my job now. 

And where did you grow up? I'm from Spain, I grew up in Barcelona.

At the moment I'm in Australia I've been living here for the past two years and a half, but that's why I have a bit of a mix of accents. But originally I'm from Spain. 

Colette Brown: I heard the accent and I couldn't quite place it I'm glad you defined that. So what was a favorite memory maybe with your family growing up in Spain?

Silvia Subirana: My dad is originally from a town in the mountains and Okay. We used to go to that town every other weekend and every time we went, I loved it. It's obviously we're, you're surrounded by nature. It's amazing. It's such a beautiful place. there are lakes, there are mountains.

You have so much to do and for me it was just a break from the city. I love the city, but then having that break every two weeks for me was amazing. 

Colette Brown: It just, makes me wonder really because. Kids today live in big cities, my children lived in big cities and it's [00:04:00] constant information overload coming at you and I wonder if part of your trajectory into this ability to come away from a conversation and observe. It came from that ability to get out in nature because now we have forest bathing and it's a real emphasis on getting out of the city that it wasn't always. So I wonder if that played in a little bit to your trajectory of the curiosity and the ability to step down and really just listen to people.

Silvia Subirana: I had never thought of it like that, but yeah it would make a lot of sense 'cause obviously the interaction with nature is completely different than what you get in the city. And for us, like obviously my parents weren't looking for it. 'cause back then it was not a thing. It was just my dad been in contact or in touch with his family and with his roots really.

And he wanted us, like my sister and I to be part of that as well. And. I think it has opened our minds a [00:05:00] lot because we've interacted with very different people. We are the fast pace people from the city, but then with the calm people from the towns and we have very different friends from one place in the other.

Colette Brown: And we've learned to adapt and to and to act around different people. And I've always found that, an amazing tool because if you're very rigid with how you act, then the amount of people that you can befriend or that you can have a nice conversation to just narrows it up. That's really interesting.

Okay, so you have this beautiful childhood and then you come into this self-awareness of, wow, this is what I wanna do. And I have to say Sylvia, that's a unique experience because I still know adults who don't know what they wanna do and what lights 'em up. So you're really fortunate to have had somebody really drill in.

Take interest in you and hold on to you and say, let's really figure this out. That's really beautiful. I don't think that [00:06:00] happens enough today. So where does it take you? So you go to school and you start studying, and was it just this garden of information that you dove into? Yeah, 

Silvia Subirana: every time since I don't know, I remember stepping into university and just loving it and I lost my classes.

I was so motivated 'cause I was like, this is where I'm supposed to be.I really felt it because in the last years of high school, I just lost purpose a little bit and it's. It's so frustrating when you lose purpose. So I completely understand when you say that there's adults, that don't know how to, where to direct themselves or what to do next.

And that's why I always tell people that it's never too late to start again. Maybe when I'm 40 I'll be like, I wanna reinvent myself and I wanna do something completely different. You never know what life throws at you, right? I am connected within my Dry 30 app because I also don't drink.

I started [00:07:00] drinking like pretty much everybody does when you're a teenager and everyone is drinking, so you start drinking as well. I didn't even really question it and. I went through my bachelor years. I didn't really drink a lot because I didn't like it, but every time I went out or to a pop with friends I had a drink or two.

Eventually, when doing my master's degree, I started having a lot of gut issues that. Later on when I went to the doctor and we dealt with them, I understood that they came from anxiety and the pressure that I was putting on myself obviously for a long time, not just anxiety for a month, it was for like pretty much chronic. Yeah. Yeah. I had anxiety for at least two or three years, and my body was giving me the signals, but I was not listening. Ironically, as a psychologist, I was not listening. And then eventually my body was like, I'm gonna start screaming louder. 

And yeah, my gut just was wrecked and I lost a [00:08:00] lot of weight.

I was so bloated. So it was a bit of a mess. And I remember. The doctor's telling me, we're gonna treat this. I'm gonna give you antibiotics, we're gonna do that. The low fom up diet, we're gonna do all this. But if you don't address that anxiety, you doina address the root problem, then we're gonna see each other again in a year.

Colette Brown: Wow. A lot of traditional doctors Do that. So you had a great doctor. 

Silvia Subirana: She she was in a private clinic. 'cause in Spain you can go to a lot of public clinics, but it normally, there's more like traditional people that wouldn't say that. And I had been to a lot of doctors that were very traditional and were saying.

Like they were not looking me as a whole, they were looking at me as parts, because I also had my face full of acne. And when I went to the doctor, they said, oh, you have to start Accutane. And I was like, no, 'cause I don't feel good. I don't wanna take something that makes my body just change like that.

So I went through a process of finding a doctor and, when I found her, she was a [00:09:00] holistic doctor. She obviously was certified but had studied out of, influences from the Chinese medicine and these sort of things that may be a bit more alternative, but at the same time, they look at the body as a whole.

And that's what saved me really. 'cause she knew straight away what I had what I explained my symptoms, and it was very easy to address after. Over six months going through different doctors and me being like, no, I don't know what he's saying. Let's go to another one. Yeah, it's, I didn't find her out of luck.

I, I really searched. But yeah, that's when it clicked. I was like, okay, I need to address this. And obviously I wait a lot for that. And then the first thing that was out the window for me was alcohol, because obviously it affects the gut a lot, I obviously changed my diet and did all this process, and then when eventually I reintroduced everything in my diet I was happy to eat everything, but alcohol just didn't sit well for me.

I didn't feel [00:10:00] good drinking alcohol. It was just, it would ruin my night because it would even like. Three sips would sit in my stomach and would just not feel good. So that's when I was like, I have to change this. This is not how I wanna live life, because every time that I go out now, I either feel sick or I feel weird because I have to.

Because of pressure to do this and that, and I was like, you know what? I'm just not gonna drink because I haven't drank for the past year because of this gut issue. Then I'm just gonna continue. And I never really looked back since I, I. It changed my life for the better, and everyone around me was very chilled about it.

I think we built up in our heads the repercussions that it would have in our environments, like in our right, in our friend groups or families or the betting on where you used to drink, but then eventually people have their own lives and they don't really care. They just do you and they [00:11:00] do them.

Yeah, that was around six years ago. So yeah, I don't really know exactly when I stopped drinking 'cause it was organic for me. But yeah, that's what led me to today. And today I collaborate with my Dry 30 project, which is an app as you said, that helps people rewire their relationship with alcohol.

Not necessarily completely quit like I did. Also helps them moderate, but. What we do is we help people understand. Their purpose as in how they wanna live their life. Being more in touch with their emotions and that self-awareness that is key. As I said before, I had to go to the root of my problem to understand where everything was coming from.

So we give the time for people to understand where that stress is coming from, that leads them to. Or why they're drinking in general. So then they can address that and say, okay, I want to change this. I don't want to change [00:12:00] that. 

Colette Brown: Okay. So you go through, you finish college and then you, what, how did you land in Australia?

Silvia Subirana: It was after the pandemic. I was like, okay I've. Studied my master's degree pretty much at home because we couldn't really leave the house because of lockdowns. And then there, there was a lot of restrictions in time. I really hope once in the US but in Spain you could not leave the house between certain like hours and it was a mess.

So I was pretty much at home for two years and I am a very. Outside person and I was like, I need to get out of here. I love Spain. I love Barcelona. It's, I loved living there. And that, I wanna go back eventually, but I was like, I just need to, I. Get out of here and see the world. And I didn't start with Australia.

I started with Southeast Asia and other I started in Europe and then in Southeast Asia. And then I eventually arrived.in Australia and I loved the lifestyle. I loved the opportunities that the country gives. So [00:13:00] yeah, I never imagined 

Colette Brown: me staying here for over two years, but here I am.

And is that when you got involved with the My dry 30? 

Silvia Subirana: Yes. Okay. No. It's a bit, it's worldwide. There's people everywhere. There's people in Europe, there's people in the us originally is from the us but then pretty much there's only two people from the us. The rest are scattered around the world.

And I think that is what creates. We come up with more ideas because we base our experience in different cultures, so it makes it more thorough, I would say. Because it addresses little things that maybe if you just look for one from one perspective you don't really take into account.

Colette Brown: So these are little tests that people can take. On the app that will gauge where they're at and help guide them through the psychology of addiction. How does that look? 

Silvia Subirana: No. So we don't really test people. Okay? What we do is give them the tools so they [00:14:00] understand how well, how their habits are regarding alcohol.

Okay? So what the program is a 30 day long program, and then people need to do 30 minutes a day of different tasks. The tasks are hypnotherapy, journaling reading and movement. The way that we do it is we want to combine the unconscious mind with a conscious mind and then add the body as well, so then we can make it very like a very complete way of addressing the person and treating the person as a whole.

Like that holistic point of view that that well, more and more people are realizing that it's the key. And I've realized that it was key back then when my gut issues. The way that we do it is the hypnotherapy gets in touch with the unconscious mind, and the way that it works is people sometimes aren or are a bit sketchy or a bit, suspicious about it because it's I'm not, I don't really trust this. I don't know if I will lose like consciousness or stuff like that. And n [00:15:00] no. So the way that it works is you go into a deep state of relaxation where you are still, I. Conscious, you are aware all the time. But in that deep state of relaxation, you are more open to suggestions.

So if I suggest you that you're gonna make better choices for your habits or for your health in general and. Different suggestions like this, then you are gonna feel more motivated and more inclined to do so we have this in the unconscious mind, and then we have the conscious mind with journaling and reading.

The reading is like less than five minute long. Reading where we explain a little bit how things work. Like for example, how alcohol affects sleep, the peer pressure about mindfulness, about happiness versus pleasure and many different things. And then the journaling questions are about everything.

So people can sit down with themselves and consider different things or think about different things that they don't [00:16:00] normally do. As I mentioned at one point before, we live life in a bit autopilot, so we don't sit down and understand where our emotions come from and how we need to address them, right?

So for example, if back then when I started having anxiety, I had sat down with myself and said, okay, what's going on? How do I need to address it? It wouldn't have had the repercussions it had, right? We know that the sooner you address that, the better, and that's what we wanna do. Give people the time.

To sit down with themselves and think of different things that maybe in their daily lives, don't think about. So then they can discover little things about themselves and understand how they want to live life, because then. When you sit down and you realize how you're living life, then you can actually see what you want to keep doing and what you don't want to keep doing.

And what we see a lot of people find during the program [00:17:00] is that when they sit down and revisit the relationship with alcohol, they say, oh, okay. 70% of the times I drink. Out of habit or out of just because everybody else is drinking, but I'm, it's not something that I wanna do, or it's not in the, I'm not in the mood.

I just follow what people are doing. And then the other 30% they actually want to drink. By learning that is giving power to people because then they can choose more aligned with how they want to live lives, even if it's drinking alcohol. But at least they can moderate consciously and then they can understand when they're doing it out of pressure habit or whatever, or when they're doing it because they want to.

Colette Brown: So do you have a favorite story of success that someone that came through the app I. 

Silvia Subirana: For me, my favorite story of success will always be the first one. It was because we were not expecting it. So we were. Developing [00:18:00] the hypnotherapy program and we got in touch with a voice actress that has a beautiful voice and she obviously recorded everything and all that.

So we sent her different script that she had to read and she also did like different options for each script. So it's 30 scripts, so there's a lot. So she. It took her like two weeks to do all the scripts because she wanted to do it. Like obviously it's, you have to go into a relaxation state of mind and all that.

So she wanted to give it some time. And then she's from Texas and she told me like, Sylvia I go to football all the time. It is such a big thing with my family, my friends, we drink beers all the time. I never had the intention to change. How I was drinking, but eventually only with the recording of hypnotherapy, he was hypnotizing herself without even her realizing.

And around, 10 days [00:19:00] after she started, she noticed that she was drinking way less alcohol. And she was like, I don't. I don't even think about drinking. Sometimes I would be like, my friends would be around and I, I would drink five beers or I would just go to the fridge and take the beers out and I, now I don't even think about it.

And it was a shock for her. And I remember with the team being like. Wow, this is amazing because yeah, if it has worked with someone that didn't have the intention to change and is not doing the full program, it's, she's only doing the chemotherapy part. If you combine it with the rest. It's way more powerful and it gave us the last bit of motivation to just push through, finish the program and getting it out there.

And since then we've received a lot of people that say that, yeah, they see the change to chemotherapy. It depends on the person, but normally between day seven and day 12 generally. But that is extremely [00:20:00] powerful. And I think the voice actress really helped us. It was like a little message of, yeah, you're doing it right.

You're in the right path. You need to continue. 

Colette Brown: Amazing. And then what is the typical age group that you find you're working with most of the time? 

Silvia Subirana: So it's quite generalized. Like we have people from. Twenties, maybe not the twenties, not as much. It's more like people in their thirties, forties. We have a lot of young or young-ish mothers.

And then we have 50, yeah. Between 50 and 60 year olds that are like, okay, alcohol is not sitting well in my body. I have, I'm going through different changes and, I just need to change this because it's not it's not sitting well on my body anymore. So that, those are the two People in their, like I would say late thirties and then in their fifties.

Colette Brown: Okay. That's really interesting. And then what if somebody that's listening, and [00:21:00] they might be interested, but they might also be in that place of. I need help right now. What are three things that you would tell somebody in a triage situation before getting to a platform like yours of what they can do to help themselves right now?

So I.

Silvia Subirana: When people ask me How is my dress different from other platforms? Because there's a lot of platforms out there that help you quit alcohol. The way that we do it is we don't demonize. So I will never blame anybody for choosing to drink. I know I don't drink, but that's my personal choice, right?

I won't blame you for drinking. I have met plenty of friends around me that drink. For example we are not there's many things in life that are not good for us. And we know, for example sugar scrolling on social media smoking or taking other substances. We know that. But then we do this all the time.

Like we scroll on social media all the time. There's so many people that still smoke or that look at sugar. [00:22:00] Everyone is eating sugar, right? I understand that life sometimes is, gets difficult and we choose how we wanna live life and achieving that perfection, it can be a bit tricky in this world where there's a lot of processed food and social media is everywhere.

So when it comes to alcohol is a very personal choice. But we from MI 30, we understand that people might still want to drink from time to time, and that's completely fine. Perfection is very difficult to achieve, right? It's impossible to achieve. So if people want to drink, we're open to that, of course.

So yeah, I think something that makes. Us. A bit less daunting, I would say, or a bit less scary is that we're never gonna blame anybody. And if someone drinks during those 30 days, 'cause it's 30 days of not drinking. But if you if someone drinks during those 30 days, we never say something negative oh, you're never gonna make it, blah, blah.

No. We say, okay, don't worry, [00:23:00] you slipped up. Continue because. It's not about, it's not only about the break that you're giving your body, but it's also about the knowledge that you have at the end of the month. So you can keep going and get that knowledge. So I know it can be a bit scary to start and some people have tried many different programs and they haven't finished them or they haven't been convinced.

And I always. Encourage people to try different things and my is a different program. 

Colette Brown: Okay. Sorry. I was just thinking if maybe you can give three actionable items that somebody could use today before starting your program that they could implement to help them get ready to find a program like yours.

Silvia Subirana: I always re help people and recommend people to do a very simple thing. That is when they're gonna drink alcohol, like when they're going to the bar or when they're gonna get that bottle of wine to pour a glass of wine for them. I always tell them, stop and think, okay, why am I, [00:24:00] why?

Why do I wanna drink? What's 

Colette Brown: my motivation? 

Silvia Subirana: Exactly looking for that. Why is key We, because of what I said before. Because a lot of people realize, oh, I'm doing it out of habit, or I'm doing it because I'm stressed, or I'm doing it because my friends are doing it. So when you have that knowledge and then you're like, okay.

I can choose now. So for me, this is the first actionable item that I always tell people. Just stop for a moment and ask yourself why. What's the motivation after you wanting to drink? And it shocks a lot of people because they're like, oh, wow, I didn't realize that I drink out of habit that much.

And then the second actionable item would be understanding. Or thinking about how their lives are right now and if they feel fulfilled with their lives just yet have that time to sit down and just say, okay, am I happy with the life that I'm leading? Am I, should I change anything?

Or is there anything that I feel like it's not working [00:25:00] well? Because again, knowledge is power, right? Yeah. If you sit down, and it doesn't have to be like an hour long, you can sit down for 10 minutes and then understand how you're feeling and being in touch with the, with all emotions, right?

All the emotions that we feel is key for them. Understand, yeah. How we wanna live life, and then to process them because that stress that a lot of people have and then they deal with alcohol comes from. Not dealing with that stress in the first place. Or that, that stress or that sadness, that anger, it can be any unpleasant emotion, right?

Sitting down and understanding the where those emotions come from and how you wanna process them and how you wanna live your life accordingly, change, or if you wanna make any changes regarding the life that you have, is key to then. Continue pursuing change and being like, okay, try my therapy would be a good option right now.

And the third one I always encourage people if they can to, sometimes it's obviously [00:26:00] not possible, but if they can to do it with a friend, contact a friend that maybe, that they're rethinking the relationship with alcohol or something like that. And then say, okay, would you do this with me?

Would you do this program with me? Or would you do any program or any changes with me? Because when you do it with someone else, you have that extra motivation and you have that you do it together. It's more of a, a, a. Joint project. And from my 30, we understand that connection is key for everything and feeling loved and feeling that you have people around you in your life is crucial for you to feel fulfilled. It's just really an excuse to, to keep that connection strong. So then it will be more beneficial for the program. 

Colette Brown: Yeah, that's beautiful. I love that the. The community that it brings, that your program brings, the knowledge, the information, the helping, the psychology, and the why of why am I doing this?

And the choices that we're [00:27:00] making is so critical. And they're very simple. When you. When you break it down, but yet it's really complex because there's so many layers around it socially. So as we get towards the end, one of the questions I'd love to ask my guests is, if this was the last message that you had to broadcast out to the world, what would it be?

Silvia Subirana: My last message would be to take things easy. Because this world is just, is it, there's pressure everywhere. There's a lot of things going on around us, and we feel stressed very easily because obviously there's a lot of stimuli from everywhere. I always try to remind myself and the clients that I work with, just, and take it easy.

Take a moment, just sit down and bring. Bring yourself into that state of relaxation. I doesn't need to be with immunotherapy, just like with breathing. Just be in touch with how you are right now and [00:28:00] take a break from time to time. Because we take things very seriously generally, and we are stressed all the time.

And yeah, to have the power to just say, okay. Things will pass too. Obviously there's many different things, but in general life things we get angry or we get, we overreact to a lot of things. So just to understand that things will pass too. And you won't remember next week while you were angry the week before.

So just yeah, understand it. Life is life in a society. Pressures a lot. So we are doing the best we can. 

Colette Brown: I love that. Just really slowing down, reflecting and that's something that we can all use. Just remind ourselves be gracious, be kind to ourselves, and then when we do that, we can also pay it forward.

Extend that to others too. So that's a beautiful thought. So where can people find you and where can they [00:29:00] find your platform? 

Silvia Subirana: So obviously on the website they will find everything. Explained a little bit more in depth. The website is my dry 30 33 0. I'll send you the link so you can put them in the description and, obviously they can search for the app on app Store or Google Play My Dry 30. And they, we have a, an Instagram account where we share different ideas or experiences from people. And yeah, it's just a bit of extra information that is always good to be on top of. I always recommend people to have a look at our website.

Everything is very well explained and. It helps people understand a bit more how the program works. 

Colette Brown: That's really good. So we'll put all of that in the show notes, and if you have any questions, you can reach out to Sylvia. She's a wealth of resource and knowledge, and if you're having problems, don't wait.

Just reach out to someone because there's so much love [00:30:00] and support around you. Just need to lift your hand and all of the advice. Wisdom that you shared with us today is truly beautiful that we can actually implement and put it in our lives. So thank you so much for all the work that you are doing to help others and the beautiful journey that you're on.

I love how you're an open soul to the world and exploring and just taking things as they come and you're living. What you're teaching. So that's a really beautiful thing too. So thank you so much, Sylvia. Is there anything else that you would like to add today?

Silvia Subirana: No, I think I, I covered everything. Thank you so much for having me. I really 

Colette Brown: enjoyed our conversation. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. And I'll put everything in the show notes and everyone else, until next time, be well. [00:31:00]