Ep 20: The Dual Nature of Alcohol: Understanding through Catholic Sobriety Coaching

Ready to unravel the mystery around your drinking habits and discover a sense of peace you never imagined possible? As your Catholic Sobriety Coach, I’m your guide to this transformational journey. This episode isn't limited to those with an alcohol use disorder; I’m talking to all women who desire to gain control over their drinking habits. With my coaching, you’ll gain clarity, make informed decisions, and begin a transformation around your drinking habits. We'll explore the dual nature of alcohol as a source of comfort and chaos, equipping you with a range of optional tools and strategies, all tailored to your unique situation.

Are you seeking support, accountability, and a holistic approach to well-being? If you answered 'yes', then welcome aboard! I provide more than what regular sobriety coaching offers - a Catholic perspective to your journey. We delve into the benefits of hiring a Catholic sobriety coach, from personalized support to motivation and a wealth of Catholic resources that can enhance your journey towards sobriety. And for those of you unsure if this is the right path, we discuss why a discovery call can be instrumental in making that decision. So tune in, as we navigate the path to sobriety, a healthier life, and a closer relationship with God.

I'm here for you. I'm praying for you. You are NOT alone!

Please subscribe to this podcast so you won't miss a thing!

Join the Sacred Sobriety Lab: https://sacredsobrietylab.com
Drink Less or Not at All FREE Guide: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/63a4abe81488000c28b9ba89
Follow me on Instagram @thecatholicsobrietycoach
Visit my Website: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Catholic Subriety Podcast, the go-to resource for women seeking to have a deeper understanding of the role alcohol plays in their lives, women who are looking to drink less or not at all for any reason.

Speaker 1: 0:16

I am your host, christy Walker. I'm a wife, mom and a joy-filled Catholic, and I am the Catholic Subriety Coach, and I am so glad you're here. Well, hello, friends. So today I would like to talk to you about coaching. Since I am the Catholic Sobriety Coach, it's only natural that I would do a podcast on Subriety Coaching. I think the first thing I want to say is that Subriety Coaching isn't just for women who realize that they have an alcohol use disorder. It is for women who are also looking to just have more peace around their drinking. They want to be able to use it to celebrate. They want to be able to choose when they drink, how they drink and how much they drink, from a place of peace and clarity, and that is what I help those women with. Certainly, I also coach women in recovery, because I myself am a woman in recovery and so you know I can really relate to the mental mess that's left over long after our last drink. So those are the two groups of women that I generally coach with. Now, the women who are looking to drink less or not at all often come to me because they are seeking some help, because they realize that coaching will help them disrupt the habit that they've developed. They notice that their drinking has increased exponentially and they know just how addictive it can be. So if we don't moderate in the right way and some of us, like me, can't moderate at all, and that's fine, but a lot of people can, and so you know we just get curious we do some testing. I have a lot of different tools that I use with my clients that helps with that, and we just kind of work together to build a toolbox that you can choose from and, you know, pick those tools when you need to. A client of mine came up with that and I just loved that metaphor, and so that's exactly what I do. So when you are in a social situation but you've decided that you are not drinking that night, pull from your toolbox and then you can have some confidence and clarity about how you articulate why you're not drinking that night, have confidence in what you're saying and not be bothered by what other people think, and just kind of move forward with your evening and enjoy yourself. So I wanted to talk today a little bit about what coaching looks like and how well, how about this, what coaching with me looks like, and some of the benefits to hiring a Catholic sobriety coach.

Speaker 1: 3:45

So if you're here listening to this podcast, I'm just going to assume that you are a Catholic, or at least a Christian woman, who is interested in getting curious about how she is drinking or her drinking habits. So I say this a lot and it's so true. You do not have to have a drinking problem to realize that drinking is becoming a problem for you. And if it is becoming a problem for you, it doesn't mean that you have to quit altogether. It does mean that maybe you are realizing that you want to have some clarity and peace around the way that you're drinking, so that you can choose those times that you do want to partake in alcohol and then, if you don't feel so great the next morning, you know that you've chosen that and you're fine with it. It's kind of like if I like sugar is a thing for me, I try to stay away from it. Once in a while I'll kind of overdo it. I know, if I overdo it, I'm probably not gonna feel super great the next morning. That's almost always true, and I just have to deal with it, because that is the decision I made. Or I might decide, you know what. I'm not going to have this because I don't want to feel bad tomorrow, because I have a big day. So I think that can be applied to alcohol as well. So let's jump in here so that I can talk to you a little bit about why hiring a Catholic sobriety coach whether you're looking to drink less or not at all can be a huge benefit to you. It is going to help you moderate your drinking habits, get curious about your drinking habits, realize if alcohol causes maybe too much chaos and you don't want to drink anymore and that's fine too.

Speaker 1: 5:50

But it all starts with getting curious and thinking about what your triggers are, what your urges are and how to face those urges. Not bury them, not distract yourself, but look at them and say hello, urge, how are you? I see you, and now this is what we're going to do with you and I might just watch you go by until the feeling passes. So we have a few different approaches. I have tools for my clients. I usually have a precoaching workbook that I give my clients and that really, really helps them get started with the whole process of looking at the way that they're drinking and deciding what those triggers are, what they actually need.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Because, right, sometimes when we reach for a glass of wine, it's not really that we want wine, but maybe we want something else. Maybe we're seeking some relief, maybe we're wanting to connect with our spouse or our friends, maybe we are just needing a moment to ourselves, and that drinking, that ritual of drinking, can sometimes be that comfort that we lean on. So this is all part of the coaching I do, and I never tell you what to do. Any tools I provide are completely optional and some people are going to love them, some people are not going to love them, and that is completely fine, because I provide you with so many different tools that you will find some that work for you. And, regardless, you're going to have a transformation, and that is beautiful. And the biggest transformation is the awakening that you are going to get, not just around your drinking, but the fact that when you do get curious about your drinking and you do start to make some changes, you're going to find that you not only have more peace, but you start to feel more connected to God. You start all those efforts that I know that you make to connect with and be present with and do the will of God. All of that will become even more beautiful and you'll be able to hear God's voice more clearly because you're not numbing out or darkening your will with a substance. So that's that.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Okay, I've said that I'm going to do this like a hundred times, but for real, right now we're going to talk about five benefits of hiring a Catholic sobriety coach. So here we go. So the first thing is that I offer you a faith-based approach. There are many different sobriety coaches out there, many great ones, but I am a Catholic sobriety coach. I coach Catholic women, and the reason why it is so important for me to coach Catholic women is because we share our faith. We share our love of the sacraments, we understand the truths of the Catholic faith and adhere to the church's teachings. We love to steep ourselves in scripture and so all of these things that make us uniquely Catholic. We can lean on and into those things and invite the Holy Spirit into the entire process of coaching and do it in a way where we are on the same wavelength there.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Now, everybody is on their own journeys of faith, right. Some people are very, very mature in their faith. Some of us are not so much, and that is so fine, right? We all have our unique journeys. We all have our unique situations, things that come up, ways of looking at things, things that have happened to us that have formed us differently, and that's okay. So we the fact that we are Catholic, of course, does not mean that we're always going to agree on everything, but that doesn't usually affect our coaching relationship. The beauty of it, again, is that we share our Catholic faith, and I just love that. So the second reason why it's a huge benefit for you to hire a Catholic sobriety coach is personalized support. So every single woman I work with her journey to moderation is unique, and I provide personalized support that is tailored to each individual. I work with you to identify your triggers, your challenges and help you achieve your goals by creating a customized plan that not only helps you with moderation but also aligns with your Catholic values.

Speaker 1: 12:20

The third benefit to hiring a Catholic sobriety coach is that I provide accountability and motivation. Now, sobriety coaches provide consistent accountability and motivation, and that is essential to helping you strive to moderate your drinking habits, and I help my clients stay on track with their goals by we get curious about things. We bring awareness around different aspects that maybe you haven't even thought of before, and that is when we crack those open. That's so beautiful and illuminating and thanks be to God. Those are the moments where transformation occurs, and so I help you with that and then you. We work in partnership so you come up with action steps that are going to help you move forward throughout the week before we meet again the next week. So that is how I help provide you with accountability and motivation, and the worksheets or different questions that I provide for you to think on during the week. Those also help you, help keep you moving forward.

Speaker 1: 13:46

So the fourth reason that you should hire a Catholic sobriety coach if you are looking to drink less or not at all is because I care about the whole person. I take a holistic approach to your well-being. I not only want to address your drinking habits, but a lot of times, most of the time, all of the time it is not alcohol. Alcohol is not the issue, it can be stress. Maybe you're not practicing self-care, maybe you don't know about or have access to at this very moment healthy coping mechanisms that align with your Catholic principles. We work through that, we talk about it and we help you develop a plan so that, when you do fall into this needing to cope, wanting to self-medicate that you will have the tools you need to do that, without choosing alcohol if that is going to move you closer to your goals.

Speaker 1: 15:02

And then the fifth and final. Of course this is not a comprehensive list at all. There are many, many other benefits, but the fifth benefit that I have right now is that I have connections to other Catholic resources, so I have access to other support groups. Like I have knowledge of different people that can help. If I can't help you, then I definitely can refer you to other people that can.

Speaker 1: 15:33

If we are doing a discovery call and it sounds like coaching isn't right for you at this moment, maybe you need Catholic counseling. I can help get you connected with a Catholic counselor who also shares our beliefs and our values and can help you journey through that aspect of your life, and then maybe you come to coaching when you're in a better place for it. But that's one of the things that having a you know, like having a chat before signing up for coaching is very helpful because it helps me determine if you are right for coaching. But then you can also determine if coaching is right for you. And even if you do know coaching is right for you, it'll help you determine if I'm the right coach for you. So you know, there again are other options out there. I just would love it if you chatted with me first so that we could find out if we're a good fit.

Speaker 1: 16:48

So if you would like to find out if coaching is right for you, if you're listening to this and you're wondering if maybe coaching could benefit you, I highly recommend that you hop on a call with me. I promise you I am not pressuring at all and you will leave whether you decide to work with me or not. You will leave with some resources. I will tell you exactly what to do if you decide not to work for me, or I'll give you some options of things you can do if you decide not to work for me but want to try to go it on your own, and I'll also give you all the information you need to find out what it's like to work with me, how a coaching session runs and all of the other benefits that come with coaching. Essentially, here's the thing Coaching is going to help you get unstuck If you are in this loop of having a habit and you are afraid, if you are telling yourself I am a little bit afraid of how my alcohol use is increasing and I'm not really sure how to disrupt that.

Speaker 1: 18:08

I keep trying to set boundaries and make promises and sometimes I'm really good at keeping it and sometimes I'm really not. But I need somebody to work with me, to give me those tools, to provide those resources to help me move forward. And eventually here's the thing with coaching I'm going to give you the tools you need to learn how to coach yourself in those situations. So being coached by me doesn't mean you're gonna be coached by me forever. I do a 12 week initial session and you can do more coaching after that if needed. But generally the 12 weeks get you to the point where you're good and you can start to coach yourself after that because you have all the tools and resources and you've practiced and you've built that muscle and now you can face those urges head on, you can recognize those triggers for what they are and you have developed other ways to care for yourself versus grabbing a glass of wine, unless, of course, that's what you wanna do in that moment. So I appreciate you sticking with me.

Speaker 1: 19:31

I will have information in my show notes. So, if you do wanna schedule a call, we can set up a call. It's usually about 30 minutes, 30 to 45 minutes, and we just chat about coaching. I go over it, I ask you some questions, I let you ask me questions and, yeah, it's a beautiful time and regardless again of whether you work with me or not, your life will be transformed or your drinking will be transformed. So you'll have a lot of clarity about what you wanna do next, what your next steps are.

Speaker 1: 20:07

And then I also wanna offer you I have a free guide with Tools in it that I actually use with my coaching clients. It's called Drink less or not at all a Catholic guide to freedom. That is in my show notes. Grab it and get started on your own. And then, as you're going through it, if you decide you want to chat with me I would love it just go to my website, or, yeah, go to my website and you can just Click on the button that says book a session. It says book a session, it's. That'll get you a discovery call for you discovery call we can chat about you know, your concerns and whether or not I Can help you with that.

Speaker 1: 20:56

Well, that does it for this episode of the Catholic sobriety podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I would invite you to share it with a friend who might also Get value from it as well. And make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a thing. I am the Catholic sobriety coach, and if you would like to learn how to work with me or learn more about the coaching that I offer, visit my website, the Catholic sobriety coach, calm. Follow me on Instagram at the Catholic sobriety coach. I Look forward to speaking to you next time and remember I am here for you. I am praying for you. You are not alone.