Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol free life!

Show Notes – Thinking Is Best Used as a Power Tool

🎙️ Tribe Sober Podcast

🎵 Intro and Outro Song: Remember – Sutherland

What if one of the greatest sources of our suffering isn’t our circumstances—but our relationship with our thinking?

Inspired by a powerful insight from neuropsychologist Dr Julia DiGangi, Lynette explores why thinking is best used as a power tool: something to be picked up intentionally, used wisely, and then put down.

Drawing on neuroscience, recovery, and lived experience, this episode explains why our brains are prediction machines, why familiar thoughts ca...

This week I'm talking to Cape Town-based CBT practitioner Emily about the practical ways Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can support behaviour change and an alcohol-free life.

Emily explains how our thoughts, feelings and behaviours become connected over time, and why drinking can become an automatic response to anxiety, stress, celebration or discomfort. Rather than judging these patterns, CBT encourages us to become curious about them — and then start interrupting them.

Emily introduces the simple STOP technique for dealing with an urge:

S — Stop: pause rather than reacting automatically.
T — Take a breath: interrupt the ur...

Eclipse the Story: Remembering Your Light

🎵 Intro and Outro Song: Remember – Sutherland

This week, Lynette reflects on the symbolism of the recent total solar eclipse and asks a powerful question:

What if it isn’t life that’s eclipsing your light… but the thoughts you’ve been practising?

Drawing on neuroscience, coaching, and her own journey as she approaches nine years alcohol-free, Lynette explores how our brains become prediction machines. Repeated thoughts, when linked with feelings and behaviours, become familiar neural pathways that shape our beliefs, our identity, and ultimately the life we create.<...

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life!

This week my guest is tribe member Clive Vanderwagen.  Clive is a business and leadership coach who is also a wine expert!  

In this Episode

Episode Title : Sakili – Life is Beautiful

Episode Description

Sakili is a beautiful Creole expression that means, “It’s going to be okay,” or simply, “Life is beautiful.”

In this heartfelt episode, Lynette explores what it really means to participate in your own rescue. Recovery isn’t simply about giving up alcohol—it’s about reclaiming your life, expanding your world, and reconnecting with the joy that has always been available beneath the numbness.

Drawing on a powerful encounter with four magnificent sperm whales in the Indian Ocean, Lynette reflects on how addiction slowly s...

Samantha Ancy is a coach, writer and wellness educator who helps people break free from diet culture and understand what's really driving their cravings. Her work combines trauma awareness, gut health and nervous system regulation to explain why so many of us find ourselves stuck in unhealthy habits.

What I loved about this conversation is how many parallels there are between food addiction and alcohol addiction. We talk about why willpower isn't enough, how ultra-processed foods hijack our dopamine pathways, why your gut microbiome has such a powerful influence over cravings, and how healing the nervous system...

Show Notes The Addiction Nobody Talks About — Our Search for Certainty

Theme: Recovery • Self-Trust • Emotional Freedom

Music: “Remember” by Sutherland 🎵

What if one of the deepest addictions we ever recover from isn’t alcohol—but our search for certainty?

In this episode, Lynette explores how our need to know, predict and control can drive not only drinking, but also our endless consumption of books, podcasts, courses and reassurance.

Through personal stories of whale watching off the coast of Mauritius and kayaking through the mangroves, she shares why true freedom isn’t found in certa...

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life!

This weeks podcast guest is the lovely Lori Massicot a midlife sobriety coach.

I discovered Lori when I found her podcast – it’s called “to 50 and beyond” – it’s a podcast aimed at women in mid-life where she highlights the beauty of aging and the freedom that comes along with alcohol free life.

She’s on a mission to raise awareness towards the life changing impact of sobriety as we age.  She interviewed me for her podcast and you can hear that conversation on episode 182 of to 50 and beyon...

The Sobriety Experiment: Stop Looking for the Missing Piece

Episode Summary

Have you ever wondered why, even after months or years of sobriety, a part of you still remembers alcohol fondly?

Does that mean you’re destined to drink again?

Or could it simply be that your brain is doing exactly what it was designed to do?

In this episode, Lynette explores a thoughtful question from a Tribe Sober listener who has spent years learning about recovery, trying different approaches, and wondering whether there is still a “deep-rooted belief” keepin...

This week Janet talks to Tribe Sober member Lynn Griffith from Durango, Colorado, who shares her powerful journey from decades of drinking to discovering the freedom of an alcohol-free life.

Lynn first began worrying about her drinking back in 1999, yet it took many years, several attempts at sobriety, and countless moderation strategies before she finally found lasting freedom. In this honest conversation, she reflects on the exhaustion of trying to control alcohol, the impact on her health, confidence and creativity, and why mindset change has been the key to making sobriety stick.

The episode concludes...

Recovery Rewired: Why Knowing Better Isn’t Enough Episode 3: Recovery Is Repetition Creating From the Future Instead of the Past

This week we conclude our three-part Recovery Rewired series with perhaps the most important question of all:

If I understand my patterns and I can see what’s happening, how do I actually change?

The answer is surprisingly simple:

Recovery is repetition.

Not perfection.
Not willpower.
Not motivation.

Repetition.

In this episode, Lynette explores how the brain rewires itself through small repeated actions, and why last...

Recovery Rewired:  Why Knowing Better is not Enough

Episode 2:  The Theatre of Surprise

Why we keep repeating what we already know

In this second episode of the Recovery Rewired series, Lynette explores one of the most powerful concepts in recovery, emotional growth, and self-awareness: The Theatre of Surprise.

How often have you found yourself saying:

But what if the problem isn’t the patter...

Episode 1: Why the Brain Chooses Alcohol

Why do intelligent, capable people continue to struggle with alcohol even when they know exactly where it leads?

In the first episode of our new three-part Recovery Rewired series, Lynette explores a powerful truth:

The brain is not choosing alcohol because it is weak. The brain is choosing alcohol because it is predicting.

Drawing on neuroscience, recovery coaching, and real-life experience, Lynette explains how the brain learns to associate alcohol with relief, comfort, certainty, and reward—and why understanding these patterns can reduce shame and increase self-compassion.

On last weeks podcast I talked you through the Breaking Free course in detail so do have a listen if you missed it

I recently hosted a discussion on Zoom with four Breaking Free graduates which will give you a real insight into the results that people are getting…

On the podcast you'll hear the soundtrack from that discussion

So if you want to be sure of a place on the next BF program which kicks off soon then please sign up today as places are filling up fast

You can si...

On this weeks solo episode I talk about our 3-month Breaking Free program which we run just three times a year. 

Registration for the current program is open   - more info on tribesober.com

We limit each Breaking Free group to 20 so you’ll always get personal attention

In this episode:-

Today’s guest is Liz, a 51-year-old writer living in the UK, who joins us to share her story about gray area drinking, late-diagnosed ADHD, and finding freedom through an alcohol-free life.

In this episode:

Creating From the Future Instead of the Past Why the Brain Chooses Alcohol and How Recovery Rewires Us

In this week’s episode, Lynette explores why lasting sobriety is not simply about willpower — it’s about understanding how the brain works.

Our brains are prediction-making machines. They are constantly reaching for what feels familiar, even when those familiar patterns are hurting us. Alcohol, overthinking, scrolling, numbing, people pleasing, avoidance — these can all become practiced neural pathways that the brain automatically returns to in moments of stress, uncertainty, or emotional discomfort.

In this deeply reflective episode, Lynette...

Nigel Jones is a hypnotherapist, life coach and author of Walking Back to Happiness.

He is over five years alcohol-free — and in this conversation he shares a powerful insight that sits right at the heart of lasting change:

👉 Identity

We talk about why so many people struggle to quit drinking…
why willpower alone doesn’t work…
and how shifting from “I’m a drinker trying to stop” to “I’m a non-drinker” can change everything.

Nigel explained how repeated attempts to quit failed — until he made one crucial shift: changing his identity.

From Stopping Drinking to Truly Living: Your Path to Purpose

We often talk about stopping drinking… and yes, that is the first powerful step.

But what happens next?

Because for so many of us, alcohol was never the real problem. It was the coping mechanism. The plaster over something deeper — our unhappiness, our uncertainty, our disconnection, our sense that life wasn’t quite working.

In this episode, Lynette shares her personal journey beyond early sobriety — through the flatness of anhedonia, through the discomfort of not knowing, and into the deeper wo...

Today I’m joined by my colleague Monica.

She’s the Community Manager for Tribe Sober and she’s also celebrating her 5th Soberversary next week.

I’ve known Monica since her first Day One and it’s giving me such joy to walk alongside her on this life changing journey.

In this conversation, we explored:

From Pain to Power: Why Your Past Doesn’t Define You

Have you ever felt like your past is the reason you struggle… the reason you drink… the reason you feel stuck?

In this powerful episode, Lynette explores the truth about our past and how the meaning we give it shapes our present experience.

Drawing from her own journey and coaching experience, Lynette shares how she once believed she was broken — and how rehashing old wounds became part of the cycle that kept her stuck in drinking.

This episode will gentl...

In this episode, I chat to Tribe Sober Ambassador Lynne, who spent years as a “normal” drinker - functioning well on the outside, but quietly questioning her relationship with alcohol.

There was no dramatic rock bottom. No crisis. Just a growing awareness that something wasn’t working anymore.

Lynne shares how her nightly whisky habit slowly increased in quantity and shifted from a reward to something that no longer felt good - and how she found her way to an alcohol-free life that feels calmer, clearer, and more aligned.

If you’ve ever wondered...

📝 Show Notes

🎙️ From Rock Bottom to Real Self: The Power of Returning to Yourself

🎶 Intro & Outro Music: “Remember” by Sutherland

What if rock bottom isn’t the end… but the beginning?

In this episode, Lynette explores the journey from rock bottom—or what we sometimes call a high bottom—into self-leadership, emotional power, and a return to your true self.

Inspired by the story of Alysa Liu, this episode goes far beyond success or achievement. It’s about what happens when we lose ourselves in pressure, expectation, and survival… and how we begin to come bac...

In this episode, Janet talks with clinical psychologist Dr Sarah Michaud, who has been sober since 1984 and specialises in addiction and codependency.

Sarah shares her powerful recovery story and explains why codependency is often the missing piece in long-term sobriety.

Growing up in a family affected by alcoholism

Why addiction often begins as a way to escape emotional pain

The moment that led Sarah to get sober at 24

What codependency really means and how it shows up in relationships

Why trying to fix or...

Episode Title:

When Strategy Isn’t the Problem — Identity Is

Many people who want to change their relationship with alcohol believe they simply need a better strategy — more discipline, better rules, or a stronger moderation plan.

But what if the real issue isn’t strategy at all?

In this episode, Lynette explores a deeper truth: lasting change rarely comes from trying to control alcohol — it comes from expanding beyond the identity that believes alcohol is necessary.

Drawing on insights from neuropsychologist Dr. Julia DiGangi and years of coaching e...

Tribe Sober - inpiring an alcohol-free life!

My guest this week is British Psychiatrist Dr Tony Rao.  He is an international expert of alchohol misuse in older people - with more than 20 years experience in this area.

He works with Baby Boomers in the UK who have alcohol issues - I was one of those for many years so found this conversation fascinating..

In this Episode

🎙 Episode 4: Falling in Love With Your Brain

Love Series – Tribe Sober Podcast

This month we’ve been exploring love.

Love as compassionate witness.

Love as unconditional.

Love as unbreakable across time.

And in this final episode of the series, we go deeper.

What if one of the fiercest acts of self-love in sobriety is falling in love with your brain?

Not believing every thought.

Not fighting your mind.

But understanding it. Training it. Leading it.

 <...

Unbreakable Love - Having your own back Across Time

This month we’re talking about love.

And yes… I speak about love a lot.

Because I genuinely believe that love is the most powerful force in the universe.

But the most important place to practice love isn’t in your romantic relationships.

It’s in your relationship with yourself.

In this episode, we explore a deeper, sturdier kind of self-love — the kind that has your back across time.

Not fluffy...

Episode 2 – Unconditional Love, Lovability & The Sobriety That Follows

In this second episode of our February Love Series, we go deeper into one of the most powerful forces in our lives: love.

Not romantic love.

Not conditional love.

But unconditional love — and what it has to do with sobriety.

What if choosing sobriety is one of the fiercest acts of love you will ever perform?

What if withholding love — from others or from yourself — is what keeps you stuck in shame, relap...

💛 The Love Series — Episode 1

Intro music:

🎵 “Remember” by Sutherland

Love as Self-Leadership: Becoming the Compassionate Witness

February is often called the month of love.

But what if love isn’t something we look for outside of ourselves —

what if love is how we lead ourselves, especially when things feel messy, tender, or hard?

This episode is the first in a four-part mini-series exploring love as self-leadership — through sobriety, self-talk, and the way we meet ourselves in moments of struggle.

In this opening episode, we...

This week we're celebrating our 300th podcast by taking you through our top 10 podcasts. The episodes that have had the most downloads since we started the podcast back in 2020.

So coming in at number 10 is James Swanwick who has some great advice about Alcohol and your Body Fat

He explained how Alcohol consumption can compromise sleep quality, metabolism, and overall health.

It can also disrupt the body's natural processes, leading to weight gain, reduced productivity, and increased cravings for unhealthy foods.

Coming in at number 9...

Recovery it's a...

On last weeks podcast I talked you through the Breaking Free course in detail so do have a listen if you missed it

I recently hosted a discussion on Zoom with four Breaking Free graduates which will give you a real insight into the results that people are getting…

You’ll hear from Grania and Helen who did the course last year and then you’ll hear from Lynne and Lori who have just completed the latest program…

On the podcast you'll hear the soundtrack from that discussion

So if you want to...

On this weeks solo episode I talk about our 3-month Breaking Free program which we run just three times a year. 

Registration for the current program is open   - more info on tribesober.com

We limit each Breaking Free group to 20 so you’ll always get personal attention

In this episode:-

My guest this week is James Swanwick, an Australian-American investor and entrepreneur He is the creator of the Alcohol Free Lifestyle, which helps people change their relationship with alcohol

In this episode:-

In this New Year episode, Lynette records from a small guesthouse in Evander, a dusty coal-mining town in South Africa — a place marked by both decay and unexpected beauty.

Through a moving real-life encounter, she reflects on how we are all dealt a hand of cards in life, and how joy, purpose, and meaning are not found in better circumstances, but in how we meet the life we have.

This episode gently explores the illusion of “readiness,” drawing on the work of Dr. Julia di Gangi, to show why change is not about more time, but ab...

This week I'm doing a solo episode - 10 reasons to do an alcohol free January - and 14 tips to get you through.

In This Episode

Undefended Joy

Choosing Willingness, Acceptance, and Faith This Holiday Season

The holiday season can be joyful — and it can also be triggering. Family dynamics, social gatherings, unmet expectations, and old habits often leave us feeling tense, reactive, and searching for relief.

In this episode, Lynette explores a powerful and compassionate practice she calls Undefended Joy — a way of meeting life without armour, self-protection, or resistance.

Drawing on teachings from Dr. Julia DiGangi and real-life experiences, Lynette shares how willingness, acceptance, and faith can gently replace the need to escape with alcohol or o...

My guest this week is  couples therapist Zach Brittle who is based in Seattle 

I was able to pick his brain about that very common question we hear from some of our members –

How can I quit when my partner drinks?

In this episode:-

In this episode, Lynette shares a deeply personal story from her early sobriety and offers powerful insights on how to navigate the holiday season alcohol-free. From understanding your emotional triggers to anchoring into your Sage energy, Lynette guides you through practical and heart-centered ways to stay grounded, proud, and connected during a time that can feel overwhelming.

You’ll also hear the story of Anna, a woman who created her first joyful alcohol-free holiday through intention, structure, and emotional leadership — a journey that mirrors what’s possible for all of us.

Whether...

My guest this week is a psychotherapist Dr Ginny who has had her own struggles with alcohol and food addiction.