A recent client wrote to summarize his work with us:

“Dear Mary Ellen and Ed:

It¹s been a while since we last saw each other.  I don’t miss the drinking, but I have to admit I miss our chats.

What I was most surprised at was how easy the process was.  I didn’t have the terrible urges I was expecting.  I didn’t even find the process hard.

What I found was that I had more time for me.  I wasn’t falling asleep after dinner every night; I wasn’t waking up with a rocky stomach or fuzzy head, feeling a little depressed the next morning and a little down the entire day; I wasn’t doing a lot of things that had been making me feel frankly miserable.
What I found instead was a feeling of being alive, with much more energy to spend now that I was in the center of my life.  I ended up with more useful hours in the day, hours that I could now enjoy, not sulk or sleep through.  I don’t miss my daily dose of light depression.

The talking sessions were very helpful, primarily because they made sense. I remember Mary Ellen laughing and saying, “It’s not rocket science!”  (For that matter, isn’t laughing part of the transition?)  There was a fair amount of self-evaluation and there were many useful recommendations for some new habits.  But there were no restrictions, no rules, no sense of failure, and certainly no attempt at remembering how many sober days I’d accumulated.

Frankly, I’ve never been able to stand hearing the litany of how many years, days, hours and minutes someone has managed to stay sober. I think it was the idea of The Struggle that kept me from getting involved with any program, yours included.  With your program, however, it’s the present that matters, and it’s one that’s active.  The quality of my present has improved quite a lot.  As I said, I feel I’m now in the center of it.

So, thanks for a good course.  I still have to remember; I still have to remind myself; I still have to work on my goals.  But it all seems to be working well.  I just miss the chats.

Cheers,

B.”

Almost 150 years ago, Henry Thoreau wrote that most people “live lives of quiet desperation”, and sadly, I think that’s still true.

We hear it when you call to talk about letting us help you escape your own personal “quiet desperation”.

The Dalai Lama argues that, fundamentally, we all seek more and greater happiness in our lives and that the one really key questions in life is, “What makes me truly happy?”

We often note that what we do for you, perhaps more than anything else, is give you permission to be happy. That’s right. We give permission because, really, happy people don’t have alcohol abuse problems.

Most clients paraphrase “B” as above – they are finding a new and happier way to live their lives. A way that isn’t depressing, demeaning, focused on the past, negativism, or the life-killing concentration on what they’re not doing.

Not to mention agreeing that it really wasn’t all that hard, and certainly not awful.

Writer/economist Peter Drucker noted that, “The problem in my life and other people’s lives is not the absence of knowing what to do, but the absence of doing it.”

Working with us is the next step in “doing it” and that’s how you begin to build towards that happier life that eliminates the need to abuse alcohol.

We don’t have a vested interest in what your “happier life” has to look like. That means we’re free to help you design what will work for you unhampered by dogma, myths, Steps, cults, or anything else.

One of my realizations when I ended my own alcohol abuse was that I “was still interested in how I was going to turn out.” Over twenty five years later, I still am.

We’re interested in how you’re going to turn out too.

Why not call and see what’s possible?

Odds and Ends

Alcohol Abuse, Alcoholism, and 12 Step Programs That Can’t Tell the Difference, don’t care, and will gladly burden you with inappropriate and damaging labels that will haunt you for the rest of your life.

Women and Alcohol – What To Consider In Treatment and why women need and deserve services built around women’s needs, not just another recycled (and failed) men’s program – which is all anyone else has to offer.

Confidentiality, why you want to avoid residential treatment and groups of all kinds.

The Bucket of Crabs or Why AA and Al-Anon are Bad For Your Health.

Links to Success:

Smart Women and Alcohol Abuse

“How Can You Possibly Cure My Years of Alcohol Abuse in Just 5 Days?”

The Real “Steps” to Overcoming Alcohol Abuse

Ten Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Sent My Brother Off To Rehab;