SHE RECOVERS co-founder Taryn Strong
By Rosemary Keevil
SHE RECOVERS, a movement of some 310,000 women from around the world, began as a thought in Dawn Nickel’s head: “We’re all recovering from something. The addictions mask what the real issues are. What we need is the deep healing.”
Dawn, who lives Victoria, is in recovery from drugs, alcohol and workaholism. Her daughter, Taryn Strong, is a yoga teacher who is also in recovery. They launched a SHE RECOVERS Facebook page in 2011. “I was blogging and sharing things on Facebook, and my message was around, ‘we’re all in recovery from something.’ And, as importantly, that we have to be supported to find individualized pathways and patchworks of recovery.” By patchworks Dawn means finding a combination of resources that work for the individual’s recovery.
The messages resonated with thousands and thousands of women and SHE RECOVERS became a resource. One of the many pathways to recovery that SHE RECOVERS embraces is Alcoholics Anonymous. Dawn attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings and strongly believes in the 12-step model. SHE RECOVERS meetings are called Sharing Circles.
Many different paths to recovery
Dawns says SHE RECOVERS acts as an umbrella: “We don’t prescribe to a particular program. We invite women to create their own individualized pathways and patchwork. We introduce them to concepts around meditation and yoga, nutrition, writing, journaling, art, being outdoors, fitness.”
“The main thing is we are not specifically about substance abuse. We are about grief, we’re about codependency, we’re about love addiction, we’re about any behavioral health issue, we’re about eating disorders,” and more.
SHE RECOVERS co-founder Dawn Nickel
Connection is our sole (soul) purpose
SHE RECOVERS embraces 10 “Intentions and Guiding Principles,” such as: Recovery is a journey to wholeness—we take care of our mind, body and spirit; We learn to make peace with our past so we can live wholly in the present; Connection is our sole (soul) purpose. We inspire and support women of all ages and backgrounds to find hope, health and happiness in recovery.
Dawn emphasizes the importance of connection and quotes Johann Hari: “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.”
“Women need to be in other people’s stories. They need to connect. It’s about connection. It’s like anything that we need to heal from. The first thing we need to do is to think it’s possible for us too. And I think how we learn that is by listening to somebody who has a story that might be similar to what we know ours is and they’re healing. They’re not only healing, they’re thriving.”
Legacy
Dawn is humble when reminded how many people SHE RECOVERS helps: “And I don’t take credit for it, because it’s a co-creation [with her daughter], and it’s a group effort. We provide the container or the opportunity for women, but then they come and they just bond with each other.”
The current pandemic has given her a new perspective on her creation or “passion project” as she calls it. “It’s been interesting because I have asthma, I have bronchitis, I’m one of those people that if I get COVID-19 it’s probably not going to be pretty. I have reflected a little bit on ‘what if.’ Having survived cancer, I do this anyway.”
Dawn says, “At the end of the day, at the end of my life, do I want to feel proud of what I’ve accomplished?” She says SHE RECOVERS is a strong enough movement it would thrive without her, “and it would be a great legacy for me. It would be, wherever I am after this lifetime, I think I would look down and go, ‘That was cool. I’m really glad that we did that.'”
Join the movement
Women follow SHE RECOVERS on Facebook and Instagram and on the SHE RECOVERS website which details a full menu of options for SHE RECOVERS women such as: podcasts; online yoga with Taryn Strong; the coaching program; and online retreats. There are 60 coaches worldwide and 40 in training. SHE RECOVERS partners with the International Association of Professional Recovery Coaches to offer an intensive online coaching course that involves 130 hours of training.
SHE RECOVERS hosted its first retreat in Mexico in 2012. There have been 34 more retreats and two big conferences, in LA and New York, with 500 attendees at each one. The Miami conference was to take place this spring but has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis. It is now rescheduled for April 30, 2021.
SHE RECOVERS is currently hosting online sharing circles daily, sometimes twice a day. They are hosted by SHE RECOVERS Coaches. Women can access the link to the meetings by visiting the SHE RECOVERS website and signing up for the newsletter.
Sea to Sky SHE RECOVERS
Kim Westlake, who lives in Squamish, is the Sea to Sky SHE RECOVERS coach and sets up a monthly sharing circle which has moved online. Each month has a theme. March’s was “Letting Go of Perfect.” The topic for April is “Nurturing our Physical Self.”
SHE RECOVERS Coach Kim Westlake
Kim’s Story
On April 1, 2018, Kim woke up yet again feeling horribly hungover and decided, “You know what, I’m just about 60 years old and I only have a third of my life left and I don’t want to feel like this anymore.”
Kim was able to quit alcohol on her own and she was looking for support in the community not only to stay sober but, “to also learn and grow in other areas of my life: body, mind, spirit and soul.” She did not find what she felt she needed: “It may have been that I was just at that stage in my recovery, very early stages, where I felt a lot of shame and embarrassment and didn’t want to go into my community.”
However, Kim did find vast amounts of support online. It was during “The Bubble Hour” podcast with Jean McCarthy that she heard of Dawn Nickel and SHE RECOVERS. “The Bubble Hour is hosted by Jean M., a sober woman dedicated to breaking down the walls of stigma and denial surrounding the disease of alcoholism.” (The Bubble Hour website)
Kim contacted Dawn and they talked: “For me, that was a pivotal point in terms of my support and recovery. It was the first time that I’d really connected with someone on such an open level.” Then afterwards, “I ended up signing up for one of the retreats in Mexico.”
While Kim was at the retreat, she decided that, “Part of my recovery journey would be being of service…I wanted to be able to help provide some support within my community.” Coaching was also a good fit with her human resources background.
Kim contacted Avalon Recovery Society about hosting some meetings at the centres. “They had heard of Dawn Nickel” and agreed that SHE RECOVERS “fit with their mandate.” Subsequently, monthly SHE RECOVERS meetings were set up at Avalon’s three locations: White Rock, Vancouver and the North Shore.
In person gatherings are impossible now with the COVID-19 crisis so Avalon’s SHE RECOVERS’ sharing circles have gone online. The first meeting was held on March 31. The next meeting takes place April 15 at 5:00 pm PST on Zoom.
Kim says that the current pandemic “triggers a lot of fear and anxiety for a lot of people. I feel more than ever, there’s a need to connect.”
All this has happened because of Dawn Nickel’s passion project which sprouted from the idea that, “We’re all recovering from something.”
This month’s Sharing Circle will be hosted online! Join us at 5 p.m. on April 15 on Zoom. Meeting details will be sent when you register though the link below.
Register for a SHE RECOVERS Sharing Circle
Please note: Sharing Circles are facilitated by donation, however no one will be turned away based on ability to pay. If you would like to attend but are unable to donate please contact kim@seatoskycoaching.com to reserve your space.
Rosemary Keevil is an addictions journalist and author with 18 years of sobriety.
Her book, The Art of Losing It: A Memoir of Grief and Addiction, will be published this October.