I help people with undesired drinking behaviours find the freedom to navigate life's ebb and flow without alcohol front and centre

SOBER TIDES
Alcohol Freedom Coach

"Many people dream of doing the impossible and aren't even doing the possible!" -Kevin B Johnston

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welcome

Welcome to Sobertides

Hello!

My name is Tony Richardson, for years I worried about my drinking. I worried about how much and how often I was drinking. I worried about the long term effects on my physical and mental health, my relationships, my work, my finances, my identity. As I got older medical issues started to emerge like high blood pressure and high triglycerides., but through it all I refused to believe that alcohol was root cause of my problems.

I spent so much time and effort making rules to control my drinking, breaking them, self judgement, feeling shame and blame, questioning what I was doing.

Then binge drinking again to numb out or soothe those feelings.

It was exhausting.

More often than not it was like being on a giant hamster wheel that I couldn't break free of.

One day I had a snap point and decided I'd had enough. The rock bottom without an actual rock bottom. After reading the AA material of the day, I went cold turkey believing I had a disease and I was the problem, not the alcohol. I lasted nearly 9 years using willpower alone, until it got too much and I started drinking again.

In all that time I was sober but not free.

Deep down I still believed alcohol was important to me even though I couldn't drink it, I had FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) a lot of the time. My strategy to minimise FOMO was to avoid venues and social functions where alcohol was present.

It was inevitable that one day I would start drinking again and so I did, I found myself right back where I started in a short period of time.

Doing all the same behaviours I did before.

From Alcohol Fuelled to Alcohol Free

Fast forward 5 years and resolving to stop drinking again, I found Annie Grace's book This Naked Mind. I read it multiple times and finally understood the truth about alcohol. Using the science based knowledge and wisdom in the book I re-programmed my beliefs relating to alcohol. I stopped successfully and went alcohol free without FOMO.

After a year or so of living alcohol free, I decided to become a Certified This Naked Mind Alcohol Coach.

I prefer to call myself an Alcohol Freedom Coach. rather than a Sober Coach or Sobriety Coach because we work together on freeing you from the shackles of alcohol holding you back from the life that you want.

Life for me now is so much better now without alcohol, my health has improved, I no longer require blood pressure pills. I rarely give drinking a second thought unless I'm coaching someone and I need to remember how it was when I was stuck drinking my life away!

Now I am alive, not shackled!

Why Seek My Help?

At first we don't give much thought about it, then over time as the drinking seems to permeate every part of our lives. We begin to question and ask ourselves if alcohol has something to do with how things are turning out for us.

Issues in our relationships, problems at work, behaviours that you don't normally subscribe to, like hiding your true levels of drinking.

We get a nagging feeling that maybe we should cut down a bit... somehow.

We question what we are doing with our drinking behaviours when we get stuck trying to manage our drinking but on the flip side we still feel the need to maintain a strong connection with alcohol.

It's painful.

Alcohol free coaching can undo all of our behaviours and bring peace to our decisions around alcohol. That for me has been the most freeing thing I have done.

Your Key to Living life on Your Terms, not Alcohols!

As an Alcohol Freedom Coach, my mission is to help you to understand the deeper reasons alcohol might be holding you back from your ideal life.

Reasons why it is so difficult to just change the behaviour and expect success, and why your beliefs around alcohol need to shift.

I have been there, I know the pain of failing, beating myself up and losing hope, but there is a way out, you can change your life for the better.

I became obsessed with two questions about my drinking "How to moderate drinking" and when that failed, "How to give up drinking alcohol".

Eventually I found my freedom, not through changing my behaviour, (stop drinking using willpower) but through changing my beliefs about alcohol and how it related to my life.

Imagine a life where you effortlessly choose whether to enjoy a drink or savour the moment without it.

Imagine a life where alcohol becomes small and irrelevant, and you have no desire to go back to your old life.

You can, it is possible! I live it daily.

From Alcohol Fuelled to Alcohol Free

As a coach I understand the uniqueness of your journey, it takes courage and commitment to work with a coach.

Everyone is different in where they are along the spectrum with their levels of drinking alcohol, they might be drinking very little according to the guidelines but don't feel good about their drinking.

Someone else might be a daily drinker from sun up to sun down but apart from the odd issue they don't believe they have a problem, they are just a "normal" drinker. (What is normal for one person might be far too much for another, or vice versa.)

When we do begin to feel uncomfortable about our drinking and we decide to change our drinking habits, we often discover alcohol has a greater hold over us than we first thought.

It then becomes a common experience in trying to overcome the hold alcohol has over us. No matter where we sit on the spectrum.

The beauty of working with a coach is that we can often see what you cannot when it comes to understanding what is really going on. A coach such as myself with lived experience of overcoming alcohol twice in my life provides a unique perspective.

I have done it the hard way and the relatively easy way. I have made so many mistakes along the way, so you don't have to.

The goal of coaching though is not to tell you how to run your life but simply guide you along the way and help you understand yourself and why you might do the things you do around drinking.

You find the answers and you decide how to integrate them into feeling better about your drinking habits. That might mean giving up alcohol or it might not.

Feel better, live better!

If my own story resonates with you and you are interested in learning more about how I can help you find the same freedom I have, I'd be honoured to partner with you on this life changing journey.

To explore how my tailored coaching can help you achieve your goals and regain control over your relationship with alcohol, schedule a no-obligation FREE Discovery Call with me today.

Get ready to unlock your potential and experience a healthier, more fulfilling life without alcohol.

Book your FREE Discovery Call

About

About me

"My journey is your shortcut.."

Going back to early 2021, I was several beers into a late Sunday evening session. The thoughts ran through my head like a non-stop tickertape:

Work tomorrow, up at 5 a.m. I should stop now and go to bed.

Why am I doing this, why can't I just stop.. why why why?

No.. Really I should stop, period, get back to where I was 6 years ago.. sober.. but feeling deprived, miserable, white knuckling it.

Just give in to it, you're fine, why bother.

Like a comfortable grey blanket, the thought descended over me.. it's just too f*ing hard.

Like a siren's call to mariners long ago..

Give in.. there is no hope

Its hopeless

Crack another one.

After many years of being alcohol free I had started drinking again. In a short period I found myself exactly where I had left off, binge drinking, hangovers, recrimination, shame.

Especially shame.

My drinking had become the end game for nearly every activity in my life, the things I was passionate about, the ups, the downs, the good, the bad.

They merely became the means to an end. Drinking.

I knew I had to do something.

Could I get back the mind set and resolve to quit again?

Yes I did, and some!

My journey is your shortcut to success, however you want to frame it. Cutting back, drinking less, moderating or quitting altogether.

I discovered that willpower or "white knuckling" alone is not the answer, it's only part of the equation.

First and foremost you need to believe that change actually possible. Changing your relationship with alcohol is about acquiring knowledge, building emotion and taking action.

My story to find freedom from alcohol really started in 2007. It was a rather long process, but I learned a lot. I learned what works and what doesn't work. It has given me a lot of insight to where people have problems in their own journeys.

Insight on how to guide you to a place where you are not experiencing the same pain that I did when I was battling through on my own, literally against myself and our alcohol fueled society.

To read more about my own story, click on the button below.

I hope you find inspiration there..

How I Can Help You

about you

You have perhaps thought about one or two or even all of these statements at one time or another.

You feel deep down that alcohol may be a problem for you but you just want to drink normally
(I get it.. IF ONLY you could just DRINK NORMALLY like everyone else!)
You wish you could moderate your drinking
You feel that your alcohol use is holding you back
You would really like alcohol to be less important
You find the things that once lit you up, don't anymore
You google all the questions about being an alcoholic, and apart from scaring the crap out of you, you can't truly identify with what they are saying
You believe life without alcohol will be dull and boring
You believe you need alcohol to relax, connect with others and enjoy any occasion
There is never enough alcohol in the house once you start drinking
You swear off drinking during the hangover but find yourself drinking again hours later
You wonder if your drinking is bad enough to warrant change
You are worried your drinking is physically damaging your health and mental wellbeing
You employ mental gymnastics around wanting to stop but wanting to continue at the same time!