Changing Your Drinking and Supporting Loved Ones Through the Process with Amber Hollingsworth
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Release Date: 09/10/2025
Changing Your Drinking and Supporting Loved Ones Through the Process with Amber Hollingsworth
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode 334 Hello! Thank you for being here today. This episode offers hope to anyone seeking to change their drinking, as well as to family members who wish to support their loved ones through the process with compassion and understanding. I'm honored to welcome our guest, Amber Hollingsworth, to the podcast. Amber is a master addiction counselor, founder of Hope For Families Recovery Center, and creator of the YouTube channel Put The Shovel Down. With over two decades of experience, she’s helped thousands of families navigate addiction recovery using innovative,...
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A Conversation About Seasons of Life, Aging, and Recovery with Leigh and Anne Walkup
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode #333 Hey there! I'm so happy you're here. Today, I'm talking to two of my favorite people, Leigh and Anne Walkup. The sisters are back on the podcast to share their thoughts on aging (the joys and the challenges), perimenopause, and we talk about the different seasons of life. We also talk about recovery and sobriety in the news - it's good news and it's here to stay, as you will hear. The sisters share their thoughts about what recovery is like and why it's beneficial to embrace. They also share their favorite beauty product at the moment, what they're reading and...
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Ideas for Celebrating Sober Anniversaries for You and Loved Ones
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode #332 Hello, friend! Welcome to To 50 and Beyond, where we talk about living alcohol-free later in life. I'm glad you're here! Have you ever wondered whether you should celebrate your sober anniversaries—or those of loved ones? I sure did! I wasn’t sure if my first year was worth celebrating or how to celebrate it, but over time, I figured it out. I just celebrated 12 years on August 11, 2025, and in this episode, I talk about my favorite ways to celebrate. I also talk about: Why celebrating every sober milestone, big or small, makes a...
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Listener Appreciation: I'm Proud of You Keep Going
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode 331 A heartfelt message from me to you. Thank you for listening to the To 50 and Beyond podcast. Whether this is your first time or over 400th time, I appreciate you more than words can say. I recorded this episode to share my appreciation for you and empower you to keep going towards the life you want in midlife and beyond! I'm with you 100%! I will be back with a new episode on August 27th. I'm in my "normalizing breaks and honoring flow" era;) To join my community, Team Alcohol-Free, If you would like to share your feedback for the podcast or a topic, ...
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Make Your Morning Routine Work For You
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode 330 Hey there! I'm so happy you're here. I LOVE talking about morning routines! Morning is your time. That’s what having a morning routine is all about. It’s you saying, ‘I matter.’ Everything else can wait. All the responsibilities and to-dos—they’ll get done, just not before you take care of yourself. A morning routine that works for you is not about getting up early—unless you want to. It’s about dedicating at least 10 minutes to doing something for yourself after you wake up - whatever time that is. In this episode, you’ll discover: The signs you may need...
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Listen to Help You Get Centered On Why You Don't Want to Drink
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode 329 Hey there! One of the biggest things I share is what’s helped me stay alcohol free—focusing on why I didn’t want to drink more than why I did. That’s not easy, but it’s powerful. I call it Why Power—something I started saying years ago in a community meeting: Why Power over Willpower. In this episode, I invite you to reflect on your reason why you don’t want to drink. If you’re like me, you could always find reasons to drink—or you didn’t even need a reason. This reflection will help you get started in living alcohol-free or reinforce your choice if you're...
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Everyday Self-Care to Support Your Alcohol-Free Lifestyle
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode 328 Do you have a consistent self-care practice? If you said no, chances are there is one thing you are doing for yourself that you may not identify as self-care. By the end of this episode, I'll help you define what self-care is and feels like for you, and start calling out what you're already doing for yourself today. What you'll hear inside: The definition of self-care and how to find the meaning for you My self-care before and after I stopped drinking Why consistency (in self-care) matters to help you be proactive when you experience drinking urges/triggers The common...
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Listen to Help You "Play the Tape Forward"
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode #327 I'm so glad you're here! Please if you need help in working through the "drinking chatter" and any romantic thoughts about drinking, if you are working on living an alcohol-free lifestyle. If you’re a woman in midlife working on living alcohol-free, this episode is for you. “Playing the tape forward” is a favorite practice of many women who are working on living an alcohol-free lifestyle. One of the biggest challenges is the thoughts and ideas about drinking - the “drinking chatter” as I like to call it. What “playing the tape forward” means: It’s about...
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My First Year of Sobriety: What I Did to Stay Alcohol-Free
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode 325 Hello, friend! Thank you for being here. If you're in your first year of sobriety, congratulations! I'm very proud of you wherever you are on this road to alcohol freedom in midlife. During this episode, I'm sharing the things that helped me stay alcohol-free during my first year. I stopped drinking in 2013, choosing to go it alone. I stuck to simplicity because that is all I knew. I wasn't sure if I was doing things "right," but here we are today, almost 12 years later. I've been able to sustain sobriety because I've done what works for...
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Life After Alcohol: Learning to Love Yourself More with Paula Muller
To 50 and Beyond - Sobriety for Midlife Women
Episode 325 Hello! I'm so happy you're here! This podcast is all about living alcohol-free later in life, and my guest today, Paula Muller, is living proof of living alcohol-free later in life. Paula is an incredibly supportive member of my online community, who brought this wonderful topic of learning to love yourself more to me as a topic. When I heard it, I was "all in!" Paula shares her story of starting to drink at 13, how alcohol became part of her identity, and what led to her decision to stop drinking for good on April 8, 2024—a night in a hotel room...
info_outlineEpisode 334
Hello! Thank you for being here today.
This episode offers hope to anyone seeking to change their drinking, as well as to family members who wish to support their loved ones through the process with compassion and understanding.
I'm honored to welcome our guest, Amber Hollingsworth, to the podcast.
Amber is a master addiction counselor, founder of Hope For Families Recovery Center, and creator of the YouTube channel Put The Shovel Down.
With over two decades of experience, she’s helped thousands of families navigate addiction recovery using innovative, relationship-focused strategies like the Invisible Intervention. Known for her relatable, no-nonsense approach,
Amber's philosophy is centered on empowerment and compassion, believing that people don’t need to hit rock bottom to recover and that recovery is about redirecting addictive energy toward positive, fulfilling life goals.
She emphasizes that individuals and families have the influence and strength to create lasting change through trust, safety, and a strengths-based approach, rather than relying on shame or control.
You will hear Amber talk about:
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The true process of changing your drinking—and where to begin by taking intentional breaks from alcohol
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The early signs it may be time to rethink your drinking, and what Amber calls “stage three”
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Why is moderation so challenging, given how alcohol impacts brain chemistry and self-control
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How to navigate what Amber describes as "the bargaining stage" to stay alcohol-free
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What to expect in early sobriety and how to approach a break from drinking
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The instincts family members have that can unintentionally hinder progress—and what they can do to truly support a loved one
Amber offers hope, insight, and actionable tools for anyone facing change or supporting someone they love.
Click here for Amber's YouTube playlist.
Connect with Amber
Hope For Families Recovery Center
Connect with Lori
Private Coaching complimentary discovery session
Join my community Team Alcohol-Free
Download The Daily Sobriety Toolkit