No More Booze - The Podcast

A note before you listen Today’s conversation includes discussion around childhood sexual abuse. These conversations are incredibly important and they are also difficult to hear. Please listen with care and put your wellbeing first. If this topic feels too close to home right now, you may wish to skip this episode or come back to it another time. On this week’s episode of No More Booze, on a rare...

This week on No More Booze, I’m joined by my gorgeous friend Caoimhe de Fréin @de_frein, a mum of three and a life design coach who’s been alcohol-free for two and a half years. Caoimhe shares how she went from engineering and data in the tech world to building her own business DEFRÉIN, after being made redundant and how giving up alcohol gave her the clarity, energy and grit to back herself. We c...

This week on No More Booze, I’m joined by Karl Elliott @thekarlelliott, who’s coming up on 10 years alcohol-free and living near Ascot in the UK. Carl takes us right back to drinking at 13, the daily pub routine and the moment he realised he couldn’t keep rolling the dice—especially when he became a dad. We talk about One Year No Beer, why community and accountability can change everything and wha...

* A note before you listen * Today’s conversation includes significant discussion around suicide. These conversations are incredibly important and they are also difficult to hear. Please listen with care and put your wellbeing first. If this topic feels too close to home right now, you may wish to skip this episode or come back to it another time. This week I’m joined by psychotherapist Lauren Gol...

Ian Thurlbeck from @alcohol_uncensored joins me this week to chat about his six years off the sauce. Ian is a dad, husband and business owner from the North East of England and co-host of the Alcohol Uncensored podcast with Kelly Cooney. We chat about how “normal” drinking crept from uni into work networking, home life and parenting, until the balance tipped into anxiety, paranoia and not liking w...

As regular listeners know, I'm a massive fan of metaphysics and all things manifestation. So today, I'm beyond thrilled to welcome, mindset and manifestation coach, Steffani LeFevour @coachwithsteff. We have an incredible conversation about what really changes when we use the clarity that not drinking brings and start creating life from a totally different place. Stephanie shares her STAR New Real...

Flexera Founder @joinflexera, Hannah Joyce @hannahleighjoyce joins me for a brilliant, honest chat about going alcohol-free at 26 and what’s possible when you stop breaking promises to yourself. Six years off the booze, Hannah shares the signs that were there from the start: brutal hangovers, lingering anxiety and that inability to “just have one or two”. We talk about how COVID was a forced pause...

Mayo woman Aisling Burke @aislingalcoholfree joins me from Manchester for a really lovely, honest chat about why she decided she was done with drink and why this time it wasn’t a I’ll try situation. Seven months alcohol-free, Aisling talks blackouts mid-conversation, midweek hangovers that stole days and that feeling of always rushing life at 100 miles an hour. We get into what changed when she fi...

Sinead Crowe @thisismresinead is back for her third No More Booze check-in; we spoke at 12 weeks, 12 months and now she’s 24 months alcohol-free. And this episode follows who she’s become in that time. Sinead opens up about self-belief, confidence and learning to cope without reaching for wine or anything else even through depression, anxiety, HRT chaos, injury and a year that tested her more than...

This week on No More Booze, I’m joined by Nadija Bajrami, a multi-award-winning trauma-focused hypnotherapist, coach, psychic medium, Reiki master, grief educator and end-of-life doula and my own personal psychic reader. As regular listeners know I am deeply spiritual and this conversation with Nadija goes way beyond the drink. We talk intuition, spirituality, near-death experiences and what it re...

This week on No More Booze, I’m joined by Matt Wing @midlife.mentor, who’s two and a half years alcohol-free, for a raw and really honest conversation about what it looks like to quit after decades of all or nothing drinking. Matt shares how alcohol became his go-to coping mechanism for a life lived in fear, anxiety and self-loathing and how the simple rule of don’t have the first drink helped cha...

This week on No More Booze, I’m joined by my gorgeous friend Caroline Williams, who’s 10 months off the booze and we are taking a real, honest look at what early sobriety actually feels like. Caroline shares how her drinking progressed from normal nights out to daily wine, blackouts and that brutal 4am fear and shame. We talk about family, stigma, self-trust and the moment she finally admitted: on...

Jodi Clark (aka @soberflourish) is back on No More Booze three and a half years off the drink and we go way beyond just quitting alcohol. We talk identity shifts, bravery, leaving corporate, launching a business and how Jodie lost over six stone by building daily non‑negotiables alongside sobriety: steps, sleep, water, food, routine and discipline. This episode dives into subconscious rewiring, fu...

This week on No More Booze, I’m chatting to hypnotherapist and CBT therapist Louisa Evans, @stepping_into_sobriety who’s nearly three and a half years sober and bringing all of her insight to the conversation. We talk about what alcohol *gave* her at the start escape, distraction, “a friend” and what it slowly took away: self-trust, health and peace. Louisa opens up about relationships and the mom...

This week I'm chatting to Megan Boggs @getmellow_withmeg, who gave up alcohol 4 years ago at the tender age of 25. We chat about how this impacted all areas of her life, especially her connections with her friends. Megan is a Dublin-based life coach originally from Tyrone who helps people change their relationship with alcohol - whether that means removing it completely or softening its impact. He...

This week on No More Booze, I'm joined by Casey Davidson from Seattle, host of the brilliant Hello Someday podcast, as she celebrates 10 years alcohol free. Casey unpacks how red wine, motherhood, anxiety and high-achieving pressure kept her stuck in a bottle-a-night cycle and why moderation simply wasn’t an option for her. She shares the shame, the 3am wake-ups and what finally helped: support, c...

***Please note that this is a episode includes a conversation about suicide*** This week on No More Booze, I'm joined by the effervescent John Boland @bolandjohn0, a man I literally met on the side of a mountain! We talk about what 30 years of drinking (and living behind a mask) really cost him and what sobriety has given back. John shares the moment with his son that changed everything and how ir...

It’s a solo episode this week on No More Booze and I’m answering your Instagram AMA questions. We start with the Stages of Change (the trans-theoretical model): pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, relapse/recycling and termination. I break down what each stage looks like in real life, why ambivalence is so normal for grey area drinkers and how identity (and neuropla...

This week on No More Booze, I’m joined by fellow podcaster Anna Donaghey, host of The Big Drink Rethink Podcast, coach and author of the brilliant new book ‘What Are You Thirsty For?’ Anna shares how she quit alcohol five years ago after a long bouncing along the bottom period. There was no dramatic rock bottom, just exhaustion and that constant inner tug-of-war. We talk grey area drinking, why aw...

This week on No More Booze, I’m joined by Sinead Anderson @anderson.sinead a Galway woman living in the south of France, who’s three and a half years alcohol-free and wishes she had done it sooner. We chat about growing up shy, using booze for confidence and the years of 'it’s fine, everybody does it' attitude until the switch finally flipped. Sinead shares how quitting alongside her husband chang...

This week on No More Booze, I’m chatting with my beautiful pal Joanne McCarthy-Colbert @jomccointeriors about what it looks like to quit drinking without a rock bottom and how finding the words grey area drinker was the switch that finally changed it all. Joanne shares her story of starting young, having no off switch and the years of trying to figure out where she fit (not dependant on alcohol bu...

This week on No More Booze, I'm joined by fellow podcaster Brenda Dennehy, to talk about addiction, recovery and what it really takes to rebuild a life. Brenda is the host of The Comeback with Brenda Dennehy and the Brenda and Alan podcast. She is a former BBC, ITV, and Sky News television producer, as well as an experienced radio producer. Originally from Ballydesmond on the Cork–Kerry border, Br...

This week on No More Booze, I’m joined by the dynamic duo, Sandra Healy and Sarah Mills, co-founders of the TABB platform, dedicated to helping women take a break from booze. We talk about their personal journeys with alcohol, touching on the good, the bad and the moments of realisation that led them to an alcohol-free life. Sandra shares her experience as a mother navigating her relationship with...

This week, I chat with a great friend of the pod, Alcohol Free Coach Susan Hodgson @losetheboozewithsuz. We reflect on the journey of Dry January. As we wrap up the month, we discuss the challenges and triumphs of taking a break from alcohol and how to carry that momentum forward. Join us as we explore self-compassion and the reality of feeling overwhelmed in a booze-soaked world. Suz shares her o...

This week I sit down with Conor Pope @conorpope who has recently documented how a dry January turned into a dry forever, but insists he is not a judgemental Holy Joe. Conor shares how this began rather casually but evolved into a significant lifestyle change over the years. Conor Pope is a journalist, author and broadcaster. As The Irish Times Consumer Affairs Correspondent he writes about everyth...