Alison Calder Coaching, Stockport (2026)

10/06/2026

One of the things that I work through with so many clients is the fear of future events without alcohol. Holidays are often a big one. Some people put off addressing their struggles with alcohol because they have a holiday booked months down the line, and I get it because an alcohol-free holiday felt unfathomable to me too.

What I really wanted was to drink less. As time went on, I realised that wasn’t an option for me. I just couldn’t manage it, so I gradually started to accept the idea of not drinking at all.

At the time, it felt like I was giving something up. I thought life would be boring and would lack fun and joy. I worried about holidays, celebrations and all the things I associated with drinking. Looking back now, I can see that I was trying to imagine an alcohol-free future through the eyes of somebody who still wanted alcohol, and that made it seem bleak and impossible.

We have just got back from two weeks in Disney Florida and I found myself reflecting on how different things feel now. I’ll be five years sober in October and drinking simply isn’t on the agenda for me anymore. More importantly, I don’t want it to be.

The holiday would have been different if I had been drinking. I wouldn’t have gone wild, but I would have had a few every day. I would have been less present, less energetic and my joy would have been dulled.

Before I stopped drinking, I imagined myself spending holidays wishing I could drink, feeling deprived and missing out. The reality is that somewhere along the way, that desire went. I learned more about alcohol, more about how I personally reacted to it and more about how I felt when I didn’t drink.

I guess I just wanted to say that for anyone struggling with alcohol, things can look very different further down the road than they do today. So many of the things that seem unfathomable in the beginning gradually become normal. We stop focusing on what we think we’re losing and start experiencing what we’re gaining.

It all works out, you know. Not instantly and not without effort, but if alcohol isn’t working for you, there is a lovely way to live without it.

18/05/2026

I had such a good week with clients last week.

I have a client on session 5 of 6 - getting ready to jet off with friends on holiday - confident and happy to be going booze free.

I have a client on week 11 of 12 - fully in his alcohol-free lane and feeling that an alcohol-free life is the way forward for him. He has lots of alcohol-free weeks under his belt now. He has literally transformed in front of my very eyes.

I have a brand new client - we made SO much progress during our first session. We got really clear about why he is uncomfortable with his drinking, even though quantity-wise it isn’t excessive. We planned out the next 7 days and talked all about what he wants from the coaching. I’m excited for the next 11 sessions with him.

I am working 1-1 with a few women that aren’t sure what they want from their relationship with alcohol - whether they want to stop or reduce - we are working this out together - looking at their motivation to change, diving deep into where their discomfort is, bringing in tools, getting curious and exploring what success with this looks like for them, with a constant reminder to show up for themselves with compassion and kindness. There is no right or wrong answer - I am working alongside them to help them find out what is right for them and how they want to move forward.

I had a fabulous mid-week group coaching session with the women in my alcohol-free club, and then last night we had our monthly workshop, where we had a guest speaker hosting a session on journaling. It was fabulous!

I have 2 new clients starting this week and am so looking forward to getting started with them.

If you are feeling stuck with your relationship with alcohol - let’s talk. I would love to help. Free calls can be booked on my website

15/05/2026

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week 💖

Yesterday I posted about my personal experience with alcohol and mental health and today I thought I’d post a little bit more about the science.

When I was addressing my own relationship with alcohol, I was not interested in the science at all. When I finally looked into it, I understood myself and my drinking so much more. It provided me with a level of understanding that I really needed back then:

• Alcohol increases our cortisol levels - cortisol is our stress hormone. It puts our body into a state of fight or flight, which heightens anxiety and makes us feel on edge. For regular drinkers, cortisol doesn’t just spike while you’re drinking - it stays elevated, and your body loses its ability to regulate it properly.

• Cortisol, combined with a spike in adrenaline, is why so many of us wake up at 3am after drinking - with our hearts racing, wide awake and feeling anxious. Our body is literally in stress mode while we’re trying to sleep.

• Alcohol also prevents us from getting proper, restful sleep. It might help us drift off, but it disrupts our sleep cycles through the night, so we wake up exhausted and depleted even if we slept for hours. Alcohol-induced sleep is very different from the restorative sleep that we really need.

• When we drink, we get a surge of dopamine. This can feel good in the moment, but our body then pulls back on its natural dopamine production to rebalance, which is why we can feel so flat and low in mood the next day. For a regular drinker, the brain can start producing less dopamine naturally over time.

• Over time, because we’re so used to that artificial dopamine flood we get with alcohol, the smaller everyday joys stop registering with our brain in the same way.

• GABA is a chemical in our brain that naturally calms us down and helps us feel relaxed. Alcohol mimics GABA - which is why it feels so relaxing at first. Over time, our brain produces less of its own GABA, meaning we need alcohol just to feel normal.

Learning all of this was game changing for me and was when things really started to shift. It made so much sense of why I had felt the way I had for years, and why I had found myself so stuck. We don’t have to stay stuck. There is always another way.

14/05/2026

Alcohol & My Mental Health

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and I think it’s so important that we talk openly about alcohol and mental health, so here is a bit of my own experience:

As a drinker I had extremely bad anxiety. It was constant and had a huge impact on the way I felt about myself and the way I showed up in the world. When I stopped drinking, the anxiety went. I still, of course, can feel anxious at times if something is making me feel that way, but the ever-present anxiety disappeared quite quickly after stopping drinking. I now can’t imagine living with that.

Although alcohol gave me relief and a bit of a high in the moment, it was detrimental to my mood overall. This is what alcohol does - it lowers mood overall. Because I was drinking most days, my mood stayed low for years. The only relief I got from this was the artificial high from alcohol which was the very thing that was causing it in the first place.

Because I was so used to the extreme artificial dopamine hit that alcohol gave me, I struggled to find joy in the day-to-day. When we remove alcohol, our body and brain rebalance and joy in the little things returns. It is bloody wonderful!

I felt shame and regret around my drinking and it increasingly felt out of alignment with the person I wanted to be. Over time that really wore me down.

What I have learned in sobriety is what I really need. I show up for myself more, with kindness and compassion, I look at triggers and strive to understand them, I give myself treats that nourish me, and engage in things that bring me real joy. As a drinker I didn’t do this.

If you are struggling with alcohol and your mental health, taking a break from the booze could make a bigger difference than you could ever imagine.

14/05/2026

If you would like to explore your relationship with alcohol, book a discovery call on the below link and let’s talk.

The discovery calls are a really gentle conversation - where you can tell me more about where you are at, and I can tell you more about the coaching process and myself as a coach.

There is no pressure or obligation, you are free to then go and have a think about whether it is the right fit for you.

https://www.fresha.com/en-GB/a/alison-calder-coaching-cheadle-cheadle-hulme-lst4r7ts/booking?menu=true&cartId=9e306308-730c-4272-ac6d-9c8a256aab4d

12/05/2026

Maybe becoming a non-drinker was never part of your plan either⬇️

I didn’t plan to walk away from my wine business, but it niggled at me for years that my work, my identity, my financial security — all of it was tied up in alcohol. And somewhere underneath all of that, I knew it wasn’t working for me.

I even tried to stay in the wine industry and just stop drinking. To keep the business, keep the life I’d built but just without the alcohol. Of course it didn’t work. I wasn’t ready to fully let go, but I couldn’t be fully in either. I was clutching at straws.

Eventually it was always going to come to a head. And it did.

I’d spent many years going back and forth with it. Knowing something wasn’t right, then convincing myself I was fine. What finally got me through was having someone guide me through the process - through the identity shift, walking away from the business, figuring out who I was on the other side.
Because stopping drinking isn’t just about removing the alcohol. It’s about rediscovering who’s underneath it all.
And that’s exactly what I do now.

If you need help reach out and let’s talk. It was the best thing I have ever done for myself.

10/05/2026

For years I told myself alcohol made me playful, relaxed and fun to be around. And then I stopped drinking.

It turns out the playfulness was never coming from the wine. The wine was actually blocking it and numbing it. Underneath all of it was just silly and playful me - who apparently loves running around a warehouse playing real-life Pac-Man for my birthday treat.

This has been one of the most fun bits of getting sober for me - getting my sense of play, adventure and silliness back.

If you’re worried that life without alcohol means life without fun — give it enough time - you’ll be wildly surprised.

09/05/2026

I walked away from it all ⬇️

I spent years in the wine industry telling myself I just needed to get better at drinking less. I was surrounded by it. It was my job, my identity, my social life all wrapped into one.

And then I had to get really honest with myself.
Underneath all of it was someone who had been using wine as a crutch for longer than I wanted to admit. Stripping that back was the most uncomfortable, and most important thing I ever did.

It also turned out to be the thing that pointed me in a completely new direction.

If you’re in the wine world, the hospitality world, or just a world where drinking is completely normal and expected - I see you. I was there too. And there is another way.

05/05/2026

This used to absolutely baffle me ⬇️

Setting out to just have one drink, and then drinking more - I just couldn’t get my head around it.

And then I found out that alcohol reduces the activity in our prefrontal cortex - the part of our brain that helps us to think things through, make rational decisions and control our impulses 😱

There are so many more reasons why too! This is just one of them.

Learning this changed everything for me, because I stopped blaming myself and started understanding what was actually happening in my body and brain when I drank.

This was the point where it all began to make sense and this is where I fast track my clients to.

If this feels familiar, and you’re starting to question your relationship with alcohol, you’re very welcome to reach out and book a free discovery call on my website. We can talk it through and see whether coaching feels like a good fit for you, with no pressure or obligation.

02/05/2026

Bank holidays used to feel like something was missing when I wasn’t drinking. When something has been framed as a reward for so long, it’s going to feel like a loss when it’s not there. Things really started to shift for me when I understood more clearly what alcohol was actually doing and was more honest with myself about how it left me feeling overall. The more I sat with that, the less sense it made to see it as something I was missing out on.

This is the work I do with my clients!

We can change

We can do hard things (and then after a while they aren’t hard anymore).

If you feel that your relationship with alcohol is no longer serving you - you can book a free call with me for a gentle conversation about where you are at, and the coaching process. The details are on my website.

https://alisoncalder.com

Happy bank holiday weekend all

Alison Calder Coaching

10/06/2026

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