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Ellie Schoenberger, Recovery Advocate

HERE IT IS!

The first conversation for Your Recovered Life Series: True Stories from the Future is with the inspiring and inimitable Ellie Schoenberger.

Ellie wears many hats (see bio below) but I think of her most as a woman who takes a stand for bringing alcoholism and recovery out of the shadows – Letting us know that recovery is not only possible but phenomenal and that no matter where you are in the process, you are not alone.

I have admired her work from afar for years and personally known many women whose lives she has touched with her advocacy for telling the truth and taking the shame and stigma out of our addictions. I was thrilled to talk to her for this project and am now honored to call her a friend.

We discuss:

• How looking for a hobby set her on a path of no return
• How to evaluate intention and direction
• When it’s okay to do nothing
• How to handle a nervous breakdown in recovery
• Her love/hate relationship with the idea of having a calling
• How to work with and through the fear
• And she shares what she sees is the key to it all

Enjoy!

P.S. Ellie mentioned Brene Brown – here are her very worth a watch Ted Talks – the first about vulnerability went viral and then 2 years later, she talked about shame.

Ellie’s official bio:

Ellie Schoenberger is Founder and President of  Shining Strong, a non-profit dedicated to breaking the stigma of addiction through story and written word.  Shining Strong owns Crying Out Now, a blog where women tell their stories of addiction and recovery and offer each other support through a vibrant and growing community, and The Bubble Hour – an online talk/radio show where real people tell real stories of alcoholism and recovery.

She is the writer of the popular blog, One Crafty Mother (which, despite how it sounds, is not a crafting blog but rather, er, a crafty play on words).

Most recently she produced a “Best Of” compilation entitled Let Me Get This Straight of her posts chronicling her alcoholism, recovery, her weight loss journey, the loss of her father and her battle with cancer, as well as stories of the everyday trials and joys of life with two kids. .

Ellie’s open and honest writing about alcoholism and recovery led to an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show and interviews in USA TODAY and Redbook Magazine. 

Her Blog was nominated as a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2011, and was named one of the Top Ten Inspirational Bloggers by SheKnows in November, 2012.

In November of 2011, Ellie was diagnosed with stage 4 tonsil cancer. After chemotherapy, radiation treatments and surgery, she was declared to be in full remission in April 2012.

She lives outside of Boston, MA with her top priorities.. her children, Greta and Finn, and her husband, Steve.