The Hurt Beneath the Habit: Why I Wrote This for You
It Was Never Just About the Substance.
That sentence wouldn’t leave me alone.
It echoed in my head every time a client looked at me and said, “I don’t know why I keep doing this,” or “I swear I didn’t want to use again, but something just… flipped.”
And I realized: the world doesn’t need another book about what people are doing. It needs one that finally talks about why.
This is that book.
Written for those navigating the long road of addiction recovery, for the ones holding grief after loving someone through relapse, and for the therapists trying to meet suffering with compassion, this book is a truth-telling, soul-holding space. One that bridges the gap between trauma therapy and substance use treatment, because we can’t heal one without honoring the other.
For the People Who’ve Survived More Than They Let On
This book is for the ones who look “fine” on the outside but are holding a lifetime of survival under the surface.
For the high-functioning professionals quietly struggling with alcohol. For the parents watching their child disappear into fentanyl. For the clinicians sitting across from pain they can feel in their own nervous system.
It’s for the ones who’ve lost someone. For the ones trying to stay. For the ones relapsing and returning and trying again. For those who have asked, “Will it ever not hurt like this?”
And for those who’ve been told, “You just need to stop,” as if that was ever the problem.
What If It Was Never About Willpower?
We treat addiction like a character flaw. But trauma rewires the brain. It floods the body. It creates pain that doesn't respond to logic, but does respond to relief.
Trauma therapy and substance use treatment cannot be separate conversations.
I wrote this book to show how nervous system dysregulation, attachment wounds, shame, and grief all show up in addiction, and how real healing comes when we stop asking, What’s wrong with you? and start asking, What happened to you?
If we want lasting recovery, we have to work with the hurt beneath the habit.
For Therapists, Parents, and the People in the Middle
If you’re a therapist trying to integrate trauma-informed care with addiction treatment and don't know where to start, this book was written for you.
If you’re a loved one walking alongside someone in early recovery, wondering how to help without losing yourself, this book is a compass.
And if you are someone in the messy middle of it all, tired, triggered, and just trying to hold on, this book was written with you, not at you.
Each chapter is grounded in clinical knowledge and real stories, but it’s not a manual. It’s a mirror. A space to feel seen in your complexity, not pathologized by it.
This Is a Healing Book
You won’t find gimmicks here. You’ll find science. Honesty. Somatic wisdom. You’ll find what I’ve learned over the last 20 years working in trauma therapy and addiction recovery, and what I’ve lived as a mother, clinician, and woman who’s seen this pain up close.
You’ll find permission.
Permission to feel. To grieve. To question old stories. To come home to yourself.
And you’ll find tools, ones rooted in trauma-responsive therapy, that can help you move through your story with more compassion and less shame.
Join the Waitlist
My book, It Was Never Just About the Substance, launches September 2, in honor of Recovery Month.
If you want first access to:
Early bird pricing
Free downloadable tools and worksheets
A bonus chapter on relapse recovery
And exclusive healing content
👉 Click here to join the waitlist
This Is Bigger Than a Book
This is my offering to the world.
A book that challenges how we talk about addiction.
A book that honors the body, the brain, and the story.
A book that believes healing is possible, even when it’s messy. Especially when it’s messy.
Whether you’re the one in recovery, the one who loves them, or the one guiding them through the dark …
You’re not alone.
And I hope this book finds you when you need it most.
Contact me to get started or learn more about my specialties, such as Trauma Therapy.
