This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without judgment,

pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

Hey everybody, it's Scott Peneered, head coach of this naked mind and I'm back with another

edition of coaching questions and another special co-host for today. I have Carolyn Bennett

with me, one of our amazing certified naked mind coaches. She runs a company called Sips

of Serenity, hi Carolyn, I'm glad you're here. Hi Scott, thank you, I'm excited to be

here so thank you for having me. So you specialize in people that drink to

them out relationships or drink to kind of numb and like hide their feelings from others.

What does that mean, I love to talk, get into that little bit.

Sure, you know, sometimes it's difficult because sometimes we don't know, it's very hard

to differentiate, let's say, between are we drinking to numb out like a toxic relationship

that we're in that we don't want to admit that we're dealing with that and whether it's

a significant other, a friendship, parents, our own children or if the drinking is causing

those relationships to be toxic. And so I, you know, just work with people on trying

to kind of wage through that. My first suggestion is always stop drinking first. Let's get

you, you know, where the alcohol isn't a factor anymore and then we can kind of examine,

okay, do you still feel like you're dealing with some toxicity? And if so, then, you

know, we will work through that and I'll pass them on to to someone else too at that time.

But yeah, that's what I do. I also work a little bit with empaths were just people who

really, I'm still learning about it myself to be totally honest, kind of carry the way

to the world. Like I can walk into a room and I can feel a lot of different feelings and

I pick out the person who's left out and it was one of the big reasons I drank personally

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