Recover-You is a trauma-first roadmap for people trying to make sense of childhood adversity, long-term stress, addiction, and what comes after "not using." It's built from two places at once: lived experience inside the system, and years of digging into the science of trauma, stress, and the brain.
This isn't another "10 tips for recovery" website. The goal is to make the whole landscape clearer, more informed, and more human—so you walk away actually explained: why your body reacts the way it does, why your brain feels the way it does, and why your coping isn't "weakness" but a survival system that was never meant to carry this much weight for this long.
This site is being built for Albertans who are navigating a confusing, fragmented system—often while overwhelmed, undersupported, or unsure where to turn next. If you've ever felt lost between detox and treatment, bounced between providers who never asked about your childhood, or sat beneath a "trauma-informed" poster while no one actually touched your trauma, this is for you.
The goal is simple: bring clarity to Alberta's system, spotlight real trauma-specific pathways—not trauma-flavored branding—and help people get care that actually matches the weight of their story.
Site launching soon. Real answers, no bullshit, no trauma-washing.
For twenty years I lived inside the cycle of addiction, relapse, damage control, and starting over. I went through programs, rehabs, therapy groups, worksheets, and every “just work the steps harder” variation you can imagine. Some pieces helped. Most left huge gaps.
The thing I was missing wasn’t motivation. It wasn’t willpower. It wasn’t another checklist or slogan.
It was context.
Everything I now understand about adverse childhood experiences, toxic stress, and how trauma wires the brain for survival came after treatment — not because of it. I had to teach myself what no clinician ever broke down:
No one explained allostatic load, or why hypervigilance can look like ADHD, or why emotional neglect can scar the brain as deeply as overt abuse. No one named the mechanisms underneath shame, dissociation, the “freeze” response, or the compulsive need to self-soothe.
And absolutely no one talked about the biology humming under all of it: the genetic switches flipping in response to stress, the hormones reshaping neural pathways, the metabolic processes operating far outside conscious control.
The truth is harsh but simple:
The trauma that determines the trajectory of a life is often the trauma no one knows to look for. It hides in plain sight—missed by clinicians, misunderstood by survivors, and left unexplained in almost every corner of the recovery world.
It shapes relapse. It shapes coping. It shapes “why the fuck am I like this?” And until someone finally asks, “Do you want to talk about what actually happened to you?” — the story stays buried.
Recover-You exists to change that.
I'm in the final stages of building out the site — refining pages, testing navigation, verifying resources, and tightening the science so everything is both accurate and human. The goal is simple: clarity without condescension, science without the bullshit, compassion without avoidance.
This is a community-focused project. If you know trauma therapists, support programs, Indigenous-led services, or Alberta-based resources worth highlighting — I want to include them.
The more eyes and voices contributing, the stronger and more reliable this becomes.
I'm adding an email signup option for people who want an early notification when the site launches, along with the initial toolkits and trauma-navigation guides.
No spam. No “weekly motivation tips.” Just an alert when the real thing is ready.
