Sisters In Sobriety

On Sisters in Sobriety, Sonia and Kathleen support women in changing their relationship with alcohol and trusting themselves along the way. In this episode, Sonia talks with Nikki Sapiro Vinckier, an OB-GYN physician assistant, author of We Deserve More, and founder of Take Back Trust, about advocating for better women’s healthcare.

What does medical gaslighting sound like? When does “that’s normal” leave a real concern unanswered? How can perimenopause, sobriety, and changing relationships complicate the way women understand their bodies? Sonia and Nikki explore pain, reproductive health, and the questions patients may hesitate to ask.

Nikki explains how to prepare for an appointment, describe symptoms through their impact on daily life, and ask for a clear next step. The conversation covers perimenopause and menopause, trauma-informed care, LGBTQ+ inclusion, weight stigma, and rebuilding trust in a changing body.

The conversation becomes personal when Sonia shares the fear and isolation of receiving an HPV result by mail. Their exchange explores sexual-health stigma, gaps in communication, and why questions about prevention and follow-up deserve space in the exam room.

This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.

Nikki’s Links

📸 Instagram
📚 We Deserve More

SIS Links

💌 Sisters In Sobriety Substack – where the magic (and the mocktail recipes) happen
📬 Sisters In Sobriety Email
📸 Sisters In Sobriety Instagram
🌐 Kathleen’s Website Kathleen does not endorse any products mentioned in this podcast
📸 Kathleen’s Instagram

 

Timestamped Highlights

01:00 — Meet Nikki Sapiro Vinckier
02:00 — An unexpected path into OB-GYN care
04:00 — Why Nikki took her advocacy beyond the clinic
06:00 — What medical gaslighting can sound like
08:00 — Why speaking up can feel difficult
12:00 — Prepare before entering the exam room
13:00 — Describe symptoms and their daily impact
15:00 — Responding when a concern is called “normal”
18:00 — Perimenopause symptoms across daily life
20:00 — Getting to know the body in sobriety
22:00 — Bias and the history of women’s healthcare
24:00 — Finding a clinician who takes concerns seriously
28:00 — Perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause
30:00 — Birth control and menopause assessment
32:00 — Gaps in training and trauma-informed care
33:00 — How healthcare fails LGBTQ+ patients
36:00 — Asking for care preferences around weighing
38:00 — The meaning behind Take Back Trust
43:00 — Dating, HPV questions, and Sonia’s experience
52:00 — We Deserve More and rebuilding self-trust

What happens when a successful life includes a private struggle with alcohol? In this episode, Sonia speaks with Casey Davidson, founder of Hello Someday Coaching and host of the Hello Someday podcast, about high achievement, anxiety, and getting out of the drinking cycle.

Why can drinking feel like the only way to switch off? What makes the evening “witching hour” so difficult? How can sober curiosity and gray area drinking open a conversation without labels? Sonia and Casey explore early sobriety, moderation, and the value of support from women who understand.

Casey shares the practical pieces of her “sober bubble”: asking for help, changing routines, eating before the evening rush, and lowering expectations. She explains her 100-day coaching approach, discusses everyday rewards, and explores how boundaries and community create room for a more satisfying life.

From college rugby and corporate pressure to motherhood and nightly red wine, Casey traces the moments that made drinking harder to ignore. She shares how a 100-day commitment grew into lasting sobriety—and how admitting she no longer wanted her corporate job helped lead her toward coaching.

This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.

Casey’s Links

🌐 Hello Someday Coaching Website
📸 Casey’s Instagram — @caseymdavidson

 

SIS Links

💌 Sisters In Sobriety Substack – where the magic (and the mocktail recipes) happen
📬 Sisters In Sobriety Email
📸 Sisters In Sobriety Instagram
🌐 Kathleen’s Website Kathleen does not endorse any products mentioned in this podcast
📸 Kathleen’s Instagram

Timestamped highlights

00:00 — Introducing Casey Davidson
02:00 — People-pleasing and the gold-star girl
04:00 — Rugby culture and problematic drinking
07:00 — Mommy wine culture and climbing the ladder
09:00 — Recognizing herself in quit lit
11:00 — Reaching the point of needing change
12:00 — Committing to 100 alcohol-free days
15:00 — Extending the break to a year
16:00 — Building a sober bubble
19:00 — Preparing for the witching hour
20:00 — Eating before the evening rush
23:00 — Life after the red wine identity
25:00 — Admitting her career no longer fit
28:00 — Launching Hello Someday and defining coaching
30:00 — Making room for bigger life changes
33:00 — Casey’s perspective on moderation
37:00 — Her approach to substituting substances
42:00 — Questioning recovery labels
45:00 — Sober curiosity and gray area drinking
48:00 — Finding women who understand

What happens when the drinking stops but the anger stays? Sonia welcomes Zach Brittle, LMHC, Certified Gottman Therapist, Relational Life Therapist, and host of Marriage Therapy Radio.

Why can resentment linger after quitting alcohol? How can someone take responsibility without taking all the blame? What happens when partners get sober at different times? Sonia and Zach explore recovery, relationship boundaries, and rebuilding trust beyond counting drinks or sober days.

Zach explains his approach to the “wise adult,” pausing before reacting, and playing the movie forward. He describes how Relational Life Therapy connects self-esteem, boundaries, and intimacy, and why having communication tools differs from being ready to use them. Sonia also asks about the difference between celebrating recovery and becoming overconfident.

From asking for help during the pandemic to confronting longstanding resentment, Zach shares the experiences behind his recovery. An unforgettable Christmas tree stand, a frustrating gas-station queue, and his and Rebecca’s different paths to sobriety reveal how change has reshaped their marriage and parenting.

This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.

Zach’s Links

Website

Instagram

Marriage Therapy Radio

SIS Links

💌 Sisters In Sobriety Substack – where the magic (and the mocktail recipes) happen
📬 Sisters In Sobriety Email
📸 Sisters In Sobriety Instagram
🌐 Kathleen’s Website Kathleen does not endorse any products mentioned in this podcast
📸 Kathleen’s Instagram

Episode Highlights

00:00 — Introducing Zach Brittle
02:00 — Recovery beyond alcohol
04:00 — Recognizing personal relapse risks
08:00 — Drinking escalates during COVID
10:00 — Asking for a sponsor’s help
13:00 — Taking inventory of resentment
15:00 — Owning his anger without alcohol
18:00 — Responsibility versus self-blame
20:00 — Anger in the gas-station queue
22:00 — The pause that creates choice
25:00 — Playing the movie forward
27:00 — Recovery becomes a new way of living
29:00 — A milestone tests his sobriety
33:00 — Why tools alone aren’t enough
35:00 — Self-esteem, boundaries, and intimacy
40:00 — Partners on different recovery paths
46:00 — Setting relationship boundaries
47:00 — Alcohol’s impact beyond drink counts
49:00 — Connection, fun, and life after drinking
56:00 — Modeling recovery for adult children

On Sisters in Sobriety, Sonia welcomes relationship coach, author, and podcast host Monica Tanner to explore conflict, emotional safety, and intimacy when alcohol is no longer the escape hatch. Together, they explore how to ask for support, navigate difficult conversations, and reconnect through change.

Does “never go to bed angry” actually help? When does communication become criticism? What happens when drinking or scrolling becomes a way to disappear during conflict? Sonia and Monica explore resentment, sober relationships, and talking about sex without turning the conversation into a performance.

Monica introduces relational life therapy concepts, including protective childhood patterns, the emotional “whoosh,” and choosing a response with greater awareness. She shares examples of clear requests, healthy boundaries, side-by-side intimacy conversations, and small routines that create space for connection.

Monica also shares how her parents’ divorce shaped her interest in relationships, why late-night arguments brought up fears of abandonment, and how a simple request for reassurance changed those moments in her marriage. Her son’s approaching wedding became the inspiration for her book.

This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.

Monica’s Links

🌐 Monica Tanner’s Website
🎙️ Secrets of Happily Ever After Podcast
📖 Bad Marriage Advice

SIS Links

💌 Sisters In Sobriety Substack – where the magic (and the mocktail recipes) happen
📬 Sisters In Sobriety Email
📸 Sisters In Sobriety Instagram
🌐 Kathleen’s Website Kathleen does not endorse any products mentioned in this podcast
📸 Kathleen’s Instagram

Timestamped Highlights

01:00 — Meet relationship coach Monica Tanner.
02:00 — The divorce that reshaped her idea of marriage.
04:00 — Rethinking “never go to bed angry.”
06:00 — Asking for reassurance before taking a break.
08:00 — Relationship maintenance before a crisis.
11:00 — Why conflict can block familiar communication skills.
14:00 — Recognizing protective patterns and boundaries.
16:00 — Teaching a partner how to love you well.
18:00 — Small requests before resentment builds.
20:00 — Asking for listening instead of solutions.
23:00 — Making requests without criticism.
25:00 — Withdrawal, fawning, and old survival strategies.
26:00 — Sonia on alcohol, conflict, and getting sober.
28:00 — Withdrawing in plain sight.
30:00 — Pausing during the emotional “whoosh.”
34:00 — Making space for conversations about sex.
38:00 — Exploring a broader definition of intimacy.
41:00 — When deeper relationship problems need help first.
45:00 — Monica’s routines for regular connection.
46:00 — Couples work, intensives, and closing reflections.

In this episode of Sisters in Sobriety, Sonia explores the invisible work adult daughters perform to keep families connected. With communication scholar, Baylor professor and Good Daughtering author Dr. Allison M. Alford. Dr. Alford helps women recognize how family roles can shape self-worth, perfectionism, resentment and coping.

Why are daughters so often expected to organize, anticipate needs and smooth over conflict? How do culture, birth order and family expectations influence daughtering? And why can a son receive enormous praise for a small gesture while a daughter feels she is always falling short?

Dr. Alford defines daughtering as the mental, emotional, logistical and identity work daughters do for their families. She explains how to make that labor visible, establish boundaries without turning them into ultimatums, distinguish venting from rumination and replace impossible A+ expectations with a sustainable B+ standard.

She also shares how her own family relationships changed when she stopped building connection around complaints and enlisted her husband, children and sister in creating new conversation patterns. Her message is simple: every woman is already a good-enough daughter and has agency in deciding how that role will fit into her life.

This is Sisters in Sobriety, the support community that helps women change their relationship with alcohol. Check out our substack for extra tips, tricks and resources.

Dr. Alford’s Links

🌐 Daughtering 101 Website
📕 Good Daughtering
📸 Instagram

SIS Links

💌 Sisters In Sobriety Substack – where the magic (and the mocktail recipes) happen
📬 Sisters In Sobriety Email
📸 Sisters In Sobriety Instagram
🌐 Kathleen’s Website Kathleen does not endorse any products mentioned in this podcast
📸 Kathleen’s Instagram

Timestamped Highlights
01:00 — Dr. Allison Alford introduces her work on daughtering
05:00 — Defining the overlooked cost of being a good daughter
07:00 — Why women’s caring roles are so often called mothering
10:00 — Honoring daughterhood as a distinct part of identity
12:00 — Choosing how fully to show up in family roles
14:00 — Daughters as the behind-the-scenes family CEOs
16:00 — How daughter conditioning develops from childhood
18:00 — Why sons receive praise for exceeding lower expectations
22:00 — Culture, geography and privilege shape daughtering
24:00 — The unspoken rules daughters are expected to follow
27:00 — How impossible standards create a fog of failure
30:00 — Creating a personal B+ daughter rubric
32:00 — The relationship between resentment and self-abandonment
34:00 — Boundaries as fences around emotional and physical space
36:00 — Recognizing when family venting becomes rumination
38:00 — Communicating a boundary once—and following through
40:00 — Making invisible daughtering labor visible
43:00 — Building a Plan B for healthier family conversations
46:00 — Eldest and only daughters face distinct pressures
50:00 — Every daughter gets to decide what “good enough” means