ESCAPING ALCOHOL COURSE
Has alcohol become your Alcatraz?
Escaping Alcohol is a ten-week video course with 1:1 coaching and weekly workbooks. It takes you from feeling trapped by drinking to a life where alcohol is no longer in charge.
Ten videos to watch in your own time. A workbook every week. A private kick-off session with me. As much extra coaching as you want, and no more than you need.
WHO THIS IS FOR
You already know...
Perhaps nobody has said anything yet. But somewhere deep inside you know that your drinking has gone beyond being 'social'.
This course is for you if any of these sound familiar:
- You can't quite imagine your life without alcohol, even though you're not enjoying life with it.
- You have tried to cut down or stop, and it was much harder than you expected.
- Drinking is costing you something: your relationships, your work, your health, or how you feel about yourself.
- It feels as though alcohol is running your life instead of adding to it.
If two or more of those are true, you really are in the right place.
None of this means there is something wrong with you. Getting into difficulty with alcohol is not a character flaw. It is a human response to human pain, and it can change.
If you'd secretly like to just drink "normally"
Most people arrive hoping to moderate. That is completely normal, and you are welcome here.
All I ask is that you stay open-minded. We will define success by how you want to feel, and not by how many drinks you count. The aim is a life where alcohol no longer has control over you. What that looks like is for you to discover.
Who this isn't for
I would rather point you somewhere better than take your money for the wrong thing.
- If stopping makes you physically unwell. Shaking, heavy sweating, severe anxiety, confusion or seizures when you stop drinking are signs of physical dependence. Please speak to your GP before starting any programme. That is a different first step, and it does not close the door.
- If AA or a 12-step programme is working for you. Stay with it. This course takes a different route, built on neuroscience, psychology and self-compassion, with no labels.
- If your drinking is a niggle and not yet a trap. You probably don't need this. My free 31-day course may suit you better
WHERE THIS TAKES YOU
From the island to the mainland
Alcatraz was the prison everyone said it was impossible to escape from. Alcohol can feel the same. You drink to cope with feeling stuck, and the drinking is what keeps you stuck.
This course is the crossing, taking you back to the mainland, where you belong.
I want to be honest here. The mainland is not heaven. It is still real life, and you will still have bad days and difficult feelings. But without alcohol running the show, you will be able to cope with the tough days and the uncomfortable emotions as yourself, without reaching for a drink to numb everything.
The mainland is a great deal better than the island. That I can promise you!
HOW IT WORKS
Information gets you ready. Understanding gets you free.
Most courses give you the facts and leave you to it. Facts matter, but they are rarely enough. To get free, you also need to understand why you were drinking, and that is personal.
So this course has three parts.
1. Ten videos, in your own time
Everything you need to know about alcohol, habit, cravings, emotions and sleep, in ten videos of 30 to 45 minutes each. Watch them when it suits you, and watch them again whenever you like.
A new video opens every seven days. That gives you time to watch each one once or twice and work through that week's workbook before moving on. You keep access to everything for a full year.
2. A workbook for every video
Each workbook recaps the video, gives you journalling prompts to make it your own, and suggests videos, books and podcasts if you want to go further.
3. 1:1 coaching with me, as much or as little as you need
Your course begins with a private 45-minute session with me on Zoom. That is included in the price.
After that, you can book up to six more 45-minute sessions at £125 each, a substantial discount on my normal rates. Some people want one or two. Some want all six. You decide as you go.
These sessions are designed to run alongside the videos, so they are available for your first three months. Many people find them most useful from around week three or four, when the work becomes more personal.
Why it's built this way
- You only pay for the coaching you use. The teaching is on video, so your time with me goes on you and your story.
- It does not rely on willpower. Willpower is what you have been using so far, and it is exhausting. This is about understanding and design.
- It is completely private. There is no group and no forum. Nobody knows you are doing this unless you tell them.
WHAT'S INSIDE
Ten weeks, ten steps closer
Week 1 - Understanding the prison
Why stopping is so hard, and why that is not your fault. The brain science, the addictive cycle and the shame that keeps people stuck. You get permission to stop beating yourself up.
Week 2- The case for leaving
An honest look at what drinking is costing you, and what you want to feel instead. You set your own goal in terms of how you want to feel.
Week 3 - The inner bars
The real problem is rarely alcohol. It is coping with life. You start to spot the thoughts and beliefs that keep you locked in.
Week 4 - Out of uniform
Why familiar and miserable can feel safer than unknown and free. Habit change by design: your triggers, your environment, your support.
Week 5 - Casting off
The mindset that makes this feel like freedom and not deprivation. The five pillars of self-care, and what to expect in the early days.
Week 6 - Riding the waves
Cravings: why they come, why they are not instructions, and practical ways to get through them.
Week 7 - Under pressure
Handling social pressure, the friend who insists, and the question "why aren't you drinking?" on your own terms.
Week 8 - Below deck
The feelings you were numbing start to surface. That is progress. How to name them, feel them and move through them.
Week 9 - Every sailor needs to sleep
How alcohol wrecks your sleep while pretending to help, how to win it back, and an honest timeline for how long that takes.
Week 10 - Dropping anchor
Who you are without alcohol, and how to build a life you don't want to escape from.
Progress here is not a straight line. Sailing boats tack. If you are blown off course, it is temporary, and you have not failed. You have learned something, and you push off again.
YOUR COACH
I've been where you are
I'm Tabbin Almond, and I know what the island feels like from the inside, because I lived there.
I also know the crossing is possible, because I made it. I have been alcohol-free for more than 3,000 days (over 8 1/2 years).
I often describe myself as the Queen of Day One's - I had SO many days when I said to myself that this was it, day one of a life without booze...only to find myself drinking again at the end of the day. I tried so many things, reading everything I could lay my hands on, Alcoholics Anonymous, sheer willpower and hypnotherapy. And then I came across Annie Grace's book, This Naked Mind, and everything changed.
Since then I have spent six years helping other people find the same joyous freedom I was able to find
- I have coached over 200 people 1:1, and several thousand more through large group programmes where I am a retained coach.
- Senior coach certifications from This Naked Mind, including Affective Liminal Psychology, and from Jolene Park's Grey Area Drinking programme. This Naked Mind retains me to coach on their flagship programme.
- Author of Bottling Up Trouble, on how alcohol harms businesses and what to do about it.
- Host of The Alcohol Debate podcast, where I talk to doctors, researchers and people with their own stories.
Among my 1:1 coaching clients, more than 90% reach the goal they set by the end of our work together.
This course contains the same thinking and the same tools I use with private clients, in a form you can take at your own pace.
Start the course now
Testimonials
In my mind I was ready to stop drinking, but it wasn’t happening. Tabbin helped me to get going and get through the all-important first month. I felt very nurtured, and that I was being heard. It is so rare for someone to genuinely ask how you are and really listen to the answer - that is such a good feeling. I can’t see myself going back to drinking, but if I felt I might, I know that I could contact Tabbin and she would have my back (Gina, Australia)
A big thank you for your amazing support of my alcohol free adventure – your experience, encouragement and our thoughtful and inspiring conversations have meant a lot to me – I am so grateful for your counsel – while I am just at the beginning of my sober journey – I feel like I’ve learned so much over the past year that can help me on my way – so again, thank you for your support – Kim M, UK
I really appreciated the ease in which you allow me to talk about my problems, the way in which you have allowed me to understand alcohol and the negative impact it has been having on my family life and my health. I now have control and my life back on track, I get to choose what I want to do and when I want to do it. I have spent that last 30+ years drinking alcohol and the alcohol has only allowed me to drive in the slow lane of the motorway, I can now drive in any lane! - CL, UK
What it costs
THE COURSE
£749
- Ten videos, one released each week
- A workbook for every video
- A private 45-minute kick-off session with me on Zoom
- A full year's access to all course materials
Prefer to spread the cost? Pay in two monthly instalments of £399 (£798 in total).
Start the course for £749EXTRA 1:1 COACHING
£125 a session
- Up to six further 45-minute sessions, if and when you want them
- A substantial discount on my normal rates
- Pay as you book, with nothing to commit to up front
- To be used within three months of starting
If you chose all six, the most you would pay in total is £1,499.
Book additional sessions as desiredQuestions people ask
Do I have to want to stop drinking completely?
I've tried before and it didn't last. Why would this be different?
What if I have a drink during the course?
How much time will it take?
Do I need the extra coaching sessions?
Will anyone know I'm doing this?
Is this like AA?
Can I talk to you before I decide?
You don't belong on the island
You have spent long enough trying to do this alone, on willpower, while blaming yourself for finding it hard.
There is a way across, and you do not have to work it out by yourself. Ten weeks from now you could understand your drinking better than you ever have, with the tools to live without it running your life.
If you have questions, click here to book a 30-minute call to talk them through.
(If you experience shaking, heavy sweating, severe anxiety, confusion or seizures when you stop drinking, please speak to your GP before starting this or any programme.)
I can't wait to get you started, and to meet you on our kick-off call!
Start the course for £749