Featured in iPaper - Coaching Judy Cogan

“I’m doing a sober summer – I’ve never felt better”

iPaper feature Saturday 3rd August

……”However, I knew I would need some help. While Dry January is eased along by the dark nights, cold weather and a nation in hibernation, I was facing dating, weekends away and even a trip to Ibiza. So I called upon sober coach Lucy Hemming, who offers support in establishing a new way of life hangover free.”

…..”“Just a reminder, coaching isn’t therapy,” she says during our first session. “I’ll be here to help facilitate your goals and aspirations around alcohol.”

We start by exploring limiting beliefs I hold around alcohol – such as the need for booze to socialise with new people – as well as my future relationship with it and any obstacles coming up. We develop a plan and I am encouraged to write a positive mission statement to refer to later if I need it.

Hemming also suggests that I swap the phrase “giving up” alcohol for “quitting”, as this diverts focus to what you gain, not what you might lose.

Hemming specialises in “grey-area drinking” – a term first coined by health coach Jolene Park in 2017 to describe the gap between moderate and excessive alcohol consumption. Previously, I have fallen for the trope that there are only two types of drinker: the hopeless drunk (Phil Mitchell downing neat vodka at 8am in EastEnders) and the rest of us. But now I’ve learnt there is more of a spectrum, which is oddly reassuring.