Colleen Freeland Kachmann, founder and CEO of Emotional Sobriety Coaching©, has developed a method aimed at changing how women engage with alcohol. Her approach is designed for professional women, including entrepreneurs, executives, and career mothers, to address dysfunctional thinking patterns that she states drive alcohol use disorder. As Freeland Kachmann explains, the objective is to "Get happy, not sober."
Before establishing Emotional Sobriety Coaching©, Freeland Kachmann experienced a period where she concealed heavy daily drinking for over 15 years. She reflected that she perceived alcohol as a reward for her productivity, though it ultimately led to exhaustion. She found that traditional, sobriety-based recovery methods did not fully address her underlying struggles. According to Freeland Kachmann, focusing solely on sobriety did not resolve her preoccupation with alcohol, nor did it alleviate the anxiety, perfectionism, and negative self-talk that she believes contributed to her drinking habits.
Her personal experience led her to research the science behind addiction. Freeland Kachmann studied neuroplasticity, addiction, and recovery. She states that labeling individuals as 'alcoholics' and fostering the belief that one drink constitutes a life-or-death decision can increase the risk of relapse. Building on this understanding, along with her master's degree in health coaching, a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry education, and certifications in addiction and recovery and women’s functional and integrative medicine, she created her unique method.
Emotional Sobriety Coaching©, as described by Freeland Kachmann, allows clients to reduce alcohol consumption by upwards of 80% without requiring rigid abstinence. The program combines holistic techniques with evidence-based strategies, including self-directed neuroplasticity and mind-body tools for nervous system regulation. The goal of these components is to rewire subconscious thinking habits that contribute to the desire to drink.
Freeland Kachmann articulates the core of her philosophy by saying, "It’s not your relationship with alcohol that needs to change—it’s your relationship with yourself." Her method emphasizes reclaiming personal power and revising outdated belief systems, rather than solely managing alcohol intake. She considers addiction not as a disease, but as a symptom of lost autonomy. She notes that while trading a drinking problem for sobriety can be an improvement, true freedom comes from addressing the negative self-talk that prompts drinking.
Freeland Kachmann acknowledges that her method is not universally suitable, admitting that "For some people, it’s easier to just quit." She utilizes a quiz, "Do you have a drinking or thinking problem?", to help women determine if her program aligns with their needs. She clarifies that she does not advise clients to quit drinking because, for her method, the goal of emotional sobriety is to learn from mistakes rather than to avoid them.
Through her approach, Freeland Kachmann states she has helped thousands of professional women redefine their relationship with alcohol, aiming for a point where drinking is experienced as a pleasure rather than a problem. She has concurrently developed a successful coaching business. Her stated aim is to assist women with alcohol use disorder in reaching a higher level of consciousness where the impulse to use alcohol for numbing purposes no longer exists.
