A New Direction For The Recovery Catalyst Podcast

Welcome And The Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome back to the Recovery Catalyst Podcast. I'm your host and Woman in Recovery, Kat York. So I've been doing this podcast for a little under a year. And like anything, it takes a little while to find your groove, to find your flow with things. Now, the mission of this podcast has always been and will always be to highlight topics, subjects that are often misunderstood. And those topics are grief, mental health, addiction, recovery, trauma. That will never change. The why I do it will never change. I was raised in an alcoholic home. I'm in recovery myself for six years. I lost a brother to addiction. Mental illness runs rampant in my family. I have been formally diagnosed with PTSD. So my mission and my why will never change.

Why The Show Shifts To Women

SPEAKER_00 1:11

But what I am gonna do is be streamlining the episodes a little bit. Now I've had so many wonderful and phenomenal guests on my show, men and women alike. But I feel a calling at this point to gear this podcast more towards women, women in recovery. For obvious reasons, it's a topic that I resonate with. I don't know what it's like to be a man in recovery and to walk that path or go through that journey, or to be a man with mental illness, or to be a man holding trauma, or to walk through this world as a man, as a father, a brother, an uncle, a nephew. I don't have that experience. And I feel I am doing you, the audience, a disservice by interviewing men who I really can't relate to. Women I can relate to, mothers, aunts, nieces, cousins, I can relate. So going forward, my guests on the show will only be women. And that's nothing against men. Men are wonderful. And men's mental health is a topic that needs to be addressed and talked about and highlighted. I'm just not that person to do it. I don't feel I'm the voice for that, nor should I be. And I'm misrepresenting myself. Um, I feel having men on my show talking about mental health. It's important, yes, but I can't relate to what they're saying from their perspective or their gender. So going forward again, um, it's just gonna be women on the show.

Creativity As A Recovery Tool

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Women who have um established recovery and they use creative work like writing or art as a tool for their daily life and to help their recovery. The conversations are still gonna be the same. They're gonna be personal, they're gonna be tangible, they're gonna go off of lived experience. Um, there's still gonna be grounded discussions about the reality of staying sober. But I want to add that creative piece to it. So that means a woman in recovery who is an artist, an author, a painter, a sculptor. It doesn't have to be her profession, it can just be a hobby. But I really want to bring more of that into this space because art can be so damn healing, and it can be just drawing, it doesn't have to be complicated, you don't have to be, you know, a huge um artist or creator that has made money off of it. It could just be something you enjoy, but it's something that's giving you a breakthrough in your healing, whether it be your sobriety, your mental health, grief, whatever. As long as creating is part of your journey and your healing, I want to hear your story.

Moving Away From Clinical Perspectives

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Um, I'm gonna be getting away from also more of the clinical views, um, such as counselors and therapists. That is valid and they definitely have a voice and deserve a space, but I just don't feel like that's an arena I want to continue to explore. I have explored it. I have had some amazing uh male and female guests on here who work in the clinical space of recovery and mental health, but I want to stray away from that. I really want to streamline this to women in recovery who have established recovery, that have used art in their life as a tool for recovery. That's where I feel my focus is because that's what I can really resonate with. Um, I just feel continuing to do episodes with men and women, it just doesn't feel genuine or authentic to what I want the show to say. I mean, both women and men in recovery walk two very different paths. Women in recovery are viewed very differently versus men in recovery, right? So it's easier for me to relate and have meaningful, insightful conversations with women in recovery versus men. I can relate to being in recovery like a man can, but again, I haven't lived that experience. So if there's any women out there, whether you're artists, authors, painters, sculptors, whatever kind of art it is, musicians, you're welcome too. I want to hear from you and how you apply art in your daily life to help your recovery from alcohol, from drugs, from mental illness, from trauma. It doesn't have to be your profession. It can just be a hobby, not just a hobby, but it can just be a part of your life. It doesn't have to be your profession. You don't have to be a coach on it, you don't have to hold any special degrees. But I really want to hear from women who have used art in some way to advance their recovery, you know, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. That I feel will allow me to explore so many different avenues of healing for women. And that I feel could lead to some beautiful discussions.

Invite To Guests And Community

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And if that's something that's interesting to you, if you're interested in being a guest, um the link is in my bio to connect, but you can also uh email me at callhercat podcast at gmail.com. Uh send me a note on my webpage, link is in the bio, the show notes, and I would love to hear from you. And again, I want to thank each and every guest that I've had on this show. I want to thank each and every listener who's taken the time to listen to my show. But that's this is really where I feel that my heart is going towards. And I have to follow it because I think that's where I will make the biggest difference. And that's what this show is about is about making a difference. It's not about downloads, it's not about sponsorships, affiliates, it's about making a difference and reaching women. And men can listen to this too, obviously, wherever they are, right, in their sobriety journey. I mean, yes, more downloads is great because you're reaching more people, but the goal for me has never been money. Yes, you want it to be worth your time. You want audience engagement, you would like to have make a living off of this, but that is not the goal. The goal is to reach women in sobriety, reach even men in sobriety. They can listen to this and learn something about women. You know, there's a lot. I'm really looking forward to having some amazing guests on here. So there'll just, there'll be no more clinical perspectives. Um it's gonna be real life stories of women who healed with the help of arts. And again, thank you for everybody that I've had on who's listened. And um yeah, to put some qualifying information in there. You know, I paint, I draw, I write. Um, so art, creative expression has been a part of my journey as well. And it's nothing I've made any money off of, but it is something that has deeply helped me in my recovery through the years and continues to help me through difficult periods in my recovery from both PTSD and alcohol. So thank you so much for being on this ride with me. I really appreciate it, and I really look forward to where this journey takes us. So that's all I got for you today. If you have any questions, please reach out. I would love to hear from you. Or if you know a woman

Thanks And What Comes Next

SPEAKER_00 9:44

that might be a good guest on my show, please reach out. I would love to hear from them. Thank you for everything, and we'll be back next week with a really wonderful episode from Marie Henriksson. You're not gonna want to miss it. Thank you.