I became chemically dependent on alcohol, and my life spiraled into a darkness.

January 5, 2025 Michael Ferrer

Name: Amy Guerrero

Recovery: 06/2016

Drug of choice: Alcohol is what I became chemically dependent on.

Podcast: Rich and Regulated, Amy Guerrero and The Optimized Life

At 36, I made a promise to myself: I was going to heal all my trauma before I turned 40. It wasn’t just a vague goal—it was a full-body commitment. Part of that healing meant going back to the origin of my pain. After over 10 years of no contact, I decided to find my birth mother, which was an emotional and life-changing experience I wasn’t fully prepared to process.

The search was intense and emotional. Using PeopleFinders, I located her after a year of searching. Meeting her was life-changing, but I wasn’t prepared for the emotional flood that followed. I leaned on my favorite coping mechanism—alcohol—to ‘process’ the experience.

Three months later, I became chemically dependent and my life spiraled into a darkness—a part of me believing that the only way out was to kill myself.

This darkness wasn’t just a feeling—it was a consuming reality. For two years, I battled relentless suicide attempts, combining prescription medications, Xanax, and alcohol in desperate attempts to fade into a sleep I wouldn’t wake up from. When I did wake up, I was pissed. I was VERY sick. And every attempt led me to yet another medical detox—over 20 trips to the emergency room. The nurses knew me by name.

Shame became my constant companion, gripping me tighter each time I woke up alive. It whispered, This is your fault.

My shameful part has protected me my entire life with a powerful story:

If I take the blame, if it’s all my fault, ‘they’ won’t be mad at me. They won’t leave me.

Although this story kept me settling for breadcrumbs of love and connection it also kept me stuck in familiar pain, making darkness feel like home.

There were days I wandered the streets of San Francisco, begging for money, alcohol, anything to keep the pain at bay. I found myself in situations that left me harassed, vulnerable, and sinking deeper into despair.

By 2014, I entered my first treatment center, telling myself, This is where it all changes. But it didn’t.

In two-plus years, I went through eight treatment centers, each offering the same cookie-cutter solutions that barely scratched the surface. The tools I was given weren’t enough to untangle the complex web of trauma, nervous system dysregulation, and emotional pain that kept me stuck.

I remember thinking,

Why am I pretending to get better, yet still dying inside?

Is something fundamentally wrong with me, I just want to die and get this over with.

The shame was overwhelming.

Shame wrapped itself around me like a blanket. And yet, even in my darkest moments, a small voice inside mySELF whispered:

“You’re not broken. There’s another way, you’ve already started to create it.”

In truth, my healing had started long before I even realized I needed it.

Back in 1999, I began studying trauma and the nervous system—exploring somatic experiencing, internal family systems, yoga, and sound healing (long before it was trendy). These early insights became a lifeline when nothing else worked.

After my first treatment center in 2014, I started writing what would become my Regroovin’™ methodology—a healing practice blending nervous system regulation, parts work, attachment theory, SELF-leadership, and emotional sobriety.

At the time, it didn’t have a name. It was just me, trying to make sense of my pain, scribbling notes in journals, and asking questions like:

Why does my body feel stuck in fight-or-flight?

Why do I sabotage my relationships, even when I want connection so badly?

What does it actually mean to feel safe in my own skin?

Through trial and error, I pieced together answers. I discovered how trauma shaped everything—how I thought, loved, and even how I breathed.

My body wasn’t my enemy—it was brilliant. It had been protecting me in ways I didn’t yet understand.

Three months after I stopped drinking, I started sharing my Regroovin’™ methodology with students in West LA. I began building a coaching practice, teaching group work at disordered eating sober living, treatment centers, and outpatient programs.

I guided people through nervous system regulation, emotional sobriety, and self-trust, meeting them where they were—something I had desperately needed during my own journey.

I began witnessing others’ experiences becoming the hero of their life.

I watched my students transform.

They uncovered parts of themselves stuck in the past and met those parts with curiosity, compassion, and forgiveness.

They practiced a new way of life, building trust in their capacity to heal in the present moment.

By 2018, it became clear to me that my Regroovin’™ teachings were about more than just an alcohol-free life or sobriety—it was about guiding people to feel fully alive.

So I took my practice online to serve more humans.

Today, I guide others to freedom, rooted in nervous system regulation, self-trust, self-leadership, and emotional sobriety.

You can find them at www.regulatewithamy.com/programs, including:

Roots: The foundation of your FREEDOM, helping you reconnect with your authentic SELF and live on-PURPOSE

Lead With Love: An intimate mastermind for students committed to leading with love in business, relationships, and life, creating a rich and regulated life.

Commit: A deep dive into self-connection and long-term healing.

Cultivate Trust: For rebuilding trust with yourself and others.

S.A.F.E–Create Secure, Attuned, Fulfilling, and Evolving relationships practicing emotional sobriety, nervous system regulation, and conscious connection.

As a woman who doesn’t believe in diagnosis, and identifying with labels, and is 100% committed to practicing what I teach moment to moment.

Healing isn’t linear or one-size-fits-all. It’s a spiral, like our DNA and all of nature—messy, beautiful, deeply personal.

And, freedom is possible.

Healing doesn’t mean you’ll never struggle again—it’s a commitment to a new way of life- a practice.

You’ll have access to yourSELF and some fun tools (that need to be tuned up and replaced on the regular) and the vulnerability and resilience to meet life with curiosity, compassion, grace, and courage.

Ahh, and the question of what I would share with a newly ‘sober’ person.

If you’re on the verge of giving up, you’re not alone.

You make sense!

You’re not broken.

You don’t need fixing.

You just need someone to meet you exactly where you are right now.

See you, feel you, hear you, and remind you, that you make sense and be there beside you every step of the way.

Healthy conscious relationships will change the world and it starts with you.

We Regroove together and create the ripple of love.