Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I sent my basic story, which started with personal experience dealing with mental illness within family, moving to NYC and working with the homeless, helping guys through addiction issues, moving to Nashville and starting work with the incarcerated and post-incarc., leading up to now moving into coaching. I dealt specifically with my drinking issue that developed during these years.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not a smooth road, but rewarding. Even the rewarding part (helping others) gets heavy and takes a toll and adds up! Alcohol was a huge part of the “struggle part”, for sure. I never totally bottomed out, but got to a bad place. Having walked that road and helped a ton of others for nearly 20 years, I’m now helping those who struggle to reach out.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My career began in sports as I played college and professional baseball. After that, continued partying hard while doing entrepreneurial ventures while single, decided to settle down and go teach/coach high school, then started a business (vacation getaway rental), which we still operate (remotely). Started that business in 2000.
That business enabled me to pursue what I felt called to, rather than being tied to a job. For 18+ years I’ve been fortunate to pursue my calling in the areas of addiction, dependence, and other life-struggle issues.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Coaching is kind of becoming a booming industry–at least, a ton of people are pursuing it. And rightfully so. If you have done something well, know the ins/outs of a given area, why not share that expertise and offer consulting? I mean, a little success doesn’t necessarily qualify you as a consultant. But during an age in which info is so easy to access, people recognize how easily it is to market that expertise individually and be found.
When you couple that with the fact we’re becoming more and more isolated individually–it makes sense that we, as a society are reaching out for connection in our field.
There’s still a major hurdle, however, when it comes to getting help with our own personal issues. We live in a society that, more than ever, medicates everything. We google everything. Online MDs are pretty available. Though we’re giving things like mental illness increasing attention (finally), addiction issues are still quite taboo. We can’t be too open about that or it may jeopardize our standing at work.
Though drinking is encouraged, even promoted by our society, developing an addiction is seen as a major personal problem that can be grounds for dismissal, or at least used against us. Also, given the nature of alcohol dependence vs. other substances, recognizing or admitting you have an issue is a major challenge.
If you’re doing heroine daily, or snorting meth, you’re pretty cognizant you’ve got an issue. I’ve dealt with a lot of these situations in clients. Drinking, however, is totally different, because it’s totally accepted, super-available, and cheap. There’s no risk in accessing or having it. The effect of alcohol on the mind/brain makes us not only want and justify it, but excuses and reasons abound socially to imbibe with no risk.
These reasons, along with the fact the main option for us who have an issue is AA, which means we must first believe we’re an alcoholic, and admit it. Very few of us who basically drink like everyone else are super-hesitant to reach out for help. What I do is an effective option to AA, NA, or SA. You don’t have to make a PSA, join a group, get treatment (unless you have a major, life-threatening addiction), or depend on willpower. My methodology enables a vast majority of clients to walk away from the addiction/dependency, with no desire for it moving forward. This makes all the difference!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.timknappcoaching.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachtimknapp/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564651137183
