I have been sober from alcohol since 1982.

Sobriety changed my life. It gave me relief from the direct consequences of alcohol addiction and helped me begin building a life that was no longer organized around drinking. AA helped me want to change, supported my continuous sobriety, taught me to value service, and helped me become intentional and disciplined about recovery.

But for many years, I was living mostly in the first layer of recovery: recovery from addiction and its impact. I was sober, but I was still suffering.

I had also struggled with nicotine, codependency, and relationship-related addictive patterns. I was raised in a violent, alcoholic home, and many of the strategies that helped me survive childhood became the same strategies that created dysfunction in my adult life and relationships.

Al-Anon taught me to stay on my side of the street. ACoA helped me see the trauma I had experienced. CoDA and ACoA helped me see how childhood survival strategies were responsible for much of the dysfunction I experienced in recovery. Those programs opened my eyes to blind spots I could not see on my own. But my suffering kept driving me to search for more.

AA was not designed to heal my trauma. Al-Anon was not designed to help me become the man capable of a healthy relationship. I suffered from depression and anxiety, and I did not want to be medicated. I needed to find something that worked.

Over the years I found help through Bioenergetics Therapy, some helpful talk therapy, Landmark Education, and other personal work. But in 2001, I discovered The Work of Byron Katie. That became a major turning point. The Work helped me question the thoughts driving my suffering, and gave me a real sense of power: the power to change how I felt, thought, and responded in the world.

In 2015, I began meeting weekly with a small group in Spokane, Washington, where I facilitated The Work. Later, I was introduced to Internal Family Systems. In a very short time, I began to experience confidence at a level I had not known before. With IFS, I began healing that trauma. That was the beginning of the third layer of recovery for me: recovery of the authentic self.

In 2019, I began training through the IFS Institute. In 2021, I became a Certified IFS Practitioner, a credential I still hold. During COVID, I converted my Byron Katie group into a free online IFS practice group called Parts Work Practice. PartsWorkPractice.com still meets six times each month and is now led by volunteers.

My business evolved alongside my recovery. I began as Bill Tierney Coaching, rebranded as Compassionate Results Coaching, and now I have returned to my roots. I am focusing exclusively on people in recovery, and I have rebranded my business as Three Deep Recovery — reflecting my philosophy that recovery needs to be addressed through three layers: recovery from addiction and its impact, recovery from what addiction helped manage, and recovery of the authentic self.

My work now is to help people in recovery move beyond vigilance, self-management, and survival-based recovery into a FIT Life: a life that is Fulfilling, Intentional, and True to who they are.