“I want to stop drinking.”
You are tired of negotiating with yourself about alcohol. Get support to understand your patterns, build different habits, and move toward a life without drinking.
Support to stop drinking, grow in your alcohol-free life, or find your footing when someone else’s drinking affects you.
Coaching, education, and a community beside you.
You are tired of negotiating with yourself about alcohol. Get support to understand your patterns, build different habits, and move toward a life without drinking.
You have made a meaningful change. Stay connected to it while building confidence, stronger relationships, and goals that give you something to look forward to.
You spend so much energy thinking about them. Find support to understand your experience, set healthier boundaries, and make your own well-being a priority.
Different starting points. Support that meets you where you are.
Our work brings education into everyday life. Explore the connections between alcohol, habits, emotions, and relationships—and learn practical ways to respond with greater intention.
Recognize patterns in your habits, thoughts, and relationships.
Practice communication, boundaries, and habits that support your goals.
Find perspective, encouragement, and accountability through group coaching and community.

Victoria brings Stanford University training, experience as a senior-level alcohol recovery coach, and her work as an author to conversations that can be difficult to have.
Her work helps people understand alcohol’s impact, reconnect with their own identity, and find a steadier path forward.

Matt brings more than 30,000 hours of coaching and mentoring experience, alongside his own journey from daily drinking to an alcohol-free life.
Having also experienced his father’s struggle with alcohol, he brings a personal understanding of how drinking can affect both an individual and the people who love them.
Bring your questions. You do not need a polished story.
Clearer mornings. Stronger connections. Goals of your own. More time being present in your life.
Whatever brought you here, we would like to hear what you want to be different.
If the calendar doesn't appear, open it in a new tab.
Thirty days to stop making their drinking the only thing you’re trying to understand.
The First 30 is Beside the Influence's structured foundational coaching experience for people whose lives have been significantly affected by someone else's drinking.
During your first month, you'll begin learning about the patterns surrounding alcohol, the patterns that may have developed within you, and practical ways to start bringing your attention back to your emotional wellbeing, boundaries, identity, and future.
Begin with a guided onboarding experience focused on your circumstances, goals, and what you most want to change.
Learn about alcohol, behavior, stress, emotions, boundaries, identity, and self-focus.
Bring real situations, questions, emotional challenges, and decisions into a supportive coaching environment.
Use exercises and prompts designed to move understanding into meaningful personal change.
We'll check in throughout the experience so your progress, challenges, and next steps remain part of the conversation.
We'll learn more about what you're experiencing, answer your questions, explain how the program works, and help determine whether our approach aligns with the support you're looking for.
BOOK A CALLA conversation. Not a commitment.
Choose a time that works for you and answer a few questions about what you've been experiencing.
We'll learn more about your circumstances, what feels hardest right now, and what you would most like to change.
We'll explain how Beside the Influence works, answer your questions, and help you understand what participating would actually look like.
If the program appears aligned with your needs, we'll explain the next steps.
If we don't believe we're the appropriate form of support, we'll tell you that too.
The purpose of the conversation isn't to pressure you into a decision. It's to determine whether this is the right kind of support for you.
No. Beside the Influence is built around your experience, not another person's sobriety.
No. You don't have to diagnose another person to acknowledge that alcohol is affecting your life.
No. That decision belongs to you.
You may still benefit. Emotional and relational patterns may remain even after alcohol stops.
No. Beside the Influence provides coaching and education, not psychotherapy, medical treatment, diagnosis, detoxification, or addiction treatment.
No. Beside the Influence is an independent coaching and education company.
No. Spouses and partners are a major focus, but the program may also support parents, adult children, siblings, and other close family members.
We'll learn more about what's happening, answer your questions, and explain the program so you can decide whether it feels like the right fit.