Episode #31
Dr. Cali Estes | High-performance coach, addiction recovery expert, entrepreneur, and founder of Sober On Demand and The Addictions Academy, challenging the way we think about recovery, wellness, and the treatment industry.
Dr. Cali Estes is a high-performance coach, addiction recovery expert, entrepreneur, and founder of Sober On Demand and The Addictions Academy. With more than 25 years of experience, she has built a career helping people address addiction, mental health, burnout, and the behaviors and patterns that keep them stuck. But Cali's perspective isn't shaped by professional experience alone. Her own journey includes periods of substance use and a lifestyle that eventually put her health at serious risk. At just 23 years old, she found herself in the emergency room where a doctor showed her the damage being done to her heart and warned her that if she continued on the same path, she might have only months to live. That experience became part of a much larger personal transformation and ultimately helped shape the direct, unconventional approach she brings to her work today. Cali has become an outspoken voice about the addiction and mental health treatment industry, challenging providers to examine their own outcomes rather than placing all responsibility for unsuccessful treatment on the client. She believes effective recovery should give people practical tools they can use in the real world—and that success ultimately means helping clients reach a point where they no longer need you. She is also an Executive Producer of The Black Book , an upcoming documentary and companion book examining alleged unethical, exploitative, and potentially illegal practices within the addiction and mental health treatment industry, including body brokering, kickbacks, and questionable financial incentives. Today, Cali works with individuals ranging from those navigating addiction and recovery to high-performing professionals experiencing stress and burnout. Her approach draws from psychology, neuroscience, coaching, and wellness practices while remaining grounded in a straightforward philosophy: identify what's actually keeping someone stuck, give them tools that create meaningful change, and help them build a life they don't need to escape from. On the e-motion wellness® Podcast, Cali brings that same candor to conversations about her own journey, the realities of addiction treatment, personal transformation, and why sometimes real change requires being willing to challenge the way things have always been done.
