Healing addiction

I recently had the pleasure of visiting South Africa as a delegate to the 7th Global Mental Health Summit which took place in Cape Town. Cape Town, located between the sea and Table Mountain, is one of the most beautiful cities in Africa.

The Summit is a premier event that brings together renowned experts and thought leaders from around the world, to engage in critical discussions on the current state of mental health and to chart a course for the future. With a focus on addressing challenges and exploring innovative solutions, this Summit has become known as a catalyst for meaningful change.
I was particularly interested to attend the keynote address by Sharon Ries, one of the foremost mental health bloggers and influencers internationally, with a following of well over 8 million. She is also the founder and director of the Energy Medicine Healing Institute.

My association with Sharon goes back a long way. I remember the first time I came across her work, in an article in Odyssey magazine (Winter edition June 2025). I had been intrigued by her assertion that addiction has been greatly misunderstood and that this has affected treatment options, with the knock-on effect of less than optimal outcomes for many clients who continue to suffer because they are unable to let bad habits go permanently. This impacts not only them but their families and their income. Their entire future is compromised and the legacy of unresolved pain they leave often washes into following generations as well.

I looked forward to hearing more from Sharon and understanding her theory more deeply.
What I did not expect was that she had arranged with the Summit organisers that her ‘keynote address’ would be in an interview format. Deepak Chopra had been invited to interview her – and he had graciously accepted. (It seems he may already have been familiar with Sharon’s work through her Blog.)

That morning, the first day of the Summit, started with a beach walk for me and I remember the magnificent colours of the rising sun and the sound of the seagulls, way above my head, as my bare feet sank into the fine white sea sand – and I breathed in the ocean-scented breeze. I felt free – and excited about what I would discover that day, through the various presentations. I had travelled a long way to attend this Summit at the southern tip of Africa, from where the ocean stretches, uninterrupted by any land mass, all the way to the South Pole.

At the conference venue, the lights in the auditorium dimmed while the lighting on the stage spotlighted two small sofas, one for Sharon and the other for Deepak. A polished wooden table had been placed between the sofas, with bottled water and drinking glasses. A beautiful arrangement of flowers formed a backdrop for the interview, with a colourful slide announcing the conference session projected on the back wall.

The scene was set.

Sharon and Deepak entered the stage to the sound of loud applause. To my surprise, I recognized that Sharon was wearing a dress by my wife’s favourite designer, Erdem Moraglioglu. The dress fitted her perfectly and the long flowing skirt was easy to arrange as she took a seat. Deepak was wearing black trousers and a casual jacket, with a crisp white shirt. No black-rimmed spectacles that day.

I listened intently to the questions Deepak posed to Sharon, about herself as well as her work. I did not know that Sharon is not a psychologist. Rather, her insights into healing addiction grew out of her experience with energy medicine, both as a client and a practitioner.
In this context, I was fascinated to discover that she does not view a person from a Body-Mind perspective but rather as an embodied Soul, a multi-dimensional Being.

This Being has access to a conscious mind informed by sensory perception in the outer world as well as a second invisible mind, a mind that directs choices and actions and reactions, a mind that can over-ride choices made by the conscious mind.
“Why is this important?’ asked Deepak.

Sharon explained that this is vital in relation to understanding so-called addiction to substances like alcohol and food and recreational drugs and smoking. The individual makes a conscious decision to stop ‘using’ the substance but cannot keep their promise because of turmoil in their subconscious mind.

Further, Sharon proposed that no-one is addicted to a substance. Rather, the substance is chosen and used, expertly, as self-medication to control emotional and mental pain in the inner world.

In other words, the substance is a buffer used in the external world to avoid pain in the inner world. The substance is not an enemy. The substance is an ally in the struggle for survival in the midst of deep pain.

Deepak leaned forward, interested. ‘In this context, how would you assist a client?’
Sharon’s response was that she would shift focus from so-called substance abuse in the outer world to finding and healing the original source of the misery causing the pain and suffering within.

‘And how would you do that?’ Deepak asked.

Sharon responded that there are a variety of energy medicine techniques that she has combined into a method for this deep inner work. Once the pain is healed, the overwhelming need for the substance of choice to regulate the pain is no longer needed.

Deepak took a deep breath, leaned back and posed his final question, ‘Have I understood you correctly, Sharon? Are you suggesting that the process of healing an addiction like compulsive eating or alcohol abuse actually involves an evolutionary step in consciousness for an individual? That the substance can be ignored?’

Sharon paused.
It was her turn to take a deep breath as she quietly considered the question – and exhaled.
Then she smiled.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I do not think it is an exaggeration to describe the process of healing addiction as an evolutionary step in consciousness. And then there is more. The energetic blueprint or ‘armouring’ resulting from the wounding in the inner world as well as the impact of the addictive behaviour on the physical body in the outer world also need realignment and healing and ongoing self-care.

I am proposing that addiction is not a pathology or an incurable mental illness.
Rather, addiction starts out as a natural and desperate first aid attempt to avoid pain and suffering.

This reaction needs to evolve and transform into acceptance of an exciting invitation to heal the pain, identify authentic needs and step out of self-imposed prison – and into deepening our experience of embodiment while we design our lives and continue to unfold our creativity and uniqueness.’

Deepak looked out over the auditorium and I hoped he would open the floor for a Q&A session – but the conference organizer intervened.

Time was up – and the next session was due to begin.

I wonder … what are your thoughts? And what is energy medicine?
Meanwhile, I am looking forward to Sharon’s first book titled Emotional Healing, due to be published by Hay House in April 2026.