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Joanna Free

Joanna Free wears a lot of hats, both with Team Journey and as a member of the recovery community.

She found us through an ad we placed in the local publication and connected to share her own story — which we published in 2022.

She has been part of the team ever since: showing up at community gatherings, writing articles, and interviewing others so their stories can be shared.

She helped design our great little Recovery Basics class, too.

Joanna is also the author of four – 4! – books on the subject of kicking butts/nicotine, including the Amazon bestseller BUTTKICKERS: Twenty Ways to Leave Tobacco, which you can probably find for free through your library and wherever fine books are sold, including here.

BUTTKICKERS highlights twenty – 20! – distinctly different ways to get and stay free, not only from nicotine/tobacco, but also in a LOT of other ways, too. This includes meridian tapping, which you can see and tap along with here.

For kicking nicotine in ANY form, another valuable resource Joanna recommends when asked is Nicotine Anonymous.

Joanna also co-teaches with others, including the brilliant EFT tapping master trainer Karen St.Clair.

9 stories for Journey

Articles by Joanna Free

Are We Listening?

A man stands in a service center, phone in hand, anger sharp in his voice. He's upset about a story that made others laugh. But when someone leans in and listens instead of defending, something shifts…

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Are You Willing to Go to Any Lengths?

Etta Mae Lopez, five feet tall and determined, walked up to a police officer outside Sacramento Jail and slapped him. She had a plan: jail time meant she could finally quit smoking. Her unconventional…

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The Writing of Recovery Allies

Alison Jones Webb trained young people in recovery to share their stories in church basements and school halls. When community members asked "What can we do to help?" she realized the answer: people n…

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On Smoking and Education

A person climbing the ranks in the military notices something: the higher they go, the fewer cigarettes around them. Education shifts choices. This piece explores how learning opens doors beyond nicot…

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Changing Our Lives

At six months sober, the author sat in a treatment facility not because she'd returned to use, but because she didn't know how to live without substances ruling her days. She was working in mental hea…

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Smober or Sober or $omething Else?

A therapist's client walked into her office for the first time at 78, ready to transform. This story opens a conversation about what recovery really means today. It's not one thing. For some it's free…

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Joanna Free: Buttkicker

Joanna was twelve when an adult handed her a lit cigarette and a mixed drink on a hot summer night. That moment set off a thirty-year battle with tobacco that would outlast her struggles with alcohol,…

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