Cali Estes, Ph.D., has a simple yet profound message for anyone who feels lost, broken, or otherwise in need of direction: “You can create the life you want. You can have a life that makes you excited to get up in the morning and go to work, start a company, or do whatever it is you want to do with the time you have on this earth.”
Dr. Estes may be a clinical psychologist by training, but she speaks from personal experience. Having come of age in a modest neighborhood in Pottstown, she overcame several hardships on the road to building a life of abundance and purpose. She has since become a global disruptor and pioneer in the fields of addiction treatment, mental health, and life coaching, with more than 30 years of industry experience to her credit.
For Dr. Estes, helping others overcome their struggles with addiction has become an intensely personal mission. Her husband, Tim, was a drummer in a rock band who passed away in 2023 after spending much of his adult life wrestling with various drug addictions.
“When it comes to addiction, drinking and drugs are not the problem,” she says. “The problem is the underlying issue behind the addiction—the why. Once you’ve figured out the why, then you can treat the problem. At the same time, you need other tools to help you become the best version of yourself.”
In 2012, Dr. Estes used her clinical expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to found The Addictions Coach and Sober on Demand. She sought to provide a forceful alternative to traditional addiction treatment: meeting each client “where they are,” in terms of both their physical location and where they may be on their addiction journey, with solutions tailored to each client’s needs and goals.
“We’re here to calm your chaos,” she says. “Until now, the industry has been lacking credentialed help outside of a treatment center; we’re going to bring a doctor, a nurse, a sober companion, whatever they need, to clients wherever they may be, be it an office, a tour bus, a hotel, or an Airbnb. It’s a one-on-one customized approach that treats the person, not the addiction.”
Having cultivated a network of more than 100 providers worldwide, Sober on Demand takes a holistic approach to each client’s recovery. A personalized team based largely on in-depth assessments comprises everything from medical treatment such as concierge medical detox to “wraparound services” such as nutrition and fitness, life coaching, and stress reduction. To date, clients have included high-net-worth executives, professional musicians and other entertainers, and everyday working Americans.
Sober on Demand represents just one aspect of the growing business empire Dr. Estes has built.
* The Addictions Academy provides online certifications, courses, and training for healthcare practitioners who want to learn more about the realities of working with those suffering from addiction. Accredited by numerous organizations, The Addictions Academy has expanded its offerings to as many as 45 different courses for students throughout the United States and beyond who are interested in careers as practitioners. It also provides intervention strategies and mental health training for first responders, such as firefighters, police officers, and paramedics.
* UnPause Your Life provides life coaching for individuals in recovery or, really, anyone in need of direction to help them “lead their best life.” The “Coach Me” program strives to bring more abundance, freedom, and joy to clients’ lives, and otherwise help them move forward. In addition, UnPause Your Life certifies individuals who have an interest in becoming life coaches themselves.
* Pro Recovery Rx provides evidenced-based supplements to address the toll that addiction takes on the brain and body, as well as those to promote better sleep, attention and focus, mood and stress management, gut health, and everyday wellness.
Up next: an affordable monthly subscription-based video series that will explore various topics pertaining to addiction, mental health, and personal development.
Dr. Estes may be the visionary behind all these ventures, but she’s the first to admit she hasn’t done it alone. She credits Jenny Fontana, her younger sister, for fueling the enterprise’s next-level growth.
As chief operations officer, Fontana wears many hats. She’s a nutritional therapist for Sober on Demand. She works closely with people who are interested in changing their lives through The Addictions Academy; she’s also the creative force behind the academy’s ambassador program, which provides opportunities for interested parties to “become part of our team” in a recruitment capacity. She’s also a perfect complement to her sister.
“I’m a type-A personality and more about the big picture, and Jenny is more focused on the details and making things happen,” Dr. Estes says. “She keeps me grounded. When I come up with these far-fetched ideas, she’ll say, ‘Wait a minute, let’s think about this,’ and then we meet in the middle somewhere. We make a good team.”
“My background has been in fields relevant to caregiving, so I came into this from a place of wanting to help,” Fontana adds. “Cali and I definitely have different personalities, and we balance each other. That has helped us ensure that we always put out an exceptional product.”
Dr. Estes’ published works reflect the versatility of her experience. After her first book, 2017’s Recovery Coach Workbook, she followed a year later with I Married A Junkie: Put to the Ultimate Test by Addiction, Love, and Life, which she co-authored with her husband. Her 2020 book, The 7 Key Principles to Tap Into the Wealth Inside You: How to UnPause Your Life and Make Success a Reality, features many of the learnings of someone who has made a career out of reinvention. The Life Coach Method Workbook, which she co-wrote with Fontana, was published last year as a companion to The Life Coach Method® certification program. Her next book, a follow-up to I Married a Junkie, which bears the subtitle, The Final Chapter: Till Death Do Us Part, details the events that led to her husband’s passing; they were writing it together at the time of his death.
Looking ahead, Dr. Estes has an audacious goal: to partner with an investor to develop and open a treatment center, complete with an in-house training component, that incorporates the best practices distilled from everything she has learned over the past 30 years. It will be a complex undertaking, she realizes, but turning dreams into reality is what she does best.
Ask Dr. Estes to sum up the secret to her success, and she’ll likely whittle it down to a few essential ingredients: resilience, perseverance, a healthy body, and a creative mindset.
“Everything we have built grew out of a time when I had $300 in my pocket and the rent was due in two weeks,” Dr. Estes says. “Jenny and I didn’t grow up with a lot of money; we were poor kids. For us to do what we’ve done is pretty impressive. All the ups and downs have been worth it, because we’ve helped a lot of people in a lot of ways.
“To this day,” she continues, “I have past clients call me and say, ‘You’re the reason I’m doing so well today.’ One of my very first clients still calls me every Christmas – this Christmas it will be 14 years – just to let me know he’s still sober. When someone tells me something I said or did helped them live their best life, that’s really meaningful.”
Dr. Cali Estes
caliestes.com
The Addictions Academy: theaddictionsacademy.com
The Addictions Coach: theaddictioncoachonline.com
Pro Recovery Rx: prorecoveryrx.com
Sober on Demand: soberondemand.com
UnPause Your Life: unpauseyourlife.com
Photo by Nicholaus Booth Photography LLC and Nina Lea Photography
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, September 2024.
