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Her Story 

Sharon Adelstein Feery, CSW, E-RYT

While it’s true that Yoga For The Higher Powered ™ only recently became an actual organization, there is no doubt that Sharon Adelstein Feery has been creating her “brainchild” for many, many years.  It’s actually similar to the story about the 45 year old rock musician who was recently discovered, yet has been playing guitar for 25 or 30 years in local establishments.

Her Childhood

Sharon Adelstein Feery, like many women in recovery suffered trauma in her childhood and young adulthood that led to addiction and a series of troubled relationships.  At the age of 11, her mother died of complications from open heart surgery and her older brother died less than one year later from a drug and alcohol related accident.  Life was now always filled with uncertainty and her ill-equipped father turned to alcohol himself to try to deal with the losses in his own life and the struggles of being a single parent.  At the young age of 52, Sharon’s father died of a massive heart attack.  Sharon’s family of five was down to two by the time she was 21 and her younger brother almost lost his own life from bleeding ulcers brought on by stress.  By the grace of god and emergency surgery, his life was spared and he now lives a happy and healthy life in Columbus, GA.

Her Interest in Yoga

After years of chaotic behavior and addictive relationships, Sharon was referred to the programs of Al-anon and Codependents Anonymous by a perceptive therapist.  For more than six years she attended theses programs, sought therapy, went on a spiritual journey and even began the study of social work without realizing that she too had addiction issues with alcohol and drugs.  It was so easy to deny because she always had her father’s and older brothers’ addictions to compare to.  After several of her closet family members and friends suggested so, she began to look at her own addiction issues.  After one or two attempts at the program of AA, there was no denying that she belonged. 

While attending Al-anon and before giving up partying, Sharon discovered yoga.  It is probably about 20 years ago that she attended her first yoga class .   She had a roommate that was a yoga teacher and the roommate invited Sharon down to an Ashram in Hollywood, Florida.  Sharon tells of the yogi master there as being an eighty year old woman that only wore the color orange with a matching orange turban.  Her name was Naranda and the first time she met Sharon she said “you are the angriest person I’ve ever met”.  This is hard to believe if you know Sharon now.  When she describes her former self it sounds like she speaking about another person.  She says that not only was she angry, but she was manipulative, impatient, impulsive, neurotic and compulsive.  She says that “the program and yoga have transformed me”.

Meditation came natural to Sharon and throughout the years and throughout the challenges, the meditation that she learned in yoga became a recovery tool. In the midst of any turmoil, she would escape to a quiet place, breathe, meditate and find peace.  She always secretly wished that she could give the gift of meditation to her fellow friends in the program, but never quite knew how to convey the message when they asked.

Finding Her Path

Many years, many yoga classes and many meetings later Sharon moved to the South Jersey  Prior to moving, she had been working in a small woman’s residential treatment center in Delray Beach, Florida and she loved it.  Sharon finally thought she had found the right career path for herself.  She taught classes on addiction and co-dependency, ran groups and carried a full case load as a primary therapist.   When she moved to South Jersey she discovered that the area is really scarce on residential alcohol and drug treatment centers and she lacked the credentials that the state required to practice, so she  explored a few different options, and then took the MAT tests and applied to grad school.  Upon acceptance to grad school, she couldn’t sign on the dotted line and now it’s obvious why. It wasn’t the path that she was meant to take and she was now AWAKE to spiritual messages.

After years and years of studying different branches of yoga, she decided that it was now the time to truly commit and become a certified yoga instructor.  This idea was in the back of her mind for years, yet seemed unobtainable because of negative self talk (too old, not good enough, etc.).  But, when she found a school that was very close to her home and they were starting up a new program in the near future, she took it as a sign.  In October of 2007 Sharon began attending the Yoga Center of Medford Teacher Training Program. Her motivation for becoming a teacher was not necessarily to teach, it was mainly to deepen both her practice and commitment.

The first half of the program was easy for her. Most of the yogic philosophy was quite similar to 12 step philosophy and the concept of “Take what you like and leave the rest behind” was now a deeply rooted part of her process.  The now daily meditation practice had Sharon practically walking on clouds.  She was given instruction to begin planning a research paper and final presentation to her fellow classmates and teachers.  When she learned of some of the other topics that were chosen, there was no doubt.  Hers could only be on Yoga for the Addicted.

The Years of Discovery

Sharon began looking for research.  What she found was startling.  How could it be true? A research study from 1975 that was published in The American Psychiatric Journal with findings that regular practice of meditation will more than double ones chances of staying sober?  Why had she never heard of this? 20 years in 12 step meetings and 12 years of sobriety and this topic was NEVER mentioned in a meeting?   She continued to find supportive evidence and she wanted to shout this from the rooftops. 

She then decided that the next step in her research was to visit a residential treatment center and experience yoga being taught to the patients.  She knew that this was being done now and she wanted to see if it was being mentioned in treatment centers that meditation has such a radical impact on success rates.  Unfortunately, while the yoga teacher at that facility was truly a great teacher, she apparently lacked the ability to communicate with alcoholics and addicts because while 65 patients attended her seminar on yoga, only one patient showed up to her class. 

On the drive home Sharon’s mind raced.  If meditation doubles ones chances of remaining sober and is so beneficial to the recovering community, why didn’t they show up at her class?  The answer was clear, because she didn’t speak their language.  Now Sharon began to wonder, how exactly would I communicate the importance of meditation to the recovering community?

Sharon now organized all of the information she had gathered and began planning her presentation at the yoga school.  She had to contend with her issues surrounding releasing her anonymity to her classmates.  She didn’t want anyone to know she was in recovery, but she knew that the information she now had needed to be made public and this was a great place to test it.  Wouldn’t you know, after her presentation she found out one of her fellow classmates had a brother in relapse and shortly after graduation she found out that a fellow classmate was struggling with relapse too.