Helping Women Transform Their Lives Beyond Alcohol – Exclusive Interview With Shana Epps
- Brainz Magazine
- Jul 3
- 4 min read
Meet Shana Epps, the powerhouse behind Controlled Chaos Coaching LLC, where she empowers industry leaders to embrace a vibrant lifestyle in recovery. As a certified NCPRSS, NLP life coach, and breathwork facilitator with over 18 years of experience in residential treatment centers, Shana is dedicated to helping industry leaders unlock their potential and create lives full of desire and purpose.
Shana Epps, Life Coach
Introduce yourself! Tell us about your life, your passions, and what makes you who you are.
I’m Shana, a mom, a straight shooter, and the founder of Controlled Chaos Coaching™. I spent 20 years working in treatment centers, crisis units, and sober living homes. I helped celebrities, athletes, and court-ordered moms get clean, while secretly struggling with alcohol myself. I’ve been through it all: blackouts, relapses, lost custody, working while buzzed, inpatient stays I stopped counting, and the crushing shame that comes with being the one who “should’ve known better.”
But I clawed my way back not through perfection, but through rebuilding. Now I coach high-functioning, neurospicy moms who are drinking just enough to get by and finally want a way out that actually sticks. I live in Florida with my daughter (who’s now a vet tech), my snoring pitbull Diesel, and a deep mission to help other women build a life beyond prayers.
What inspired you to start Controlled Chaos Coaching™, and how does it reflect your mission?
Because nothing out there worked for me, and I knew I wasn’t the only one.
I’d been to rehab. Meetings. Therapy. Moderation. Church. I knew the Big Book inside out. I worked in treatment for decades. And I still ended up on the bathroom floor, whispering “never again” while drinking out of a Gatorade bottle.
Controlled Chaos Coaching™ was born when I realized women like me, overwhelmed, brilliant, busy women, didn’t need more advice. We needed a new system. Something that honored our trauma, our chaos, our brilliance. Soul Surge™ was the solution I built: faith-fueled, neuroscience-backed, and raw enough to meet women exactly where they are. No labels. No shame. Just a way out.
What are the main challenges your clients face?
They’re not the moms passed out in parking lots.
They’re the ones showing up to work hungover, crying in the shower, pre-gaming soccer games, and hiding bottles in tampon boxes. They’re high-achieving, high-anxiety, and hiding how bad it is. They’ve tried to quit a hundred times, but nothing has stuck.
Most are scared that without alcohol, they’ll break. My job is to show them they’re not broken, they’re buried. We unearth who they really are under the chaos, teach real tools, and build a recovery plan that fits their actual life.
What’s your coaching philosophy, and what makes it different?
Real recovery for real women.
I don’t hand out platitudes or tell people to “just pray it away.” I blend 12-step truth with trauma-informed care, faith, and nervous system healing. I work from lived experience and two decades in the field. And I tell the truth.
You’ll never hear me say “you’re not trying hard enough.” You are. The method was just never made for you.
My approach is raw, feminine, strategic, and spiritual, and it works. I’ve helped nearly 1,500 women stop drinking and stay stopped, without losing themselves in the process.
What’s been the most rewarding moment of your coaching career so far?
The first time a client said:
“Shana, I didn’t just get sober. I got free.”
That one line reminded me why I do this. Sobriety isn’t just about not drinking; it’s about becoming the woman you were always meant to be.
How do you stay sharp and keep evolving for your clients?
I stay in the work. I live what I teach.
I’m a certified Peer Recovery Specialist, NLP life coach, and breathwork instructor, and I still learn every day. I work with therapists, practitioners, and medical teams. I stay up-to-date on addiction science, trauma healing, and women’s wellness.
But more than that, I stay human. I stay in the mess. Because recovery isn’t a straight line, it’s a climb. And I’ll never stop climbing with the women I serve.
Can you share a story where your coaching transformed someone’s life?
One of my favorite women came to me after her son dumped out her vodka for the third time. She was ashamed, exhausted, and sure she was “too far gone.”
In 12 weeks, she stopped drinking, started healing, and wrote a forgiveness letter to herself. She now co-leads her church’s recovery circle and just hit her one-year sober milestone.
She didn’t just change her life. She changed her legacy.
What’s been your greatest achievement so far?
Soul Surge™.
It’s the program I wish I had. The one that finally works.
I’ve helped women go from blackout cycles to spiritual fire. From hiding to healing. From “I can’t do this” to “I was born for this.”
That’s my biggest win: watching women come home to themselves.
If you could change one thing about the recovery world, what would it be?
The gatekeeping.
Too many women feel like they’re “not bad enough” to get help, so they wait until they lose everything. I want to burn that lie to the ground.
You don’t need to hit rock bottom. You just need someone who gets it, who’s been there, and who knows the ladder out. That’s what I do.
What was your personal turning point?
My daughter stopped talking to me in my second year sober.
I thought I’d die from the heartbreak. But I didn’t drink. I got in therapy. I stayed in recovery. I used every tool I had because this time, I wasn’t just doing it for her.
I was doing it for myself.
And that changed everything.
What would you say to the woman who’s reading this, barely holding it together, and doesn’t know where to start?
Baby girl, I see you.
You’re not crazy. You’re not weak. You’re not broken.
You’re tired of surviving, and alcohol is not the answer.
DM me. Watch the workshop. Come see what’s possible.
You don’t have to hit bottom. You just need a way out. I’ve got you.
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