Built for early recovery
Whether it was treatment, a program, or your own hard work — you've stayed sober. Mindset Evolution is the other half: a 10-session course for clarifying who you want to be in your recovery and building the life you want to live, one week at a time, with people doing the same.
Takes about two minutes. Cancel in two clicks. This page is written for the first stretch of recovery — out of treatment, out of a program, or sober on your own. Years in already? The long-term recovery page is the one for you.
It’s kept me accountable every week, while also allowing me to see and learn from everyone else’s journey.
Two minutes, on the web or in the free Skool app. You're in the community and Session 1 opens right away.
Clarify what matters, make one commitment, and post it. That's the first pattern you build.
Ten weeks of building the pull — alongside IOP, sober living, meetings, or whatever your plan includes.
What makes it different
A course you watch alone changes very little.
Every session ends with one action for the week. You post it where Michael and a group of people working towards goals of their own can see it, and they ask how it went. A hard week gets support, not judgment, and you see what's working for other people. If you go quiet, someone notices. The whole community is in your pocket with our free app.
Start my free weekFree for 7 days. Cancel in two clicks.
The push fades
The Big Book says it plainly: after even a short time, the memory of how bad it was begins to fade, and no amount of willpower brings it back with enough force when you need it most. That isn't weakness. It's biology doing its job.
Addiction hijacks the brain's survival system. A brain that has learned to treat use as survival would rather forget how bad things got — because remembering makes use less likely. The fade isn't a failure of willpower. It's the brain protecting what it thinks keeps you alive.
Values. What matters to you is available in any moment, can't be used up, and grows stronger the more you act on it. A push has a shelf life. A pull is something you can strengthen for the rest of your life.
The other side of the equation: not a life you protect because you're afraid of what you'd go back to, but a life so connected to what matters that you're drawn towards it. A life you'd never trade.
In their own words
Nothing here is scripted or invented. The people in this video are real clients of Michael, describing in their own words what working with him was like. Every person you see gave written permission to be here.
“Mike has helped me immensely… I have more confidence than ever before, and I have been able to change my outlook on life thanks to him.”
“The biggest difference in my life now is I can meet the demands of life. The little things and the big things.”
Experiences vary. Mindset Evolution is a fulfillment-based course, not treatment, and results are not guaranteed.
Two jobs, one recovery
The work that keeps you sober focuses on recovery management — preventing a return to use — and the research says it should. Nothing here replaces that work. Mindset Evolution runs alongside whatever you already have — a continuing care plan, sober living, meetings, a therapist, your own routine — and does the job most of it doesn't have room for: building a life worth staying present for.
The research points the same way. Higher life satisfaction predicts sustained remission, and recovery capital — meaning, supports, connection — predicts sustained recovery. One of the strongest predictors of staying well is simply having something to lose. Building a life worth protecting is that something. (Laudet, 2007; Laudet & White, 2008)
What's inside
Each session pairs a guided video with a Session Guide that has you pause and apply it to your own life. Every session ends the same way: a Take This With You summary, one weekly commitment — what I'll do, when, what might get in the way, what I'll do if it does — and a prompt for the community.
What truly matters, burn the boats on the excuses and safety nets that pull you backwards, and make a concrete commitment.
Preview the Session 1 Guide (PDF)Values become goals: a vision of life 6–12 months out, SMART goals tied to values, and your first weekly action plan with obstacles named.
The moment between what shows up and what you do next. Towards and away moves, and what it means to be hooked — and to unhook.
The passengers on the bus: thoughts and feelings that try to steer. Name yours, and trade the discomfort scale for the willingness scale.
Fact vs. story. The noticing technique that creates space — and the new story your actions will build.
The brain's spotlight on danger, grounding through the five senses, and making room — having a feeling without letting it choose the direction.
The wall between you and the life you want isn't made of danger — it's made of discomfort. Notice what the brain wants and choose the opposite, in small repeatable moments first.
How repetition builds automatic patterns — for or against you. Check in on your values and goals and choose one pattern to strengthen.
Build your Ongoing Growth Plan: the strategies you'll keep using — professional support, community, daily practices — with a person to share it with.
Biggest takeaways, the finalized growth plan, and the TOWARDS framework you can return to at any scale — a whole new direction or a single hard moment.
TOWARDS. Think about what matters. Observe your thoughts and feelings. Work with what shows up. Act. Repeat. Do it again. Strengthen your supports, surroundings, and systems. Whenever you feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure what to do next, TOWARDS is the way back.
The community
Isolation is one of the most common threads when people drift from their plans. The community is the opposite of that: a private group of people in recovery, actively building the lives they want — not just avoiding the ones they left.
Why this approach fits recovery
The course is grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), one of the most extensively researched psychotherapy models of the past two decades. Here's why it fits early recovery in particular.
Substance use often functions as a fast, reliable way to get away from painful thoughts, feelings, and memories. Remove the substance without changing your relationship to discomfort, and the avoidance looks for a new outlet. ACT targets that directly: willingness to have what shows up while moving towards what matters.
Consequence-driven motivation fades as the pain gets further away. Values don't. They're inexhaustible, available in any moment, and stronger with practice. And because ACT doesn't compete with any recovery pathway, it strengthens 12-step work, therapy, and continuing care rather than replacing them.
A meta-analysis of 10 randomized trials found a significant effect favouring ACT on substance use outcomes against active treatments. In a randomized trial inside a 28-day residential program, a brief ACT group targeting shame improved continuing-treatment attendance and reduced use at follow-up. (Lee et al., 2015; Luoma et al., 2012)
A meta-analysis devoted to self-help ACT found significant effects on depression, anxiety, and the core skill this course teaches — with outcomes improving as guidance increases. That's why this is a guided course with a Session Guide and a live community, not a video library. (French et al., 2017; Han & Kim, 2022)
These findings are about ACT and about recovery in general. Mindset Evolution is built on them; it is not itself a clinical trial, and it makes no promise about your outcome. It's a course, worked one week at a time.
Free to start
Getting sober settles one question and opens another: now what? Ready for Change? is a 15-minute conversation with yourself about a change you keep circling — the job, the relationship, the call you haven't made. Name it, look at both sides honestly, then pick the smallest thing you could do in the next 48 hours. Free — confirm your email and it opens straight away.
Your guide
Michael is a Licensed Professional Counselor and the founder of Everest Therapy Solutions, a values-driven group practice in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, specializing in evidence-based care for substance use, anxiety, and depression.
He has worked in residential addiction treatment for over three and a half years, with clinical experience spanning the full continuum of care — residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, outpatient, and individual therapy. That range shaped Mindset Evolution: it was built by a clinician who has watched what happens at every level of care, including the moment structured support ends.
He holds a Master's in Clinical Counseling from The Citadel and a BA in Psychology, with honors, from the College of Charleston. His work draws primarily on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, alongside Motivational Interviewing and Solution-Focused approaches — helping people move beyond symptom management towards lives they want to live.
Licensed Professional Counselor · 8+ years in substance use treatment settings — OP, IOP, PHP, and RTC · Founder of Everest Therapy Solutions · Mount Pleasant, SC
Join the course
Your trial gives you full access to Session 1, its Session Guide, and the community. If it's not the right fit, cancel before the trial ends and you won't be charged. Finish the 10 sessions over three months, then stay connected for less than the price of a lunch.
For your first 3 months — the full 10-session course, for about what a gym membership costs. After that, ongoing access to the community, Q&A, and everything new is $19/month.
$147 for the whole 10-session course — less than one session with a sought-after recovery coach, under $1.70 a day. The standard rate is $98/month. Founding members are locked in: $49/month during the course, then $19/month after, and neither price goes up for as long as they stay.
First 7 days free.
Start my free weekYour card won't be charged today. Cancel in two clicks from your Skool account. Secure checkout on Skool.
Created and led by Michael Chester, MA, LPC — Licensed Professional Counselor, South Carolina.
Prefer to talk to a person first? Call or text Everest Therapy Solutions at 843-256-3322 and ask about Mindset Evolution.
Questions
No, and it's designed that way on purpose. Mindset Evolution is not a level of care and not a substitute for aftercare. It doesn't address substance use directly. It runs alongside whatever continuing care plan you and your treatment team create — IOP, sober living, alumni programming, 12-step — and does the second job: building a life worth staying present for.
Yes — that's the window it was built for. One session a week plus small actions between sessions fits alongside whatever else you are doing. Bring your weekly commitment to your counselor or sponsor if you want; many people do.
No. The community is private — members only, no algorithm, no advertising. You choose what you share. Plenty of people start by watching and post when they're ready. Live Q&A with the camera off is fine.
Reach your support people first — a sponsor, a counselor, a doctor, whoever has picked up the phone before. Then come back. Connection changes what happens next, and a community that knows you is a reason to reach out sooner rather than start over alone.
Plan on roughly an hour for each session — the video and the Session Guide — plus small practice actions during the week. One session a week is the recommended rhythm, and it's best not to leave more than two weeks between sessions. Sessions stay available if life gets in the way.
Yes. The free Skool app for iPhone and Android keeps the course and the community with you: the sessions, the Session Guides, the discussions, and notifications for live Q&A. Watch a session wherever you are and post your weekly commitment from your phone.
You'll finish with an Ongoing Growth Plan, the TOWARDS framework, and a complete set of reusable guides. Your membership drops to $19/month for continued access to the community, live Q&A, and new material. Stay as long as it's useful; cancel whenever it isn't.
Yes. Cancel any time from your Skool account in two clicks. If you cancel during the 7-day trial, you won't be charged.
Yes — and you don't need it. Every session comes with its Session Guide as a free download inside the course; that's the same material. If you'd rather write in a book than print pages, all ten guides are collected in Mindset Evolution: The Complete Workbook — 138 pages, $24.99 on Amazon. Optional, and the same exercises.
An important note. Mindset Evolution is a complementary personal growth course built on research-based psychological strategies. It is not a level of care, not treatment, and not a substitute for aftercare or professional support. It is not suitable for people in acute crisis, with active safety concerns, or with untreated psychosis. Enrollment is always your choice.
If you're in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). For treatment referrals, SAMHSA's National Helpline is free and confidential, 24/7: 1-800-662-4357. Everest Therapy Solutions can also help you find the right support.