Today we’d like to introduce you to Teresa Hollingsworth.
Hi Teresa, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Eight years ago, I was a practicing alcoholic whose life looked nothing like what I had hoped it would be. I was running on fear, resentment, and survival — and I had no idea how much damage I was doing to myself and the people around me. I needed a change. I found The Magdalen House’s First Step program, where I was introduced to the 12 Steps and to a community of women who showed me that recovery was actually possible. The work wasn’t easy. It required me to get honest about who I was and what I had been doing — not just the drinking, but the manipulation, the resentment, the ways I had been living entirely on self-will. But now, on the other side of that work, I live a life I genuinely couldn’t have imagined for myself. Eight years later, I am eight years sober and serving as the Chief Program Officer at The Magdalen House. I get to show up every day for women — and now men — who are where I once was, and I get to be part of what changes their lives. It is not lost on me that I am sitting in this seat because someone once sat across from me and didn’t give up. That’s what drives everything I do.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Smooth is not the word I would use. Recovery gave me my life back, but it didn’t make life easy. If anything, sobriety meant I had to feel everything — and some of what I had to feel was devastating. I have lost some very close people during my recovery. People who mattered deeply to me. And learning to walk through that kind of grief by relying on God rather than alcohol was some of the hardest and most important work I have ever done.
The first thing recovery did was show me myself — and that was uncomfortable in ways I wasn’t always prepared for. I had to look at patterns I had been running from for years. The resentments. The control. The ways I had convinced myself that my problems were always someone else’s fault. Professionally, stepping into leadership in the same organization where I got sober came with its own unique challenges. There is something humbling about being known — truly known — by the people you work alongside. There is no hiding who you used to be, and early on I wasn’t always sure that was an asset. Learning to lead from a place of authenticity rather than ego, and to extend the same grace to others that had been extended to me, has been the ongoing work. Personally, recovery asked me to show up for relationships I had damaged and let go of ones that no longer served my sobriety. Some of those losses were harder than the drinking ever was.
But I will say this — every hard thing in recovery has made me more useful to the people I serve. The struggle wasn’t a detour. It was the preparation.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Magdalen House ?
The Magdalen House is a nonprofit recovery organization in Dallas, Texas, built entirely around one belief — that the alcoholic can recover. We have been doing this work for nearly 40 years, and everything we do is rooted in the 12-Step spiritual principles. What sets us apart is simple: we are free. Every program we offer costs nothing to the people we serve — no insurance, no co-pays, no out-of-pocket costs. We believe that financial barriers should never stand between an alcoholic and the help they need. That model has held for nearly four decades, and it works because of the generosity of our community. We serve both women and men through two core programs. First Step is our two-week residential program for any alcoholic who wants to stop drinking, but cannot. They are provided with the education and resources to achieve sobriety and build a foundation of recovery. Next Step is our nonresidential, peer-led continuing education program that meets weekly for 12 weeks and is open to any alcoholic at any stage of their journey. Participants are provided with the support and structure needed to sustain their recovery while growing in their knowledge of 12-Step spiritual principles. What we specialize in is the whole person. We are not a detox. We are not a clinical treatment center. We are a recovery community — and that distinction matters. We walk alongside people, not just through the early days of sobriety but through the deeper inside work that actually changes who they are. What I am most proud of is our culture. When someone walks through our doors, they are not a case number. They are known. They are seen. And they are surrounded by people who have been exactly where they are — and made it to the other side. That is what The Magdalen House is.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Honesty. Not the polished, professional kind — the kind that costs you something. In recovery, I learned that I could not get well on half-measures. I had to be willing to look at myself completely honestly, and that same principle carries into everything I do as a leader. The people I serve can tell the difference between someone who is performing and someone who is present. They have spent years around people who told them what they wanted to hear. What they need — and what I try to bring every single day — is the real thing. I think the other characteristic that has been essential is willingness. Willingness to keep growing, to be wrong, to ask for help, to change course when something isn’t working. Recovery taught me that self-will run riot is a dead end. The willingness to surrender — to God, to the process, to the people around me who see things I can’t — has made me a better leader, a better colleague, and a better human being. And honestly, I think what has made me most effective in this role is that I have lived it. I am not leading from a textbook. I am leading from experience. That creates a level of authenticity that I believe people can feel — and in this work, authenticity is everything.
Pricing:
- Recovery is priceless — but offering it free of charge is expensive to sustain.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://magdalenhouse.org
