FAQs

What SAANA is

SAANA is a company whose purpose is to help people live their sober lives. We do this by bringing peers together around live salons, topic-based peer meetings, and content that tackles what's controversial, emerging, and current.

What SAANA is not

SAANA is not therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are in crisis, please reach out to a licensed provider or your local emergency services immediately.

Who SAANA is for

People who want to live a sober life. And just so you know, in terms of "sober":

• We believe you define your sober — abstinent from all substances, or abstinent from the one that matters to you.
• Sober can be for the first time, the long time, or the tenth attempt, and everything in between.

The people behind SAANA

Two people, busy building our own sober lives — and building SAANA to help others build theirs too.

We've each been on our own sober journeys, with stops and starts and more than one attempt at getting around sober (cheat weekends being a prime, and thoroughly unworkable example).

We've given the tried-and-tested a go, and keep trying it too - we've experimented, we support each other, and sometimes we get in each other's way.

But one thing stays constant: we're committed to living sober, and want to be a part of a community who want the same thing.

Removal from the community

We may remove anyone whose behavior conflicts with our community guidelines or puts other members' safety or comfort at risk — including things like harassing or threatening another member, sharing what someone else has shared (or their identity) outside the space, promoting or soliciting products, services, or substances, or repeated disruptive behavior that undermines the space for others.

Making connections through SAANA

We'd love for SAANA to be the start of relationships that go beyond our sessions. You're welcome to chat with fellow members through Zoom during our support and morning meetings.

What is your approach to other recovery communities?

We aren't affiliated with other support organizations.

SAANA isn't a replacement for other recovery paths — 12-step, therapy, or otherwise. We're one part of a broader toolkit, built for people shaping their own approach.

Who are our speakers, and why are they chosen?

Most of our speakers are chosen for lived experience and honest insight — people who can speak real to the topic and to sober life, and who are publicly proud to be on this journey too.

Some are experts in substance use and sobriety — chosen because we want to expose the community to sober and sober-adjacent topics, by people committed to evolving the narrative around substance use in society.

If you have a recommendation for a speaker, or would like to be a speaker, we'd love to hear from you — email us at contact@joinsaana.com with who or what you'd like to see, and we'll take it from there.

Are meetings confidential?

Salons are recorded — only the speaker's video is captured, never attendees'. This is peer support, not clinical care — it runs on trust, respect, and members protecting each other's privacy and anonymity, not on legal confidentiality.