WATCH: Why sobriety is the ultimate act of rebellion

• One Foot Out is a sobriety circle, organized by Raina Lutz, a holistic nutritionist, and Rachelle Welda, a yoga teacher
• The class teaches an alternative to wine culture through wellness and finding true community support

Sobriety being the ultimate act of rebellion is how a pair of locals describe their wellness program that also incorporates body awareness and self-love.

Raina Lutz and Rachelle Welda created the One Foot Out Sobriety Circle to help those in the valley contend with chemical dependencies.

The decision came after both of them faced their own struggles and wanted to help others seeking sobriety by creating a sense of community and understanding.

“We’re offering wellness, spiritual support, emotional support, safe space, listening to each other. It’s more about community, listening, and understanding,” Lutz, a holistic nutritionist, told Kelowna10.

“We’re just trying to offer safe space for people who are doing the work, questioning it, whether or not they’re actually going sober, it’s not up to us. We’re just offering a safe space for conversations about it.”

In a region surrounded by beautiful wineries, the pair decided to offer a space for those seeking an alternative mindset.

“Me and Rachelle believe that the alternative to wine culture is wellness and finding wellness in true community to support you with whatever you’re trying to do,” Lutz said.

They first offered the virtual support circle in January and will be doing the next 14-week program starting on April 1.

“We struggled at first thinking, ‘it’s wine country, no one is going to be interested in this,’” Lutz said.

“Once we put it out there, we saw more people were needing the support and [were] in the same mindset of us where they were looking for people to understand what it feels like.”

The program offers access to a variety of resources such as yoga and meditation classes, chakra lessons, clearing medicine lectures, and more. Bi-weekly Zoom sessions are also held throughout to allow members to speak about sobriety.

“It’s a truthful, loving, safe place and the fact that we don’t have an NA or AA curriculum,” Welda, a yoga instructor, told Kelowna10. “We don’t focus on any religious aspects, it’s just a safe place to be open and honest and learn some tools that helped us through our process.”

Welda said the alternative mindset to wine culture is about finding peace within oneself where finding happiness doesn’t need to come from alcohol or drugs.

“Not escaping through substances, so finding joy in the present moment, that’s the way I see it,” she explained.

“We created this program because we don’t want other people to feel and deal alone, it’s nice to talk about the shame with no judgement.”