Hi, I’m Alex Vaughan.
I use they/them pronouns.
My work is rooted in lived experience. Before I obtained my degree from The Ohio State University in Sport and Leisure Studies in 2001, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in wellness, health, fitness and aspects of healing. During my sophomore year in college, I got an opportunity to start teaching group fitness to peers; it felt like a very aligned path for me to follow. I competed as a collegiate athlete in rowing. After college, I went on to compete as a cyclist, began to work as a personal trainer, and later, as a licensed physical education teacher. In 2020, I launched Alex Vaughan LLC, which provided LGBTQ+ workplace trainings and professional development.
In 2024, I left my full-time job as a personal trainer. I wanted more, deserved more, and frankly needed more from life. Unsure what I’d be doing next, I trusted the process, something I’d been doing for myself and saying to clients for years. With that, I found the peer and recovery support specialist training through Loving Beyond Understanding, with Sparkle Lindsay LLC and Dr. Leticia Nieto.
I know what it means to survive systems that were never designed for your safety, your truth, or your wholeness. I’ve navigated addiction and substance use, trauma, family court, identity reclamation, and the long, nonlinear process of coming home to myself.
Recovery, for me, is not about perfection, obedience or compliance—it’s about rebuilding self-trust, agency, and connection after I was conditioned, “Can you not?”
I support allies, transgender/noncisgender, LGBTQ+ individuals, businesses, professional teams investing in belonging, parents of transgender and gender-expansive children, and people healing from high-control systems, trauma, and toxic generational patterns. My approach blends peer support, recovery principles, nervous-system awareness, and a deep commitment to compassion and justice. We don’t pathologize human identity. We don’t rush healing. I meet people where they are—with honesty, steadiness, and care.
This work requires a willingness to be, to expand, grow, and learn. You will, without a doubt, transform.
As a parent, I advocate fiercely for my child while helping other families navigate fear, grief, love, and transformation. As a coach, I hold space for truth-telling, shadow work, and rebuilding a life aligned with your values. As a human, I believe healing is relational—and that liberation begins when we stop abandoning ourselves.
This work isn’t about fixing you.
It’s about remembering who you are.
My Approach
My approach is peer-led, trauma-aware, and rooted in lived experience. I don’t work from a model that treats people as problems to be fixed or identities to be managed. Instead, I support people in rebuilding self-trust, authentic voice, agency, and connection after harm…whether that harm came from family systems, addiction, institutions, or cultural oppression.
I believe recovery and healing are relational. They happen through vulnerable and honest connection—not shame, urgency, or compliance. I move at the pace of you, as we work together to honor your process of moving forward with wisdom that reveals. We work gently and truthfully, without bypassing pain or forcing positivity.
My work is especially shaped by a justice-centered lens. I understand how systems like patriarchy, transphobia, ableism, and high-control environments impact mental health, family dynamics, and identity development. I help clients separate their true selves from the stories and expectations imposed on them, while building lives aligned with their values.
As a peer and coach, I walk alongside you—not above or ahead of you. I offer reflection, grounding, accountability, and tools for integration, while respecting your autonomy and lived reality. This is a space where complexity is welcome, grief and anger are allowed, and growth is measured by self-connection rather than performance.
Catch A glimmer
Recovery often doesn’t begin with big breakthroughs—it begins with acknowledgment through smaller moments of safety, clarity, or relief. Catch a Glimmer is learning to notice and trust those moments. Together, we pay attention to what feels even slightly supportive or positive, using those glimmers as anchors for resilience, self-trust, and forward movement—especially during overwhelm or uncertainty.
Start anywhere
There is no right place to begin. Start Anywhere honors that recovery is nonlinear and very personal. You don’t need the right words, a super clear goal, or even a concept of your finished story. We begin with skill sets and with what is present. Example: the emotion, confusion, resistance, or curiosity, and build from there, at your pace, without pressure to perform or explain yourself.
