Meet lizzie allan
Hi, I’m Lizzie.
Welcome to the She’s Proof party.
I’m a comedian, writer, therapeutic coach, a woman in long-term recovery from addiction, and the founder of She’s Proof.
I started my journey of recovery over sixteen years ago and have had the good fortune of moving through my healing journey alongside women in recovery from all over the world.
I’ve got my war stories with addiction and mental health crises, but that’s not really the angle of She’s Proof.
My aim is to focus on what’s working and manifest more of that good vibrational positivity that has helped so many women get well.
The idea for She’s Proof started with a vision I had in my mum’s kitchen almost three years ago.
I could see myself travelling across the USA in a van, meeting incredible people in recovery and gathering with them. I could see it snowballing and growing. I could see this wave of positivity moving across the country.
I didn’t know exactly how it would look. I just knew I wanted to follow it.
For the last year, I’ve also been talking with the Addiction Research Institute in San Diego and thinking about one big question: how do we get more people to add their energy, attention and money to addiction research for women?
One of the biggest barriers surrounding addiction and recovery is stigma.
Self-stigma can stop people asking for help and speaking up. Shame keeps people hidden. And stigma, combined with a real lack of understanding, can prevent us from seeing addiction as something people can and do recover from.
And there is still so much we don’t understand.
I keep coming back to one question:
How did I get recovery when so many other people can't and die?
The answer is, we don’t fully know.
And we need more research.
But She’s Proof isn’t about asking people for money for addiction research.
It’s doing a much bigger job.
It’s about changing the way we see addiction and recovery.
It’s about removing shame and stigma so that more people can find their way back into the light.
And it’s about women because women have been such a huge part of my own recovery. For sixteen years, I have sat alongside women from all walks of life who have found their way back from addiction. I have watched women rebuild themselves, their families and their lives.
These women are extraordinary.
And I want the world to meet them.
A few months ago, something finally clicked.
If we want people to care about women affected by addiction, they need to meet the women who recover.
We have become very good at showing the world what addiction looks like.
I want to show the world what recovery looks like.
We need to make recovery visible.
Proof of what’s possible when women recover.
Proof that recovery is worth investing in.
Proof that our women can come home.
And suddenly, that vision I had in my mum’s kitchen nearly three years ago made sense.
She’s Proof.
So I’m getting in a van and travelling across the USA to find these women.
I want to meet them. Hear their stories. Celebrate them. Laugh with them. Gather with them.
I want to create a wave of positivity around recovery that becomes bigger and bigger as we travel.
And most importantly, I want the world to see them.
Because when enough of us stand up and show what recovery looks like, we can change the conversation around addiction.
We can make women’s recovery impossible to ignore.
And my dream?
My dream is to meet so many women in recovery that by the time this adventure ends, we’re gathering in stadiums.
I am proof of what is possible when recovery happens.
And she’s proof too.
My story
I was brought up in England by my emotionally chaotic, gorgeous, divorced, traumatised parents. It was the 80s, and most people were trying to feel okay — usually with booze — in a post-war Britain. We laughed to cope, and by age eight, comedy had become my mission in life.
As a teenager, I started reading spiritual, metaphysical, law-of-attraction books and thought, “Hey, that’s a better way of being successful than slaving away at school.” Alongside this hobby, I was taking my own journey with addiction — light and shadow doing their merry dance.
Back then, my life was an ego-driven cocktail of mystical insight, fear, and self-rejection. I had no idea who I was or how to accept myself. Those ingredients contributed to a severe bout of madness in Thailand in the year 2000 — I was nineteen and completely unprepared for what came next: a life-altering spiritual awakening. But goodness me, try telling a psychiatric doctor that. I felt like a fish in a fishbowl, everyone staring at me. I tried to explain myself, but only bubbles came out.
Shoehorned into the psych ward against my will, I went on to have a vision: a) that I was Jesus reincarnated, and b) that I would save the world with a rap album.
I’m not Jesus reincarnated, and I don’t rap — but it’s on my to-do list.
I got clean and sober in 2010, and to this day, I still actively work a program of recovery to maintain my high-vibrational state — which is important for manifesting the life of your dreams. I have a Comedy Writing and Performance degree from Salford University in the UK, which proves I am funny. I also trained as a therapist, and it changed the way I show up on stage and in all my relationships, especially the one with myself.
I married my two great loves — comedy and healing — and their love child is Hilarapy.
Everything I’ve lived — the chaos, the comedy, the madness, the awakening, the recovery, the spiritual obsession, the law-of-attraction nerdery, the therapy, the humour — has brought me to my purpose: helping people move the fear that blocks their light, and having a really good time doing it.
I live in British Columbia, Canada — and I make it my job to dance with genius.*
*According to the ancient Greeks, genius was a visiting spirit — a mischievous muse that would drop by, stir things up, and vanish once the magic was done.
My Approach
My vision is shaped by my own journey through mental health challenges and recovery, including a formative period of crisis in my early twenties that clarified my calling to help others heal with integrity, courage, and compassion. I created Hilarapy, an approach that integrates humour where appropriate, not as performance or technique, but as a natural expression of presence and connection.
Humour
After navigating addiction, mental health challenges, and psychiatric care, I discovered that humour could unlock healing in ways nothing else could. My work is grounded in extensive training, lived experience, and a strong commitment to spaces that are safe, honest, and human.
connection
I create environments where people feel supported to slow down, tell the truth, and reconnect with themselves and others. I invite authenticity, reduces shame, and supports lasting transformation, allowing lightness to emerge naturally within a grounded, carefully held process.