Hilary Phelps understands the quiet unraveling that can live beneath a polished exterior.

As a girl, she was the picture of success: straight A’s, a record-breaking swimmer, praised for her discipline and performance. But beneath the applause was a growing sense of disconnection and pressure. At 14, a single drink became the doorway to a decade-long pattern of escape.

By 29, she had checked every box of external achievement, yet felt profoundly lost. That’s when she chose sobriety, not as a clean break, but as a courageous return. What followed wasn’t just recovery—it was a reconstitution. She walked away from what no longer aligned, examined the roots of her addiction, and began the slow, embodied process of remembering who she was—before the perfection, before the pressure.

For years, Hilary held that journey close. But after 15 years sober, she felt called to speak. Sharing her story publicly on The Payoff with Pete podcast—and later in a two-part WBAL segment—opened a new path: helping high-achieving women reclaim themselves not by pushing harder, but by softening, listening, and coming home to their bodies.

Today, Hilary is a holistic coach, speaker, mother, and advocate in long-term recovery. Through her platform The Right Room, she supports women navigating life transitions—sobriety, burnout, reinvention, divorce—offering spaces that are equal parts sanctuary and strategy. She lives in Northern Virginia and leads work that is as rooted as it is radical: helping women rise, not by doing more, but by becoming more themselves.