January Wellness: The Other Side of Fear
This January, we’re spotlighting dance-music-specific wellness initiatives to kickstart your year and explore the quiet revolution happening alongside the dance floor.
Joanna Miles is the founder of The Other Side of Fear, a sober, moderation and transformation coaching service that helps dance music professionals change their relationship with drugs and alcohol. Joanna believes that wellness isn’t just a trend in club culture – it’s here to stay, and her work speaks to a growing part of the electronic music community asking difficult questions about burnout, excess, and sustainability.
Building the Foundations
Before launching The Other Side of Fear, Joanna was partying hard in London, deeply embedded in electronic music culture and working full-time as a DJ agent. When she moved to Berlin, that trajectory continued. She worked hard and burned the candle at both ends in a city where nightlife has no limit.
“Two years before COVID, I got sober,” Joanna says. "Berlin had thrown me in the deep end and I struggled hard with my partying, so I quit all alcohol and substances and was very public about it.”
People started to come to Joanna for advice on their own habits, and she soon realised she’d found her calling. “So I decided this is what I wanted to do,” she says. “Help people in the electronic music scene address their relationship with drugs and alcohol.”
So when COVID hit and work slowed down, Joanna pivoted into personal training, working closely with women. She quickly understood the physical side of the job was only part of the picture.
“I became a sounding board for what was going on in people’s lives,” she says. “I enjoyed that more than the training itself. I realised I wanted to help people on a deeper level.”
DJs, ravers, agents and other music industry professionals who didn’t see themselves reflected in traditional recovery spaces flocked to her.
“There were resources like AA, CA, NA,” she says. “But they weren’t a vibe for me. My life hadn’t fallen apart, I wasn’t really sure I wanted or had to stop partying and boozing forever and all the online places weren’t open to me talking about drug use. There was no middle ground. So I stepped in and built something. I knew that if I needed support with this, then so would others.”
The Other Side of Fear
The foundation of Joanna’s work is The Six Zero Experiment, a 60-day programme she launched in 2021. The Experiment asks participants to commit to sobriety while meeting twice a week online, with a focus on understanding your habits.
“Every opening call for the Six Zero, my heart bursts with pride but not just for me - for everyone on it,” Joanna says. “I know how hard it is to say 'I need help'. I also know how hard it is to rock up online with a bunch of strangers and bare your soul. I’ve learnt so much about myself from the people on the course – it really is a magical place. A lovely judgement free place for people to come and feel safe and heard and address the darker parts of us without shame or guilt.”
Alongside this deeper work, the programme covers the practical realities of life in dance music: sleep, exercise, hobbies, sober raving, and learning how to say no without disconnecting from the scene.
A Different Take on Sobriety
What sets The Other Side of Fear apart is its refusal of extremes. Joanna isn’t selling total abstinence, nor is she minimising harm. “Not every night has to be a huge sesh,” she says. “And you don’t have to be black or white about drugs and alcohol.”
Her approach acknowledges that for some people, full sobriety is essential and can be life-saving. For others, the issue is repetition, escapism, and lack of boundaries. “Some people do need to be sober and should be and that’s important for them,” Joanna says. "But the same as eating healthy vs. eating junk food, you can every now and again, you just can’t let it be every day or week. It becomes unhealthy.”
This nuance really resonates within dance music, balancing freedom and escapism with health and sustainability.
Built for the Community
Joanna’s work is tailored to suit electronic music culture. “The communities I serve are mainly anyone you’d find on a dance floor, DJ booth, after party, festival, agents, managers, DJs, ravers,” Joanna says. “That’s not to say I would turn anyone away, but if you’re not into house music you’re probably not going to get the vibe. We’re a different breed which is great, but I don’t talk about or see drinking habits in the same way Dave from down the pub would.”
Joanna focuses on people navigating irregular sleep, constant travel, intense highs on stage, and long stretches of isolation.
“The world we all live in is wild,” she says. “The lack of sleep, routine, the pressure, the popularity contest, the constant grind, the loud music, the lights, the missing out on family events due to gigs, the travel, the time zones, the insane highs on stage and the loneliness of a hotel room and then we throw in riders with endless booze, and green rooms with whatever you want to sniff. How could we not need sobriety and wellness coaching?”
Intentional Partying
Perhaps most surprising is Joanna’s own relationship with sobriety, because unlike most coaches, she doesn’t claim purity.
“I’m not an advocate for being fully sober and nor do I claim I am,” she says. “I take drugs maybe 4 times a year, and probably spend in a year what I used to in a weekend! I enjoy a wild weekend in Ibiza once a year. But I don’t drink and I don’t think I ever will.”
So for a scene learning to ask harder questions about sustainability for our bodies, minds and careers, The Other Side of Fear feels like a necessary evolution – not a rejection of dance music culture, but a sustainable response to it.
And Joanna has big plans for 2026. “Up until now I have only run The Six Zero in January but I will be doing another cohort starting April/May time for Spring reset,” she says. “The other plans are under wraps for now, but watch this space!”
For all their latest news and updates, follow The Other Side of Fear on Instagram
