Kinga Jakab is a passionate and dedicated advocate for positive personal change, with a keen focus on helping individuals overcome challenges related to harmful habits. With extensive experience as a Recovery Coach, Kinga has emerged as a trusted mentor and guide for those seeking to transform their experience in their lives.
Throughout her 11-year journey in the field, Kinga has experienced her own personal struggles with addiction, which ultimately inspired her to embark on a mission to help others navigate similar challenges. Her deep understanding of the complexities of mental well-being, coupled with her empathetic and supportive approach, has garnered her a strong reputation within the community.
Prior to establishing herself as a leading figure in the realm of recovery, Kinga dedicated herself to comprehensive research and self-exploration, delving into unconventional methods and practices that challenge traditional approaches to recovery. Her unique insights and innovative techniques have proven to be highly effective, earning her the trust and admiration of numerous individuals striving to regain control over their lives.
In addition to her one-on-one coaching, Kinga has also expanded her reach through a self-help podcast, where she shares her wisdom and experiences, providing valuable guidance to a wider audience.
Kinga's unwavering commitment to fostering positive change and her unwavering dedication to supporting individuals on their journey to recovery continue to leave an indelible mark on the field of mental health and addiction therapy. Her work serves as a beacon of hope for those facing similar challenges, offering a pathway to a brighter and healthier future.
My recovery story starts with my sobriety.
I had my last hangover on the morning of August 28, 2012. I got high for the last time on September 4, 2012. I have been without alcohol and drugs since September 5, 2012.
That morning in August, I had a hangover not unlike any other hangover -- puking, shakes, sweats. Except that this time, I was in a hotel room at a corporate conference for work, and there had been an open bar the night before so I obviously capitalized on that and subsequently went into a blackout. This was not the first time I thought, "I am just not suited for corporate life."
As I rushed down to the conference rooms to hear the final presentations, I felt like such a waste of a human.
My co-workers and the others in attendance were showered, looking fresh, and were astutely focusing on the presentation. I slipped in the back, and grabbed a bottle of water, trying not to puke again.
Also, I was wearing my night-time-at-home glasses, which I never did in public. I had knocked over my contact lenses case in a drunken stupor at some point, and when I woke up, my contacts were as dehydrated as I was.
Once I made it through the rest of the presentations without throwing up, I slipped out of the room and ran into the nerdy physics prof who had presented the day before. "I had such a great time dancing with you last night!," he said. I told him I had no recollection of this. He asked if I had blacked out, and I confirmed, of course I had.
There was an open bar. What a silly question.
And that's how a perfect stranger let me know I had a problem with alcohol.
I knew that I was a disastrous drinker. My chaos was usually the main event wherever I went.
But I am not the stereotype.
In fact, the stereotype doesn't exist.
In the 11 years that I haven't done drugs or drank alcohol, I have seen more exceptions to the stereotype than I have seen the stereotype.
And in my professional experience, I have witnessed thousands of my clients gravitate to me magnetically when they realize I have been where they are, and come out the other side to build a life of stability, safety, emotional awareness, maturity, and abundance.
I never thought any of this was possible for me. I had spent so many years feeling not good enough, like I was drowning, like I would never quite grow up. My first drink and drunk at 14 made me feel like I had arrived, and I promised myself I would drink as often as I could (I wrote that in my diary, no joke).
Talk therapy, trauma counselling, a brief stint in Buddhism, smoking a lot of weed -- none of those had the same changing power on me as recovery has.
People like me are no longer the exception to the rules. People like me are the rule.
We are successful people, with full lives. And now it's time for you to live life to its fullest.
The Real Problem
Well, if you noticed earlier that I said, "I felt like a waste of a human."
This was truly the root of all my problems.
This is the thinking I had to force myself to change. It showed up everywhere!
I had to closely inspect my part in every aspect of my life. I became hungry for knowledge of how humans operate. I learned about control, pain, boundaries, communication, attachments, self-hatred, what self-love looks and feels like, anger, anxiety, rest, balance, shadow work, spirituality -- I just absorbed everything I could.
This is when I started to feel like I was actually recovering from everything.
Every goal I achieved, every mistake I made, every partner I picked, every toxic friendship I held onto, every second alone, every meal I ate or didn't eat, every drink I took and drug I did, was rooted in the DEEP-SEATED CORE IDEA that I was a "waste," and I was either attempting to confirm or negate that one idea.
Over the years, with life experience
and with a whole bunch of academic and professional education, I realized: my self-loathing showed up EVERYWHERE.
So, I truly am Recovering from Everything, because the changes I had to make after I got sober spilled into everything.
Things as big as my relationship with my parents into smaller things like the food I ate and how I spent my spare time.
How I help others:
I've worked in addictions and recovery for 9 years, first in withdrawal management, then in running an inpatient treatment program, and now my own business. It comes as a shock to many people, but the actual substance use (whatever the substance is -- drugs, booze, sex, shopping, controlling others, anger, food, whatever) is just one little cog in a massive machine of how our brains subconsciously operate.
I prepared a lot of group and individual programming to bring awareness to these thoughts, and to begin untangling them.
My approach with my clients is to:
1. Focus in on their narratives, the way they developed their own character in the story of their lives.
2. We look at their day-to-day behaviours, relationships, everything to see how those stories show up.
3. Then, we work to change the behaviours.
Each time they do not engage in the behaviour, it changes the way they see themselves, the story they're telling themselves in their heads.
I find little successes onthat my clients wouldn't normally notice, and I celebrate the hell out of them.
My approach is to re-empower my clients, and help loosen the grip that their ideas about themselves have on their lives. I like to keep in frequent contact with my clients, especially for the first 3 months, as they establish solid footing on their new life paths.
Send me a message and let’s get started.
