How To Change Your Thinking To Stay Sober - Featuring Jan Veselak, Relapse Prevention Coach, Addiction Therapist (Ep. 47)

A Relapse Prevention Coach, Addiction Therapist, and Clinically Trained Psychotherapist with around 30 years of experience in the field of Addiction, Jan Veselak is truly an addiction recovery expert. In this episode, you’ll learn how to stay sober by changing the way you think about drugs, alcohol, or behaviors like sex addiction and gambling.

Conquering addiction and then achieving long-term recovery is not an easy feat for most individuals.

Relapse rates are astronomically high, but they don’t need to be.

Jan Veselak’s training on the ‘Addictive Process’ and the ‘Four-Legged Stool of Recovery’ simplifies the challenge of recovery and how to best approach it.

Once the biochemical (physical) stool is optimized using nutrient therapy and other natural therapies, a person can then have better results working on the three other stools (psychological, social, spiritual).

According to Jan, it’s when a person is missing one or more of these legs that they become unbalanced and have to struggle to stay centered and grounded in their recovery.

And when all four stools are treated effectively, long-term recovery and personal transformation can be achieved.

About Jan Veselak

As a relapse prevention coach, sex addiction specialist, hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner in West Virginia, Jan Veselak specializes in working with people having difficulties staying sober from drugs, alcohol and sex addiction, especially pornography.

He also helps people with chronic and acute pain stay drug-free through a variety of highly effective methods.

Education & Training

Jan graduated from John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California with a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology in 1993, and a specialization in Chemical Dependency.

In 1996, he completed an intensive training course in Relapse Prevention Therapy from CENAPS under Terrance Gorski.

Jan was certified as a Child and Family Investigator by Katz and Loizeaux in 2007.

He was certified as a Certified Counseling Clinical Hypnotherapist by the Denver School of Hypnotherapy in 2008 and has taken several trainings since then to become an expert as a clinical hypnotherapist.

In 2013, Jan was certified as a Neurolinguistic Programmer through The Empowerment Partnership.

He’s a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist through the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction, and also has an MA from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkley in Systematic Philosophy and Theology from 1996.

Coaching Philosophy

Jan believes that recovery is like a four-legged stool. Each leg helps the other to maintain balance.

If a leg is missing, then you must keep so busy trying to balance that you have no time for anything else.

The four legs of recovery are physiological, psychological, social and spiritual.

Jan believes that helping clients balance these four aspects will aid them on their way to recovery and freedom from the oppression under which they have been living.

He is highly experienced in helping people strengthen and balance each leg of the stool.

Many people struggle with the spiritual aspects of addiction and recovery because of previously abusive or highly legalistic approaches to the religious life, which itself can take on addictive quailities.

Jan supports clients in finding or creating a healthy approach to spirituality that honors their integrity as a human being.

Here are the main topics discussed in this episode:

Jan’s interest in clinical psychology and formal education, degrees, and beginning the path of working in the field of addiction
Jan’s different modalities that he has been trained and certified in
The ‘Addictive Process’
How drugs, alcohol, and events cause the brain to produce huge amounts of dopamine that cause many people to use the substance or behavior often
How drugs, alcohol, and events can create changes in the brain that make a person believe the substance or behavior is necessary for survival
The ‘Power of Metaphors’
Changing your thinking, beliefs to stay sober and transform as an individual
Emotional dysregulation and emotional regulation
Narrative therapy in the treatment of addiction and relapse prevention
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques for addiction recovery and relapse prevention
The ‘Four-Legged Recovery Stool’ as a model for recovery
Basics on the physical stool of recovery
Basics on the psychological stool of recovery
Basics on the social stool of recovery
Basic on the spiritual stool of recovery
Viewing the addictive substance as ‘an abusive relationship with a romantic partner’ and other powerful metaphors for creating subconscious reprogramming and long-term recovery
How Jan helps his clients with relapse prevention (drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, pornography, etc.)