Holistic Addiction Recovery?

Recovery? Powerful. Affective. Guaranteed.


The world of addiction recovery has gone through so many transformations over the past 100 years. And for the most part, many of these transformations have been incredibly beneficial to addicts of any form of addiction.  As we learn more about different practices, different techniques, we can all expand our “toolbox“, to make sure we’re giving our clients and the general population the most effective tools necessary to become sober for life.


In the world of holistic addiction recovery, which we created a program on over 30 years ago, we have taken everything that has to do with the individual client: the mind, diet, exercise, supplementation, spiritual work, essential oils, relapse prevention tips and so much more!


And then we take the best of every program that’s ever been created and put it into one powerful system, you will find it incredibly effective and a guaranteed way to stay sober for life.


We do offer a guarantee with our program: if you do everything we ask you to do, and the sequence we ask you to do it, we guarantee our program will help you become sober and recover for life. That guarantee has been in effect ever since we started working in the world of addiction recovery, and we’ve never had to refund even one client! And why is that? Because they do the work.


Let’s start with the most important principles of a holistic addiction recovery program:


Number One. Sobriety, recovery for life. We believe this is the only way to begin, is to make a complete commitment for the rest of our lives after we realize that our addiction has created chaos and drama over the past many months for many years.


And we understand our program is different. We know there aren’t a lot of addiction recovery programs that ask the clients to commit to sobriety for life, but we don’t see it any other way. It’s the same thing in a marriage. You wouldn’t expect that your partner would be thrilled if you told them you wanted to get married one day at a time, would you?


Of course not. The same with addiction recovery. The holistic addiction recovery program demands that we put 100% effort, 100% commitment and when you do that? The work is guaranteed, to work.


Number Two. The mind. This is such a huge expansive area of addiction recovery that we could probably make a book out of the information necessary but let’s start with this one thing: emotional regulation.


In our work of over 42 years, we see that emotional regulation is the key to sobriety and recovery for life. With emotional regulation we are able to hesitate before we act, to hesitate before we relapse, and use the 1000 tools available in order to gain control of our emotional response to the world.


As most of us know, one of the greatest reasons that we begin an addiction of any type and carry it on in life is because we do not have the tools to deal with stress, divorce, death, birth, celebrations, job losses, and more! And because we don’t have the emotional regulating tools to deal with life events like these, many of us can stay addicted for life.


But once you learn these tools, recovery becomes so much easier! Then we need to look at the forgiveness of ourselves for what we’ve done over the years of our addiction as well as forgiveness of others.


In our holistic addiction recovery program, we go deeper into the power of the subconscious mind versus the conscious mind, which is critical to long-term recovery.


Number Three. Diet. I’m going to make this super short. Eat really clean, lean proteins a ton of water and vegetables, a moderate amount of fruit, and complex carbohydrates like brown rice. We encourage everyone in our program to get on a program of eating every 3 to 4 hours which keeps blood sugar levels normalized, decreasing the chance of someone relapsing because they’re hungry, or tired. With the correct dietary program, our blood sugar levels stay normalized throughout the day, increasing our own energy levels and decreasing the chance of relapse.


Number Four. Exercise is crucial, absolutely crucial. As we increase the amount of time we spend on exercise we boost self-confidence and self-esteem, and we also release massive endorphins in the brain, absolutely crucial to try to reclaim brain chemistry after months or years of addiction.


The form of exercise doesn’t matter, the time of day you do it doesn’t matter, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say the length of time that you do it doesn’t matter either… The key is to get going! No excuses. Find a buddy to exercise with. Or a dog. Whatever it takes, this is crucial, and too many programs leave exercise as a side note when it should be part of the main course.


Number Five. Supplementation for brain chemistry. We all know that after months and years of addiction, our brain chemistry is way off base. I remember when I was in a treatment center many many years ago, the medical Director in a one-on-one meeting, told me it would be 2 to 4 years before my brain chemistry returns to normal.


And she was right, unfortunately! But then I found this most amazing gift by a retired pharmacist, who explained to me the power of using amino acid supplementation to help reclaim brain chemistry functioning after addiction.


What a lifesaver! It is incredible how the amino acids I’m going to mention can have such a powerful effect in helping us to recover, and start to feel “normal“ again.


Remember this: if you’re on any type of mood stabilizers, antidepressants, sleep medication‘s or anti-anxiety medication, make sure you talk to your doctor before adding any amino acid supplements at all.


DL PA. Extremely effective on the dopamine system, very safe, talk to a healthcare professional about the amount that they believe you should begin with.


Our clients usually find within 3 to 7 days a boost of their mood, and there are no negative side effects that we have ever heard of, as long as you don’t combine them with pharmaceutical drugs.


Tyrosine. Another critical amino acid for the dopamine system, we all know that the dopamine system gets beat to heck with our ongoing addictions, tyrosine is great for enhancing focus and mental energy.


Glutamine. Powerful as a supplement to decrease cravings for sugar, alcohol, and more.


Tryptophan. Now this works a little differently. It positively affects the serotonin levels in the body, leading to a more relaxed feeling after taking the supplement.


Years ago tryptophan was banned by the FDA, but that ban has been lifted, and once again check with your healthcare professional before you begin any amino acid supplementation.


Number Six. Meditation/spirituality. We believe in our holistic addiction program that meditation, mental relaxation techniques, and spiritual practices can be such a huge benefit to everyone regardless of what your drug of choice or activity of choice was it turned into an addiction.


(In our new book, “Helping Americans Heal: The ultimate guide to healing during these challenging times “, we give you additional tools for recovery, relationships, emotional regulation, insomnia, stress management and so much more. Available right now at http://www.amazon.com)

We have seen through multiple studies that daily meditation, even beginning with 3 to 5 minutes a day, can have a powerful effect on mood regulation, a decrease in craving of addictions, a decrease in blood pressure that is high and so many more benefits.


Many of our clients use a form of meditation or relaxation technique as a way to help them wind down from the day and fall asleep more easily.


(You can actually use our meditation/relaxation audio on YouTube, just going google “David Essel meditation“, and you’ll find a 44 minute guided relaxation meditation program to help you stay recovered for life.)


Spiritual practices could include a gratitude journal, forgiveness journal, maybe a return to prayer, you might even consider a return to your church, synagogue, or temple of choice.


Spiritual practices offer so many opportunities for the mind to become calm, which also boosts our self-esteem and confidence.


Number Seven. Group help and one on one help. In our holistic addiction recovery program, we are a firm believer in the importance of one on one work with a professional counselor, therapist, psychiatrist, or master life coach that has training specifically in addiction recovery.


Well over 30 years ago, we did a lot of group work with addiction which has benefits we will list below.


We have found that allowing someone to bring everything to the table, one on one with a professional gives them a better chance for long-term recovery! Many people shut down at some level when they’re in groups, not willing to be 100% vulnerable and 100% honest, but in our holistic addiction recovery program, we encourage that the only way to heal is with 110% honesty.


From a group work perspective, I love this: walking into any addiction recovery meeting shows immense vulnerability and humility. These are crucial traits to have in the world recovery!


For the addict, anything that makes you uncomfortable, anything that makes you humble, anything that makes you vulnerable is a key step to long-term work.


Number eight. 100% essential oils. This is a surprise to many people when I’m working with them, and all of a sudden we start talking about the use of essential oils for relaxation or even energy.


A number of years ago I helped a woman who was addicted to opiates, nicotine, and alcohol, quite a combination. As we moved her through the opiate recovery and then the alcohol recovery the biggest block for her was trying to get rid of the nicotine.


And the only thing that worked? Was the essential oil of lavender. Every time she had a craving for a cigarette, she took out a small bottle of the essential oil of lavender and took 10, slow, deep, inhalation breaths through her nose. Within 60 seconds of the craving was gone!


As she continued to record the diminishing craving for nicotine she saw that some days it was gone in 60 seconds and some days it was gone in two or three minutes, but as long as she continues with the inhalation of essential oil of lavender, the craving completely disappeared. Powerful.


And what about essential oil for energy? Lemongrass is probably my number one favorite. A lot of times during withdrawal and recovery, we can drag butt, we can become tired and be listless throughout the day.


Studies have shown that a regular inhalation, once again 10, slow breathes, can actually increase focus and energy through the use of the essential oil of lemongrass.


The great thing I can tell you about holistic addiction recovery programs as you read this article is that they are filled with 1 million tools to help the person stay sober for life! My only goal? Is to help all of my clients get into sobriety and recovery for life.


Number Nine. Relapse prevention. Of course, we go over all the information with our clients about the pink cloud, because they get too confident sometimes early in recovery.


Some may start to drop some of these tools so we make sure that they know this is simply the effect of the pink cloud and we need to work through it. Overconfidence is very common, unless you have someone holding your feet to the fire, a relapse could easily come with someone who’s overconfident early in the recovery program.


To prevent relapse, we’re going to have discussions with our clients about peer pressure, the type of people they’re currently hanging out with, and if there needs to be a change in regards to the people they surround themselves with, of course, we will talk about how to do that in a very sane way.


Sometimes it’s just diminishing the amount of time we spend with certain people, other times it’s actually letting go of the friendship or relationship.


We also believe a huge tool in relapse prevention that we teach all of our clients is cognitive behavioral therapy, if you’re unaware of it you can go to YouTube and just Google “David Essel, cognitive behavioral therapy“, and you’ll find several videos explaining the process and how it works.


We also teach other programs like the Sedona Method, very powerful in helping people take advantage of their own discipline and willpower, via a series of questions that comes with the Sedona Method.


As you can see by this, the holistic addiction recovery approach is incredibly detailed, and we didn’t even get into the great amount of information that’s available for anyone that wants to go down this route.


I have never believed that once you’re an alcoholic you’re an alcoholic for life. I have never believed that once you’re an addict you’re an addict for life. In my own personal case of overcoming a 30-year addiction to alcohol and cocaine, it has been so many years I’ve forgotten how long, and I have not had a craving even when my mom died this year, there was not one time I ever thought about relapse.


And for the thousands of clients we’ve worked with over the past 42 years, the setting is the same for them as well: if they do everything we ask them to do, they will recover and be sober for life.


If you need more information on this powerful program, just visit https://www.davidessel.com


Sobriety has given me and all of my previous clients a life we could never imagine was possible. The chaos is gone. The drama is gone. Life remains in one of the most beautiful ways you could ever experience it.


Let’s go. Today. Not tomorrow, right now!“


Grab David’s new book, “Helping Americans Heal: The ultimate guide to healing during these challenging times” at www.amazon.com


David Essel‘s work is highly endorsed by individuals like the late Wayne Dyer, and celebrity Jenny McCarthy says, “David Essel is the new leader of the positive thinking movement.“


His work as a counselor and minister has been verified, by so many organizations like Psychology Today, Therapy Tribe, Theravive, and marriage.com has verified David is one of the top counselors and relationship experts in the world.



To work with him one on one, or to find out more about his holistic addiction recovery programs please visit DavidEssel.com

Codependency: The Largest Addiction in the World!

By David Essel • August 20, 2025
Codependency destroys lives. Codependency destroys self-confidence. Codependency, destroys self-esteem, self love. Codependency creates extreme procrastination. Codependency can occur with a love relationship, family members, friends, coworkers, bosses… It comes from everywhere! In 2002, we labeled codependency as “the largest addiction in the world“, And today I stand by the same statement that I made in 2002. Codependency is so insidious, it can be so hard to see, to label, to identify, and then obviously it can be very difficult to remove. I spent 46 years in the world of counseling and mental health and relationships and addiction, recovery and attitude and spiritually, and everything you can imagine, and in the world of addiction recovery, and codependency is one of the trickiest to overcome. Why is that? Because it comes laced in pretty colors, it shows up with good intentions… But the end result is always negative. So when we jump and do something for a friend or a lover or family member time after time after time, and it puts us behind our schedule, or it takes time away to be with our family, or it takes time away to finish work… That is just one example of someone who is codependent. There are over 2000 spokes, in the world of codependency, which means there’s over 2000 different ways it can appear, which is why it’s so tricky to label identify and get rid of. Codependency can be looked at as walking on eggshells around people in your life, you’re afraid to be yourself or you’re afraid to have an opinion because certain people will put you down, so you become half of who you truly can be. Codependency can be a form of peer pressure, buying the latest pair of shoes because your friends have them is an outrageously strong sign that you are a codependent person. Codependency easily occurs in the world of alcoholism, where you might have friends that encourage you to come out and have a few drinks and you know it’s gonna end up with more than a few, but you go anyway because they’re giving you kind of a hard time they’re teasing you… And the minute you walk out the door, you are a flaming codependent. Codependency can occur with money, where we want to impress people, so whether we can afford it or not we buy clothes or jewelry or cars or houses to impress others, and it always backfires, because when you’re trying to impress or buy people‘s attention, you are going to lose. We have helped people who are extremely codependent to alcohol for 30 years become extremely independent to not only alcohol, but any other addiction. One of my clients who is now clean for about four months, cannot believe that he hasn’t had a sip of alcohol in four months, and that his life is radically changing. He has shattered his codependent relationship with alcohol. Another client, a woman, was extremely codependent to sugary type foods at night, which not only made her gain weight, but interfered with her confidence, her self-esteem, and eating sugar at night will definitely disrupt most people sleep... Continued Below ********************************************************************************************************************** Don't let the economy limit your healing! NEW LOWER FEES and MONTHLY PAYMENT OPTIONS, AVAILABLE TO WORK WITH DAVID! We have had so many requests from people who want to heal but, with inflation, they need to spread the fees with David over longer periods. Or, needed lower prices. We understand and agree! And, until the economy rebuilds, these new prices and payment options will stay in effect. If you need help with codependency, visit “codependency kills“ ... https://www.davidessel.com/co-dependency-kills If you need help in any other area of life, please click here… https://www.davidessel.com/executive-coaching You have been with David a long time and we are happy to assist everyone to higher levels of health, success, and peace. Love, Team David and David ********************************************************************************************************************** Since the age of 10, she had been calming her own internal emotions with sugar, instead of dealing with them. Within six months, we had completely eradicated the 40 year addiction to sugar, which allowed her codependency with this substance to be completely obliterated, her sleep improved dramatically, as well as her confidence and self-esteem. Another client, a woman had a very rough upbringing, not a lot of support from her mother or father, and had become codependent on finding men with money to take care of her financial needs. Of course, most relationships like this are going to implode, and by the time she got to me after six really terrible ending of relationships with very wealthy men, she understood completely after about four months of working together that she had become codependent on wealthy men so that she did not have to level up, get a job, maximize her potential, instead she was codependent to men so she did not have to work! 10 months after we started working together, codependency with wealthy men was completely destroyed, and she entered her first healthy relationship in her life! A major professional athlete, former client of mine, came to me because he was outrageously limited, in his ability to maximize his talent in his given sport, just four years earlier he had been rising and rising, and rising… He hit a massive plateau. He had been feeling depressed, he had experienced thoughts of depression, but because this would’ve meant reaching out to a counselor, the peer pressure from other professional athletes, telling him that he didn’t need any professional help. He just needed to get over himself… Kept him depressed much longer than he needed to be. And even with so many professional athletes today, making television commercials about mental health, there still is this underlying current amongst professionals that you just don’t talk about your personal life. You just don’t admit you have any kind of mental health issues because it might shorten your playing career. Thank God, my client finally reached out and admitted that he needed help, that he knew he had waited a little longer than he should have, and he broke that peer pressure in that moment! Six months later, we had totally taken care of his depression and he was back to playing at an exceptionally high level. A male client of mine came to me, discussing the fact that he may be leaning on sexuality too much in his relationships, and he felt it was the driving force of why he would be with any woman was just to be satisfied. How did he come to this mindset? As young boy, he saw his father in one affair after another, and he noticed that his mother never said anything, didn’t wanna rock the boat, and so he looked at his father‘s behavior as normal. As he grew up, he thought that you know it’s just great to have several women on the side that he can have sex with whenever he wants… But then it started to backfire. He started to have women catching onto his intentions, and for the first time in his life, he was rejected three times within about three months because these individuals knew that he was just there for sex. So he came in, and as we discussed why he got into this pattern, he was absolutely blown away that he was simply modeling his father from childhood. This is another form of codependency, when we follow the role model of someone when we are young, that is not showing us the healthy way to live, we just repeat. The patterns we're seeing because we believe that if my father or my mother or this person of this age is doing this, it must be OK! And another client, a woman, was role modeling her mother‘s behavior when she was a child that was codependent as well. On weekends, when her father worked, her mother would take her shopping for clothes, and hide them in the closet not letting her husband see the price tags. As you can imagine when this woman got older, she started repeating the same pattern until her husband caught her, which sent her to me. And yes, we shattered that codependent pattern that she had picked up from her mother and childhood as well. As you can imagine I could list 1000 different forms of codependency, with examples from clients over the last 46 years. I had become codependent to workaholism. A long time ago, I was also codependent in my intimate relationship by not really sharing as much of my emotional honesty as I do now, and all of this changed in 1997 when I spent 12 months working with another therapist who was an expert in codependency. She educated me in a way that was absolutely stunning, and from that year on this has been one of our greatest topics to help people heal with, codependency, because it comes in so many different shapes and sizes. For your free 20 minute session on the phone to discuss how you may be codependent, or maybe you understand your codependent and you’re looking for a little help to get out of it, just text us 941.266.7676 and our office will set you up with that call. This addiction can be defeated! Never give up hope ever! Too many people we’ve worked with have shattered codependency, our program is outrageously effective, and part of it is outlined in our book, “Love and relationship, secrets… That everyone needs to know.“ Now is the time to level up. If we can help you in any way whatsoever, I would love to. Sending love, David and Team David.

*** SPECIAL JUST FOR YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE LIFE!!!***

By David Essel • May 6, 2025
WE HAVE CREATED A POWERFUL AND INCREDIBLY DISCOUNTED PROGRAM TO HELP YOU DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PATH FOR ONLY $75 PER SESSION!

The Best Life Coach in Fort Myers

By David Essel • August 5, 2024
#1 BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, LIFE COACH & COUNSELOR DAVID ESSEL M.S. HAS BEEN SELECTED AS "THE BEST LIFE COACH IN FORT MYERS, FLORIDA" BY THE 2024 QUALITY BUSINESS AWARDS

Sex and/or Porn Addiction?

By David Essel • June 3, 2024
Even though I’ve been in this industry counseling people on sex, addiction, and porn addiction for 45 years, we have never seen the increase of these two addictions, and they can be quite different, that we’ve seen over the past five years. Porn addiction hijacks the brain, and it makes it very difficult to stay in any type of a committed relationship, because individuals become so used to the constant variety and changing of the different fetishes as well as body types and experiences that the Internet offers up even for free! SEX Addiction, when we’re talking about an individual that must have multiple partners, or someone that even forces their partner to have sex more than maybe the partner wants, it can be a completely different ball game in regard to treatment and recovery. And that’s because of the emotional involvement that many people get into when they have a sex addiction with real people, where that doesn’t happen as frequently if someone is addicted to porn, they may like certain porn actors or actresses, but they don’t create an emotional bond. But as I mentioned above, porn, addiction is nothing to take simple or easy, I have multiple clients right now in their late 20s that started their porn addiction at the age of 10 and even though they have wonderful partners they can’t have sex on a regular basis because they cannot keep an erection due to their craving for variety versus just being with one person. Every Addiction, we treat in a very similar way which might sound surprising, even our new book on permanent alcohol and life recovery, we use most of that information in that book with people who are addicted to sex or porn or food or social media or video games… I think you get the idea so many addictions when we get into treatment are treated in a very similar fashion. First we find the origin of the addiction, which means when did it start, why did it start, how did it start, and how long has it been going on? And we treat the whole person not just the Addiction part of it, because we want the whole person to gain that self-confidence back and self-love, which we lose when we’re involved with any addiction whatsoever. If you’re struggling with porn or sex addiction, go ahead and look at our permanent addiction, recovery page, study deeply study this page and that should give you some good ideas and how we approach all addictions. In 2024, the top addictions that we are working with of course are sex and porn, food, alcohol, pot and social media addiction. The addictions continue to rise in this country and until we get to the origin, which we do our practice, and then add solution steps, so people will not cross addict, or relapse, we have answers for everything. Here is a quote from a woman that I worked with several years ago who never thought she’d be able to break her sex and porn addiction as she was struggling with both. "David shared with me information that was so deep, I had no idea the difference between the porn addiction I had or the addiction I had with phone sex, or with men in general. It was a way for me to escape reality, my work demands a lot of hours, and I was using my sex and porn addiction as a way to give myself a break, sort of like a reward for all the hours I worked. However, it almost cost me my job as I started showing up late on a regular basis because I wanted to get one more orgasm at home before I left for work .” She is now free of both addictions and has been for over 15 years after going through our program. I know you’ll find the same success regardless of what type of sex or porn addiction you’re struggling with right now. Never give up! I will be by your side showing you the way, to complete freedom. Learn more here https://www.davidessel.com/permanent-alcohol-addiction-recovery David Essel

Save 50% right now working with David!

By David Essel • November 4, 2023
Join me for 8/30-minute sessions at 50% off, and we can begin to see the path moving faster than you might think.

Chadding with Dads

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