RR 229: From Darkness to Light, Addiction to Recovery with Deborah YagerRR 229: From Darkness to Light, Addiction to Recovery with Deborah Yager
The SHAIR Recovery Podcast
Omar Pinto talks with Deborah Yager about her shift from meth addiction, stripping and self-hatred to coaching, NLP and spiritual practices. The conversation focuses on limiting beliefs, energetic healing tools and building a new sense of worthiness in recovery.
1:14:58•2 Jul 2019
From Meth and Strip Clubs to Mindset Coach: Deborah Yager’s Radical Turnaround
Episode Overview
- Long-held beliefs like “I am stupid” and “I am not enough” can drive years of addiction and self-destruction until they are consciously challenged.
- Tools such as NLP, timeline therapy, parts integration and coaching can create rapid shifts in identity and behaviour.
- Daily rituals of movement, meditation, and energetic practices like ho’oponopono and cord cutting help protect emotional energy and support sobriety.
- Letting go of the permanent “addict” label can open space for new, healthier identities built on capability and worthiness.
- Investing in personal growth, surrounding yourself with supportive people and taking action before you feel ready are key ingredients for lasting change.
“It goes back to embracing who you are and loving yourself and living in the moment and enjoying everything that you have around you with gratitude and curiosity, with childlike fascination of the greatness that we live in right now.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? This episode of The SHAIR Recovery Podcast shares one of the big ones. Omar Pinto talks with Deborah Yager, who went from stripping, escorting and heavy meth use to becoming an NLP trainer, coach and spiritual practitioner. You’ll hear how Deborah’s childhood beliefs of being “stupid”, unworthy and full of shame fuelled years of alcohol, drugs, abusive relationships and even anabolic steroids.
Yet that same woman later says with conviction, “I believe that I’m worthy no matter what the fuck I do.” The conversation covers her first failed attempts at rehab, the damaging idea that she’d “be an addict for life”, and how a fitness mentor pushed her into NLP training with, “Just fucking take this class.” Deborah explains powerful tools she still uses daily: morning rituals with her husband, movement to clear the “itty bitty shitty committee”, shamanic Huna practices, ho’oponopono, and energetic cord cutting so other people’s pain doesn’t drain her.
She describes crawling to a mirror, covered in pock marks and barely recognising herself, and thinking she had no idea who she was anymore. Omar and Deborah get practical about limiting beliefs, the dopamine hit behind self-sabotage, and why waiting to feel ‘ready’ can keep you stuck. She talks honestly about still having a glass of wine at times, while drawing a firm line under meth, pills and the self-hatred that drove them.
For anyone stuck in shame, convinced they’re broken, or scared they’re “too far gone”, this conversation shows how mindset work, honest self-reflection and taking messy action can shift everything. It might leave you asking: what story about yourself are you still carrying that it’s time to rewrite?
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