Addiction Recovery Reinvented With Laser Quit Therapy

In this enlightening episode of the Soberoso podcast, we welcome Meridee from Kamloops, BC, Canada. Join us as Meridee shares her incredible journey from personal battles with addiction to becoming a pioneer in addiction recovery through Laser Quit Therapy. Discover how this innovative and holistic approach is helping people reset their minds and bodies, enabling them to break free from the grips of nicotine, alcohol,cocaine, heroin and other addictions.

Tune in to hear remarkable stories of transformation and learn about the science behind cold laser therapy—a revolutionary technique that combines acupuncture principles with advanced technology to assist individuals in overcoming their toughest challenges. Meridee's deep understanding and passion for helping others shine through as she explains how her method has shifted from solely smoking cessation to addressing multiple types of addiction and traumas with astounding success rates.

Explore how Laser Quit Therapy can complement traditional recovery methods and inspire a more fulfilling, substance-free lifestyle. Whether you're on your own journey to recovery or supporting a loved one, this episode offers invaluable insights and hope.

For more information on Laser Quit Therapy and how it might help you or someone you know, be sure to visit their website here 

Transcript

Host Dora: [00:00:00] Before we get into this episode, I just want to wish all of you beautiful peeps a very happy, happy, happy new year. The new year is always a time for change. It's always when many of us want to turn over a new leaf. So if you are starting this year off with dry January or trying to quit, bad habit or an addiction, you're in for a treat and maybe a new idea that will help you with that this year.

Host Dora: Let's get into it. Hello, beautiful peeps, and welcome to the Soberoso podcast, where we celebrate life in recovery. I'm your host. I walked away from 30 years of drinking and drugging. After years of chaos and self destruction, by the grace of God, I found my way into a life of recovery. This podcast is for anyone seeking not just [00:01:00] sobriety, But also the healing and growth that follows.

Host Dora: Whether you're just starting your journey, feeling stuck, or looking for a supportive community, you've found your peeps. Each week we share real stories and tips to help you live a fulfilling life through the healing journey. Join us now in sharing our passion for recovery.

Host Dora: I'm really excited for today's episode because we're going to be talking with a beautiful woman named Meridee. Yeah, you heard me right. I know it's a great name, isn't it? I'm a little bit jealous. It's a beautiful name, never heard it before, but not only does she have a beautiful name, she's got a beautiful face and she has a story to share and a whole new approach to recovery that I've never heard about.

Host Dora: It's called Laser Quit and we're going to learn all about it today. So let's get into it. Meridee, welcome to the show. [00:02:00] Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Yay! I'm really excited as well. I had to get that little girl voice down. Um, sorry, okay. I'm so glad that you're here as well.

Host Dora: So, let's just start off easy and, uh, why don't you tell us a little bit about, , your own recovery journey. 

Guest Meridee: So, I was one of the lucky ones who, Fortunately for me, I didn't end up addicted to drugs or alcohol. My unfortunate addiction was smoking. So slowly killing myself in my own way. And because it was the easiest F U to my family.

Guest Meridee: is really what it came down to. I think all of us have this, you know, childhood trauma that we don't know how to deal with and we don't know how to manage. And then as children, we find ways to cope with these feelings. And when we're coping with them, we don't cope with them in the appropriate ways.

Guest Meridee: And so for me, I went into smoking. [00:03:00] I did that 11 years old until I was I want to say 23. Um, I, you know, dabbled in drugs, um, but mostly, you know, like mushrooms, marijuana, acid as a kid. Um, and always trying to escape something, you know, trying to escape the lack of, of being noticed in the family or being the black sheep or, you know, just my existence in general.

Guest Meridee: And so when I was in my early, well, I want to say even my really early twenties, I got pregnant. I was able to stop smoking because isn't that always our story? Yes. It was mine. Right. And then as soon as I was done being pregnant and, um, started suffering or struggling in any way, my immediate response was to go back to smoking.

Guest Meridee: And in the middle of a divorce with a two year old and a one year old, [00:04:00] I just was like another way to say F you to him because he was the reason I had quit smoking in the first place. was to start smoking again. And so I did start smoking. I smoked for a few years again. Um, before I then needed, I started dating somebody eventually.

Guest Meridee: And within that relationship, he was really kind about it, but essentially I would, you know, smoke a cigarette, come back inside, sit down with him and he'd be like, ugh, can you not sit so close to me? And I was just so offended by it. Right. But also, you know, would spend hundreds of dollars on perfume to cover up the way I smelled.

Guest Meridee: And so I had to find my own way through it, because it was the only coping mechanism I had ever had since I was a kid. And so, trying to quit cold turkey, tried the gum, tried the patch, tried every pill that they had, and nothing worked for me. 

And 

Guest Meridee: then I did what everybody does. I posted on my Facebook, and this was years ago when Facebook was like a real thing.

Guest Meridee: And I posted on my Facebook and said, you guys, I need some help. I need to quit smoking. And one of my friends [00:05:00] commented and said, you need to try this cold laser therapy. 

And I was 

Guest Meridee: like, okay, but what was interesting is that her friend posted underneath and said, how can you recommend a quit smoking program when you quit, when you smoke?

Guest Meridee: And so I was like, hang on a second. So I messaged her and I said, tell me about this smoking, this quit smoking program. And she said, the reason I smoke is because I chose to smoke. It had nothing to do with the program. And I was like, this is really interesting. And she said, I actually kind of just forgot to smoke by seeing this woman.

Guest Meridee: And I was like, that sounds really interesting. And I said, what do you mean? And she's like, just go try it. It's worth every penny. And so I tried this cold laser therapy and I drove home, which was a three hour drive from my home to have this therapy done. And I drove home and the guy that was with me, cause we'd gone to a concert.

Guest Meridee: So I, of course, just kind of fitted in my schedule. And I. On my way home, I just kind of like forgot to smoke. But the guy that was with me made a comment and he said, so when are you going to quit smoking? And [00:06:00] this was about two hours into our drive. And I like looked at him and I was like, it's weird that you brought it up because I haven't thought about smoking once since we left that place.

Guest Meridee: And he's like bull. And I was like, you're telling me what I think. And he's like, I'm saying that because the entire drive home, you've been rolling down your window and patting the center console. And I was like, I have? And he's like, you sure have. He's like, so to me, that's you wanting a cigarette. And I was like, I haven't thought about it once.

Guest Meridee: And normally when we stop any addiction, that's the biggest part that's the hardest to get away from is that constant nagging thought that I need, I need, I need, I need. And so the fact that I hadn't thought about it, but my body was still taking the actions unconsciously really showed me, holy, my habits and my subconscious are so strong with this.

Guest Meridee: And yet there's no desire whatsoever. So I quit smoking for five years. Wow. I got questions already. Yeah, I know. Right. So many questions. And so did I, because I [00:07:00] didn't understand what had just happened to me and I didn't understand why I just kind of forgot to smoke. Right. And I will tell you that all it took was one puff for me to start smoking again, which is the same with any addiction.

Guest Meridee: One sip of alcohol. 

Yeah. 

Guest Meridee: One line of cocaine. Yeah. One thing of heroin. You're back where you started. Yeah. That's the 

Host Dora: truth. 

Guest Meridee: Yeah. And so I started again, but then that's when it became my journey. That's when I went, I had this treatment and I said, I need to do this for other people. So I need your help to help me do this for other people.

Guest Meridee: And the lady was like, okay. But of course, when I started this journey, it was such a, such a. Here you go. Here's an hour of my time. And I spent this hour with this lady. She gave me the basics of what I needed to know. And I was like, this is it. Like, what am I? I'm about to leave here and this is what I do.

Guest Meridee: And so I left there and of course started doing that. But then noticed I was like, this isn't good enough for me. I want more. I've always been an overachiever, of course, because when you don't matter in your family, you're going to try to show up bigger in the world. And so [00:08:00] I really started digging into it.

Guest Meridee: I started working with a doctor of acupuncture who offered cold laser therapy, but he was using a different kind of cold laser therapy and focusing on fixing Lyme disease and wasn't really interested in what I was doing. And he kept saying to me, you can learn all this stuff from YouTube. And I said, I get that, but what am I supposed to tell everyone?

Guest Meridee: I got certified through YouTube and he laughed and was like, fine, keep paying me. So I spent about 5, 000, worked with him. He'd refer his smoking clients to me because he wasn't focused on that anyways. Um, and that kind of started it. And then I started the first five years, I really started like experimenting on people, what lasers work to the best, what sequencing works the best, how much time works the best, what are the results I'm getting and what are the things that are changing those results.

Guest Meridee: So I really did like all the paperwork. I wrote it all down. I really started tracking everything. Sadly, I lost all of that paperwork in a fire, but, but. I knew 

Host Dora: what the result was. Not from smoking, I hope the fire wasn't called smoking. No, it 

Guest Meridee: was one of those, [00:09:00] it was, thankfully no, it was one of those, it was like a, um, uh, you know where your furnace room and stuff is?

Guest Meridee: I had left the paperwork in that room, stored, and unfortunately that room caught on fire. Oh no. Yeah, and I lost all of it, which is fine because it just adds to the journey that I'm on, right? Right. So that's kind of how my, my whole journey started, is I was making big mistakes and ended up finding my way through it.

Guest Meridee: I have had all the different experiences that you can have with laser therapy, being the forgetting and walking away or the struggle where you don't forget and you struggle your way through it. Being that I was able to experience both, I was able to create a program that anyone can make work. And if you follow the program, we have 95 percent success rates for smokers and 98 percent success rates for anybody else who has a heavier addiction, such as alcohol, drugs, porn, gambling, like you name it, we're able to help you with it.

Guest Meridee: And it's all because of the way that your brain [00:10:00] works with its endorphins when you're using any kind of substance. Wow, that is, uh, 

Host Dora: that's incredible. But I got questions. I got a lot of them. First of all, actually more, more of a statement, but, um, I haven't really talked about quitting smoking on here. And I smoked, I smoked for more than 30 years.

Host Dora: And, uh, I didn't give that up till three years into my recovery journey, but it's not something I really talk about on the show. First of all, I'm surprised that you started smoking at 11. That's a very young age. It is. I get your whole explanation of why you smoked because you said it was a huge F you to your parents, right?

Host Dora: And that just immediately brought me back to my story and I remember, smoking as a teenager And that's it was a F you to the teachers and to the parents But I also remember like before I could even get into the bar you know I was already dabbling and drinking and drugging. I was a teenage mom You [00:11:00] I couldn't legally buy my own drinks, but I could smoke.

Host Dora: And I remember like that was my vice. And I was conscious of it was like, no matter, you know, I had so much raging emotions in me as a young adolescent teen that I remember thinking that clearly no matter how frustrated or pissed off or angry I am, nobody can take this cigarette from me.

Host Dora: You know, this is my Just angry, just an angry puffin, right? 

Guest Meridee: And when you all leave me and turn on me, I still have my cigarette. My best friend and all of you can F off. 

Host Dora: Yeah. Yeah. And I haven't thought about that in a long time, but you just, uh, you just stirred up all these, these memories of smoking. The thing that's so 

Guest Meridee: interesting too, is like a lot of these people, like a lot of us who have had any kind of addiction, when we come off of drugs, alcohol, or any of these other things, one of the vices they let us stick with.

Guest Meridee: One of our addictions they let us stick with is smoking or smoking marijuana. [00:12:00] And essentially you're still using an unhealthy coping mechanism. I can tell you now, and especially over the last little while, I have no vices. I don't drink at all. I don't do drugs at all. I don't smoke marijuana. I don't smoke cigarettes.

Guest Meridee: I literally have to sit with my feelings. What about coffee? Is coffee included? It's not even a vice for me because I can go without it. 

Host Dora: Wow. Okay. I know. Okay. I know. Okay. Good on you, girl. So, the smoking. Back to the smoking. Yeah, so I quit. I was, I can't remember what I was filling out the other day, but yeah, it's been three years and I smoked, more than 30 years, longer than I drank and drugged, but I quit, smoking cigarettes more than three years ago because I didn't like the the smell, going outside in the rain.

Host Dora: I was like, I'm going to become a grandma soon. I am now, but at that point I wasn't, I was like, I don't want to be like that stinky cigarette smelling grandma coming in out of the rain, [00:13:00] you know? And there's also not only that, but like nowadays it's like, if you're a smoker, It's almost like you feel a lot of shame from it.

Host Dora: If you're at a restaurant now and , you're looking for the smokers to go and hide in the corner, like a teenager in school, like at the edge of the property lot, like having a cigarette. And it's like, it's very shameful. Like even in my own experience. What's 

Guest Meridee: so interesting about it is it's now shifted to this vaping thing.

Guest Meridee: So what's interesting about that for me is they're either doing it in the bathroom. like a teenager did. Yes. Or you walk past a pile of these big muscly biker dudes and they all smell like strawberries. Well, that's much nicer. It is much nicer, but it's also still Another one of the vices we're using to cover up feelings that we have instead of feeling the feelings we have.

Guest Meridee: Right, right. Well, I do vape, so take it 

Host Dora: easy. I can help you stop that, too. I [00:14:00] feel like it is lesser of the two evils from smoking cigarettes and, I may give that up, who knows, but, um. I think it's nicer to smell like strawberries than I don't disagree with you on that one. It definitely, you definitely smell better these days.

Host Dora: Oh, that's funny. Okay. And then, so in your own experience now, fast forward in a bit in your own experience. You mentioned that you're trying to quit smoking. This guy that you're with is giving you the gears and you're covering up with all this fancy ass perfume, trying to make yourself presentable and smellable.

Host Dora: No. Yeah. Is that a word? Attractive instead of unattractive. Trying to cover up your habit, your vice. So it sounds like when you go to this concert and you take this appointment that somebody recommends, it, it sounded to me like you were under hypnosis. Was that what?

Host Dora: No, it is not at all. That's how it was sounding towards me when you said no. 

Guest Meridee: Um, the way that cold laser [00:15:00] therapy works. So cold laser therapy is actually this. I know that we all think this red light therapy is this new thing. It's not. It's been around for years and years and years and years and years.

Guest Meridee: And LED light, red light has so many benefits. But then you combine LED light with low level radiation, which is not harmful, and we're able to create this stimulation. Now, your body is this incredibly magical thing. It regulates itself. It makes you breathe. It takes your heart rate. It does all of these amazing things.

Guest Meridee: And We have a tendency to do things to it to dysregulate it. And when we dysregulate it, we don't know how to get it to go back to regulatory. And with cold laser therapy, we're using acupuncture based and acupressure based ideas to create this outcome. So what I'm doing is I'm taking the body's energies and I am redirecting those energies.

Guest Meridee: So essentially I'm [00:16:00] an instructor telling your body what I want it to go do by doing the treatments that I do. Wow. So Again, we use different sequencing, different techniques, different lasers, different timing than even any of our competitors do. And there's not a lot of competitors out there. I feel like this is something we're leading the industry in, and I'm hoping that we make this a more regular thing for all addictions rather than just for smoking because it's known for its smoking.

Guest Meridee: It's been around around 50 years now. Wow. Yeah, I know. It's surprising. When I first started, it was just under, it was just about 40 years old. And I was like, Oh, this is interesting. How come I don't, I've never heard of it, but it's natural. It's holistic. That's why you haven't heard of it. And I'm sure lots of people who are like, well, acupuncture doesn't really work.

Guest Meridee: It does work, but it works subtly. And that was the same as I noticed, even with the cold laser therapy, when I drove home, I didn't notice it was working. I didn't, Because I didn't think about the thing. So you don't realize you're not thinking [00:17:00] about it until somebody reminds you to think about it. And then you're like, wait a second.

Guest Meridee: Right. So it works in such a subtle way. And I have to say that people who are skeptics are my favorite. If you come in and you're like, you're going to make this magic. I'm like, Oh, Oh no. I know what I can do for you, but I don't want you to come in here expecting a miracle. I want you to come in here expecting that you're fighting an addiction.

Guest Meridee: An addiction is not easy. However, I'm about to make your life a whole lot easier. And the people who come in are like, I don't even believe you're going to do anything for me. I'm like, Ooh, let me blow your mind. And so I love the skeptics. I love when they come in and they're like, you can't do anything for me because there isn't many that I'm not like, Oh, look, I just blew your mind.

Guest Meridee: And the results. But again, it's more about on that subtle underlying, Oh, I didn't even notice that I wasn't smoking. Like you just, you know, stop doing the thing. So essentially, I'm going into your body, giving it [00:18:00] instruction to reset itself to what it was before you screwed it up in the first place.

Guest Meridee: Right. 

Host Dora: Well, that's interesting how you say that it's a subtle thing that you yourself in your own experience, didn't notice, but somebody else noticed, because I think that is very common, even in recovery, like through a 12 step recovery, or when you're coming down off of the drugs, that it's a lot easier for the addict themselves, like me, myself, to see somebody else improving than the addict.

Host Dora: Me, myself, and the way that I know even that I'm improving or getting better is by what the circle around me is pointing out. 

So I 

Host Dora: totally get that, that you're like, you don't even notice it. It's like, I don't even notice I'm getting better because my mind's still a frickin hot mess, right? But somebody else being like, Hey, you're doing so good.

Host Dora: I'm like, Really? I am? Are you sure? 

Guest Meridee: And that's the beauty of it too, is that external validation of these people being like, you don't tell somebody and then all of a sudden they're like, you haven't smoked all night. And you're like, Oh yeah, I haven't. [00:19:00] Yeah. Not this like constant struggle of, Oh my God, all I want to do is smoke.

Guest Meridee: Instead, having this calmness to yourself about it. And what I found is, With smokers, it's pretty effective and it works pretty well, but I find that addicts want it so much more than a smoker does because a smoker isn't seeing the real impacts of it. that their addiction is having on them until they get called.

Guest Meridee: And you know, the doctor says, Hey, you've got cancer. You're dying. You have a month to live. Then suddenly they're like, well, either, well, screw it. I'm dying anyways. And they want to keep going. Cause it's the only pleasure they have in life, which that's the words coming out of your mouth. You really need to be looking at what you're doing.

Guest Meridee: Right. We're not seeing the impact. As an alcoholic, as a druggie, you're seeing, you're losing family, you're financially ruined, your relationships are over, your health is decreasing so severely, like there's so many immediate effects on your body. Smoking doesn't have the same. When I started working with [00:20:00] addicts, I couldn't believe the results.

Guest Meridee: It really started as an experiment with a desperate mom who was like, I just want to do something. I know this works so well for me. Can you try this? And this was, I want to say 10 years ago, 

I 

Guest Meridee: was about three years into my quitting smoking company, which it has now changed into an addictions company. It was amazing.

Guest Meridee: This girl came in and she was addicted to heroin and they had used an hour before coming in to see me. So I waited for them to come down enough. for me to be able to actually be able to have conversations with her. And I had told the mom, like, I don't know what we're going to end up here with here. I don't know what this is going to look like.

Guest Meridee: Her daughter really had struggled to get sober because of that first seven days of detox as well. The shakes, the vomiting, like all of those things. And she had none. Her body naturally detoxed without her getting sick, without her having a fever, without her, you know, having any of the detox, real detox symptoms.

Guest Meridee: She had basically a smoker's detox symptoms, which is, like slightly grumpy here and [00:21:00] there, wanted to eat a lot, needed to drink a lot of water, needed to move because she had a little bit of joint pain. But I'm sure you know, when you go through a real detox, that's not what a detox looks like.

Guest Meridee: Right. And yet with laser quit, that's what your detox will look like for the most part. Now, obviously the longer we've done something, the more impact it's going to have on your body. So there can be slightly more significant. detox symptoms, but we were blown away. And then the, the girl and her boyfriend were staying with the mom and the mom had a very clear rule.

Guest Meridee: If you use it all, you're out. This is my last ditch effort. Like I really mean it this time. And the daughter stayed consistent in her treatments. And I'm going to say she's probably 10 years sober. And so, yeah, it's just so incredible to see all of these people's success and they want it so bad that they're willing to do whatever it takes to keep getting it right.

Guest Meridee: Right. So for me, that was where I was like, Oh, suddenly this is going to become an addictions company because you guys want it so badly. 

Host Dora: And I want to 

Guest Meridee: help you 

Host Dora: get it. Often [00:22:00] tried so many different avenues, right? Oh, Meridee. Okay. So you've mentioned that in your appointment, or when you see somebody you're going in and telling the body what to do.

Host Dora: What does that look like? Like, are you just like speaking into their ear going, 

Guest Meridee: not at 

Host Dora: all. I should 

Guest Meridee: have brought it with me, but this is not hypnosis. This is not mine suggestion. In fact, when you come in for your treatment, you lay down either on a massage table, depending on which location you're at, you'll either lay down on a massage table or one of those really comfy reclining chairs, depending, like I said, where you're, which location you're going to.

Guest Meridee: Um, and then you lay there and meditate. So you close your eyes and try and nap. You focus on your breathing. And then someone like me starts messing around with your head and face and ears, and then your hands. And so we use a laser, and the lasers that I use are, they're like, They're like a pen, only a really pen, like the biggest marker that you can buy, only [00:23:00] longer.

Guest Meridee: So I'm going to say they're 12 to 14 inches long and they are a pretty fat little pen that you use. And it's got a battery charger in it. It's like a battery that we use. And when I turn it on, you can not shine it in your eyes because it'll burn the cornea. If I shine it on my hand, you'll see a red light on my hand.

Guest Meridee: And it's a very small, very directed, red light. 

Host Dora: Like those laser pointer pens that kids play with, but more high tech. Laser pointer pens are 

Guest Meridee: these little tiny things. And that is not what my laser looks like. It is a class 3B laser, which is a cold laser and it's pretty decent size. Um, and then we use that to direct the energies in your body.

Guest Meridee: So I can't give you too much because those are the three secrets that I've created using all these experiments, but. it, we're going in and t that your body requires t because if you're an addi know, but may not know th What's happening inside your body when we drink, do drugs, any of those things, smoke [00:24:00] cigarettes, open your phone, is you're getting a dopamine release.

Not 

Guest Meridee: just any dopamine, you're getting dopamine, you're getting serotonin, you're getting different endorphins, you're getting the anamide molecule, which is the bliss molecule. released in your brain, which is giving you these amazing feelings. So the reason that drinking is different, it gives you a different sensation than say heroin or cocaine or methamphetamine.

Guest Meridee: They all release different levels of different endorphins by putting a toxic substance in your body and then your body's reaction to that toxic substance. because each one releases a different level of different endorphins, you're getting a different sensation. What I do is I go in and release all of the endorphins at the same level.

Guest Meridee: So you actually just feel elated or lovely and blissful and all of those things, instead of feeling any kind of high. It is pretty incredible. Okay.

Guest Meridee: I mean, I say you don't feel high, 

Host Dora: but you, it's, you feel [00:25:00] heightened. You feel with all your endorphins on at once. I would imagine that would be an incredible feeling as a former addict. It 

Guest Meridee: is. It really is. And then what happens too is as an addict, over long periods of time of using your dopamine receptors actually shrink and you get less and less of them.

Guest Meridee: So you're trying to release all these massive amounts. And essentially your endorphins as a normal person like myself, they go up and down on this little axis, but when you use , as an addict or anything like that, your first is this huge spike. And then you crash and it's later on that day or the next day, 12 hours later, you feel like crap because you're way too low.

Guest Meridee: Your endorphins have crashed. That's why you hate everyone. That's why you feel so crappy. And that's typically where addiction starts is at this low level because you're, you just, you don't want to feel that way anymore. So you just use just a little bit just to feel normal. So that brings your endorphins back up and then they crash again.

Guest Meridee: And over the time you're eventually just using to try to get to a normal level. And eventually you won't even get to that normal level. And what we do is we help your brain [00:26:00] to recover from that. So a typical addict is going to take 14 months for your brain to regulate its chemical makeup. 

Host Dora: With Laser 

Guest Meridee: Quit, we're able to help your brain come back to normal in a very short period of time.

Guest Meridee: So in your first treatment, most people are like, yeah, I don't need to use anymore. I feel pretty good. But within about a week, you've been using for so long that your body is like, I'm going to go back to what I was because I don't know how to do this. So we treat. About a week apart for your first couple of treatments.

Guest Meridee: And then after that, we maintain that by creating a new, teaching your brain how to make a new level of normal and make it your regular. So we actually are going in and teaching your brain to go back to what it was before, instead of staying in this place of not knowing and up and down. And you know what recovery is like.

Guest Meridee: Yes. You've experienced it and you've seen people go through it. It's 

Host Dora: like a factory reset on your brain. Oh my God, I need that. It's amazing. 

Guest Meridee: And here's the thing. It's not just for addicts either. So we offer it for stress, for [00:27:00] anxiety, for depression, for PTSD. There's all sorts of things that we offer it for.

Guest Meridee: And even someone who is a recovered addict can get these treatments and know it's not going to push you back to where you were. In fact, it's just going to make your brain feel that much better. Because now your brain, even after 14 months, you're still not at a normal level. You're just at a more regulated level.

Guest Meridee: And we can bring you back to a normal level so that you don't ever have that suffering that you've experienced for so many years. And I know a lot of addicts I've spoken to, their thing is, you know, to this day, I still miss it. Hmm. None of my Laser Quit addicts will tell you they still miss it. 

Host Dora: Yeah, I don't, no, I can't say that I miss it.

Host Dora: I love, I love my new life in sobriety so much that no. I mean, I had some great times, but the shame and the guilt and the remorse that comes along with the way that I drank and drugged, I do not ever want to experience that again. So, I don't miss it. Good for you. Thank you. Thank [00:28:00] you. So, Meridee, how long when somebody with you and you're pointing this laser at them.

Host Dora: So they're laying on the table like a massage table and you're saying, just relax. And you're going around with this laser. I'm guessing it doesn't hurt at all, right? It's not like you're getting a needle or a fear in any of that way. Super, 

Guest Meridee: super relaxing. And so typically we'll book your first session will typically be about 45 minutes.

Guest Meridee: We send an email that there's a video they need to watch just to really truly understand how everything works. We do that when we book your appointment. And then when you come in, we have a very brief consultation and a conversation. I need to know your why, so that if you do struggle, you and I, there's coaching that's involved in this as well, because we need to dig into that trauma.

Guest Meridee: So for us, I need to know your why I need to have you fill out some paperwork, and then I'm going to take you in and give you this relaxing treatment. So we usually book about 45 minutes for the first appointment, but then every follow up after that is only about 30 minutes. We sell packages where the addictions are packaged [00:29:00] together so that it's more reasonable, so that you can afford to do it.

Guest Meridee: I typically recommend for my addiction clients for them to come in and see me every 6 8 weeks, which 6 8 weeks is about 2 months for around a year. And then we have really reset your body and done all the things. And that way, if anything happens in that first year, we're there to get you back where you need to be.

Now, that 

Guest Meridee: being said. There's not many people who relapse in that first year on our program, which is pretty insane because when I've every statistic I've read has said that within three, it's three days, three weeks, three months is the hardest times to get through. And yet my clients will say that those are not that hard to get through.

Host Dora: Wow, that's very encouraging. Would you recommend when your clients come in and start seeing you, would you recommend that they couple that with a 12 step program or something else? Or do you just think or, yeah, believe that you're like a one stop shop does it all, or would you recommend other things you have 12 

Guest Meridee: steps, you're going to definitely [00:30:00] get further ahead in life because the 12 step program really comes down to a way of living.

Guest Meridee: Yes. And for me, the 12 step program is such a spiritual way of life. Mm hmm. You'll never hear me say don't do it. So if I would definitely suggest that you do that now with us, we offer some coaching for you to dig into the trauma, to heal the child that is so wounded, all of the things we essentially incorporate a lot of the 12 steps into our program, but it still isn't going to stop me from recommending to you, people, to anybody, you guys should probably go and start that.

Guest Meridee: see, you know, have a program that you also join. There's so many things we can do to get and stay sober. Yes. These treatments are definitely going to be like that turning point for a lot of people. So I definitely tell them, like, find things that are going to work for you, whatever that looks like. 

Host Dora: Okay.

Host Dora: Great. Love it. Wow. Well, this has been very informative already and you've covered a lot. So, hmm, let's [00:31:00] see where to go from here. Okay. So you said you had multiple locations. We 

Guest Meridee: do. We do. We have multiple locations in British Columbia. We have one location currently in Alberta. We are expanding across Canada into the United States and across the world.

Guest Meridee: Oh, wow. That's 

Host Dora: so cool. Good. Good for you.

Host Dora: And so how long has the business been going? 13 years. Wow. Yeah. And so the first five 

Guest Meridee: years I kind of was just doing my own thing and, like experimenting and seeing what works and all the things. And then one of my friends called me out and said, you know, like you said to me that after five years you wanted five locations and it's been five years.

Guest Meridee: And I was like, Oh, Well, thanks for calling me out on that. And then I started the process. And right now I have seven locations of my own and I have partnered with three locations. So we have Kamloops, Kelowna, Quesnel, Fort St. John, uh, Vancouver Island and Calgary, six locations, my apologies. And then we have [00:32:00] Costa Rica.

Guest Meridee: We have Abbotsford and we have Vancouver. 

Host Dora: Oh wow, that is fantastic. Abbotsford is where all my family's from, so I'm back and forth between Abbotsford and Seattle nowadays, so I might have to check it out there. Yeah, you should. Wow, that's wonderful. Well, Meridee, I love that you're, here sharing this new, 

Host Dora: well, it's not new. You said it's been around for 40 years, but it's innovative and not well known. Right, right. It's something new in my ears. I don't know that I've talked about this or heard about this, and especially, um, you know, addressing the addiction side. So I know you did tell us a really great story about this young woman that came in with a heroin addiction.

Host Dora: Do you have any other stories you could share with us without dropping a name? So many. It's so amazing. 

Guest Meridee: So I have this incredible woman that I work with. Um, we've been working together on different things for the last 10 years. [00:33:00] Um, so she'll, for example, she's a busy business owner. They have bought and sold multiple 10 years.

Guest Meridee: They've built houses, they've done all these things and her husband have both, you know, First, we started with they just needed to quit smoking and they successfully did that. And then they bought this new business and while building this business, which I'm sure, you know, it gets pretty hairy when you're building a business.

Guest Meridee: And they, at first started just, just drinking. Even though it was every single day, they were just drinking and then they started hanging out with this new group of people and they were all CEOs, business executives, which is a lot of the clients I work with, and they're quite heavily dabbling into cocaine because cocaine is an easy release.

Guest Meridee: And a way to let go of all this high stress of being a business owner or a CEO or operating these really high end businesses in Vancouver and all these things and like multi, multi million dollar businesses. And [00:34:00] so a lot of them will go straight to cocaine. And so there was a group of them. And they, of course, no names are allowed to be mentioned.

Guest Meridee: I do have some videos that I've had of each individual one. I do blur out their faces as per their request. And they have come to see me, so we were able to stop them drinking and doing drugs. So doing cocaine specifically was her and her husband. They did, they, at that point, weren't even smoking cigarettes.

Guest Meridee: They were just drinking and doing cocaine. So we were able to help them get that under control. That I'm going to say is two to three years now. She of course came back to me, I'm going to say last year and was like, Hey, so I am smoking cigarettes and marijuana now. And I was like, okay, so. I call it dry drunking.

Guest Meridee: And what to me that is, is when we replace one addiction with another, which means we still haven't coped. We haven't dealt with what's underneath causing the addiction in the first place. So we just find different toxic substances to put in our systems to tell ourselves it's okay. Right. You get clean, but [00:35:00] you'll stay smoking.

Guest Meridee: You're still covering up your feelings. You're still addicted to something. And so we, they're completely stopped all of the things right now. 

Wow. They are 

Guest Meridee: not smoking. They're not smoking marijuana. They're not doing cocaine. They're not drinking. They're, I have not had them fall off of their alcohol cocaine wagon at all.

Guest Meridee: It's mostly been this like, okay, I smoked and then I do something really terrible, like drinking and doing a lot of cocaine. And then, okay, now I'm just going to smoke. Well, Because we communicate a lot, we'll communicate about the struggles they're having, and then I'm like, but you're smoking, so you're still covering up your feelings, so you can't say I'm doing really great, so what is it that's really going on?

Guest Meridee: And then we dig into it, and then she has come back and she's not smoking, she's not doing any of the things right now. Um, We also have been working on things that I don't necessarily advertise. Okay. So I had this lady who came in and she didn't give me a ton of background. Now, the only people that I've ever seen any contra indi [00:36:00] contraindications is people with bipolar.

Guest Meridee: Okay? So I won't work with people who have bipolar because I. Their brains can't handle positive endorphins. And so I just mess them up. Yeah, I mess them up pretty bad. And so I just, I, I mean, if they're pushy and they're like, well, I'm willing, then we have some very serious conversations before I'm even willing to go down that road.

Guest Meridee: But 99 percent of the time I say I just won't work with them. Because I'm not willing to put them in that place. 

And 

Guest Meridee: so, um, I started working with this lady and my main question is, do you have bipolar, any mental health and illnesses? And if they answer yes, then I won't treat you. She responded, wait, wait, wait, 

Host Dora: wait, wait, wait a minute.

Host Dora: I mean, I think pretty much every person that's struggling with addiction has a mental health issue. So you can't just say no and say that you help with addiction because I think it's all underlying. 

Guest Meridee: It is. It is. And I don't mean that what I mean is one of my questions is. Do you have any mental health illnesses?

Guest Meridee: And I want them to be very specific. [00:37:00] And the reason I asked that question leads to the next one. If so, what is it? Because if you answer bipolar, I can't directly ask, my lawyers told me you can't directly ask someone, do you have bipolar because of what I do? 

So I have to ask, 

Guest Meridee: Do you have any mental health illnesses?

Guest Meridee: The next question is, if so, can you list them? And that's when, if you say, yes, I have bipolar, I say, I'm sorry, I can't treat you. Ah, wow. So that's where that comes in. Because in fact, most of our other mental health illnesses are helped with the laser. And so this lady came in and she was like, I do drink too much.

Guest Meridee: And I was like, okay. And she said, but my main focus is that I want to quit smoking. And I was like, well, if you're drinking, you're probably going to continue to smoke. So we need to hit the higher end of this. order. But that, so if you come in for an addiction treatment, we're going to treat your addiction.

Guest Meridee: We're going to treat your smoking. We're going to treat your stress. We're going to treat your anxiety. We're going to treat some pain in your body. Like we're just going to treat it all. So we started working with her. She also afterwards told me that she had, it has a name. [00:38:00] It's where you pull your hair out.

Guest Meridee: Oh, okay. I've heard of that. I don't know what the name is, but I have also heard of it. Yeah. And so she would pull her hair out and, So I said, I do think that the laser would probably help with that. And so we gave her treatment for addiction. She was able to quit smoking, quit drinking. She stopped pulling her hair.

Guest Meridee: And when she came back for one of her follow ups, she said, by the way, I get seizures. And I was like, what? You didn't tell me that you get seizures. And she was like, I didn't want you to not treat me because I know in most places if you tell people you have seizures, they won't treat you and I was like, so that was a risk you were willing to take?

Guest Meridee: And she said, I sure was. And I was like, okay. And I said, okay, so what has happened there? And she said, I was having 50 to 60 grand mal seizures a day. What? That's insane! And she said, I am down to having 5 to 10 at the most in a day. That's a lot. And I was like, wow. So she stopped smoking, drinking.

Guest Meridee: Her anxiety was under [00:39:00] control. She wasn't pulling her hair and her grand mal seizures were depleted. Wow. So there was just this like mind blowing, holy, oh my goodness. Wow. And so I have testimonials from her on my YouTube channel. I also work with, again, not, advertised because I'm doing some science behind these things that we're not advertising yet.

Guest Meridee: But I also work with kids with autism. Oh, 

Host Dora: I love that. That's a great area to get in. 

Guest Meridee: And so my doctor actually sat my son down because my son has ADD, not ADHD. And my doctor sat my son down and said to him, do you do drugs? And my son kind of looked at me and I was like, if there's one person you're honest with, it's the doctor, do you want me to leave?

Guest Meridee: And he's like, no, you know, everything I've done. And so he looked at the doctor and said, yeah, I've used quite a few different things. And my son's done more drugs than I have. Wow. And how old is he? And so his, my doctor looked at him and said, I just want you to know it's okay. It's not your fault. And I was like, what are you even talking about?

Guest Meridee: He said, the majority of people on the streets who use drugs and alcohol have [00:40:00] undiagnosed ADD. He said when someone on the, someone with ADD uses cocaine, it makes them feel the way that you feel every day, Meridee. And I was like, so you're telling me that this, is how they feel when they use cocaine. He said, yeah, and when you use cocaine, that's how they feel every day.

Guest Meridee: And I was like, what? And he said that essentially because of their low dopamine levels, they're just always fired up. Their system is always on high alert. And that's how we feel when we do cocaine. Whereas when they do cocaine, it actually regulates their system and makes them feel normal. And he said, that's why we have so many addicts out there.

Guest Meridee: He said, they're undiagnosed. And if they were on medications, a lot of them would not be using it all. And I was just blown away. Right. And so we work with these with ADHD because they are ADD because their specific problem is that their brain isn't releasing dopamine at proper levels. And one of the main things that I release is dopamine.

Guest Meridee: Wow. So we're able to really help them. And then [00:41:00] with children with, say, autism, they're unable to really express themselves and they have no empathy for other people because that's just part of what they have. I have been working with autistic children and giving them these treatments and they're not able to really express themselves.

Guest Meridee: they are less angry, they're less rude, they're far more empathetic. And the results have just been crazy. 

Host Dora: I love it. I absolutely love it. So this is an all natural approach. It is. I mean, that's a selling point right there. Yeah. 

Guest Meridee: No drugs, no invasive therapies because I'm literally surface level doing the things that I'm doing. Now, that being said, the surface level is penetrating deep inside, but it's not hurting you.

Guest Meridee: I'm not needling you. I'm not. Putting anything truly inside you, I am making your body adjust its own energy to get where it needs to be. where you were before. 

Host Dora: I love that. I love that. Awesome. So New Year's resolutions. You must get really busy around January. [00:42:00] What's funny is January, everyone does this thing 

Guest Meridee: where they're like, I'm going to do it myself, but I'm gonna.

Guest Meridee: And then in February, everyone calls me and is like, Hey, so I failed. Can you please help me? So February is typically my more, my busier month. But let me tell you, if you've done this 15 times over the last 15 years, every January saying this year, it's the year just come see laser quit . Cause then this year will be the year.

Host Dora: Oh, I love it. That's a great note to close out on. And thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Soberoso podcast. I hope today's conversation brought you a little closer to hope, healing, or understanding. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe or follow to the show, wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Host Dora: If this episode brought you comfort and made you feel a little better inside, please share it with someone who might need that today. You can follow Soberoso on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram for more inspiration and [00:43:00] updates. Don't forget, we're here every week with new stories, tips, and topics to help you along the road to healing.

Host Dora: Until the next time, I'm your grateful host, Dora. Stay safe, stay sober, and to thine own self be true.