When we think about addiction, we usually imagine someone unable to control their urges. For some people, it may be the result of depression or mental illness. But for many addicts, their addiction began as an attempt to escape difficult life circumstances. Whatever the case may be, there are a lot of resources out there for people who have an addiction, and most of them focus on overcoming and providing support to help you do so. The problem is that these programs only exacerbate feelings of shame, guilt, and lack of control while doing nothing to build up self-empowerment, self-control, and drive. Progressive wellness coach Maggie Jenson has a different approach that helps her clients create new identities with greater levels of success in this area.

“It’s not what you are that holds you back—it’s who you think you’re not.” This quote by Denis Waitley is the guiding principle of Maggie’s work. Her mission is to create a one-stop shop for wellness with an emphasis on mental health, not just sobriety. As a former victim of alcoholism, Maggie believes that many individuals do not just become alcoholics or addicts—it’s a by-product of struggles with mental health. As a result, many self-medicate with drugs or alcohol to achieve temporary oblivion from their pressing problems and achieve some form of happiness. Unfortunately, these problems do not disappear, as many soon realize. So, how do you achieve happiness without self-sabotage through destructive habits? Maggie says you can only do that through self-reflection, introspection, and mindset change. And she would know because that’s how she did it.

Maggie began her journey as a wellness coach in 2020, but her work began ten years before. At the time, she had struggled with her drinking habits from the age of 13. As a child, Maggie grew up watching her mother’s life go from bad to worse from the effects of alcohol. Despite witnessing these challenges firsthand, Maggie herself began drinking when her brother took his life. Years later, she would come across research findings that show most children of alcoholics grow up to become alcoholics themselves or marry one. Over the next 15 years, Maggie’s habits spiraled and got out of control, and AA didn’t help much. The messages she received there only worsened the situation. “Addiction is a disease,” she learned. “It’s permanent. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.”

Instead of helping her get better, these programs inadvertently made Maggie complacent with her drinking problems. After all, why try if she was diseased and had no hope? Then, Maggie tried something out-of-the-box, and her life started changing. Through re-examination, she realized she had built herself a prison of negative self-beliefs and images that were undoubtedly causing her to repeat the same patterns day in, day out. Questioning these self-beliefs led Maggie down a path of healing that improved her physical and mental health. By replacing her negative habitual behavior with goal-attaining activities, Maggie realized she could enrich her life and attain long-term fulfillment. That’s when she started Magnify Progressive Wellness, a health concept devoted to being a one-stop shop for wellness with an emphasis on mental health.

“Addiction isn’t a disease, but rather a level of consciousness/awareness that can be reprogrammed,” Maggie says. Her mission is to help people struggling with addictive behavior start to “think different in order to drink different, or never again” by helping them build a health consciousness and a sense of purpose and direction.

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