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ABOUT YOUR GUIDE
Katie Fleming Thomas, MS, LPC
Hello, I'm Katie Fleming, founder of ZenQuit®.​ For 20 years, I lived a contradiction. As a licensed therapist, I guided others through healing and transformation, yet behind closed doors, nicotine controlled me. I was the health-conscious professional who took my vitamins, practiced yoga, and hiked on weekends, yet I couldn’t break free from the habit that was wrecking my body and mind.
Each morning, I vowed, Today is the day I quit. Each night, I caved, crushed by the shame of another cigarette. I tried everything, cold turkey, patches, gum, hypnosis, and alternative healing. Nothing worked long-term. Looking back, I see why: I was searching for solutions outside myself instead of addressing the deeper reasons I kept smoking.
I grew up in a household where smoking was quite prevalent, and I was often sent to the store to buy cartons for my dad when I was just about old enough to do so (yeah, of course, I snuck a few). Despite this environment, I swore I would never become a smoker myself.
Around age 20-21, it became a regular habit for me. At that age, I was in college, was living alone in an apartment for the first time, and often felt isolated, anxious, and overwhelmed. Smoking became my constant companion, a way to de-stress from the demands of school and a ritual that helped me navigate the uncertainty of life as an emerging adult.
As the years passed, I witnessed the devastating toll of this addiction on my own family. I sat by my grandmother's bed during her final days as she continued to reach for her cigarettes with trembling hands. I watched my father, who had lost his sight, fumbling in the darkness to light cigarettes he couldn't see. These moments broke my heart. Yet despite these vivid reminders of nicotine's destructive power, despite my professional training as a therapist, despite knowing exactly what it was doing to my body, I remained a dedicated smoker for many years, unable to break free from its grip. This profound contradiction became my daily burden, a painful irony that followed me through two decades of failed quit attempts.
If you are here perhaps you recognize this struggle.
You may have tried everything. Books, programs, patches, self-blame, distraction. You light up again and feel defeated. I know that cycle. I lived it. I was constantly chasing external solutions instead of facing the internal story of why I smoked.
Eventually, my body started sounding the alarm. Chest pains. Shortness of breath and tired all the time. A back injury that wouldn’t heal. I was terrified that I was following the same health path as my family.
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So I made a radical decision. I went off-grid by myself for several days to the countryside and faced the addiction directly. No cigarettes. No distractions. No contact from the outside world. Just me, my pain, my cravings, and some tools I prepared to use. I brought mindfulness, nervous system work, emotional processing, movement, and every bit of self-compassion I could find. Whenever I would find myself in the familiar craving vortex, I would do my best to create a counter vortex, even if it lasted seconds, minutes, or even an hour or more.
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In that solitude, I learned how to stay with myself. I met cravings with breath. I moved my body when anxiety surged. I talked myself through the hard moments. I sat with the discomfort and listened to what it was trying to tell me, "it" being what was under the urge and addiction. That’s when something began to change.
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When I returned home, the cravings were still there, but lighter. Over time, they faded. The need was gone. I was able to meet each experience with tools that supported me and gave me more capacity. What once felt impossible had shifted. I was no longer battling myself. I was caring for myself.
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Here’s what I came to understand. Addiction is not a personal failure. It’s often a way our system tries to manage stress, emotion, boredom, disconnection, and unresolved pain. Smoking is a pause, a misguided form of regulation. But nicotine keeps us in a cycle of dysregulation and makes it harder to cope.
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One day, I woke up and realized I hadn’t thought about smoking at all. Not after waking. Not after coffee. Not during stress. That had never happened before. The space that nicotine used to fill was now held by clarity, presence, and trust in myself.
You deserve that too.
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I created ZenQuit to offer a deeper way out. One that supports your body, your mind, your emotions, and your nervous system.
Not a quick fix, not a gimmick, but real tools that meet you where you are and help you find your way forward.
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Freedom is possible. Not through force, but through understanding and connection.
So, the moral of the story is that if I find my way out after all these years, I know you can too. You just need the right tools and a supportive space to learn and practice them.
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Let's breathe and be free together,
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Katie
ZenQuit Dedication
In loving memory of my father, who enjoyed his Winstons. This program is dedicated to him. May he rest in peace, and though he lost his sight in life, may he now see clearly the healing and transformation that continues in his name.
You can do this...
and your future self will thank you.
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