Markita Renee is flourishing. Now four-plus years in restoration, she runs OOAK Providers LLC the place she is a restoration coach, motivational speaker, and facilitator. Along with that, Markita works part-time as an employment specialist for the state of Connecticut’s Division of Psychological Well being and Habit Providers, facilitates two SMART Restoration conferences, and loves being an amazing mother to her daughter Si’miaya. And the way all of this got here collectively nonetheless amazes her.

It was only a few years in the past that Markita’s life was a swirl of chaos and longing. In 2014 she misplaced all contact along with her son after he was taken by his father, in 2015 she and her daughter turned homeless, and through this time she was beneath court docket supervision for a felony cost. All these circumstances fueled her  opioid use dysfunction and compounded alcohol misuse going again to her school days. She managed to get a job, however continued to battle with substances. At one level all the pieces crystallized right into a gut-wrenching realization, adopted by a single query, “Both I’m going to kill myself from overdose…or am I going to face what’s in entrance of me and combat?”

This brutally trustworthy perception appeared to set off constructive movement. Markita seized a chance to relocate from Oklahoma after her authorized points had been resolved and joined a member of the family in Connecticut. She was working nevertheless it wasn’t a superb scenario. Markita took a deep breath and determined to imagine in herself sufficient to depart and search for one thing higher, and that was when she began OOAK Providers. Proper after that the March 2020 pandemic lockdown occurred.

At this essential level Markita’s resolve to face any and all circumstances and combat for a greater life was absolutely in impact. She selected to return to high school and research psychology, “I made a decision that the pandemic was a blessing in disguise, took that power, and utilized it to my training.” Then, in what she sees as a type of future, she discovered SMART Restoration.

The category task was to analysis a corporation within the restoration discipline. Markita doesn’t know precisely the way it occurred, however SMART popped up on her laptop and it was an immediate, heart-felt connection. SMART’s concentrate on self-empowerment and sensible instruments resonated mightily. She favored that it wasn’t about being informed what to do—one thing Markita had at all times resisted whereas rising up. She wished to know extra and transcend that class task.

Markita determined to study all the pieces she may about SMART and that led her to take the assembly facilitator coaching. It felt pure and proper, “With SMART [you have] so many instruments, so many assets, however you create your personal path, it’s as much as you.” That’s the main message she reinforces for contributors in her conferences, however there are different points of being concerned in SMART which might be vital to her.

Markita agreed to affix a SMART committee that’s targeted on rising range and inclusion for the BIPOC neighborhood, and was a panelist at a current webinar analyzing range points. For her, it’s a matter of BIPOC people having the ability to see that there’s a place in SMART for them, and that individuals who appear to be them are a part of the group.

Markita’s subsequent aim is to get a grasp’s diploma and develop into a therapist. She sees this as her calling, a option to, “Develop and elevate and serve my objective of why I’m right here as a human being.” From SMART’s perspective, Markita is already serving an amazing objective by bringing her presents and constructive angle to these in her conferences and the bigger SMART neighborhood.