In this first episode of the new season of the Families Navigating Addiction & Recovery podcast, I'm reintroducing the heart of this work and what you can expect moving forward. After a six-year hiatus, I'm coming back with weekly episodes focused on empowering families impacted by addiction, especially families who have been told they are powerless until their loved one decides to change. I'll be sharing more about the Healing Arc inside my Brain Health Masterclass, including mixed messages in addiction, finding calm in the storm, fueling personal resilience, building healthier connections, restoring peace to family life, and making better decisions along the way. My hope is that this season gives families a clearer pathway to begin their own healing process, create new conversations, and become stronger than addiction's rules of engagement.

If your family is navigating addiction and you're looking for a different way forward, I invite you to schedule a free discovery call with me here:

https://www.thefamilyrecoverysolution.com/book-a-call/

Addiction doesn't just affect the person using. It reshapes the entire family. In this 6-week masterclass, you'll learn how to move out of confusion, emotional overload, and constant reaction, and begin developing steadier, more intentional leadership within your family. This premium masterclass upgrade includes instant access, learn-at-your-own-pace lessons, and full course access for families who are ready to better understand addiction's impact and begin creating new response patterns.

Learn more: https://www.thefamilyrecoverysolution.com/masterclass-upgrade/

In Rethinking Addiction: The New Family Recovery Solution, Jeff Jones offers a different way for families to understand addiction, not by focusing only on fixing the individual, but by looking at the family system as a whole. The book introduces practical tools, Both/And thinking, clearer communication, and a new way to create family rules that are stronger than addiction's chaos while staying connected to the person you love.

Get the book:
https://www.thefamilyrecoverysolution.com/rethinking-addiction-book/

Work with Jeff:
https://www.thefamilyrecoverysolution.com/

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-jones-0303834/

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@thefamilyrecoverysolution

Substack:
https://jeffjones.substack.com/

"So much of what we do perpetuates problems, not by intent, but by a lack of understanding." -Dr. Mike Barnes

The main focus of the recovery process is often given to the addict in the family and there's nothing wrong with that. It is out of genuine love that they go to great lengths to make sure the needs of their loved one are well provided for. But for family recovery to be realized in its entirety, they must look into the often undermined effects of addiction: trauma. Family members don't realize that they are traumatized until they start prioritizing their own needs. Hence today's episode homes in on how to help family members realize that they are traumatized and help them recover from it. Our guest, Dr. Mike Barnes also talks about the biology of how we cope with problems and the epigenetics of addiction and trauma. This understanding will greatly help in the treatment and recovery process that families may choose along their journey. He also differentiates between problem and crisis and how our stories create an impact on the decisions we make. Dr. Barnes also gives some suggestions in making the paradigm shift in family recovery even more effective. It only takes one or two members to spark the change. The question now lies on who's going to take that privilege.

Get the show notes, transcription and resources mentioned at http://thefamilyrecoverysolution.com/

Highlights:

03:47 Serving Families With Addiction

10:47 Living in Recovery Together

18:32 Coping Begins With Family Goals and Values

23:48 Helping Families To Understand That They Are Traumatized

31:53 The Epigenetics of Addiction and Trauma

38:13 Understanding The Biology of How We Cope To And Solve Problems

44:50 3 Rules of an Alcoholic Family And How to Challenge Them

54:55 A Shift In Recovery Processes Needed

"We need to communalize rather than individualize. And we need to normalize rather than pathologize." - Ed Tick

The society we're living in today has forced veterans to carry the moral and social burdens of warfare alone. As a result, their unspoken pain and sorrows evolved into trauma and addiction problems which also affect the family unit that they belong to. From this, societal issues increase and communities sink into decay. To address this problem, Dr. Ed Tick and Denise Klein join the platform to share their wisdom. They impress on seeing beyond the surface recovery and diving deeper into the feelings associated with addiction rather than just the cessation of visible symptoms. They also expound on how to spark significant cultural changes as opposed to smaller individual changes and how to build communities through visualization, open communication, and creating opportunities. They also highlight the need to normalize rather than pathologize. Individual empowerment is the key to strengthen the family and eventually the whole community. Tune in and join the healing movement!

Get the show notes, transcription and resources mentioned at http://thefamilyrecoverysolution.com/

Highlights:

04:00 Veteran Experience Help Heal Addiction

13:30 Symptoms That Causes Breakdown In Families

16:34 Trauma As Normative Part Of Experience

18:13 Educating People About Trauma

30:08 Everyone Gets Traumatized Everyday

35:45 Making Trauma More Visible

40:18 Move Into Normalization And Communalization

45:31 Warriors Return

48:07 Empowerment And Being Authentic