Loving Your Child Through Their Addiction

Break through Worry. Grieve while Healing. Walk into Greater Peace and Love.

Being a parent of a child struggling with substance use is one of the hardest things you might ever experience. The grief, worry, not knowing what do or how they are, regrets, anger, so many big emotions can be suffocating. So please don't muddle through it alone or without enough support. No one can do this alone, and you are not alone.

There's a name for grieving a child who is alive but not available physically or mentally. It's called Ambiguous Grief, and it includes guilt, worry, anger, profound sadness, maybe some shame, stigma, isolation, and more. I don't have to tell you it's painful. More importantly, though, is to know how to restore your peace, to believe there is hope and how to cultivate it, to know there are resources for you, and that there are some very good tools and coping strategies you can learn so that you can care for your grief, worry, guilt, anger, all of it, and empower your love.

You're invited to be part of a larger family, a community of other parents who get it, and hold each other in love and support, in healing and creating change.

Love wins here!

A FREEBIE GUIDE FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN WHO STRUGGLE WITH ADDICTION

Worry Less, Help Your Child More

Grab this FREE guide "How To Find Peace When You Worry" and get some of my most used and most effective tips in order to build a strong foundation for inner peace so that you can:

Shift out of fear so you can stop imagining the worst, get back to sleep, resume your activities, and love your child with a restored sense of peace.
Relieve your worry so you can move forward with more clarity in order to identify the choices that feel right for you as you help your child.
Become more present in your life and relationships so that you can be ok when things are not ok, and create conditions that inspire change.

Things can change with the right tools. Let's create some healing and change today!

Welcome! I'm Joanne

I'm the mom of a son who struggles with substance use and mental health issues for over 15 years. As you well know, it can get very complicated. I'm also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Family Recovery Coach, Certified Facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie, and Certified Grief Educator, with a Certification in The Invitation to Change. I get it. I have struggled too. Because of those struggles, it's directed me to what I need the most to choose life and love, and the ability to find peace despite and because of those challenges. That's why I want to share it with anyone interested in healing, thriving, and making a difference in their own lives and for their family. There's really no time to waste, especially when a child is struggling. So, I hope I can save you some time and heartache and make the hard a whole lot less hard, easier where and when possible, and it is possible.

Although it's a road with lots of bumps, twists and turns, there's a layer of appreciation for its greater purpose, and renewed trust that God can and will use it all and use all of us for good. Let's help Him out! Though the path of loving a child through their addiction may be hard, there is a path of hope in action, and transformation through healing.

Welcome! I'm Joanne.

I'm the mom of a son who has struggled with substance use for over 15 years. As you well know, it can get very complicated. I'm also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Family Recovery Coach, Certified Facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie, and Certified Grief Educator, with a Certification in The Invitation to Change and Trauma Informed Heart Math. I get it. I have struggled too, and still can. Because of these struggles, it's directed me to what I need the most to choose life and love, and the ability to find peace despite and because of those challenges. That's why I want to share it with anyone interested in healing, thriving, and making a difference in their own lives and for their family. There's really no time to waste, especially when a child is struggling. So, I hope I can save you some time and heartache and make the hard a whole lot less hard, easier where and when possible, and it is possible.

Although it's a road with lots of bumps, twists and turns, there's a layer on top of the dust for appreciation of its greater purpose, and renewed trust that God can and will use it all and use all of us for good. Let's help Him out! Though the path of loving a child through their addiction may be hard, there is a path of hope in action, and transformation through healing.

Love Wins Here!

Sign up to receive inspiration and updates that can support your own healing, skill-building, and to empower your precious love. Together, we can find our light and shine it into the dark times of addiction. Something we all really need. Let's create some brighter days and possibilities for ourselves and our families!

Because your child struggles with substance use, you have a choice to use it for purpose. Make no mistake about it, you have power. You need to know how to use it. You and the way you think, the way you live your life, how you approach your child and the hard stuff, these things are the change makers.

It only takes one person to create change.

You Are That One

Let's walk this journey together. We can find peace and healing within and beyond addiction.

"All human life has its seasons and cycles, and no one's personal chaos can be permanent. Winter, after all, gives way to spring and summer, though sometimes when branches stay dark and the earth cracks with ice, one thinks they will never come, that spring, and that summer, but they do, and always." ~ Truman Capote

Love Shows Up Here

A FREEBIE guide to reconnect you with your greatest purpose - to be love. Here's a path.

Letter From a Child

A FREEBIE gift and inspiring letter of truth and guidance from child to parent.

Get Support

Tired of overwhelming stress? Got you covered. Re-energize and rise up in the power of your love in action.

Resources

Find articles, books, videos, groups and more to enhance your healing.

What people are saying...

I have been an Alanoner for a long time but have to say Joanne's class has added so much to my life, I can barely explain it. It brought all those years of meetings, counseling, etc. together. Thanks Joanne again. ~ E

It’s like coming out of the darkness and into the light. It’s changing all my relationships. ~ L

It’s really helping me to connect with my son, see how beautiful he is, and relieve my worrying. I'm not as angry anymore, I'm accepting him more, and feel less tension between us. Thank you Joanne! ~ R

Thank you Joanne. You have helped me so much to question my thoughts and beliefs. I have been living in such a hopeless dark place and doing this work with you has helped me re-think everything. ~ M

You helped me learn how to communicate with my son and I’m forever grateful. He has been in recovery and is living on his own & working. I’m still working on my own self and our relationship is better than ever. The bonus is he calls me almost every day, love wins!!!!

~ P

It was your group and your words that taught me how to love my child through her addiction. Your words helped me help her realize her strength and worth. I thank you every day for her life and mine. I hope for peace for your family.

~ B

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A Healing Path

Come into this place

Come in. Come into this place which we make holy by our presence.

Come in with all your vulnerabilities and strengths, fears, and anxieties, loves, and hopes. For here you need not hide, nor pretend, nor be anything other than who you are and are called to be.

Come into this place where we can touch and be touched, heal and be healed, forgive, and be forgiven.

Come into this place, where the ordinary is sanctified, the human is celebrated, the compassionate is expected.

Come into this place. Together we make it a holy place.

~ Rebecca Edmiston-Lange

Saying No, with Love

The demands and chance of argument are real, especially when you say no and someone is unable to accept it. Along with mental health and addiction concerns, it's easy to find yourself saying yes just to avoid more pressure and difficulty, but it's also easy to blame yourself and possibly your child because of it. And so the cycle of confusion and conflict continues. Urgh! In this course, you will identify what you truly value, your priorities, why you say yes when you want to say no, how to find your truest answer, and how to be more confident communicating it without guilt, with clarity and kindness, showing up in a calm and peaceful way that works for you. If it works for you, it works for your child too.

Get on the Wait List Here

Healing Hearts

Your child is alive but you fear their death or loss, they're alive but changed, or unavailable. This is Ambiguous Grief, filled with worry, guilt, and anger when a child struggles with substance use. We don't do this alone. The burden is heavy, but we lighten it in community, together. Healing Hearts is a compassionate community for moms (dads welcome too) seeking understanding, peace, and love amidst the struggle. In monthly sessions, we transform guilt, worry, and anger into acceptance, resilience, and loving action, learning essential skills to support your child through addiction. This ongoing membership provides community and guidance to strengthen your perseverance and put your hope into skillful action. When you give it to yourself, it transfers to your child too!

Learn more

Contact Me

Have questions or just want to connect?
Reach out to me via email at [email protected]

Connect with Me and Others Like You

Stay connected in hope and support in the
Private Facebook Group: Loving Your Child Through Their Addiction