Today we have on the show Jessi Frothingham, MA, MFT. Jessi has spent years working with family members that have a loved one who is using drugs or alcohol. As a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and certified CRAFT therapist, Jessi’s passion is in helping families to stay in their relationships in a healthier way. She is in private practice in Portland, Oregon and previously worked at The Center for Family & Adolescent Research.

Today’s show is about communication. Communicating with a loved one who is drinking […]

In this episode of Helping Families Help Podcast (formerly Sober Families Podcast), we talked with Dr. Christeine Terry about alternatives to nagging, threatening, and pleading as ways to motivate your loved one. First off, we want you to know that it’s really natural to get angry, to threaten, and to make bargains as a way to change your loved one. And yet, these ways of interaction generally don’t work to motivate people to change their behavior. So, instead we wanted to spend some time introducing some scientific principles for motivating more […]

In this episode of The Helping Families Help Podcast (formerly Sober Families Podcast), we talked with Dr. Christeine Terry about the kinds of costs that addiction to drugs and alcohol can have for families. If you’re listening to this podcast, you’ve probably experienced first-hand the damaging effects of addiction on you, your family, and your addicted love one. Addiction has many costs, and some of the most “expensive” costs of addiction are the negative impacts it has on family members. In today’s show, will be discussing how addiction impacts families, as well […]

In this episode of The Helping Families Help Podcast (formerly Sober Families Podcast), we talked with Dr. Christeine Terry about addiction: what it is, how to identify it, and how family members can respond. We’ve all heard terms like addiction, alcoholism, but what does is mean to be addicted? How can we tell the difference between every day substance use that’s not harmful, and patterns of addiction that are harmful? These are the kinds of questions addressed in this show.

Sometimes it’s really easy to tell if your loved one is addicted […]

In this episode of The Helping Families Help Podcast (formerly Sober Families Podcast), we talked with Dr. Christeine Terry about the kinds of options that family members have for dealing with an addicted loved one. The focus was not on the kinds of treatments are available for the person with addiction, but what kind of options are there to help the family, who often suffer and struggle because of their loved one’s addiction.

In this podcast, we reviewed five options for family members dealing an addicted loved one. These options are relevant […]