The Unbreakable Boundaries Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this podcast, Jen announces the rebranding of her podcast from Maneely Consulting to The Recovering Family, focusing on helping families with substance abuse issues. She outlines five principles for creating unbreakable boundaries: the Exchange Principle, emphasizing equal exchanges in financial, time, and energy; the Action Principle, stressing the importance of actions over words; the Present Principle, urging focus on the here and now; the Love Principle, advocating for loving communication; and the Joy Principle, highlighting the need for self-care and joy. She also promotes her nonprofit's donation-based services and encourages listeners to visit therecoveringfamily.org for more information.

In this episode of the podcast, host Jen Maneely welcomes Katie Kocher and her mother, Barb Kocher, to share their heartfelt journey through addiction and recovery. Katie opens up about her feelings of isolation and misunderstanding during her youth, despite excelling academically and athletically. Barb reflects on her unawareness of the signs of Katie's struggles and acknowledges the effects of their strict parenting approach. As Katie's addiction worsened, it led to serious consequences, including expulsion from sports teams and a car accident. After 15 tumultuous years, Katie found hope in rehab, discovering the healing power of art therapy. Now five years clean, she and Barb discuss the importance of grace and understanding in their relationship, highlighting the joy of reconnecting and the lessons learned along the way. This insightful conversation sheds light on the complexities of addiction and the strength found in family support.

Tanya D. is a Certified meditation instructor (C.MI™), Usui/Holy Fire® III Karuna Reiki® Master, Sound Vibrational Reiki Healing Practitioner, Animal Reiki practitioner, Certified spiritual life coach, and Yoga4Sobriety Teacher Ambassador / Student Liason.

She uses her experience, strength, hope, intuition, and teacher trainings to help people find peace and serenity in recovery from addiction. 

In recovery herself, she offers a unique holistic approach to finding freedom in recovery through trauma-sensitive chakra/12-step focused meditation, chakra energy healing, and spiritual life coaching.

Know Hope North Carolina's mission is to remember those we have lost, support those in recovery and give hope to those still struggling.  Create memorial banner and billboards with faces of those lost to addiction in NC.  Refer clients to detox and treatment centers.  Facilitate grief groups.

Outline of Podcast Topics
·      The power of creating a space to honor your feelings in a safe way. 8:17

·      Grief doesn’t always have to be a direct result of a loss. 15:24

·      Don’t go down the road of “enabling”. 21:53

·      “They weren’t my answers to find.”. 24:11

·      What are some of the regrets that you have? 33:40

·      Life goes on, we don’t move on. 37:07

·      Don’t quit! Find your something! 43:11

·      What would you tell your loved ones that are still going through this?

 Website: https://www.knowhopenorthcarolina.com/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4283060278435570

In this episode, Tracy and I get into a great conversation about what do kids need and how that translates later in life. Safety, Security, and Love are three important things and in that, creating a safe place to be heard and how important connection is. 

Tracy Redfearn is a Licensed Psychoeducational Specialist who is certified by the SC Board of Education as a School Psychologist II, the National Association of School Psychologists as a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, and the International Association of Trauma Professionals as a Child and Adolescent Trauma Professional. Tracy founded Child and Family Resource Center in 2012 because she was concerned with the need in Hartsville for effective intervention services to help provide children and adolescents with successful educational experiences. Tracy has been instrumental in helping many children who struggle to meet their potential in the classroom through her expertise in assessments, learning differences, and knowledge of SC Special Education practices and procedures. 

Her educational intervention recommendations focus on the unique social, emotional, behavioral and academic needs of each student she sees. For optimal results, she collaborates closely with parents, educators and other professionals to help create supportive learning environments while strengthening connections between home, school and the community. Tracy understands special education laws and is passionate about the rights of students with special needs. She educates parents on their rights and serves as an advocate at 504 and IEP meetings. 

As a psychologist in the school system for over a decade, Tracy saw firsthand how grief, loss and trauma can interfere with learning. To help hurting families cope, she has been offering grief camps ( All Seasons Grief Camp ). Through therapeutic activities that include art, horseback riding, music, movement and breathing, and classes on grief and emotional support, families are able to push past their pain. Family members memorialize their loved ones in a ceremony at the conclusion.

It can be a really confusing time when your loved one gets out of rehab. It can be confusing for you as well as them. It's emotional, it's a little chaotic and not at all what you would expect it to look like. In this next podcast, I share a little bit about what you can expect. This is generalization, so if you have questions about your own loved one, please reach out to me.

jennifermconsulting@gmail.com

maneelyconsulting.com

In this episode, Michele Rogers shares with us her journey of losing her son. This was a powerful conversation about what happens next as well as her experience. The biggest take away from this conversation is, this is not a parenting problem.

Here is just a little of Michele's story and what she has to say:

I grew up in Tidewater Virginia and later attended Saint Leo College in Florida. I had two sons, Clayton (1989) and Bradley (1992). When I divorced in 1996 I moved with my young sons to Waynesville, NC. I worked in hospitality and marketing. I met my husband in 1999 and was remarried in 2003. I became a Real Estate Broker in 2005 and worked in sales until buying a Property Management Company in 2010.

My husband and I are both NC Real Estate Brokers and together with our small staff, we manage over 400 long term rental properties for our company Select Homes.

When my oldest son, Clay, was in her very early 20s he had a sinus surgery and was over-prescribed pain pills. He became addicted to the pain pills and entered treatment for the first time in 2012. His pain pill addiction turned into a heroin addiction around 2015. From 2012-2018 Clay cycled in nd out of rehab, being substance free, relapsing and back to rehab. In September of 2018 after being substance free for 11 months, Clay relapsed and last his life to fentanyl.

After losing my son, I knew I wanted to do something to help other family members navigate the lonely journey of having a loved one with SUD and the even lonelier grief journey after losing someone to Substance Passing. I met Lisa Falbo and we learned that we had this in common and together we started the 501(c)3 - The SHARE Project. SHARE stands for Spreading Hope and Awareness and Removing the Epidemic Stigma. We hold events including quarterly workshops to bring awareness and education of the drug epidemic. We sit on several drug awareness and prevention coalitions throughout our county and region. We facilitate two monthly support groups - SMART RECOVERY FAMILY & FRIENDS for those who have loved ones struggling with SUD and GRASP - Grief Recovery After Substance Passing. We host an annual Drug Awareness Walk and Event as well as an annual International Overdose Awareness Event. This past may we had almost 300 people attend out Annual Walk and Awareness Event.

When I'm not working at my property management company  or with The SHARE Project, I enjoy traveling with my husband, Rick and spending time with my two grandsons, Elijah (8) and Wyatt (4).


Additional Links
The Share Project
A Mother's Pledge

Lisa grew up having a great family life with 3 brothers. She moved from Ohio to NC when she was twelve 12. She has two sons from first marriage and divorced after 9 years of marriage. Lisa raised her boys as a single mom and home schooled them until they entered high school. Their high school years were full of struggles, some normal, some not. Both boys started using drugs in their mid-teens. Sam (oldest son) escalated to IV drug use and meth. He was "in recovery" on MAT (Medically Assisted Treatment) for several years into his 20's where he relapsed. He found himself in and out of trouble. Ultimately, he overdosed and passed at the age of 27. Troy (youngest son) has been in and out of active drug use for over 10 years. Currently incarcerated. Lisa remarried in 2015 and currently works as a certified personal trainer. She is an independent small "business" owner and Co-founder of The SHARE Project, an awareness/support/educational organization with the goal of de-stigmatizing addiction so it is looked at as a treatable disorder.

My next episode includes a guest that made a new year's resolution to get sober and 4 years later, she is still sober. She talks with us about her journey into sobriety and how she did it. It wasn't the typical path, and it has shown to be successful for her. She writes openly about it in her blog titled "Wishes from the Bottom"

This was her first time speaking about and I am honored to have had her as a guest on this podcast. 

Pamela O’Leary is the Founder and CEO of Blossom Badass, an empowerment company. Previously, her background includes roles in management consulting, tech, the nonprofit sector and higher education, including work on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations.

You hear it all the time with people who have loved ones with substance abuse issues. The "Letting go". But what does that really mean. Sometimes we have a misconception on what "Letting Go" really means. It's more about letting go of our ideas of what should be or shouldn't be. This is what this podcast explores.