“After 11 years of loving an addicted son and losing myself in codependency, Live Well and Fully helped me reclaim my peace. I learned to set loving, firm boundaries, honor his struggle, and finally stop carrying his addiction as my own.”
Karen Whatley
The level of learning and support is unquantifiable. After week 1 I saw changes in my relationship with my son. I feel empowered and supported and I have hope. I feel like the Live Well and Fully platform is a gift that just keeps giving.
Chrissy Carter
Barbara and her team have been my lifeline as I navigate my son’s addiction to cocaine. They helped me stay grounded amidst the chaos of this disease. And they helped me find my “Pockets of joy!” Highly recommended.
Doreen Killens
Parent-First Coaching for Families Facing Addiction or Mental Illness
Reclaim Your Peace, Power, and Family – One Calm, Clear Step at a Time.
You have spent years trying to help your adult child through addiction or mental illness. You have tried rules, consequences, begging, rescuing, distance. Nothing has given you lasting relief, and nothing seems to reach your child either.
Now it is time to prioritize you – your peace, your clarity, your capacity to keep going. Our coached programs are built for parents who are ready for real change without burning themselves out in the process.
What Makes Our Coaching Different
Three principles that shape every coached program we run.
Frameworks, Not Formulas
You will never be handed a rigid rulebook. We teach flexible frameworks you can adapt to your family. Every situation is different, and the tools have to work with that reality, not against it.
Guided by a Certified Family Recovery Specialist
Our coached programs are led by Barbara – our Certified Family Recovery Specialist – and trained Graduate Coaches who have walked this road themselves and now return to guide other parents with compassion and hard-won wisdom.
Change That Fits Your Life
Your life is already full of worry, caretaking, logistics, loss. Everything we teach is designed to make things simpler, not harder. Many parents notice a shift within the first week.
Explore Our Coached Programs
Five coached programs, each designed to meet you where you are.
| Coached Program | Best For | Focus | Length & Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Transformative Boundaries Experience™ | Moms ready for a deep transformation to set boundaries and empower recovery. | Comprehensive guidance on replacing the “Mom Code” with effective boundary-setting. | 8 weeks + 2 bonus weeks coached course, interactive modules + live Progress Coaching pods + community. |
| Decode Addiction™ | Moms who want to understand addiction so they can end the cycle of chaos and worry. | The “Smothering Strategy” – changing yourself in ways that interrupt addiction patterns. | 8 weeks + 2 bonus weeks coached course, educational content + case studies + coaching support + community. |
| Liberate Your Life™ | Moms who have spent years putting everyone else first and are ready to reclaim themselves. | Two Freedom Frameworks for breaking people-pleasing and building confidence without guilt. | 8 weeks + 2 bonus weeks coached transformation, live coaching + community. |
| Mind Diseases™ | Moms whose adult child is navigating mental illness, with or without co-occurring addiction. | Barbara’s Cognitive Care Plan – understanding mind diseases and communicating with a struggling loved one. | 8 weeks + 2 bonus weeks coached program, live coaching support + toolkit + community. |
| Transformative Communications™ | Moms whose relationship with a loved one has taken a dark turn – they cannot get through anymore. | How to speak up and finally be heard without causing the other person to explode, shut down, or make you the villain. | 8 weeks + 2 bonus weeks coached program, live coaching sessions + scripts + community. |
Detailed Program Descriptions
Every coached program below is an eight-to-ten-week structured course delivered through self-paced modules and a weekly Progress Coaching pod, led by Barbara — our Certified Family Recovery Specialist — and her trained Graduate Coaches.
1. The Transformative Boundaries Experience™
What It Is:
An 8-week coached course that replaces the “Mom Code” (saying yes, softening, rescuing) with the Love Another Way™ framework. You build Transformative Boundaries from a calm, grounded place instead of in-the-moment panic, stop second-guessing every decision, and give your adult child their best real shot at choosing recovery.
Who It’s For:
Moms of adult children with addiction or mental illness who are ready for a deep, sustained transformation. The ones who have tried the books, the therapy, the ultimatums – and know that what needs to change most is how they are showing up in their own life.
What You’ll Learn:
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How to replace the ‘Mom Code’ – the unspoken rules that drive enabling – with boundary-setting that fits real life.
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Practical tools to regain control of your daily decisions while staying connected to your loved one.
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A shared framework you can return to when the next crisis hits, so you are not rebuilding from scratch every time.
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The language and scripts other moms have used to de-escalate without capitulating.
2. Decode Addiction™
What It Is:
An 8-week coached course built around the Smothering Strategy – a “Family First” approach that ends the cycle of pleading, yelling, and enabling by changing the one variable you actually control: you. The shift interrupts the patterns your child has come to expect and opens space for recovery to become their choice, not your demand.
Who It’s For:
Moms at their wits’ end – waking up with dread, checking the phone through the day, bracing for the next call. Moms who want to understand how addiction hijacks the brain so they can respond without adding fuel to it.
What You’ll Learn:
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How addiction rewires the brain and distorts the way your child reads your words and actions.
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Why well-intentioned help often pushes an addicted child further away, and what to do instead.
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The Smothering Strategy – a counterintuitive shift that breaks the pattern without breaking the relationship.
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How to reclaim your own routines, sleep, and peace while your child is still struggling.
3. Liberate Your Life™
What It Is:
An 8-week coached program for women who’ve spent years putting everyone else first… and quietly disappeared in the process. Built around two Freedom Frameworks (the R.I.S.E. Method and the Pathway to Peace Protocol™), Liberate Your Life moves you out of guilt, conflict-avoidance, and self-suppression… and into a life where your peace, your priorities, and your decisions finally come first.
Who It’s For:
Moms who have been the anchor for everyone – the caregiver, the peacemaker, the one who swallows her own feelings to keep things steady. If a loved one’s addiction or mental illness has pulled even more of your life out of your own hands, this program rebuilds the version of you that gets to choose.
What You’ll Learn:
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Two Freedom Frameworks for breaking the cycle of people-pleasing and over-giving.
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How to set healthy boundaries without guilt – and why the guilt fades once you see the frameworks work.
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Practical ways to rebuild the parts of yourself that got put on hold while you held everyone else together.
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How to turn the small daily decisions into a life that is recognisably yours again.
4. Mind Diseases™
What It Is:
A coached program built around Barbara’s Cognitive Care Plan – a framework for understanding mental illness from the inside out, so you can communicate, support, and set limits without being pulled under by your loved one’s symptoms. Barbara built it through her own years of parenting a son living with multiple mental illnesses and co-occurring addiction.
Who It’s For:
Moms whose adult child is navigating mental illness – psychosis, depression, bipolar, co-occurring disorders – and who are tired of responding from fear. Moms who want to understand what is actually happening so they can stop pushing the very person they are trying to help further away.
What You’ll Learn:
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The Cognitive Care Plan – how to read what your loved one is experiencing and respond without escalating.
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Communication patterns that reach a person living with mental illness, even when they are in distress.
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How to protect your own mental health while holding compassionate space for theirs.
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Practical tools for restoring a family relationship that mental illness has fractured.
5. Transformative Communications™
What It Is:
An 8-week coached program for the moments when the conversation with a loved one has gone sideways… when you cannot say what you need without triggering an explosion, a shutdown, or being cast as the bad guy. The U.P.R. Protocol gives you the exact patterns for speaking up and being heard without the fallout. Since 2018, Barbara has taught it to more than a thousand women.
Who It’s For:
Moms with a loved one – an adult child, spouse, partner, family member – where the relationship has taken a dark turn. The behaviour has become harmful, the connection feels gone, and every attempt to reach them lands wrong. Moms who need the conversation itself to change.
What You’ll Learn:
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How to speak up and get your needs met without triggering backlash, retreat, or blame.
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De-escalation language that works in real time, in real conversations, not just in theory.
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How to step out of the villain role your loved one has cast you in, without abandoning them.
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Scripts and sequences other moms have used to reopen conversations that had gone silent for months.
Meet the Coaches Who Will Support Your Journey
Each of our Graduate Coaches has done the deep work of the Love Another Way framework in their own lives. They understand what it feels like to be stuck, to people-please, and to finally choose yourself. Now they’re here to guide you with empathy, insight, and real experience.
Patti – Lead Graduate Coach
Patti was a participant in the very first program Barbara ever offered, and she’s been part of Live Well and Fully ever since. While supporting all three of her children through addiction and mental health challenges, she completed every one of our five programs as a student. What began as her own journey of healing grew into a calling to help other women do the same.
Patti returned to train as a coach, and today she serves as our Lead Graduate Coach, guiding women with the wisdom of lived experience, deep compassion, and a steady belief in what’s possible.
She offers you a safe and nurturing place to explore, reflect, and dig deep into the patterns holding you back from peace and comfort in your life.
Jacque – Assistant Lead Graduate Coach
Jacque has been an integral part of Live Well and Fully almost since its beginning and serves as the assistant lead graduate coach. She has participated in every one of Barbara’s programs, where she has guided countless students with wisdom and care.
You will also see Jacque’s presence on our weekly live Zoom coaching calls. She is truly beloved by all who have had the privilege of working with her.
Jacque is passionate about growth and transformation. She has witnessed remarkable changes in relationships as people learn and apply new skills in these programs. She understands the intricacies of the human experience and is deeply committed to helping you better understand the behaviors that are robbing you of your peace.
Our Graduate Coaching Team
Alongside Barbara and Patti, you’ll also be supported by a team of trained Graduate Coaches. Each of them began as a student in our programs and later returned as a coach, dedicated to helping other parents find their own peace and strength. They understand the challenges because they’ve lived them – and they’ll guide you forward with compassion and practical support.
Frequently Asked Questions
Parent coaching is guided support that helps you step out of old patterns of over-giving, rescuing, and self-sacrifice when your adult child is in active addiction or living with mental illness – so you can reconnect with your own needs, speak with confidence, and make choices that truly reflect your priorities.
At Live Well and Fully, our coaching gives you flexible frameworks, tools, and community support that fit your life – helping you create lasting change that feels calm, respectful, and sustainable, even while your loved one is still struggling.
That is one of the most common things we hear. Many parents come to us after years of trying books, courses, support groups, and advice that felt good in the moment but did not create lasting change. Our approach is different. Instead of handing you a one-size-fits-all formula, we give you flexible frameworks, practical tools, and real support. You will learn how to make small but powerful shifts that stick – at your own pace, in ways that fit your life. Parents often say, "This is the first thing that actually helped."
You will find coaching and tools to help with:
– Setting boundaries (without guilt or shutdowns)
– Communicating clearly with an adult child whose thinking is distorted by addiction or mental illness
– Identifying and shifting lifelong patterns of rescuing
– Rebuilding your sense of self
– Making calm, confident choices (without second-guessing)
Each program focuses on a different transformation, so you can start with what matters most to you right now.
You do not have to figure it out on your own. We offer a free 15-minute clarity call with a Live Well and Fully coach who will listen, get a sense of your situation, and help you decide which program is the best fit for what you need right now. This call is simply about guidance – it is not a coaching or therapy session – but it will give you confidence about where to begin.
Yes – absolutely. All of our coached programs include access to the Live Well and Fully Parent Community. It is a private, supportive space where you can connect with parents who understand what addiction and mental illness do to a family, ask questions, and share both wins and struggles along the way. Best of all, you are never alone in there. Our graduate coaches and Barbara herself are active in the group every single day – answering questions, offering encouragement, and cheering you on as you put these tools into practice. You will be supported by both peers and mentors who truly understand the journey you are on.
What Other Parents Are Saying
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Even your most loving words can backfire. This free guide names the 5 phrases moms say most often that quietly push a struggling adult child further away – and what to say instead so they can actually hear you.
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