Our Mission
The mission of Live Well and Fully is to bring inspiration to women in the 2nd half of their lives who want to navigate a major life challenge, event, or transition in a beautiful way and step fully into who they are meant to be.
We deliver one idea in just 7 minutes for you to use as you reclaim your own life on your own terms, no matter the challenges life puts in your path. Based on our Love Another Way model and its transformative power.
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Learn how to tame your Monkey Chatter so you don't make the biggest mistake families make when dealing with addiction.
- Discover how to create a more useful connection with your loved one.
- Understand why grace and gentility matter and how they can be yours.
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“It's very much a parallel process, the disease, for the loved ones and for the person who loves them.”
-Margaret Swift Thompson
Margaret Swift Thompson, M.S., LADC, CTA Certified Coach, began her 20-plus year counseling career at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in 1998. She is passionate about helping loved ones recover from this family disease. In 2021 she launched her own business, Embrace Family Recovery, and hosts the Embrace Family Recovery podcast. Margaret is also a certified She Recovers Coach.
Listen to Margaret Swift Thompson’s podcast, Embrace Family Recover, and hear stories of recovery, professional insights, and tips and tools. Click here.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- The biggest mistake Laine sees parents making in her work with them.
- What the word “prayer” means to Laine and how she has found prayer to be enormously helpful with her own life with her grown children.
- Laine’s thoughts on the connection between our actions and our children’s.
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“I think the biggest mistake we make is we make them feel shameful. We make them feel like failures. We make them feel like something's terribly wrong with them.”
-Laine Lawson Craft
Laine Lawson Craft is a best-selling and an award-winning author, popular media host, and in-demand speaker. The founder and publisher of WHOAwomen magazine (2010-2018), she regularly hosts online challenges and masterclasses as well as Facebook Live events that reach thousands. Her Warfare Parenting podcast encourages parents of adult children. Laine and her husband, Steve, have three children and live in Florida.
Download your free copy of Laine’s Warfare Prayers right here. Visit Laine and explore her work here.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Learn how what you “think” you want to do in your life may be based on what you experienced in childhood.
- Discover what a socially compliant goal is and the impact this may (or may not) have on your decisions.
- Find out why checking in with others in our lives as we contemplate change may not be the best approach.
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"Every bit of the problem I solve is helping people find their voice. But what I mean by that specifically is what matters to them, not what they think that is supposed to matter to them."
-Tony Overbay
Tony Overbay is a licensed marriage and family therapist, certified mindful habit coach, host of the award-winning podcast The Virtual Couch
Visit Tony’s website right here and sample one of his many podcasts. They are engaging and energized. Enjoy.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Discover Sarah’s spot-on analysis of the typical symptom of women who are not currently living their best life.
- Find out about the biggest mistake you may make when trying to solve this problem.
- Learn a simple process for how you can start today to solve this problem in your life.
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“The typical symptom is resignation. They are resigned to the job they're in. They're resigned to the role that they're in. They're quietly unhappy.”
-Sarah E. Brown, Ph.D.
Sarah E. Brown, Ph.D., empowers women to live their best lives possible, at work and at home, by discovering what it is they really want and who they really are.
Download your free copy of a chapter in Sarah’s book, Let Your Personality Be Your Career Guide.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Learn why sleep is the absolute foundation of our well-being and comes before diet and exercise.
- Discover the three most common mistakes we make when trying to solve our sleep problem.
- Find out the most common sleep myths and how to bust them.
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“Insomnia is really a 24-hour problem. It's not a nighttime thing, and it's not even really a sleep problem. It really is a stress management problem for a lot of us.”
-Janet Whalen
Janet Whalen is a very engaging sleep and stress management coach for A-type, midlife women.
Download your copy of Janet’s free worksheet, Calm Your Racing Mind at Bedtime. Visit Janet and explore her work here.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Discover how the past may be impacting you in ways you aren’t even aware of.
- Join in the free monthly coffee break Maryann hosts.
- Learn about the one thing we need to do when we are wrestling with our grief.
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“I don't think that the reason that grief is a problem is that we don't talk about it enough. I think that there isn't enough education. I think that there's a great misunderstanding, that there's a checklist or a timeline that people have to follow, and none of that is true. Everyone goes through grief in their own way and in their own time, and you learn how to live with it.”
-Maryann Udel
Maryann Uedl faced grief at the age of 24 when her husband was killed in an automobile accident. Now as a coach she guides people to a life beyond their grief.
Visit Maryann’s website here, and join her for coffee, monthly and/or book a chat with Maryann yourself.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- What are the most common mistakes people make with their financial planning?
- Discover how an individual becomes “wise” about their financial future.
- Find out what many people are worried about financially and how to move forward.
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“There's a lack of understanding of the power of compounding.”
-Julie Knight
Julie works at Janney Montgomery Scott and focuses on comprehensive financial planning. Julie has been instrumental in helping Barbara put a sound strategy in place. And Julie identified a revenue stream Barbara would not have known about if we had not worked together.
To learn more about Julie and her work at Janney, Montgomery, Scott, LLC, visit this link.
You can also call or email Julie for a complimentary conversation.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (610) 674-6981
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
Our very own Transformative Communications coach, Cathie Fischer, shares her insights.
- Learn what makes her approach special and effective for the most challenging conversations.
- Discover which relationships her approach works with.
- Use the one strategy she recommends we all start with, now.
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“I think that the act of listening is really important because I think everybody really needs and wants to be heard, and many of us tend to be formulating a response in our minds instead of really truly listening and understanding.”
-Cathie Fischer
Cathie Fischer is a Transformative Communications coach for women in the second half of their lives. She is passionate about all things related to communication. She has developed ninja-like skill in this area because she has had to navigate communications both during her daughter’s years in addiction and to navigate a variety of mental health challenges with other family members.
Download your free copy of “10 ways to successfully have a difficult conversation without being totally ignored or yelled at” here.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Discover the greatest mistake family members make when someone they love indicates a desire to modify their drinking.
- Understand how alcohol affects your health and well-being.
- Learn how this approach meets people where they are and is more palatable to many.
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“I don't think it's helpful or useful at all to spend a lot of time debating if you really have a problem with alcohol or if you're that bad or if you're an alcoholic.”
-Casey McGuire Davidson
Casey is a Life & Sobriety Coach and the host of the Top 100 Mental Health Podcast The Hello Someday Podcast for sober curious women and gray area drinkers.
To enjoy Casey’s podcast for sober curious women and gray area drinkers, where she goes deep into a wide range of interesting topics, click here and choose the Podcast tab.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Learn how letting go of muck allows you to find your own pockets of joy in your life.
- Discover the easiest place to start getting organized in your home (and your life).
- Find out how our old friends, guilt and overwhelm, get in our way.
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“By adding space to their life and eliminating all the crowdedness, they're able to actually move forward into doing what they really want to do.”
-Kathi Burns
Kathi Burns,CPO® is a Board Certified Professional Organizer, Image Consultant, author and speaker. As the founder of OrganizedandEnergized.com, her mission is to end overwhelm, energize & transform lives by creating systems people can stick to. Kathi’s advice has been featured in national media outlets, including Martha Stewart Living, Entrepreneur Magazine, Oprah & more.
Download your free copy of Six Steps to Organize and Energize Your Life. Visit Kathi and explore her work here.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
You are not alone in this.
- Find out why women often struggle to design a career and life they love.
- Understand what keeps you stuck in an unsatisfying career/life.
- Discover how you too can unapologetically change things up in your life.
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“The thing about women in midlife is that we have so many competing responsibilities and we're giving to so many other people that we don't take the time to really figure out what we want..”
-Dr. Carol Parker Walsh
Dr. Carol Parker Walsh, is an award-winning executive coach and personal brand strategist helping high-achieving professional women at midlife unapologetically design a career and life they love.
To start unapologetically creating a career and life you love, check out Carol’s free 3-video series, click here.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Discover how to bring about lasting change.
- Understand how combating this disease goes against your natural instincts.
- Learn the one thing you can do now to start the healing process.
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“Recovery is not only possible, it is likely and probable, given the right circumstances. And if the individual wants to get better, they likely will. And we don't need to do anything other than get out of their way.”
-Betsy Martellucci
Betsy is more than just the Clinical Director at MARS. She's also Barbara's lifeline. Without her guidance, Barbara never would have survived this journey into the world of addiction.
To access services at MARS, visit this link. MARS is in network with public funding (Medical Assistance) with Magellan and CCBH. Services are also available to Pennsylvania residents via private insurance or self-pay, and some county funded services are available for Lehigh and Northampton County residents.
Betsy suggested learning from the free resources provided by SAMHSA. Please click here.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Discover how just thinking about being stuck keeps you stuck.
- Learn a simple technique to regret-proof your life.
- Find out how something 100% within your control (mindset) can make such a big difference.
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“One of the main mistakes is believing that you can't get unstuck.”
-Suzy Rosenstein
Suzy Rosenstein has an upbeat fun approach to help you thrive and learn to love your life again in midlife! Host of Women in the Middle® Podcast.
To get your own copy of Top 10 Insightful Questions to Reimagine your Life after 50 and other helpful resources, visit her website: https://www.suzyrosenstein.com.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Find out what might be behind a reluctance to really “let go” of your son or daughter’s challenges.
- Discover how to become the Conscious Effective Olympian (CEO) of your own life.
- Learn the most common mistake Christine sees parents make when dealing with a loved one in addiction.
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“When you can hold the space for yourself and take care of yourself, you show up in a better way for not only yourself, but everyone else, including your kid.”
-Christine Oakfield
Coach Christine, hosts and produces the Your Empty Nest Coach podcast.
To hear more from Coach Christine and her upbeat solutions, click here and check out the resources she offers.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- What is gamification? Find out how it can help your family heal.
- Discover why family involvement is so important.
- Find out how this approach can be used stand-alone or in conjunction with therapy.
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“Communication is the foundation of every relationship.”
-Carlee Krichmar
Does someone in your family have the disease of addiction and/or a mind disease?
Do you feel as though communication in your family has just fallen apart?
Would you like a fun way to rewire your brain (and your family's) so that you actually change unhealthy communication patterns?
Carlee is a licensed educational counselor who specializes in helping clients and their families use conscious communication and gamification to heal together and sustain recovery.
To learn more about the work Carlee is doing to help families affected by substance abuse and addiction regain trust and connection after treatment, visit her website: https://www.exploretoheal.com/.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Learn how to “flip the script” to change the relationship’s dynamics.
- Discover the most common mistake Jill sees parents making when dealing with a son or daughter with a mind disease.
- Try out her “love audit” and see what changes for you.
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“Unrealistic expectations are here, and reality is there, and the space in between is discontentment.”
-Jill Savage
Jill Savage is an author, speaker, coach, and the host of the No More Perfect Podcast. The author of Empty Nest Full Life. You can find Jill online at www.JillSavage.org and www.EmptyNestBook.com.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
How to enjoy unshakeable two-getherness, more free time, & better results at work (without divorce)
If you are in a relationship with a life partner, you've got to check out today's episode.
- Discover what a “VIP” really is within your partner relationship.
- Find out why it’s critical to tackle both sides of the two-part mechanism.
- Understand the most common mistake partners make.
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“Letting go and letting in, it's a two part mechanism, and they are only complete as a pair always.”
-Uwe Dockhorn
Summary
Are you an in-demand professional or the life partner of one? And do you feel lonely and disconnected?
Do you want to know how to gain more time freedom, autonomy, equality and inner certainty in this most important relationship? Are you ready to turn your focus toward gaining Unshakeable Two-Getherness in your relationship?
Uwe Dockhorn is known as the Lifestyle Liberator for high achievers and their families. He has delivered more than 17,000 successful sessions for power couples all over the world. His approach is founded on principles of time freedom, autonomy, equality, and inner certainty that yield results in your business financially and in your relationships emotionally.
In this episode, Use shares how and why he does the work he does. His approach has helped thousands of in-demand professionals and their partners to get back their family mojo, double their financial security, and live in abundance in all areas of their life (without feeling guilty or constantly questioning themselves.)
To get your FREE case study on the 5 Secrets of High-Achiever Relationship Success, visit Uwe's Website
Read more
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
- Meet Barbara’s son, Eric. He is the man who inspired this work.
- Discover what Eric considers the most important tip for parents facing this disease.
- Find out what Eric thinks the most common mistake we parents make is.
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“Be prepared to get some nasty remarks in response, but it's for the best in the long run as much as it sucks in the moment..”
-Eric Decker
It is Eric who approved Barbara sharing his story in the hope that it will help someone else.
Today, he lives a full life, and even works with Barbara and solves her most difficult tech challenges.
With 4 years of sobriety under his belt, he is now opening a sober house to help others stay the course.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
Read more
Listen in
Meet your host
Hi, I’m Barbara Decker.
Parent Recovery Advocate, Certified Family Recovery Specialist (CFRS) and founder of Live Well and Fully.
I help parents of adult children with the disease of addiction (and/or mental illness) free themselves from the non-stop worry.
I help them reclaim pockets of peace and joy in their lives.
We do this all in a way that gives the child every possible opportunity to choose recovery.
I came to this work through my own journey with my son Eric’s addiction and recovery.
I tried everything I could to help him, but nothing worked. Often, it had the opposite effect.
Finally I ditched my "instincts"... what I now call my 'Mom Code.'
Instead, I began to love my son another way.
And the fire of addiction began to recede until he eventually chose recovery for himself.
He’s been in recovery since 2018, and he’s grown into the man I knew he could be.
And he’s now an active part of my work helping moms reclaim peace in their lives and support their kids in ways that actually work.
Thanks for checking out our Live Well and Fully podcast.
It's hard enough being a mom. When your child has an addiction or mental illness, it feels like your world is falling apart.
We offer action-based strategies to help moms reclaim peace in their homes and their hearts while encouraging their son or daughter to choose recovery.
More here on our website.
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Due to the sensitive nature of this subject, some names and photos have been changed. The quotes are real.
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