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In this episode of The Art of Imperfect Adulting, Amy Stone speaks with Lisa Smith about her experience as a parent loving and supporting a son navigating substance use disorder and mental health challenges. Lisa opens up about the heartache, resilience, and hard-earned wisdom that comes from shifting from “fixing” to genuinely “loving” someone in active addiction. Together, Amy and Lisa dive into the realities of family stress, the limits of traditional support systems, and the power of radical acceptance and connection.
About the Guest:
Lisa Smith is the founder and CEO of Parallel Recovery, an organization providing comprehensive family recovery support for those impacted by substance use and mental health disorders. As a certified Peer Recovery Specialist with over 20 years of experience in education and family systems, Lisa brings deep expertise to her work empowering families on the parallel healing journey alongside loved ones.
Main Topics Covered:
Timestamps: [00:00:04] Welcome & Lisa’s life in Colorado
[00:00:51] Transitioning from busy to downtime: walking dogs (without the phone!)
[00:01:47] Lisa’s relationship with her son and the realities of substance use
[00:06:27] Diagnosis, home dynamics, and early treatment attempts
[00:08:10] Family stress and the myth of “lowering the temperature”
[00:09:35] The “gut check” moment and finding clarity as a parent
[00:12:52] Radical acceptance and learning to step back
[00:14:37] The difference between “fixing” and “loving” in family conversations
[00:18:19] Searching for resources and the problems with “detachment with love”
[00:25:10] Internal work, research, and shifting the family system
[00:31:27] The lack of support for families in the crisis cycle
[00:35:06] Shame, societal judgment, and learning to separate behavior from identity
[00:43:52] Lisa’s support philosophy, Parallel Recovery, and her new book
[00:47:10] Knitting, cheese platters, and fun wrap-up questions
Connect with the Guest:
Website: https://parallelrecovery.com
Instagram: @parallelrecovery
Find Lisa’s Book, Parallel Recovery: A Guide for Those Who Love Someone with Substance Use Disorder, is now available on Amazon. https://a.co/d/fgmD9Vn
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Here are a few resources that Amy uses to make all this great content. These are affiliate links :-)
For livestreaming and recording ECamm https://www.ecamm.com/mac/ecammlive/?fp_ref=amy69
Podcast hosting and distribution: Captivate FM https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=ntczmwi
Website hosting with Siteground https://www.siteground.com/?referrer_id=9115590
Ai Transcription Tool: Castmagic https://get.castmagic.io/ugrmjjrt8ofj
For Email I recently switched to Beehiiv https://www.beehiiv.com?via=Amy-Stone
before that I used Kit.
Books I like and books written by show guests on Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/lists/podcast-guest-authors
No transcript available for this episode.

The Art Of Imperfect Adulting

The Art Of Imperfect Adulting

The Art Of Imperfect Adulting