🎙️Beyond the Noise: Episode 1
Healing Together: Addiction, Family, and Recovery
Guests:
- Toby Lawrence – CEO, Arrow Health
- Rebecca Wardan – Director of Nursing and Operations
- Julie Leiber – Family Counsellor
Addiction doesn’t just affect the individual, it impacts entire families. In this episode, Toby, Rebecca, and Julie explore why addiction is often called a family disease, how denial shows up in families, and why family-inclusive treatment is essential to long-term recovery.
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Key Takeaways
- Addiction impacts the whole family system, not just the individual
- Denial affects both people with addiction and their families
- Generational trauma often underpins patterns of substance use
- Family therapy helps shift dialogue, build healthier boundaries, and support recovery
- Arrow Health’s therapeutic community model mirrors family systems to teach new ways of relating
Chapter Markers
00:00 – Welcome and introduction
00:21 – What “Healing Together” means
00:46 – Julie’s background and why families matter in recovery
02:40 – Generational trauma and family dynamics
05:15 – Arrow Health’s family-inclusive therapeutic model
07:20 – Why families sometimes resist joining therapy
11:27 – Neuroscience of addiction and family boundaries
14:42 – The financial and emotional toll of addiction on families
19:27 – Stages of change and “Suicide Tuesday” patterns
23:54 – Families holding boundaries when clients want to leave treatment
30:35 – Building a therapeutic community of families
35:00 – Behaviour change: “What’s your part?”
38:05 – Key takeaways for families considering help