Fragmented to Whole: Life Lessons from 12 Step Recovery

Send us Fan Mail “I want what I want when I want it” -  otherwise known as the inability to delay gratification, was my attitude towards life before recovery. With this mindset, I was unable to see the consequences of plowing forward to get what I wanted. This week’s episode 209 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about missing red flags- when you want what you want when you want it! Support the...

Send us Fan Mail It wasn’t until several years into my recovery that I realized there were certain things that I thought were fused were not actually fused. That is, I thought where one thing existed, the other automatically existed as well. Not only did I grow to understand this was not true, I realized many of the examples of this in my life had to do with dating and that building healthy bounda...

Send us Fan Mail When you’re so lost and enmeshed, it can be difficult to know what a boundary is let alone even begin setting them. This week’s episode 207 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about your step-by-step guide for how to get started setting boundaries! Support the show by becoming a Patreon member !  In this episode of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast, I’m sharing my definition of wh...

Send us Fan Mail In a recent episode, I mentioned that I had a whole cascade of memories and understanding that I have experienced some level of trauma in every job I had before recovery This led me to self-reflect on how my dysfunctional upbringing played a role in this using an inventory about workplace traits of Adult Children from ACA. Last week I shared the first 12 traits of adult children i...

Send us Fan Mail In a recent episode, I mentioned that I had a whole cascade of memories and understanding that I have experienced some level of trauma in every job I had before recovery. Upon reflection, I know the role my dysfunctional upbringing has played in my workplace experiences. This week’s episode 205 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about the 24 ways adult child traits show up in t...

Send us Fan Mail One of the manifestations of growing up in a dysfunctional family is distorted thinking, so it is important that we learn that we are not responsible for these thoughts popping up. However, we ARE responsible for not listening to them. This week’s episode 204 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about why you’re responsible for your second thought and not your first thought! Supp...

Send us Fan Mail Content Warning: Abuse  For my 200th episode, I asked my listeners to send in their questions for me to answer on the podcast and while I answered a few that felt fitting for my celebration episode, I wanted to dedicate a series of episodes to answer some of the questions that were more geared to boundaries and recovery in general. In this week’s episode 203 of the Fragmented to W...

Send us Fan Mail For my 200th episode, I asked my listeners to send in their questions for me to answer on the podcast and while I answered a few that felt fitting for my celebration episode, I wanted to dedicate a series of episodes to answer some of the questions that were more geared to boundaries and recovery in general. In this week’s episode 202 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast, I’m answer...

Send us Fan Mail For my 200th episode, I asked my listeners to send in their questions for me to answer on the podcast and while I answered a few that felt fitting for my celebration episode, I wanted to dedicate a series of episodes to answer some of the questions that were more geared to boundaries and recovery in general. In this week’s episode 201 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast, I’m answer...

Send us Fan Mail Although we are celebrating my 200th podcast episode, I have achieved so many other milestones through recovery and have so much in my life to be proud of and celebrate. This week’s episode 200 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is my celebration episode! Support the show by becoming a Patreon member !  In this episode of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast, I’m being interviewed by m...

Send us Fan Mail The number one thing that stops people from setting boundaries is dealing with the feelings of guilt and shame that come up. This week’s episode 199 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about four ways to manage your difficult feelings when setting boundaries! I like to think of boundaries as the healthy midpoint on a continuum where enmeshment is on one end and abandonment is on...

Send us Fan Mail This is the podcast "Fragmented to Whole: Life Lessons from 12 Step Recovery." It will help people who want to heal to move from fragmented to whole. Hi, I'm Barb! I share my experience, strength and hope from 12 step recovery in each episode. They're all 20 minutes or less. Unlike most recovery podcasts where you hear a person's whole story, in this one e...

Send us Fan Mail Recently, I was talking with a friend and reflecting on how I managed to change some of my long-standing patterns of behavior and the methods for how that change process unfolds. This week’s episode 198 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about how to change your behavior after 50 years in the other direction!  Support the show by becoming a Patreon member !  In this episode of...

Send us Fan Mail Looking back, I can see I had this ‘I want what I want when I want it’ mentality in many areas of my life. But now that I’m in recovery and emotionally mature, I’m able to see that it had a lot to do with immaturity. I’m now able to delay my gratification and make life so much easier for myself rather than harder. This week’s episode 197 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about...

Send us Fan Mail A few months ago I recorded an episode called “Denial 3.0” and said that I had no doubt that in the years to come, I will be recording even more episodes about me coming out of denial as this is a lifelong journey. Who knew that it wouldn't be in the years to come but actually sooner in the months to come? This week’s episode 196 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is more ins...

Send us Fan Mail I recently talked to a friend from recovery who asked me if I had any advice or experience when it comes to rekindling an old friendship and of course I do so I wanted to share the advice I gave to her with you as well. This week’s episode 195 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is your step-by-step guide for how to mindfully rekindle old friendships! Support the show by becoming a...

Send us Fan Mail Although ACA started as Adult Children of Alcoholics, it is now referred to as Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families because whether your parents were addicts, alcoholics, chronically ill, mentally ill, militaristic, super religious, etc. any kind of family dysfunction can lead to the same set of traits. This week’s episode 194 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast...

Send us Fan Mail A huge part of my recovery has been coming out of denial and part of my denial journey is coming to realize that I am what’s called an Adult Child and then, once I realized that - that more traits of an adult child apply to me than I once believed. This week’s episode 193 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is part 1 of how to know if you’re an adult child- The Laundry List! Suppor...

Send us Fan Mail Earlier this month, I set aside one day where I planned to take myself on a CEO retreat and do a deep dive into a project for my business. When the day came, it was an absolute fail, and yet, my life wasn’t ruined because of it. This week’s episode 192 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about the time my CEO retreat failed but I still had a great day thanks to recovery! Support...

Send us Fan Mail I typically record myself when I share in meetings so I can listen back and see how things have changed - how my perspective has changed and how I’ve grown as a person. I’ve never considered sharing these recordings on the podcast until a fellow in recovery suggested the idea to me and I thought, why not? This week’s episode 191 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is a recorded sha...

Send us Fan Mail You can lie, pretend, and go through the motions for so long but until you make the decision to participate in your own recovery, you’re not going to see the life changes you’re looking for. This week’s episode 190 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about participating in your own recovery! Support the show by becoming a Patreon member !  In this episode of the Fragmented to Wh...

Send us Fan Mail Through recovery, we learn to tell the truth in order to live with integrity but sometimes, the full truth is not anyone else’s business. That’s where what I call the “blurry truth” comes into play. This week’s episode 189 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about how to hold onto your own integrity by setting boundaries using “blurry truth.” Support the show by becoming a Patre...

Send us Fan Mail I realized recently that before recovery I had a set of dysfunctional tools that actually made my life worse and through recovery, I was able to replace those tools with functional ones that make things better. This week’s episode 188 of the Fragmented to Whole Podcast is about dysfunctional vs functional tools & how to stop making things worse! Support the show by becoming a...

Send us Fan Mail I spent so much of my life searching for something and didn’t know what I was searching for until I found it in recovery. That’s right, these realizations never once came up in the 37 years of therapy, self-help, and self-discovery work I did before going into recovery. And THAT is why carrying the message of recovery is so important to me. This week’s episode 187 of the Fragmente...

Send us Fan Mail When we’re little, we don’t know anything different than how we’ve been raised so for a lot of us, until we grow up and get into 12-step recovery programs, we don’t understand that what we endured as children was abusive and dyscuntional. Until we realize this and no longer adhere to the rigid beliefs we were taught as children, we remain stuck in this loop of dysfunction. This we...