FAMILY RECOVERY STRATEGY • LIVED EXPERIENCE • SINCE 2006
Your child doesn’t have to get sober for you to get your life back
If your teen or adult child is struggling with addiction, you may be exhausted, afraid, and second-guessing every decision. I work with parents to respond differently to the chaos, set clearer boundaries, and create a plan for what to do next.
-meet donna
What I Learned Changed How I Loved My Son and
How I Guide Parents Today
Family Recovery Strategist • Certified Recovery Support Worker
Author • Speaker
Since 2006, I’ve guided parents and families navigating active addiction, relapse, recovery, and the messy in-between. My work combines lived experience with professional training in family recovery, harm reduction, boundaries, communication, and unhealthy helping.
I don’t tell parents to abandon their child or wait for “rock bottom.” I guide them to respond differently — with love, clarity, boundaries, and a plan.
When Every Decision Feels Like the Wrong One
Addiction can pull the entire family into crisis mode. You answer the phone, pay the bill, fix the problem, make the call, and try to prevent what might happen next.
Then you’re left wondering:
Am I supporting my child — or taking responsibility away from them?
How do I set a boundary without feeling cruel?
What if I say no and something bad happens?
How do I stop making every decision from fear?
These are the questions I guide parents through every day — so fear does not have to make every decision.
THE SWOS RE-SET METHOD™
Love Your Child Without Letting Fear, Guilt, or Chaos Make Every Decision
The SWOS Re-Set Method™ gives parents a practical framework to understand what is happening, recognize unhealthy helping, and create boundaries that support both the parent and the child.
01
Understand What Is Really
Happening
Addiction affects the whole family. Learn to recognize the patterns that keep you stuck in fear, guilt, and crisis.
02
Stop Unhealthy Helping
Learn to recognize when loving support starts taking responsibility away from your child.
03
Create Boundaries That
Support Change
Set clear, loving boundaries that protect your peace and encourage personal responsibility.
— WHAT CHANGES
What Changes When You Stop Letting Fear Make Your Decisions For You.
When fear is no longer driving every decision, parents can respond with more clarity, set boundaries that hold, communicate more calmly, and begin creating a more peaceful family dynamic.
1. Understand Your Why
Recognize what is driving your unhealthy helping — fear, guilt, shame, or the need to prevent the next crisis — so you can begin responding differently.
2. Support Accountability
Create boundaries that stop you from carrying responsibilities that belong to your teen or adult child — and give them the opportunity to become more accountable for their choices.
3. Respond, Don’t React
Learn to pause, separate fear from fact, and make decisions with more clarity instead of responding from panic, guilt, or urgency.
4. Stop Carrying What Isn’t Yours to Carry
Learn to separate what belongs to you from what belongs to your child — and stop carrying the guilt, fear, and responsibilities that were never yours to carry.
5. Change What’s Yours to Change
Take an honest look at how you show up in the cycle — the fights you get pulled into, your reactions, your choices, and your patterns — and begin changing the part you can control.
6. Take Back Your Power
Stop allowing your child’s addiction to control your peace, your choices, and the way you live your life.
PARENT RE-SET SESSION
When You Don’t Know What to Do Next, Start Here.
In a private 60-minute Parent Re-Set Session, we look at what is happening in your family, where you may be stuck, and what needs to change in how you respond.
You’ll leave with:
• Clearer boundaries you can actually follow through on
• Language for difficult conversations so you know what to say
• Clarity around what belongs to you — and what belongs to your child
• A concrete next-step plan for what to do next
Free Guide
Not Ready for a Private Session? Start Here.
If you’re second-guessing your boundaries, rescuing more than you want to, or reacting from fear, my free 5 Boundaries & Breakthroughs guide gives you a place to begin.
Inside, you’ll find practical boundary examples, questions to consider before stepping in, and simple ways to respond with more clarity instead of fear.
- Ways to Work With Donna -
Every family is different.
Begin where it feels right.
Whether you need private guidance, practical education, or tools you can use at your own pace, Donna provides several ways to begin.
Parent Re-Set Session
Meet privately with Donna for a focused 60-minute session to look at what is happening in your family, where you may be stuck, and what needs to change in how you respond.
Best for: Parents who need clarity around a difficult decision, boundary, communication issue, or family situation.
Workshops & Courses
Learn practical tools for boundaries, communication, unhealthy helping, accountability, and family recovery in a guided educational setting.
Best for: Parents who want structured learning and tools they can use over time.
Books & Journals
Donna’s books provide parents with practical guidance, real stories, daily encouragement, and reflective exercises for navigating addiction in the family.
Best for: Parents who want practical support they can return to again and again.
Free Community Support
Join a private community of parents who understand the fear, hope, and complexity of loving a teen or adult child through addiction.
Best for: Parents who want connection, shared understanding, and a reminder that they are not alone.
— THE LIBRARY
Books for parents and families facing addiction.
Donna’s books are written for parents and family members navigating a loved one’s addiction or early recovery. Each offers a different way to understand what is happening, reflect on your own responses, and begin making healthier choices.
Sharing Without Shame
A heartfelt guide for parents and families who have someone struggling with addiction. Real stories, education, coping tools, and reassurance that you are not alone.
Peeling The Onion
A deeper dive to uncover the layers that keep parents stuck in pain, guilt, fear, and unhealthy patterns. Begin the process of healing and self-discovery.
Just for Today
A daily reflections book with 365 days of encouragement, wisdom, and hope for parents living through the emotional rollercoaster of addiction.
Healing Without Shame Journal
A guided journal designed to help you identify emotions, recognize patterns, work through old wounds, and build greater self-awareness.
— STORIES FROM FAMILIES —
What Parents Say After Working With Donna
Donna has saved our family. I went to my first meeting broken, desperate, and afraid.
— Paula Stolberg
Donna's empathy, guidance, and encouragement can help you set healthy boundaries and establish the right behaviors that may actually help your loved one enter recovery.
— Ginger Ross
You helped educate me and my family. You taught us so much about boundary setting, how we can't save someone who is not ready, manipulation, tricks of the substance user. I never lost hope because of the group
— Paula S
COMMUNITY
You Don’t Have to Navigate This Alone
Loving someone through addiction can feel incredibly isolating. The free Families Sharing With Out Shame® community gives parents a private place to connect with others who understand the fear, grief, uncertainty, and hope that come with this journey.
You can love your child
without losing yourself.
You do not have to keep living in chaos, guilt, and fear. You can learn to set clearer boundaries, make more informed decisions, and respond with greater confidence — even when your child is not ready to change.
Practical guidance and tools for parents loving a teen or adult child through addiction — without shame, fear, or judgment.
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About Donna
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© 2026 Sharing With Out Shame®. All rights reserved.
Sharing With Out Shame® is a federally registered trademark of Donna Marston.
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