Wide Wonder

12/24/2025

I want to approach this carefully, because AA has helped millions of people and dismissing that would be dishonest and disrespectful.

But “AA is best” is a far bigger claim than this article is willing to examine.

What this research actually shows, and I think this matters, is that human connection works. Belonging works. Being witnessed by people who share a struggle works. Low-cost, accessible, relationship-based support works.

That doesn’t mean AA itself is universally “best.” It means relational support is powerful. AA is one container for that. A familiar one. A widely available one. For some people, a lifesaving one. For others, it’s a mismatch, philosophically, culturally, spiritually, developmentally.

And the studies don’t really grapple with that reality.

They measure abstinence outcomes among people who stay engaged , which already filters out those who felt shamed, coerced, alienated, or quietly left. They don’t account for the families damaged by rigidity, or the people who internalized relapse as personal failure rather than a signal of unmet needs. They don’t track emotional health, relational repair, or long-term resilience, only whether drinking stopped.

From a Family WellthCare™ lens, that’s a narrow outcome for a very complex human experience.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth we don’t like to name: AA often works because it gives people identity, structure, accountability, and community, not because it has a monopoly on truth about alcohol or the human psyche.

Which raises a bigger question we should be asking: Why has our system failed so badly at offering other credible, relational, non-shaming pathways, especially ones that involve families, nervous-system regulation, purpose, and emotional leadership?

If AA is outperforming therapy, that’s less an endorsement of AA and more an indictment of how clinical models have over-professionalized healing while under-relating it.

So yes, AA belongs in the conversation. But treating it as the gold standard closes the door on evolution.

The future isn’t AA or therapy. It’s relationship as the intervention, delivered in many forms, adapted to real humans in real contexts, not one model elevated above all others.

We don’t need fewer paths. We need better ones, and the humility to admit no single program owns healing.
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/03/alcoholics-anonymous-most-effective-path-to-alcohol-abstinence.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawO1fmJleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFINUNrNTNDd2V0Qkw5V2ZHc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHh_4-pfY3GARb-x3a45bVyrNRLqxf1HFAcA9HsR-_palBulBFk8cTYzlquMt_aem_OZaujYeFcxUAi-Xs8MUa0w

A Stanford researcher and two collaborators conducted an extensive review of Alcoholics Anonymous studies and found that the fellowship helps more people achieve sobriety than therapy does.

12/23/2025

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1588249545940548

12/11/2025

We didn’t end up here by accident.

We built systems where human support feels cold, clinical, or out of reach…so people turn to code because it doesn’t judge, label, or make them wait.

AI isn’t replacing us. It’s revealing what we failed to protect: connection, safety, and being met as a human first.

If you’re craving support that actually sees you, and strengthens the relationships that matter most, let’s talk.

👉 Schedule your complimentary Family WellthCare™ Check-Up today.

12/08/2025

It doesn't matter what "he" comes up with, it's a grift and it only benefits him or his donors because he has no friends, except Epstein.

12/08/2025

That phrase, "I am here, that I may wonder!" is a famous quote attributed to the German poet and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, expressing a profound appreciation for nature, life, and the universe, often cited by writers like Hermann Hesse to emphasize how wonder is fundamental to truly experiencing existence, not just existing. It highlights the idea that our purpose includes being present to marvel at the world, finding deep significance in both grand and everyday phenomena.

12/05/2025

In this beautifully written Idea, the clinical psychologist Eric Jannazzo reflects on what it truly means to exist and to die. By seeing ourselves not as static nouns, but as unfolding processes, we can soften the sharp edges of existential fear and embrace life’s constant becoming.⁠ This piece invites us to rethink our relationship with mortality, growth, and the self. It’s a reminder that who we are isn’t a fixed point, it’s every choice, every feeling, and every moment of transformation.⁠

In the therapy room, I’ve seen how rethinking what we are – and what it means to ‘be dead’ – can lighten our fears

12/03/2025

A Simple, Human Guide to Staying Grounded

A Simple, Human Guide to Staying Grounded

11/26/2025

11/25/2025

When love feels dangerous, control starts to feel like safety.

That’s what many of us learned in childhood, that love comes with conditions, withdrawal, or chaos. Over time, our nervous system begins to confuse love with pain. We stop trusting connection and start managing it.

This is what I call protective logic: the body’s attempt to keep us safe by controlling what once hurt us. The problem is, that same protection eventually blocks what we most need, closeness, belonging, and trust.

Relational healing isn’t about learning to love harder; it’s about learning to feel safe enough to receive love without bracing for loss.

In Family WellthCare™ Coaching, we help families and individuals unwind these inherited patterns, not by pathologizing behavior, but by restoring emotional safety and co-regulation.

Because once safety is restored, love stops feeling like danger. It starts feeling like home.

💬 What does emotional safety mean to you, in love, in family, or in leadership?

11/18/2025

More and more parents are quietly asking the same question: “What do I need to understand about psychedelic therapy, and could it help my child?”

Not out of curiosity. Not out of trend-chasing. But because their family has tried everything… and they’re still hurting.

The truth is, we’re living through a moment where the conversation around healing is expanding. Families are searching for approaches that don’t just manage symptoms, but actually reach the emotional roots of addiction, anxiety, and overwhelm.

And yet, most parents feel unprepared to navigate this territory.
They’re afraid of choosing wrong.
They’re afraid of being judged.
They’re afraid of being the only ones asking these questions.
So I wrote something for them, for you.
A grounded, non-clinical, emotionally safe guide to psychedelic therapy through the lens of family systems, nervous-system literacy, and relational healing. No hype. No fear. Just clarity, context, and compassion.

If your family is facing emotional or behavioral challenges…
If you’ve wondered what healing could look like outside the traditional models…
If you want to understand this topic without pressure or panic…
This article might give you the footing you’ve been looking for.

Here it is:
A Parent’s Guide to Psychedelic Therapy: What You Deserve to Understand About Healing, Addiction, and Emotional Pain
👉 https://tim-17962.medium.com/a-parents-guide-to-psychedelic-therapy-what-you-deserve-to-understand-about-healing-addiction-6be8cca899d1?sk=5d37680a313a2c9c5591e7d7cf961dd2
My hope is simple:
Parents feel less alone.
Families get better information.
And healing stops being something we whisper about and starts being something we walk toward, together.

A grounded, human conversation about a topic that’s becoming impossible to ignore.

11/17/2025

Let’s retire the slogan “addiction doesn’t discriminate.” It feels comforting. It sounds fair. But it’s not true.

Addiction sits right at the crossroads of stress load, nervous system overwhelm, emotional safety, and access to resources.

It does discriminate, not by who we are, but by what we’ve lived through.

It shows up more often inside families:
- without margin for emotional error
- without a safety net
- without time or support to fall apart
- without systems that treat them like humans instead of problems

And when it does happen in well-resourced families? It’s often hidden behind softer language, “burnout,” “exhaustion,” “mental health break.” The impact stays the same. The headline simply changes.

And while we’re telling the truth:
Most people who drink alcohol never develop addiction or chaotic use.
Same with cannabis.
Same with other substances we love to villainize.

So if most people don’t spiral… we have to ask better questions:
1. What makes some nervous systems rely on escape just to survive the day?
2. What family patterns teach numbing instead of naming what hurts?
3. Who grew up without the emotional tools to metabolize grief, pressure, or disappointment?
4. Where are we confusing performance with well-being, and calling it success?

Addiction isn’t a random lightning strike.
It’s a logical adaptation to environments where emotional capital is overdrawn and no one knows how to refill the account.
So let’s stop pretending this is about the substance.

This is about systems, stress, and skill-building. About emotional wealth, or the lack of it. About families who never learned to hold pain together… and now believe something is “wrong” with the one who shows the symptoms.

The conversation isn’t:
❌ “Addiction doesn’t discriminate.”
❌ “Alcohol and other drugs are the enemy.”

The real conversation is:
How do we build families and communities where fewer people need relief just to survive?

Because addiction doesn’t just happen to individuals. It happens inside systems.
And systems can heal.

🟦 Family WellthCare™ Coaching
Where emotional capital becomes the new standard of care, long before crisis arrives.

Revolutionizing family recovery. Coaching parents to lead change, build emotional capital, and transform their family system—not just manage a crisis.

11/06/2025

We’re not born afraid of love. We learn that it’s dangerous.

For so many children, love came attached to pain, unpredictability, or withdrawal. They grew up learning that to open up meant to get hurt. And those children, brilliant, adaptive, emotionally alert, became adults still wired to protect themselves from what they most long for.

This powerful article by Mitch Y Artman traces that arc with clarity and compassion: how trauma shapes our capacity to love, not just in theory but in practice.

How the defenses that saved us in childhood often sabotage us in adulthood.
And how shadow work, truly meeting the parts of ourselves we’ve disowned, can become the bridge back to trust.

What I’m taking from this piece:
🔹 The traumatized inner child isn’t our weakness, it’s our wisdom, waiting to be witnessed.
🔹 Defenses like denial, shame, idealization, and blame aren’t moral failings. They’re maps.
🔹 Healing isn’t just about remembering what happened. It’s about remembering who we are beneath what happened.

As professionals, caregivers, and fellow humans, this calls us into deeper work. To meet fear with safety. To see beyond pathology. To stop treating pain as the truth and begin seeing it as a signal.

Read it slowly. Let it stir something. Then ask yourself:
What does the part of me that once felt unlovable need to hear today?

👉 https://medium.com//how-trauma-sticks-7081403d79b4

Abused Children Becoming Hurt Adults