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In this episode of The Brick House Podcast, Jason Coombs shares a powerful conversation from just outside Yellowstone, beginning with a personal story about seeing wild bears with his wife during a sacred season of her cancer journey.

From there, Jason leads listeners into a deeper discussion on Step 9, grief, surrender, and what it really means to make amends.

So often, families impacted by addiction are told to forgive, apologize, move on, or “just set boundaries.” But real healing is more honest than that. In this episode, Jason explains why amends are not the same as apologies.

An apology is words.
An amends is truth plus changed behavior over time.

Jason also unpacks the grief many families carry while loving someone with addiction: the lost holidays, the missed moments, the version of the person they loved, and even the version of themselves that got buried under years of crisis management.

You’ll hear about:

• The difference between apologies and true amends
• Why grief often shows up as anger, irritability, or control
• How the stages of grief apply to families affected by addiction
• Why surrender is not giving up
• How to begin noticing your own patterns with compassion
• The importance of making repair through changed behavior, not performance

This episode is for the parent, spouse, sibling, adult child, or friend who is tired of living in the emotional rollercoaster of someone else’s addiction and is ready to begin finding peace again.

At Brick House Recovery, we believe you did not cause your loved one’s addiction, you cannot control it, and you cannot cure it — but you can learn how to stop contributing to the chaos and start contributing to recovery.

Learn more at: brickhouserecovery.com

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

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When you love someone struggling with addiction, even a simple conversation can feel like walking into a courtroom, a battlefield, or a trap.

You want to help. You want to say the right thing. You want them to open up, be honest, and finally see what you see. But too often, the conversation turns into defensiveness, arguing, guilt, shutdown, or another exhausting ride on the addiction rollercoaster.

In this episode, Jason Coombs teaches families how to approach hard conversations differently using simple, practical tools from motivational interviewing, including the OARS framework: open questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries.

You’ll learn how to ask better questions, reflect instead of react, validate without enabling, and use the “importance ruler” to help your loved one begin making their own case for change.

Jason also shares the Stop, Drop, and Roll framework for those heated moments when emotions rise and the conversation starts to get away from you.

This episode is for parents, spouses, siblings, and loved ones who are tired of walking on eggshells and want to learn how to stay loving, clear, and boundaried—even when addiction pushes back.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to stop turning hard conversations into interrogations
• Why open-ended questions lower defensiveness
• How to affirm honesty without approving harmful behavior
• Why reflection helps your loved one feel heard
• How to use the importance ruler without pushing or preaching
• What to do when the conversation gets hot
• How to stay loving without getting pulled back into chaos

You can’t control your loved one’s addiction, but you can change the way you show up. And that change matters.

Learn more about Brick House Recovery and the Unhooked family recovery work at BrickHouseRecovery.com.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100

Send us Fan Mail

What if the biggest mistake families make in addiction recovery is focusing on the wrong mountain?

In this episode, Jason shares a deeply personal reflection after celebrating his birth son’s 19th birthday—a moment that reminded him just how impossible recovery once felt.

For years, addiction felt like an endless cycle of trying, failing, promising, and starting over. The distance between hope and reality felt impossible to cross.

So what changed?

Jason breaks down the 3 essential ingredients of hope that every family and individual in recovery must understand:

✔️ How to clearly see the destination
✔️ Why most people can’t see the path forward
✔️ The overlooked factor that determines whether lasting change is even possible

You’ll also hear why recovery isn’t built through quick fixes, silver bullets, or treatment alone—and why people recover through relationships, identity change, and small, meaningful wins over time.

If you’re exhausted from trying to help an addicted loved one—or if recovery feels impossible right now—this conversation will help you rethink what real progress actually looks like.

In this episode:
• Why hope breaks down in addiction recovery
• The “mini summit” strategy that builds lasting momentum
• Why long-term sobriety feels impossible in the beginning
• The surprising reason treatment alone doesn’t work
• How identity—not just abstinence—creates lasting change
• A healthier way families can measure progress

Recovery is possible. But it may not look the way you think.

🎧 Subscribe for weekly conversations on addiction, family recovery, boundaries, healing, and hope.

Support the show

Join Jason Coombs LIVE each week for tips and tricks and LIVE Q&A’s. Go to https://www.liveunhooked.com/live-unhooked.

For information about treatment services visit https://www.brickhouserecovery.com/

For more information about Warrior Heart Bootcamp for men visit www.awarriorheart.com

https://awarriorheart.com/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Warrior Heart = 2026Brick100

To learn more about the women’s retreat, Heart of a Woman:
https://theheartofawoman.net/

$100 DISCOUNT CODE for Heart of a Woman = 2026Brick100