About Hazelden Author Shelly Marshall

...and her small publishing house Day By Day

She stands as a beacon of simplicity in a world of confusion. I recommend her work highly. ~Father Joshep Martin (of Father Martin's Ashley)

Clean and sober since 1969

Shelly Marshall has dedicated her life to working with young addicts and their families in recovery. As a Hazelden author, her books Day by Day: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts and Young Sober and Free: Experience, Strength, and Hope for Young Adults are recovery classics. Her subsequent works like thePocket Sponsor, and Sitting in Pictures, Vision Meditations for Addiction Recovery, are classic recovery at its best.Sober Coaching Your Teen, Workbook: Managing a drug crisis with your out-of-control Teen, is a workbook teaching parents how to stop enabling and give real support to their teen in recovery. Marshall's research has been published in five peer-reviewed, refereed professional/scholarly journals, making her world-recognized as an advocate and activist for clean and sober young people. In 1992, Shelly went to work in Russia and helped organize an Academy to train Addiction couselors. She also helped organize NA in Moscow which was recently featured in the Russian NA newsletter, Today Only. Her contributions have been, and continue to be, significant as a Hazelden author, as an international trainer and keynote speaker, a published researcher, and even as a small successful publisher.

A Small Publishing House Began

In 1996 Shelly had a vision for a book that promised to support 12 Step recovery better than a daily meditation book--one that gave a message for every hour of the day for a month. She gathered up as many slogans, great one liners, and all the wisdom of the oldtimers she could find from meetings around the world. These were put together in the hugely popular book, the Pocket Sponsor, As a result, the small publishing house, Day By Day was created.

Day By Day only carries a few titles, but each is unique, carries the wisdom of the oldtimers, and has the lowest recovery book prices in the industry. Whether for gifts, the treatment center where you work, or just to pass out to those you love in recovery, Day By Day books reach into people's spirits where hope is born and supports their recovery every hour of the day.

Media & Press Release

This press release may be used, copied and modified to suit your editorial needs as long as content meaning is not changed

Begin Press Release-Title: Parent's Take Note: It's Not Your Fault!
Bonner, MT. Are you sick of being told that everything that goes wrong with your child is your fault? They get into a fight and you are told you shouldn't have bought that Nintendo game; they act up in class and you are told you weren't firm enough; they ditch school and you are told you don't eat three meals a week with them? At what point does accountability for behavior become the responsibility of the one who did it?

"Responsibility is a great word," says Shelly Marshall, BS, CSAC, author of Young, Sober, & Free published by Hazelden of Center City, MN. "It holds within it the key to answer the question: Who is responsible? Ask yourself, who is able to respond? Who is response-able? The one able to respond to a situation, is the one who has to be responsible." Parents can't study for the child's test, parents can't hand cuff their kids so they don't swing their fists, and Mom or Dad doesn't pour the beer down the throat of their son or daughter!

ToughLove's co-founder, Phyllis York agrees in her book Toughlove Solutions, "The issue of responsibility for behavior is critical to behavior change. The therapists who assume that kids' parents are responsible for their teenagers' behavior are dramatically reducing the chances that the kids will change for the better."

Ms. Marshall, a recovering chemical dependent who cleaned up at 21, contends that parents are held way too accountable for influences that are often beyond their control. Parenting becomes a sort of retroactive blame game whereby adolescent tribulations are referred to some expert who probes into the family situation and eventually ends up with a "reason" why Jared or Janell went astray. Since no person is perfect, obviously no parent can parent perfectly, and with enough probing the "experts" will always find something in the parenting that they can pin the child's behavior on. Parents are accused of being neglectful or smothering, too harsh or too lenient, not being understanding enough or being more of a friend to their child than a parent. In other words, whatever the expert can find becomes the "reason" that the child is having trouble.

"One of the sad things about this," Marshall notes, "is that it either forces the parents into undeserved guilt over what they should have done or it fosters denial so they don't have to face what the supposedly caused." Marshall is an adolescent chemical dependency specialist and finds the parental Blame Game particularly damaging to families and their drug abusing children. It makes it very hard for a young person to work toward recovery. "Why should they bother to change when the therapist has excused them and blamed their parents?" explained Phyllis York.

Young, Sober,& Free, Experience, Strength and Hope is a classic in the recovery field and has sold 250,000 in the first edition. It has just been updated with one particularly strong chapter to parents containing the message: you didn't cause it, you can't control it, and you can't cure it. "Even so, this book is not written for parents," Marshall says, "it is written to be used by the person picking up the drink or drug, the responsible-able person. Parents can't not pickup the drink or drug, only the person addicted can do that." The second edition was released by Hazelden A few years back and is still the best book available for the young person in recovery. For additional information see Marshall's website Teenage Addicts Can Recover

End Press Release

If you are super interested, and I'm not sure why you would be, you can download my resume here: Marshall Resume

Shelly & Day By Day Mascots

These are Shelly's little buddys, Moxie and Zipper. They help advertise her books and pose for various promotions. You might see them on the next Christmas Special. unhappy christmas dog An Unhappy Christmas Mascot!

Recommended books by Shelly

Discover the best books on just about anything at the Shepherd's website. Follow your curiosity and meet the most amazing books. Shepherd's has also provided a page for Shelly to recommend books that she loves. Turning Sobriety Into a Super Power

Book Reviews by Shelly

Ms Marshall also does Book Reviews for Metapsychology.

Don't Pick On Me Help for Kids to Stand Up to & Deal With Bullies by Susan Eikov Green
The Irritable Male Syndrome Managing the Four Key Causes of Depression and Aggression
by Jed Diamond
A Brief History of the Smile by Angus Trumble
Spiritually Healing the Indigo Children (and Adult Indigos, Too!) The Practical Guide and Handbook by Wayne Dosick and Ellen Kaufman
Taking the Red Pill Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix by Glenn Yeffeth (Editor)
Forever Young The 'Teen-Aging' of Modern Culture by Marcel Danesi
E-Therapy Case Studies, Guiding Principles, and the Clinical Potential of the Internet by Robert C. Hsiung (Editor)
Metaphoria: Metaphor and Guided Metaphor for Psychotherapy and Healing by Rubin S. Battino
How Families Still Matter A Longitudinal Study of Youth in Two Generations by Vern L. Bengtson, Timothy J. Biblarz, Robert E. L. Roberts
A User's Guide to the Brain Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain by John J. Ratey
The Lucifer Principle A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History by Howard K. Bloom
Boomers Really Can Put Old On Hold by Barbara M. Morris
How to Keep Your Teenager Out of Trouble and What to Do If You Can't by Neil I. Bernstein
Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy! Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind by Michael J. Bradley
Recovery Options The Complete Guide by Joseph Volpicelli and Maia Szalavitz
The Law Is a White Dog How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons by Colin Dayan Princeton University Pres.

Public Speaking

I do keynote speaking and workshops. I'd love to arrange something for you. Basically my fee is $200 an hour or $600 for the day plus expenses. I do offer free engagements for non-profits and 12 Step events. Call for details.

An Interview

By Shelly, of course.

Interview with Judith Rich Harris author of the Nurture Assumption

History of Day By Day

Day By Day was written by members of Denver's Young People's group of Alcoholic's Anonymous in 1973. A group of them began a halfway house for the dual addicted (having sprung from the Hippie's of the '60s) and started the first NA group in Colorado. This classic came from those 12 Step Warriors. Download the full story.