Jon Marsh

Jonathan Marsh founded Recovery Nation and served as its primary recovery coach until his death. He  authored each of the site's workshops and wrote extensively on addiction and recovery over the last ten years of his life. Jon facilitated Health-Based Recovery workshops internationally and throughout the United States. He presented at the 2006 International Conference on Marriage and Family and gave numerous media interviews on the subject of sexual addiction. Jon's breakthrough work, He Danced Alone — provides a raw and harrowing look into the heart and mind of a sex/love addict. This book is offered free on this site as an educational tool for select audiences.

A married father of four, Jon experienced a twenty-year sex and love addiction before making the transition to a healthy life nearly eighteen years before he died. In the years from this transition, he had openly shared his experiences with the sex and love addictions, as well as his health-based path through recovery. He facilitated more than seventy-five clinical workshops in addiction assessment and treatment throughout the United States and coached over five thousand online workshop participants.

Having lived with his family in Omaha, Nebraska, Jon worked in such renowned clinical/behavioral treatment and personal development settings as the Menninger Clinic, the Salvation Army and Boys Town. He held various positions, working hands-on with chronically mentally ill and homeless persons. From 1997 to 2005, he held the position of Director of Health Education & Training with an addiction assessment firm committed to improving the efficacy of mental health/addiction treatment and clinical services through technology.

In the summer of 2006, he resigned his position coordinating a five-year, federally-funded addiction treatment project that involved teaching a philosophical shift from the historically ineffective medical-based addiction treatment model to a culturally-oriented/value-based treatment model for indigenous communities across the United States to focus exclusively on developing Recovery Nation into the premiere resource for those seeking a permanent end to their addiction.

Jon died on May 2, 2009.  This was a great loss to his family, to RN and to all of the past, present and future participants of his workshops. Jon had a vision to apply Health-Based Recovery (HBR) not only to sexual addiction but to all forms of addiction including gambling, drinking, and drugs etc. He also envisioned a separate place where people of faith would be able to pursue HBR in the context of their beliefs in a community of others of the same faith. One such site was already in the works when Jon died and will be completed by the people that were helping Jon create and launch the site. He had also initiated other projects that we at RN hope to complete for him and bring to fruition. We will forever be grateful for the work Jon did to bring HBR within everyone's reach and for all the personal sacrifices he made to help others.

Visit Jon's Memorial Here