Family Reconstruction

Before your family sacrifices again, reconstruct what actually happened.

When years of rescues, promises, money, housing, treatment, consequences, and family conflict have accumulated, today's crisis can no longer be judged responsibly as an isolated event.

Family Reconstruction puts the history back in order, compares what was promised with what followed, makes the family's sacrifices visible, and helps you examine what the evidence reasonably supports doing next.

See Family Reconstruction I only have one question

The flagship engagement

Salvage Math Family Reconstruction

This is structured decision analysis for the family member, spouse, or friend. It is not addiction treatment, therapy, intervention work, or ongoing crisis management.

The full history matters

Family Reconstruction

Turn years of crisis into one coherent decision record.

$2,500 founding rate

Best when: the family has helped repeatedly, the current request cannot be understood without the past, or reasonable family members now disagree about what should happen next. If the history proves unusually long or complex, the same engagement can be scoped as Extended Reconstruction.

Rescue Ledger What the family provided, protected, paid for, arranged, or absorbed, and when.
Promise / Outcome Timeline What was said before major decisions compared with what actually followed.
Evidence of Change Record Positive and negative evidence of behavior, responsibility, follow-through, and demonstrated commitment.
Family Sacrifice Map Money, housing, time, work, trust, sleep, relationships, and consequences transferred to other people.
Rescue Math View Simple timelines, comparisons, and visual summaries that make the pattern easier to see.
What's Different This Time? Analysis A direct comparison between the current claim or crisis and the most relevant prior episodes.
Help / Boundary / Exit Scenarios Reasonable options, conditions, limits, reciprocal commitments, tradeoffs, and what each path asks the family to risk.
Written Family Decision Map The reconstructed case, key evidence, unresolved facts, options, conditions, and decision logic in one durable record.

See fictional examples of the Reconstruction artifacts

What you leave with

Not a prediction about whether the person you love will recover. You leave with a history that is harder for crisis and memory to rewrite, a clearer view of what has and has not changed, and a decision framework your family can refer back to when pressure rises again.

Apply for Family Reconstruction · $2,500
Start with the free Check instead

Application first. If the fit and scope are right, payment and scheduling follow after the scope is agreed.

When the standard scope is not enough

Extended Reconstruction

Extended Reconstruction is not a separate program. It is the same Family Reconstruction process with additional analytical scope when a long or unusually complex history cannot responsibly be compressed into the standard engagement.

Higher-scope Family Reconstruction

Extended Reconstruction

More room for history, multiple perspectives, and scenario modeling without turning the work into open-ended hourly consulting.

$4,500 to $5,000 typical founding total

Best when: the underlying family history is materially more complicated than the standard Reconstruction can capture accurately within its normal scope.

Additional history capture More private time to reconstruct a decades-long or unusually dense sequence of rescues, crises, housing, money, treatment, promises, and consequences.
Multiple perspectives Additional family viewpoints when materially different recollections or decisions need to be recorded and distinguished rather than collapsed into one account.
Deeper scenario modeling More than one or two plausible paths can be compared across money, housing, timing, conditions, boundaries, exposure, and family consequences.
Expanded decision record The additional history and scenarios are incorporated into the same Rescue Ledger, timelines, evidence record, visual analysis, and Family Decision Map.
How the upgrade is decided

You do not need to choose Extended Reconstruction before I understand the case. If the intake shows that the standard Reconstruction is enough, that is the appropriate scope. If the history clearly requires more capture or modeling, I will define the additional scope and total price before that additional work begins.

What Extended is not

It is not unlimited access, ongoing coaching, or a block of hours to use however you want. Every additional hour must produce more reconstruction, evidence organization, scenario analysis, or a more complete decision artifact.

Apply for Family Reconstruction

Start with the Family Reconstruction application. Extended scope is determined only if the history requires it.

The process

Reconstruct first. Decide second.

01

Structured intake

You identify the current decision, the major rescue episodes, the people affected, and the history that appears most relevant. You may provide selected records or documents if they help establish the chronology.

02

Tell the history

Private recorded history sessions give you room to explain what happened in sequence, including the details that rarely fit into a short consultation.

03

Reconstruct the record

I organize rescues, promises, outcomes, sacrifices, evidence of change, important uncertainties, and the family consequences into a coherent case.

04

Model the paths

We examine reasonable Help, Boundary, or Exit scenarios, including conditions, limits, reciprocal commitment, likely family exposure, and the tradeoffs each choice creates.

05

Review for accuracy

You review the reconstructed chronology and key facts so corrections and genuine uncertainty are captured before the final decision record is completed.

06

Final decision session

We walk through the completed Family Decision Map together, identify what still cannot be known, and clarify the conditions and limits you want to carry forward.

What the work actually looks like

Not more conversation. A record your family can see.

Family Reconstruction converts a complicated history into concrete analytical artifacts. The examples below are fictional and simplified, but they show the kind of structure the engagement is designed to produce.

Rescue Ledger Fictional sample

Put major family interventions in one place.

Period What happened Family response What was promised What followed
Spring 2022 Lost apartment after missed rent. Family paid deposit and 2 months of rent. "I only need time to stabilize." Employment improved briefly. Rent problems returned within 5 months.
Winter 2023 Vehicle at risk of repossession. Family paid arrears and insurance. "Keeping the car will let me keep working." Job ended 7 weeks later. Family continued insurance for 4 more months.
Summer 2025 Asked to move home "for 30 days." Bedroom, meals, transportation, household expenses. "I have a concrete exit plan." Stayed 8 months. Exit conditions were repeatedly renegotiated.

The point is not to condemn prior help. It is to make the sequence visible enough to ask what happened after each major sacrifice.

Promise / Outcome Timeline Fictional sample

Compare what was expected with what occurred.

2022
PromiseTemporary rent support will stabilize housing.
OutcomeHousing stabilized briefly, then failed again.
2023
PromiseCar rescue preserves employment.
OutcomeEmployment ended despite the intervention.
2025
Promise30-day return home.
OutcomeStay extended to 8 months.
Family Sacrifice Map Fictional sample

See who else absorbed the consequences.

Money
High
Housing
High
Marriage
Rising
Work / time
Material

These labels are not clinical scores. They summarize the family's own reported exposure and help prevent collateral costs from disappearing from the decision.

Scenario Comparison Fictional sample

Model choices before making them.

Conditional Help

  • Limited financial exposure
  • Specific contribution required from the other person
  • Written date and stop condition
  • Highest family exposure of the three paths

Relationship Without Rescue

  • Maintain contact and emotional support
  • No housing or recurring money
  • Family exposure drops materially
  • May increase short-term conflict or pressure

No Further Investment

  • No additional material rescue
  • Protect household finances and stability
  • Clear consequences remain in place
  • Highest emotional difficulty for some families

Salvage Math does not choose the scenario for you. The goal is to make the costs, conditions, risks, and unknowns of each option explicit.

Family Decision Map Fictional sample

Bring the reconstructed case into one durable decision record.

Current decision

Whether to provide housing and transportation support after another employment and housing crisis.

What appears materially different

  • Three months of documented employment.
  • Regular attendance in a chosen support program.
  • Partial repayment of prior debt.

What remains unresolved

  • No sustained independent housing period yet.
  • Current plan still assumes major family support.
  • Spouses disagree about acceptable financial exposure.

Possible family standard

Any renewed material help must be bounded, reciprocal, documented, and tied to specific dates and observable responsibilities.

Decision questions

  • What are we willing to risk?
  • What must the other person contribute?
  • What would cause the help to stop?
  • Who absorbs the consequence if the plan fails?

Private by default

Your family's history is not content inventory.

Paid Family Reconstruction is private client work. Public Salvage Math stories, teaching examples, and Rescue Math demonstrations are separate from your private case.

Share only what is useful. You do not need to upload every document or expose every family detail. The purpose is decision clarity, not exhaustive surveillance of another person.
Uncertainty stays uncertainty. Confirmed facts, recollections, disputed accounts, and unanswered questions should be distinguished rather than blended together.
Public use is separate. A private paid case is not automatically available for a livestream, article, book, or public example. Any future public use would require a separate basis rather than being assumed from the engagement.
No need to diagnose the other person. The reconstruction focuses on what happened, what the family did, what followed, what is known, and what the family is considering now.

Your role in the reconstruction

This works best when the family is willing to build an accurate record.

Complete the structured intake.

Give me enough chronology and context to understand the current decision and identify where the history needs to be rebuilt.

Tell the story in detail.

The goal is not a polished narrative. Dates can be approximate when they genuinely are. Contradictions and uncertainty should be identified rather than smoothed over.

Bring evidence when it materially matters.

If a text, receipt, court record, treatment record, calendar, housing history, or other document is important to your own decision, it can be incorporated when appropriate. You are not expected to prove every memory.

Correct the draft record.

You will have a chance to distinguish confirmed facts, recollection, disputed points, and unanswered questions before the final map is completed.

Who this is for

A strong fit when the next decision has real consequences.

Family Reconstruction is deliberately more substantial than a conversation. The value comes from creating a shared, durable record and using it to examine the next decision.

Likely a strong fit

The history keeps entering today's decision.

  • Your family has stepped in repeatedly.
  • Money, housing, vehicles, work, retirement, or family stability are exposed.
  • Family members remember the history differently or disagree about what counts as help.
  • The current promise sounds familiar, but you cannot easily compare it with prior outcomes.
  • You want to examine several possible paths rather than be told what to do.

Probably not the right fit

You need a different kind of service.

  • You are seeking addiction treatment for the person using substances.
  • You need psychotherapy, diagnosis, medical care, or legal advice.
  • You want treatment placement or an intervention service.
  • You need emergency or crisis response.
  • You want unlimited messaging or an on-call private adviser.

If the whole history does not need rebuilding

Ask Stephen: One Situation. One Decision.

If you can state the decision cleanly in one sentence, the smaller service may be enough. You do not need to buy Ask Stephen before Family Reconstruction.

One bounded question

Ask Stephen

A considered answer without scheduling a consulting call.

$99 standard $199 priority

Best when: you have one defined situation and do not need years of history reconstructed.

  • What facts matter most before I decide?
  • What am I missing?
  • What prior history should I compare with this request?
  • What would count as meaningful evidence that something has changed?
What you get

A focused asynchronous review of the relevant facts, missing facts, history, evidence, reasonable options, and tradeoffs, with a concise private response. It is not an ongoing coaching relationship or a live call by default.

Ask Stephen checkout buttons will appear automatically when the Standard and Priority Stripe links are added to site-config.js. Successful checkout should redirect to the private intake page.

Common questions

Before you choose.

Do I have to start with Ask Stephen?

No. If the history already makes a full reconstruction the obvious need, you can go directly to Family Reconstruction.

Will you tell me whether to help, set a boundary, or leave?

No. Salvage Math helps make the history, evidence, costs, choices, conditions, uncertainty, and tradeoffs harder to ignore. The final decision remains yours.

What if different family members disagree about what happened?

That is useful information. The goal is not to manufacture agreement. The reconstruction can distinguish confirmed facts, individual recollection, disputed points, and unanswered questions so the family can see where disagreement actually exists.

What if our history is unusually long or complicated?

That is what Extended Reconstruction is for. It is the same Family Reconstruction process with additional room for history capture, multiple perspectives, and deeper scenario modeling. Typical founding total is $4,500 to $5,000, but the additional scope is defined only after the intake shows it is actually necessary.

Is this addiction treatment or therapy?

No. Salvage Math is for the family member, spouse, or friend making decisions about what they will continue to provide, tolerate, risk, or withdraw.

What if this is an emergency?

Salvage Math is not emergency care or crisis response. If there is immediate danger, use the emergency services available where you are.

Private by default.Your paid family work is separate from public stories and teaching. Public use is never assumed.
Not clinical care.Salvage Math does not diagnose, treat addiction, provide therapy, or assess whether another person is safe or likely to recover.
You remain the decision-maker.The reconstruction organizes history, evidence, uncertainty, costs, and options. It does not make the decision for you.

The next decision deserves the whole record

Before your family sacrifices again, make the history visible.

If the current crisis cannot be understood without everything that came before, Family Reconstruction is the place to start. If you are not ready for paid work, use the free Check first.

Apply for Family Reconstruction · $2,500 Start with the free Check