Parenting Post-Wilderness: Parenting a Struggling Teen Before, During and After Treatment

Learning to let go is one of the hardest but most necessary parts of parenting a struggling teen, especially when your child’s behaviors feel frightening, confusing, and completely out of your control. In this episode, I’m joined again by Michelle, a mom who has walked a long, painful, and ultimately transformative path with her daughter, who was later diagnosed with borderline personality disorde...

✨ 6-week Boundaries Masterclass ✨ Starting January 13th -- Early Bird price until December 31st! 👉🏼 Click here to sign up , or go to bethhillmancoaching.com/boundariesmasterclass I hope to see you there! There’s a kind of grief many parents of struggling teens carry that doesn’t always get named. It’s not just the fear. It’s not just the exhaustion. It’s the quiet heartbreak of realizing that...

✨ 6-week Boundaries Masterclass ✨ Starting January 13th -- Early Bird price until December 31st! 👉🏼 Click here to sign up , or go to bethhillmancoaching.com/boundariesmasterclass I hope to see you there! When your kid keeps struggling and nothing seems to change, it’s natural to focus all your energy on them. Their choices. Their behavior. Their refusal to do things differently. But have you e...

✨ 6-week Boundaries Masterclass ✨ Starting January 13th -- Early Bird price until December 31st! 👉🏼 Click here to sign up , or go to bethhillmancoaching.com/boundariesmasterclass I hope to see you there! If you’re parenting a teen with a mental health condition, like borderline personality disorder, you may recognize the constant confusion: Is this normal? Am I helping, or making it worse? Why...

✨ 6-week Boundaries Masterclass ✨ Starting January 13th -- Early Bird price until December 31st! 👉🏼 Click here to sign up , or go to bethhillmancoaching.com/boundariesmasterclass I hope to see you there! It’s never an easy decision to send your struggling child to treatment, whether it’ll be their first time or their tenth. As a parent, you’re exhausted, scared, unsure what’s actually best, an...

What if the behaviors you see in your struggling teen aren’t just “problems,” but signs that the identity they were given no longer fits? What if their resistance, shut-down, or self-destructive choices are really the early stages of something Jake Wood knows all too well: the painful beginning of learning to trust yourself again after trauma, addiction, and conditioning? In today’s conversation,...

Before your child has the chance to understand who they truly are, the world is already telling them what they are. Jake Wood knows this firsthand, and his story turns our whole conversation about teen drug addiction upside down. In one of the favorite interviews I’ve ever done, I sit down with transformation guide Jake Wood to explore a perspective on teen drug addiction that most parents never h...

Does your teen always have one more promise, one more deal, or ‘just this once’ plea? You’re not imagining it. The moment you start negotiating with your teen, you’re pulled into a messy family dynamic that almost never works out the way you hope it will. In this episode, Seth and I talk about why these IOUs, bargains, and “I swear I’ll do it tomorrow” promises fall apart so quickly, and why they...

You want to be honest with your child… but when emotions run high, it can be hard to know where the line is between healthy emotional expression and unintentionally putting a burden on your young child, teen, or young-adult kid. If you’ve ever felt terrified, overwhelmed, or lost in the fear of “what if,” and weren’t sure whether to show your child how scared you really are… If you’ve ever wondere...

So much work happens during treatment, but the real test begins when your child comes home. The patterns that once kept your family stuck can easily reappear unless you intentionally create space for something new. This week, we talk about how to allow a fresh start after treatment and rebuild trust in a way that supports lasting independence and connection. I’m joined again by Colin MacDonald, co...

What do former addicts wish their parents had done differently? Josh and Heide Case are joining us today to explore that question. Both Heidi and Josh began using as teens and spent decades navigating addiction before finding lasting recovery. Their stories are raw, real, and filled with moments every parent of a struggling teen can learn from. Now, through their platform and podcast Sober. Buzz ,...

You’ve probably found yourself reacting before you even realize what’s happening countless times. I certainly have. Those fast, heated moments, when your blood boils, your breath shortens, and everything speeds up, can feel impossible to stop. And before you know it, you’re in a reactive back-and-forth with your teen or young adult kid. But what if things could go differently? In this episode, Set...

When your teen starts doing better (going to school, staying sober, following through), it’s natural to breathe a sigh of relief. It’s also natural for your teen or young adult to plead their case and ask you to loosen the boundary. But that’s the trap many parents fall into: they loosen the boundaries that helped create that progress in the first place. Today, Seth and I unpack the psychology beh...

You want to trust your teen again when they come back from treatment, but every setback and every little misstep can send your mind spiraling back to worst-case scenarios.  Luckily, we’re joined again by Colin MacDonald from Not Therapy Coaching to explore what it really looks like to parent your teen after treatment, and how to make sure fear doesn’t take over. He shares powerful mindset shifts f...

Teen suicide is every parent’s worst nightmare. Andy Campbell lived through it when his 18-year-old son took his own life. “I used to tell my son, ‘make any decision you want, but not the irreversible decision’, until he did.” - Andy Campbell Andy shares his story with raw honesty, describing the years of living with his son’s suicidal thoughts, the heartbreaking day of his death, and the painful...

Stories about wilderness range from life-saving transformations to devastating failures, and often, the loudest voices online lean toward fear and controversy. That’s why I’m so excited to be joined by filmmakers Mark Strauss and Vince Dixon, co-directors of the upcoming documentary Forest for the Trees: The Truth About Wilderness Therapy . With lived experience of loss, addiction, and healing in...

When your teen is caught in the cycle of substance abuse, it can feel like you’re living in a nightmare you can’t wake up from. You find yourself wondering: Is this just normal teenage behavior? Or is something much bigger going on? I remember asking myself those same questions when my own son was struggling. That’s why this conversation with Dawn McCord resonated so deeply for me. Dawn is a fello...

Misdiagnosis, trial-and-error medication, and treatment plans that miss the real issue are realities many families haave to face, even though the last thing you want is guesswork when it comes to your struggling teen’s or young adult’s care. That’s where psychological testing comes in. In this conversation with Liz Griffith, owner of Psychological Solutions, we dive into why comprehensive psycholo...

You want to protect your child and give them a better life than you had. But sometimes, those good intentions backfire, leaving our teens less capable, less confident, and more dependent than we ever wanted. In this conversation with licensed clinical counselor and life coach Virginia Townsand, we explore how over-helping can unintentionally create learned helplessness, and what you can do instead...

You step in to help, ease your kid’s struggles, but is your help actually helpful or is it keeping your struggling teen or young adult from making the changes they need most? You want the best for them, but how can you influence internal change? It’s a painful truth many parents don’t realize: sometimes “help” becomes enabling. By rescuing your struggling teen from discomfort, whether through fina...

Ever wondered if your teen’s latest mood swing, eye roll, or total shutdown is just part of growing up or a sign that something deeper is going on? You’re not alone. Parents ask me about normal teen behavior almost daily, especially when past struggles or treatment make it harder to tell what’s typical and what’s cause for concern. In this conversation with therapist and parent coach Jen Murphy, w...

When your teen lies to you, it can feel like a betrayal, whether it’s about doing the dishes, where they were last night, or something much bigger. But what if their dishonesty isn’t a sign of disrespect, but a sign of something deeper? Today, therapist Dana VanRenterghem is back to unpack the emotional complexity behind why teens lie. From little white lies to big cover-ups, together we explore w...

It’s one of the most heartbreaking parts of parenting a struggling kid: watching them resist the very help they need, even when they KNOW they need it. In today’s conversation, Seth and I talk about the resistance to change: what it looks like, why it shows up, and how powerless it can make you feel as a parent. Whether your teen is avoiding treatment, clinging to unhealthy coping mechanisms, or s...

What if your struggling kid isn’t defiant, out of control, or ungrateful… but just hurting, lost, and desperate to be understood? In this follow-up conversation, Enzo returns. Last week, he shared his story. This time, he’s here to offer something every parent craves: honest, compassionate advice from someone who’s been there. Someone who ran from treatment, overdosed, and nearly didn’t make it, b...

What’s underneath the chaos when your teen or young adult is out of control? I may seem like they don’t care about anything: school, their future, you. But what if underneath, there’s a deep sense of fear, loneliness, and the desperate need to belong? As parents, we often only see the surface: defiance, shutdowns, risky behavior, silence. But there's always something underneath. And this conv...