Claim OwnershipParenting Post-Wilderness: Parenting a Struggling Teen Before, During and After Treatment
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© 2025 Parenting Post-Wilderness: Parenting a Struggling Teen Before, During and After Treatment
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Your guide to parenting a struggling teen or young-adult, whether they’re home, transitioning home, or presently in treatment.
Parents, say goodbye to exhausting confusion, overwhelm, panic and the unhelpful patterns that keep you and your family stuck. Learn how to develop healthy responses and set healthy boundaries with your teen instead of acting out of fear and anxiety.
Experience the relationship-changing power of focusing on your own behavior instead of futile attempts to control your teen.
Your guides to Parenting Post-wilderness are Beth Hillman, a life coach for parents of struggling teens and mom to a post-wilderness teen, and part-time co-host Seth Gottlieb, a wilderness therapy guide turned teen and young-adult recovery coach. Their unique combination of experience and training yields candid conversations chock full of practical, actionable tips and tools to smooth the challenges both parents and teens experience surrounding treatment.
Every week, you can expect conversations around:
- Parenting a struggling teen or young-adult;
- Setting healthy boundaries with your teen;
- Treatment options for your struggling teen or young adult;
- Bringing your kid home from treatment;
- Parenting skills to support your struggling child;
- Teen substance abuse, drug addiction, gaming addiction, suicidal ideation, or other teen mental health concerns;
- How to end power struggles and instead foster healthy communication with your teen or young-adult;
- And much more.
Listen in to discover how parents like you have learned to influence equanimity in the home and rebuild connections with the teens they love.
Connect with Beth on Instagram (@bethhillmancoaching) or find more information about working with Beth at www.bethhillmancoaching.com.
168 Episodes
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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, they’re using those experiences to help families better understand what’s really happening beneath...
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, Seth and I talk about one of my favorite parenting tools of all time: learning how to pause before r...
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 behind this “everything’s fine now” mindset and why it can quickly unravel the stability your family...
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 for parents and offers practical ways to focus on what’s actually happening, rather than cata...
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 yet powerful lessons he has learned since. As we talk, Andy shares about the illusion of control ...
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 their own families, Mark and Vince share why they felt compelled to create a film that tells the w...
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 fellow mom who’s walked the exhausting, heartbreaking path of teen addiction. Her son Carson went from...
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 psychological testing for teens is such a critical piece of the puzzle. Liz shares how accurate testing h...
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 to foster independence and resilience in your teen. Virginia and I talk about the difference bet...
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 financial support, extra comforts, or stepping in to soften the consequences, you may unintentionall...
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, we explore how understanding human growth and development stages can take the guesswork (and the ...
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 what’s often happening beneath the surface: fear, shame, and the deep need for connection. And wi...
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 simply refusing to engage with the support you're offering, this kind of resistance can feel like...
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, but did. Enzo shares what he wishes his parents had done differently, why curiosity is more powe...
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 conversation offers a rare and incredibly valuable glimpse inside the mind of a troubled teen who lived t...
You’re probably sick of hearing about self-care, and you’ve surely heard a hundred times that “you have to take care of yourself.” But when parenting a struggling teen or young adult, choosing yourself doesn’t always come naturally. So what does it actually look like to take care of yourself it feels like your family is in constant crisis? In today’s conversation, Seth and I dig into the often-overlooked emotional labor parents carry, and why putting yourself last isn’t what’s best for ever...
There’s no handbook on how to advocate for your child at school, especially when things get hard. Navigating IEP meetings can feel overwhelming, intimidating, and downright confusing. You know your child needs support, but between the legal jargon, emotional stress, and resistance from schools, it’s hard to know how to show up as a strong advocate for your child, no matter their age. That’s why I invited Andrea Svendsen to join me for this conversation. Andrea has decades of experience in b...
Nobody really talks about what happens after treatment. The messy, vulnerable in-between where your teen or young adult is no longer in crisis but still doesn’t quite feel at home in the world. They’ve changed… and they can feel it. But instead of feeling proud, they often feel disconnected, misunderstood, or even rejected by their peers. They’ve gained emotional intelligence, insight, and tools most of their previous friends don’t have, and that can be incredibly isolating. Especially when ...
“You’re so controlling!” Did your kid ever tell you that? If your teen or young adult constantly complains about your rules, expectations, or structure, saying that you’re controlling them, you're not alone. Many parents trying to set healthy boundaries with their teen end up questioning themselves the moment they face pushback. You want to listen, validate, and stay connected… but does that mean giving up on the structure your kid actually needs? In this episode, Seth and I unpack the real...
When you’re desperate for support, it’s tempting to turn to extended family. But sometimes their “help” just makes things harder. It’s a common and painful dynamic for many struggling parents: your teen is having a hard time, and suddenly the grandparents or extended family start weighing in with passive-aggressive comments, outdated advice, or judgmental questions. You’re already doing everything you can to support your struggling teen, and now it feels like you have to defend yourself, too....
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