Parenting Post-Wilderness: Parenting a Struggling Teen Before, During and After Treatment
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.
Parenting Post-Wilderness: Parenting a Struggling Teen Before, During and After Treatment
154. What Struggling Teens Wish Their Parents Knew: Advice From Former Troubled Teen Enzo
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 powerful than control, and how even the most chaotic-seeming kids are often just craving connection, leadership, and respect.
This episode is filled with wisdom you won’t hear from professionals alone, because it comes straight from lived experience.
In this episode on what struggling teens wish their parents knew, we discuss:
- The biggest misconceptions parents often have about “troubled” teens
- Why most struggling kids are actually highly sensitive
- The power of curiosity, and how asking the right questions can shift everything
- What teens really feel when parents try to control their behavior
- How emotional regulation (not panic) helps parents lead effectively
- Why respect for your teen’s individuality is more powerful than advice
- The kind of leadership teens are secretly looking for
- What Enzo is doing now to support other teens and families on this journey
Looking for support?
🗺️Need help setting healthy boundaries with your teen AND following through? My free guide will help you do so by creating your own Parent Home Plan!
🤍Influence lasting change in yourself and your struggling teen with my private coaching or parent group program specifically created for parents of struggling teens.
More about Enzo
Vicenzo "Enzo" Narciso grew up in Seattle, Washington, where struggles with substance use, skipping school, and falling in with the wrong crowd led him to drop out of high school. A turning point came when he was sent to Elements Wilderness Therapy in Utah, followed by treatment at a therapeutic boarding school. After returning home, Enzo relapsed, and a near-fatal overdose left him in a coma, after which he had to relearn basic tasks while beginning to rebuild his life.
Driven by perseverance and support, Enzo committed to long-term healing and personal growth. His path eventually led him to pursue higher education and later, a career helping others. Today, he shares his story and mentors kids from the next generation to inspire those navigating similar challenges, emphasizing that meaningful change is possible with consistent effort and courage.
You can reach out to Enzo at enzo@lifestrategiesmentors.com
Have a question or need support? You can email me at beth@bethhillmancoaching.com
You can support the show by:
Leaving a review
Subscribing to the show
And remember parents, the change begins with us.
🔆 Small GROUP COACHING program starting September 3rd, 2025 🔆
Sign up or learn more over at www.bethhillmancoaching.com/groups
I hope to see you there!
