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
210. Relapse Is Imminent, But Your Teen Isn’t Back at Square One
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🍁 Small GROUP COACHING program starting October 6th & 7th, 2026 🍁
How to Influence Change: Small-group program for parents of struggling teens & young adults.
Sign up or learn more over at www.bethhillmancoaching.com/groups
I hope to see you there!
You see old behaviors showing up again and your first thought is, “Oh no. Are we back here again?”. When you’ve worked so hard to support your struggling teen, a relapse, or even the return of an old pattern, can feel terrifying. Believe me, I know. It can bring back anxiety, urgency, and the instinct to jump in, fix things, or make sure everything is okay.
But relapse doesn’t mean that all the progress is gone. It doesn’t mean you’re back at square one.
In this episode, Seth and I have a deeply honest conversation about relapse, setbacks, and what happens when life gets messy again. I even share a very recent experience in my own family that brought old patterns back to the surface and reminded me that doing the work doesn’t create a life free from difficult emotions, conflict, or uncertainty.
Instead, the work gives you something much more valuable: the ability to recognize what’s happening, sit with discomfort, manage your own anxiety, and choose how you want to show up.
Because relapse is imminent in the sense that none of us are robots. Old patterns can resurface. Anger can show up again. Avoidance can return. Relationships can become difficult again. And when that happens, it doesn’t mean you’re back at square one.
It means you’re human.
In this episode on how relapse is imminent, we discuss:
- Why relapse and setbacks don’t mean that your previous progress has disappeared
- What happens when old patterns resurface in your family
- How your anxiety can influence a struggling teen who is already overwhelmed
- Why sometimes the most supportive thing you can do is give your teen space
- How shame and embarrassment can cause your teen to isolate
- The difference between being present for your teen and trying to rescue or fix them
- Why your problems may not disappear, but your ability to handle them can change
- How to recognize the difference between facts and the stories your anxious brain is creating
- What it means to witness your teen without needing them to change or repair immediately
- Why taking care of yourself is essential when you’re supporting a struggling teen
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!
🧘Learn how to respond in hard moments, without losing your cool, the relationship, or yourself, inside my 6-week Boundaries Masterclass.
🤍Influence lasting change in yourself and your struggling teen with my private coaching or parent group program specifically created for parents of struggling teens.
Have a question or need support? You can email me at beth@bethhillmancoaching.com
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And remember parents, the change begins with us.
