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
211. A Struggling Teen's Perspective: How Harrison and His Parents Worked Together for Change - With Harrison Paletta
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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!
What if you could sit down with your struggling teen and hear what was really going on inside their head? In this episode, Harrison Paletta gives us that rare perspective.
When Harrison was a struggling teenager, he was using substances, getting into trouble, pushing boundaries, and becoming increasingly disconnected from his parents. From the outside, it could have looked like he simply didn't care about the consequences. But from Harrison's perspective, there was so much more going on.
In this episode, Harrison joins me to share his story from the other side of the parent-teen relationship. He talks openly about what it felt like to be shamed and misunderstood, why he desperately wanted his parents to listen to him, and how feeling unheard contributed to an increasingly difficult family dynamic.
Harrison's story takes us through wilderness therapy, residential treatment, coming home, relapse, and eventually college. But what's especially powerful is hearing how his relationship with his parents changed along the way.
They didn't suddenly find the perfect response that made everything better. Instead, they gradually began changing the dynamic between them. They learned to listen, respond differently, allow Harrison to experience consequences, and perhaps most importantly, create enough trust for him to be honest about what was really happening.
In this episode on a struggling teen's perspective, we discuss:
- What Harrison wishes his parents had understood when he was struggling
- Why shame and punishment sometimes created more disconnection
- What “I don't care” actually meant for Harrison
- How feeling heard and respected changed his relationship with his parents
- Harrison's experience going to wilderness therapy and residential treatment
- The challenges of leaving treatment and returning home
- What happened when Harrison relapsed after treatment
- How honesty changed the dynamic between Harrison and his parents
- Why relapse doesn't necessarily mean your teen is back at square one
- The difference between controlling your teen and influencing them
- How Harrison's parents gradually shifted their approach
- Why mentorship can be so valuable for a struggling teen after treatment
More about Harrison Paletta
Around the age of 14, I began experimenting with weed and alcohol. By the age of 16, experimentation turned into daily use, and my behavior became completely unhinged. At 17, I was transported to a wilderness therapy program. Afterwards I was sent to a residential treatment center. Nine months later I went home and soon began falling into my old habits. Although my drug use escalated, I managed to get accepted into college. Things got worse there, and eventually I was arrested and suspended from school.
After spending some time back home, I wanted to make a change and moved to Utah to pursue a healthy lifestyle. After making a major shift and embracing healthy living, I went back to work in the same residential treatment center I had been to as a kid. I returned to school to finish my undergrad studies and began my pursuing a master's degree in Social Work.
Now, I share my story with the hope of uplifting the next generation of youth who are experiencing similar struggles.
You can contact Harrison for teen mentoring at harrison@lifestrategiesmentors.com or by calling him at 914-648-0504.
Learn more about Life Strategy Mentors here.
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.
