ABOUT THE EPISODE:

When parents hear "wilderness therapy," their minds often race to worst-case scenarios: punishment, boot camps, kids forced to survive in harsh conditions. But Trish Ruggles, who spent over a decade as a field guide and wilderness therapist before becoming an educational consultant, has a different story to tell. After 21 years in the field and working with countless families through Pathfinder Consulting, Trish knows that wilderness therapy has evolved dramatically from its origins.

What makes wilderness therapy effective isn't the outdoor skills or fresh air - though those certainly help. It's magic lies in the complete removal of 'noise.'

When you take a struggling adolescent out of their always-on life and place them in the wilderness, the volume goes down on everything that keeps them from thriving. No bedroom door to close, no delivery apps to summon food, no distractions to buffer the work of actually facing themselves. And there are immediate, natural consequences their adolescent brain can actually understand.

Trish's approach is refreshingly honest and practical. She'll be the first to tell you wilderness therapy isn't for everyone, but for the kid who's stuck in their room, the one running wild in the streets, or the treatment-experienced individual who knows how to game the residential system, wilderness creates something that can't be replicated indoors: a space where you can't phone it in, where every action impacts your group, and where real-life consequences teach more than any lecture ever could.

You'll learn:

• Key myths and facts about today's outdoor behavioral health offerings
• The critical, natural consequences that wilderness experiences provide in real-time
• How wilderness has evolved from its primitive roots
• Why adopted kids and those with attachment challenges often thrive in wilderness despite parents' fears
• The truth about getting kids to agree to, and actually go to an outdoor, adventure or wilderness program

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Website Trish Ruggles
• Trish on Hopestream episode 202
• Will White’s Hopestream podcast episode 14

This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Get our free, 4-video course, Hope Starts Here, and access to our Limited Membership here
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Watch the podcast on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

When Campbell Manning's middle son entered detox the day before Valentine's Day, she genuinely believed he'd be "fixed" and home within a week. What followed instead was a years-long journey through both of her sons' addiction cycles that would ultimately transform her from a completely naive parent into a trained addiction counselor who now helps hundreds of families navigate the same treacherous terrain.

Campbell brings both the raw authenticity of lived experience and the clinical expertise she's gained through extensive education plus real-world training with Amber Hollingsworth (Put The Shovel Down YouTube Channel) at Hope For Families Recovery Center.

In this potent conversation, she speaks directly to the particular torture of watching your child actively harm themselves while grappling with decisions that feel impossible, like when her 14-year-old daughter confronted her about how much more "time, emotion, money, and energy" she was going to give to addiction.

What I love is that Campbell's wisdom isn't theoretical; it's forged from setting boundaries that ended up with her sons leave home at 17, refusing to enable behavior that was metastasizing through her entire family system, and learning that "over-loving" your child can actually be the most deleterious choice you make. Her message offers genuine hope grounded in reality: both her sons are in long-term recovery, and she's built a thriving coaching practice helping parents understand that their child's willingness to change often arrives in fleeting moments, which means your preparation and readiness matters profoundly.

You'll learn:

• How Campbell navigated the brutal reality of having two sons in active addiction, including the crucial difference between heartbreak (first son) and fury (second son) in her emotional responses
• The concept of "tagging it on" and why your child must truly understand there's no one coming to rescue them before lasting change becomes possible
• Why disenfranchised grief - the kind that receives no casseroles, no sympathy cards, no community support, coagulates within families dealing with addiction and impacts every member, especially siblings
• How Campbell's daughter's confrontation about "how much more are you going to give addiction, Mom?" catalyzed her understanding that setting strong, healthy boundaries isn't abandonment, it's the most loving thing you can do when your child is drowning

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Hope For Families Recovery Center website
• Put The Shovel Down YouTube Channel

This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Get our free, 4-video course, Hope Starts Here, and access to our Limited Membership here
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Watch the podcast on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

If you've been waiting for the right moment to bring up the idea of getting your young adult some support, and you're not sure how to do it without blowing up every landmine between you, this episode is for you. Joanna Lilley, therapeutic consultant and host of the podcast Success is Subjective, is back on Hopestream, and she's pulling back the curtain on what it actually looks like to help a young adult move toward help. Joanna works exclusively with the 18 to 29 crowd, and her approach is deceptively simple: meet them where they are, agenda-free, not where your fear wants them to be.

What makes Joanna's process so potent is the way it preserves a young adult's agency at every step. There’s no attempt at maneuvering them into a decision or finding the magic words that finally crack them open. It's about creating the conditions where they feel like the architect of what comes next, and why that buy-in matters more than the program itself. Joanna also gets real about what she's seeing shift in the treatment landscape right now, including why young adults are staying longer in programs, how the complexity of what's showing up has changed dramatically, and what questions parents actually need to be asking before you commit to anything.

When you listen, you'll learn:

• Why some young adults may have a deeply distorted picture of what treatment looks like, and how to gently disrupt that narrative without pushing them further away
• How Joanna structures her first conversation with a young adult so it feels like a genuine exchange rather than a formal ‘intake’ process
• Why giving your young adult the choice of who to work with matters just as much as the choice of where to go
• Why it’s wise to start the ‘what might treatment look like’ process before you think you need to and what it might cost you if you wait

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Joanna Lilley (Lilley Consulting) website
• Joanna on Hopestream podcast episode #208
• Joanna on Hopestream podcast episode #39

This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Get our free, 4-video course, Hope Starts Here, and access to our Limited Membership here
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Watch the podcast on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.