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Parenting Post-Wilderness: Parenting a Struggling Teen Before, During and After TreatmentAuthor: Beth Hillman Parent Coach for Parents of Struggling Teens
Your guide to parenting a struggling teen or young-adult, whether theyre 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. Language: en-us Genres: Health & Fitness, Kids & Family, Mental Health, Parenting Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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181. Understanding Self-Destructive Behaviors in Teens & Young Adults With Therapist Katie May
Episode 181
Tuesday, 10 February, 2026
When your teen is engaging in self-destructive behaviors, what you usually see is the tip of the iceberg. You see the cutting, the substance use, the school refusal, the shutdowns or blowups, and it’s scary, confusing, and exhausting. But what’s happening underneath those behaviors is often invisible. Big emotions. Overwhelm. Shame. Anxiety. A nervous system that’s trying to survive. And when all you can see is the behavior, misunderstanding and frustration are almost inevitable.In this episode, I’m joined by therapist, author, and DBT clinician Katie May to help parents slow down and start understanding self-destructive behaviors in their teen or young adult kid through a very different lens. One rooted in the idea that all behavior makes sense, especially when you understand what it’s doing for them.We talk about the iceberg analogy and why focusing only on the “tip” keeps parents stuck in fear, power struggles, and reactivity. Katie helps decode behaviors like self-harm, suicidal ideation, substance use, and school avoidance as attempts to regulate overwhelming emotions, not attention-seeking or manipulation.Let’s have a look at how to respond to destructive behaviors in ways that reduce shame, build trust, and create the conditions for real change.In this episode on understanding self-destructive behaviors, we discuss:The iceberg analogy: why behavior is only the tip of what’s really happening;What “all behavior makes sense” actually means for parents;How emotional dysregulation fuels self-harm, substance use, and school refusal in teens and young adults;Why parents often get stuck reacting to behavior instead of responding to their child’s needs;How your own regulation as a parent can de-escalate intense situations;Validating your teen’s emotions without excusing harmful behavior;How boundaries, connection, and repair work together;And more!More about Katie MayKatie K. May is a licensed therapist, author, speaker, and group practice owner. She founded Creative Healing, a multi-location teen support center in the Philadelphia area, and wrote the #1 Amazon best-seller You’re On Fire, It’s Fine. With lived experience as a teen who turned to self-harm, Katie is one of only 11 Linehan Board Certified DBT Clinicians in Pennsylvania, the gold standard treatment for self-harm and suicidal behaviors. She equips parents and clinicians with practical, trauma-informed tools to decode behavior as survival and create lasting change. Learn more about Katie on her website: https://youreonfireitsfine.com/ or connect with her on Facebook or Instagram.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.Have a question or need support? You can email me at beth@bethhillmancoaching.comYou can support the show by:Leaving a reviewSubscribing to the showAnd remember parents, the change begins with us.
