ABOUT THE EPISODE: The behavioral symptoms of young people caught up in substance misuse can be disheartening: open hostility, lying, cheating, stealing from family, and others. These symptoms can be hard to view as a result of the substances, and parents may instead blame their child for being “bad.”  My guest today, Dr. Jennifer Fernandez, is a proponent of a compassionate model that sounds more complex than it is - the "biopsychosocial model." This model aims to contextualize all factors contributing to someone’s reliance on substances - not just genetics. She says this type of analysi ..read more

ABOUT THE EPISODE:Patrick Balsley's substance use began with alcohol in middle school and ended 11 years later with heroin- and cocaine-induced psychosis.  But instead of talking to Patrick about who he used to be, today I'm talking to him about the incredible things he's been doing with his life since then and what he's learned while helping so many other families in their pursuit of recovery. Patrick founded Sana Counseling and Sana House, a recovery residence for men. He sits on the board of recovery high school Emerald School of Excellence, which began with two students and has grown ..read more

ABOUT THE EPISODE: Because I sit at a vantage point of seeing many parents working to understand and implement the Invitation To Change Approach (ITC) with their child who struggles with substance misuse, I see things others don't. I hear the frustrations and the celebrations, and I know that while an approach like the ITC is very powerful and effective, it isn't a magic wand. Sometimes, the more difficult aspects of using a compassion and empathetic-centric approach to a very scary and challenging problem don't get talked about. In today's short, solo episode I wanted to highlight and pick a ..read more

ABOUT THE EPISODE: When Dr. Nzinga Harrison was recently approached by her son, a high school senior, about going to his first party, she consented. He was unsurprised by her followup question: “Do you think there will be drugs there?” As an addiction psychiatrist and M.D. specializing in addiction medicine, Dr. Harrison had been talking with him about substances since he was very young, so the question wasn’t awkward. “Yeah, probably,” he replied. As her stomach twisted, she realized that the years of preparation for this stage of his life were about to be tested – if not at the party, then s ..read more

Episode 210 ABOUT THE EPISODE:When Dr. Robert Schwebel was approached by a local treatment agency about developing a drug program for adolescents, he was not interested. He decided to meet with the agency about the proposal, but also to share hard truths that he thought would encourage them to find someone else: Don't promise drug free kids overnight. Help them learn to make good decisions rather than telling them what to do. Incorporate life counseling. Rather than rejecting him, the program agreed to Robert’s suggestions and hired him. Robert hoped to find and tweak an existing treatment pro ..read more

ABOUT THE EPISODE: Years before his gender transition, Jordan Held still remembers the day he asked his employer if he could wear the same clothing as the male faculty. The reply: "We're not ready for that yet." Whether or not your young person is questioning their sexual identity, gender, pronouns or any other aspect of themselves, you’ll get so much from this important conversation. As a teenager, he had been a good student and athlete who just wanted to be the popular girl at school. He wore clothes that weren't comfortable, drank, smoked weed, hooked up with people he had no real interest ..read more

ABOUT THE EPISODE:If you could stand outside your own life, watching your family relationships play out like a movie, what patterns of behavior might you notice about yourself?  If you could see those patterns now, wouldn’t it be much easier to improve them each day?  In this episode, we try to understand ourselves and our family dynamics more deeply through the lens of attachment theory. If you’re like me, you’d never heard attachment theory mentioned in recovery spaces or literature.  But my guest today believes it has an important role to play in the families of children usi ..read more

ABOUT THE EPISODE: When my son began using drugs and alcohol, I did what a lot of parents do: I dove headfirst into a world I didn't know existed, trying to evaluate all the possible programs and places he might go to get help. But there's so much to learn about the treatment world, and the knowledge is extremely specialized, making it almost impossible to sift through it effectively without a guide. On today's show, I spoke with someone who is that guide for families. Joanna Lilley has been an educational consultant (though she prefers "therapeutic consultant") for a decade, and has worked in ..read more

Rose has three children, so she's not new to being a mom. But when her son spent six months trying every drug he could find, she stepped into a foreign world of substance misuse and increasing risk. She dealt with the utter shock and disbelief her child had been using substances at all, let alone to the degree she came to realize. Rose’s son was on week six of outpatient rehab when he combined most of those drugs together into a single, dangerous dose, and when we spoke for this coaching session he was, thankfully, in residential treatment.  Rose is sure that her son is not ready to come ..read more

Hopestream co-founder, Cathy Cioth, is back for another episode to discuss six critical mindset shifts we both believe parents need to consider when they have a child struggling with substance misuse. We share how these important pivots in our thinking impacted our families and why, even though both of us have kids in recovery, we still vigilantly adhere to them.  And, as usual, we go on a tangent or two, so grab your dog, bike, walking shoes, or whatever you do when listening to podcasts and let’s jump in. ________________________________________ The podcast is now part of a nonprofit ca ..read more