Ask any parent what it’s like to know your teen or young-adult child is coming home from drug treatment and you’ll see a very frightened, confused, and anxious person. It’s a highly vulnerable time for the child and a hopeful, yet confusing and terrifying time for parents and caregivers. Wonder, co-founded by Dave Herz and Willow Rubin is a unique program closing that gap in care, role-modeling, support, and expertise when it’s needed most.
This was such an enlightening and hopeful conversation with two people who have played many roles in the treatment and therapeutic world and I’m so grateful for them sharing their knowledge and insights with us. You’ll hear about:
- How Dave & Willow noticed a gap in traditional treatment for teens and young adults and then developed a therapy service that fills it
- What teens and young adults actually want most from their parents
- What Dave describes as “warrior work” for parents and why it’s the hardest thing to do
- How meeting kids where they are (aka, not in a therapist office) is such an important part of their success
- Their philosophy of “we show up,” what it takes to deliver on it, and what that looks like vs traditional models
- Why they provide separate coaches for parents and teens/young adults to meet their different needs
- How they work with parents to help them stop enabling destructive behavior and recognize their own needs and boundaries
- How they help parents feel empowered and enabled to make their own choices
- The uncomfortable reality that we as parents don’t have control over what our kids do – but how we can still help them
- The difference between loving unconditionally and enabling
- Why it’s important for parents to be held accountable – as well as their kids
- Why parents shouldn’t focus on future outcomes and spend time in “future thinking”
- How kids don’t make their decisions based on the future like adults often do
- What they’re seeing today related to the opioid epidemic
- How they’re transitioning their in-person model to adjust for COVID-19
- The role of energy and creativity in their therapeutic model
- Why things may be getting better with your kid even if their behavior isn’t changing, and how to tell
Show notes with recommended resources and full transcript at www.brendazane.com/hopestream/16
