Revealing What Exactly Educational and Therapeutic Consultants Do (and don’t do), with Joanna Lilley
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 an expert guide. On today's show, I spoke with someone who is that guide for families. She’s revealing what consultants actually do, how they do it and how working with one can impact your child’s treatment journey.
Trading Control & Punishment for Respect & Emotional Intelligence, with Ann Coleman
After watching her brother's life cut short by substance use, Ann Coleman was intimately familiar with its dangers. So when her son - who already suffered from anxiety and depression - started using marijuana, hallucinogens and opiates, her trauma and instincts of fear and control kicked in hard. Looking back, Ann recognizes that at the time she believed her son was solely to blame for the unraveling of the relationship. Now, she knows better.
Decoding Today’s Adolescent Substance Use Treatment Landscape, with Trish Ruggles
At some point along your child's journey with substance misuse and mental health challenges, you’ll almost certainly need to make difficult decisions about treatment. If they’re an adolescent, this becomes a complicated and heart-wrenching decision. Trish Ruggles is a licensed clinical professional counselor and therapeutic educational consultant with 15 years experience in the treatment industry. She has intimate, on-the-ground knowledge of the wide spectrum of mental health and substance use programs, and works with families to match the right treatment setting with a young person’s therapeutic and academic needs.
Learn From My Mistakes If Your Child Is Struggling With Substance Use, with Julie Merberg
When Julie Merberg returned home from a work trip to find a scale and a pile of baggies on the living room table, she knew her son's involvement with substances was getting out of control. Foreshadowing her current work with Hopestream, Julie had already formed her own neighborhood support group of parents after her 16-year-old son began abusing Xanax and marijuana. As with so many of us, Julie and her husband were trying to change their son’s behavior with punishment and control, but found that it only made him more oppositional and defiant.
happiness and joy are not the same (and why it matters for parents), with Alex Stavros, CEO of Embark Behavioral Health
Sometimes, parents seeking guidance and comfort during difficult times are told to “choose happiness.” My guest on this episode believes instead, we should be choosing joy. Alex Stavros is the CEO of Embark Behavioral Health, a leading network of premiere youth outpatient centers and residential programs. Their “big hairy audacious goal” is driving down youth anxiety, depression, and suicide from all-time highs of today to all-time lows by 2028.
clinging to hope: an epic saga of addiction, medical innovation, loss, recovery, hope and unconditional love, with Pattie Vargas and Rebekah Mutch
Sometimes there's a story so unbelievable it's hard to know where to start when telling it. This is one of those. My guests are mother and daughter and they trusted me with sharing their family's journey to hell plus the miraculous twist that no one saw coming. It's a binge-worthy episode that merits its own NETFLIX series. You'll come away awestruck by the determination of a Scottish surgeon, the power of a mother's fierce love, and the realization that parents should never, ever stop clinging to hope.
What Parents Need to Know About Trauma-Informed and Responsive Transport and Interventions, with Heather Hayes
You've likely seen the A&E show "Intervention" where families work with a professional team to encourage a loved one to go to drug or alcohol treatment, and wondered how much of that is reality vs. Hollywood show. In this episode, you'll hear from Heather Hayes who's been an interventionist on the show, is a Master's Level Licensed Counselor, Board Certified Interventionist (CIP) and Certified Arise Interventionist. She brings nearly 40 years of experience in the field of addiction and mental health to this very important conversation.
golden nuggets from 2021: the best of the episodes you need to hear if your child struggles with substance use or addiction
It's a wrap! 2021 held so many amazing things, and frustrating things (aka COVID) so to send the year out with a bang, I gathered up some of the most downloaded episodes of Hopestream and have put together a compilation for you.
Ryan Hampton reveals the truth from inside the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy in his newest book, Unsettled
In this episode, I sat down with Ryan Hampton, author and activist, to talk about his newest book, Unsettled: How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis and how his experience of being involved in the trial impacted him personally.
from heroin needle to sewing needle, giving back through recovery with Jeremy Melloul, MOLT Clothing
If you've ever wondered if recovery is a real thing, you will absolutely want to hear Jeremy Melloul's incredible story of recovery and giving back. You'll hear how a young man from an ambitious immigrant family found the relief of alcohol at age 11 before traveling a long and painful journey of addiction, eventually living off of Twizzlers, peanut butter cups, and heroin. But the story doesn’t even come close to ending there.
demystifying co-occurring mental heath and substance use disorders; answers to all your questions with Mary Ann Badenoch, The Partnership To End Addiction
When a parent hears "co-occurring disorder" from a therapeutic professional it can be scary, daunting, and extremely confusing. Mental health disorders commonly accompany substance use in teens and young adults, and vice versa, yet it's hard to know which is which, is one more "primary" and how in the world do you go about treating one or both? This episode answers all the questions parents have when their child is dealing with both mental health and substance use disorders.
Owen Fielding of NET Recovery: the drug-free, non-traditional treatment that bypasses withdrawal torture and restores choice to those trapped in addiction
For anyone trapped in the cycle of addiction and withdrawals hearing there's a way to remove cravings without having to suffer the agony of withdrawal would almost be too good to be true. That's why Owen Fielding and the team at NET Recovery are kicking off FDA trials (Nov. 2021) for their health-tech device that has been working since the 1970s in an attempt to curb the astounding numbers of people living in addiction and dying from overdoses.
The Final Fix: an unflinching documentary investigating a radical, 49-year old technology that could change everything we know about addiction and recovery, with Director Norman Stone
If your son graduated from high school, was a nationally ranked tennis player, went to West Point, became an Army Ranger, served in Afghanistan, and went to law school, you might think all was good. But for Tripp Johnson, who achieved all of these markers of external success, life wasn't all good.
Tripp’s story takes us from sourcing drugs off the Dark Web to law school, a yoga mat, and ultimately, creating a whole-person focused treatment program for guys struggling with substance use.
things to do while your child is in treatment, for the first or 20th time, with Brenda Zane
It's a really common question parents have, "my son/daughter just went to treatment...now what?"If this is a place you find yourself, this episode will give you some assurance, guidance, and thoughts about what to do during this time of change. There can be so many mixed emotions from relief to sadness and even guilt...whether it's the first time your child is in treatment, or even if you've been down the treatment road many times.
human flourishing & unconventional recovery; finding personal fulfillment & challenging the status quo in addiction treatment, with Tripp Johnson
If your son graduated from high school, was a nationally ranked tennis player, went to West Point, became an Army Ranger, served in Afghanistan, and went to law school, you might think all was good. But for Tripp Johnson, who achieved all of these markers of external success, life wasn't all good.
Tripp’s story takes us from sourcing drugs off the Dark Web to law school, a yoga mat, and ultimately, creating a whole-person focused treatment program for guys struggling with substance use.
insurance coverage for substance use, addiction and mental health; parity, denials and tips for getting treatment covered, with Virginia Holleman
When Virginia Holleman's son finally entered in-patient treatment for his substance use, she thought things would get easier, especially since her company-sponsored insurance covered his treatment. Or so she thought. In this episode, you'll learn about the Federal Parity Act, what it means, how it's relevant to your situation, and what you can do to have the best chance at getting your child's treatment covered.
rethinking drinking when our kids struggle with substances; why and how you might consider a change, with Casey Davidson
This episode explores that sometimes uncomfortable topic of parents' drinking when they have a son or daughter struggling with substances, and provides non-judgemental information and ideas on how to make a change if you decide it’s right for you. It'll help you completely reframe how you think about alcohol's role in your life, and how this important change might be a big step in role-modeling healthy behavior and coping skills for your children.
a 2021 reality report from inside the walls of teen mental health and substance use treatment: are the kids ok?
The siblings. What's happening to our other kids when we have one struggling with lifestyle choices, substance use, or mental health issues? How are they being impacted? What do they know? What should they know, and when? I figured the best way to answer these questions would be to talk with my son, who watched his older brother go through "it" and share his thoughts; what he saw, how he felt, and the impact it's had on his life.
watching from the sidelines; a sibling's vantage point on his brother's risky lifestyle, drug use and recovery, with Marco Narciso
The siblings. What's happening to our other kids when we have one struggling with lifestyle choices, substance use, or mental health issues? How are they being impacted? What do they know? What should they know, and when? I figured the best way to answer these questions would be to talk with my son, who watched his older brother go through "it" and share his thoughts; what he saw, how he felt, and the impact it's had on his life.
shattering the youth treatment mold and getting real about drugs, alcohol and mental health, with Wes Robins & Zac Sweat of Eternal Strength
Wes Robins and Zac Sweat are passionate about helping young people heal and have opened a therapeutic healing center outside of Atlanta, GA to do just that. Eternal Strength Therapeutic Youth Center is an outpatient program without a program, where each client is met with a tailor-made set of activities and therapies that work best for them and their family.