ANN

Today’s Episode is a continuation of a discussion I had with Colin MacDonald, co-founder of the coaching program, Not Therapy, in the previous episode, #168. To hear the story of Colin’s tumultuous teen years  go back and listen to that episode now or after you listen to this one - it will give you SO much hope if your teenager is currently struggling.

Today you’ll hear the rest of my interview with Colin as he describes what he and the other co-founder of the coaching program, consider the key elements for your teen or young adult to find success after leaving their residential treatment or wilderness program. This is such crucial information.

Colin successfully completed treatment, graduated from his therapeutic boarding school and started life at a small college two weeks later. He had a bit of a bumpy start with his grades but credits his fraternity brothers for supporting him and getting him back in line. He graduated college and had a successful career but was distressed to discover that about 10% of the kids he went to therapeutic boarding school with had passed away.

The reality is – the support a kid receives after leaving treatment is every bit as important (if not more important) than the treatment itself. It’s much too easy to go back home and fall into the same patterns as before. Especially if nothing has changed at home.

Colin and his partner, Hayley Caddes, saw a need to support young people and their families through the post-treatment transition. They both became certified young adult coaches, and launched Not Therapy in January 2024. Their program is built on what they call the 4 pillars of transition. Colin describes those pillars in this episode so you can establish this support for your child, even if you can’t work with Not Therapy.

And I want you to listen to the end because I asked Colin to explain how he and Haley work with clients and families…because I believe in the work they do and I think it’s SO, SO, important. If you see your child through treatment, the work is unfortunately not over. The next steps you take will be the deciding factor for their future success.

Here’s Colin to tell you about those all important steps.

 

 

 

 

Colin MacDonald

So the things that we view are really important, whether it's through an organization like us or something that you can just try and have established as parents is four things and we call them the pillars of transition. First and foremost is like finding a good mentor. Ideally is someone who has gone through these programs and that's why Haley and I created Not Therapy because like I said earlier, no one understands what it's like to go through this like people that have been through it. So helping them find a mentor but it can also be you know a former coach, an aunt, an uncle, someone that they just look up to that's not their parents, that's not telling them what to do, that's just a positive influence in their life that they can reach out to when they're struggling that's not a therapist, not their parents, that's just a person that they kind of might be aspire to be. So that's maybe the most important piece. The second piece is finding a community of like -minded individuals. know, Haley and I actually, and I can talk about a little bit, just launched a community for anyone who's leaving therapeutic programs or rehab facilities so that there's a built -in community once someone leaves of people that have gone through something that is similar.

Also finding something that's around your interests. Do you love rock climbing? Can you join a rock climbing gym? Is it going to AA meetings? Is it joining a fraternity or sorority or some type of organization in your hometown, wherever you're transitioning to, that it's just people that have similar interests that are on a similar path that you can connect with? And then that's kind of a built -in group of friends right off the back, especially if you're having to move on from those old friends that you have.

 

The third piece is when you're in treatment, you have the most structure you've ever had. You're in the most therapy you've ever had. have, you your day is pretty like set out for you. And so creating structure that is set around goals so that when they come out, they kind of know what their day to day looks like. So what we do with our clients is we ask them first, like, what does a good day look like for you? If you did these five things on a daily basis, no matter what happens, would you feel like you had a good day? And just focusing on those, them doing those things every day then what do you want your first week out of treatment to look like? Okay, let's accomplish these goals. I want to have a therapist. I want to apply to 15 jobs. I want to work out four days a week. And so we're helping them find a gym, find AA meetings to go to, help them find jobs to apply to.

So we're helping them get that routine, that establishment in their life. And then you're talking about what do you want your first month to look like? What do you want your first three months to look like? So then you're holding yourself accountable to the goals that you have set for yourself and it's not some goals that anyone else has other than the ones that you have. And I think, you know, with self -confidence and building self -confidence back when you come out of treatment, self -confidence is just following through with the things that you tell yourself you're going to do. So by creating this type of structure, they're following through with a structure that they've created with the help of either their parents or a mentor or whatever, or maybe they created on their own. But then as they start to do that, they start following through, they start building self -confidence, you know, especially if they're going to the gym, being active in a sport or something like that, they're gonna start feeling better about themselves and feel more in control of their life. Because when you come out of, you went from max control to very little control. And so just really having that established.

And then the fourth one is maintaining a baseline of trust with your parents. And that's where setting boundaries with your kid is very important as soon as they get out. And Haley and I don't really like home contracts. We've looked at a lot of them. We were asked to sign home contracts.

 

 

Colin MacDonald

And they're just not very realistic. You're not in treatment anymore. you're 19 years old, you're not going to go to bed at 10 PM every night. And so for us, we like to think about it as like, if you're a parent and your kid's coming home, and what are the rules that they need to follow in order to have your support so that you can unconditionally support them? It's like, hey, we need you, if you're going to, we're going to pay for your car, we need you to pay for the car insurance. And we need you, once you get a job to pay us back car insurance or hey, you know, we don't want you smoking pot in the house. And if you do, you know, these are the consequences. We're going to take the car away. So that way there's the it's all in your kid's court to follow those rules. And then otherwise you're letting them live their life, figure things out in a way that feels good to them. Because what happens if you don't have those boundaries set and there's there's unrealistic expectations, if they don't follow through on that, you're going to start resenting your kid and getting upset with them. And that's going to come off in how you're parenting your kid. And so we've seen that time and time again, like the more structure you can put in place and those can change, right? Like it's like maybe there's more structure at first and after a month you start giving them some more privileges or whatever, but ultimately like your kid has just been told what to do for however long. They want some freedom. They want to have their voice back. So empowering them to work on the boundaries with you, you know, like if they want to be sober, what does the sobriety plan to them look like? What do they think they need to be sober? Instead of like having some therapist be like, this is the home contract that we want you to follow, because then you're just going to break the home contract and the parents will be like, well, we made this big home contract, you know, why is it not working? It's like, because the kid had nothing to do with it. You know, your teen or young adult had nothing to do with what the future looks like

 

Ann

Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what we talk about just with teens who are just typical teenagers is giving them that autonomy support where you're discussing everything and so they have a say in what their life looks like because that's what you want more than anything. And then especially when you take a kid who has had no say in their life for the last several months, yeah, it's not even fair to think that they...should continue with absolutely no freedom and no discussion at all. So I get that. So you went through the four.

 

Colin MacDonald

Yeah, yeah. So the four are peer -to -peer accountability, mentorship, finding a community of like -minded individuals, creating structure and routines that's centered around goals, and maintaining a baseline of trust with your kid that involves boundaries. You what does like the home life look like in a way feels good to both of you guys, not just the parents, because your kid's an individual. They have a right to kind of say what they are hoping for their future as well. And as a parent, mean, I would say 100 % of the parents I talk to want that for their kid as

 

Ann

Exactly. Let me ask you some questions about these then. So the last one, for instance, having those expectations and those boundaries and setting things up for them so that they won't fail. What it seems like to me with a lot of people that parents are so terrified when the kids come home that they're going to mess up. And so they're just watching them like a hawk. They don't trust anything they do or say, they're terrified they're gonna end up right back in the same place. And so they do put those really high expectations out there. They want their kid to be perfect. You you said something like, you know, maybe one of the boundaries is no smoking weed in the house. You know, a lot of parents are like, no, I mean, I sent them off to learn how to not smoke weed at all. So my thing is, you know, we're gonna drug test them and we're gonna make damn sure they're not doing anything wrong. So, it seems to me like there's some kind of middle ground here that may be between the parents and what the parents are thinking and what the kid is thinking. mean, where do you see parents going wrong in this one area?

 

Colin MacDonald

I think it starts with that your child has changed. It's not the same child you sent away. They've gone through a lot of therapy. They're probably more emotionally in depth than you maybe are at that point. And the worst thing you can do is just expecting them to fail. You know, it's kind of like having until they prove to you that they're failing, don't assume they're gonna fail. But that's why the boundaries and having consequences if they don't follow through with things gives you a little piece of mind of like, well, they know this is gonna happen.

But it's like when it's all this gray area and you don't know, then that's where like, well, we didn't really plan for this. But I think it's also like, how are you just creating the structures in place so that your kids busy when you come home? Like they're wanting to go find a job or they're getting ready for college and so you're preparing them to make that next leap.

But I think the hardest thing for parents, and that's what I was saying earlier about a lot of the work that parents can do is preparing for their kid to come home and realizing they're not the same kid that, you you've got to give them the benefit of the doubt for at least a little while. But who knows? you know, I had a client that he like was planning on staying sober and within three days he was using. And so then we had to set up new boundaries of like, all right, well, if you're going to stay in our home, these are absolutely the things that you have to do. We want you to be here, we want you to be under our roof, but we need you to, you know, go see a therapist, be applying to this many jobs, because then it's like the kid needs your support. And so you need to like define what that support will look like. So that's where the work before like, how are you knowing what your triggers are? How do you know what the triggers that your kid brings up and you are so that you're better prepared to handle it because I feel like when you're not prepared, that's when you're assuming the worst all the time. But when you're knowing that you're doing all the work as well, then you're like, I feel much more equipped to handle my kid coming home.

And because another thing too that we see a lot is when someone is sending their kid away, they get back into a routine of like, my kid's gone, the biggest stressor in their life is out of their life for a while, someone else is managing that. So how are you preparing to manage that when it comes back up? Your kid's gonna be your kid forever, you know? And so it's like, how are you getting ready for that transition so that you're ready to give them the benefit of the doubt and trust them and like have a baseline of trust? Like them going to treatment should have earned some trust back with you. Like, so I think that's where we see parents fumbling it a little bit. It's just assuming that their kid's gonna fail. And I think Haley and I give a really good perspective of when we're working with our clients of, Hey, we went through this. It's not just because your kids smoke weed this one time doesn't mean they're now failing at life, you

 

Ann

Right, right. Well, that's a good point. I mean, that's what we see often too, is that a kid does come back home and let's say they immediately go back out in the first few days or the first couple of weeks or whatever, and they do kind of screw up or they do something wrong, then the parents do kind of freak out. So you're saying that's not the end of the world. Is it to be expected? I mean, what's the whole psychology there?

 

Colin MacDonald

Yeah, I would say it's 100 % to be expected. It's not going to be perfect. I've never really seen it be perfect. And I think it's really thinking about, would you your kid fail, but they feel like they can trust you and come to you when they're failing so that you feel like you can support them or you are like so upset with them that you're like don't want anything to do with them. And then you're just allowing them to kind of go figure it out on their own. So that's why like being consistent and showing up and being clear on the boundaries of, know, if you these are the rules and I'm not talking about a lot of rules. I'm talking like three to five that like use some peace of mind. These are the rules, and as long as you do that, we'll support you in whatever you want to do. If you don't, we're going to have to figure something else out. But then if you're willing to come back and follow those rules, then we'll continue to support you. Like you guys, the parents need to really just be thinking about, I want to have a lifelong relationship with my kid. Everyone's going to have ups and downs, regardless of you went to treatment or not. And just realizing like...

 

They went through something really hard. Their life looks a lot different than most of their peers. And so you need to be as supportive as possible. But I mean, also like, obviously your kid needs to be respectful to you. I'm not saying like let your kid walk all over you, but that's why the boundaries are so important.

 

Ann

Yeah. Right, right. Just not freaking out then on the parent side. Just remember that mistakes are bound to happen and that it's not the end of the world. And as long as you can discuss it with them in a calm manner and enforce the consequences that they've agreed to in the first place, then things should go pretty smoothly.

 

Colin MacDonald

Absolutely, and I think for parents too, like we're trying to set up all the support for your kid. What support do you have? mean, parents should absolutely be going to see a therapist. There's a lot of great parent coaches out there that, you know, we definitely recommend parents to work with as well because the more support you can have and the more you feel like you have a solution to overcome or at least an outlet to overcome challenges instead of just trying to figure it out on your own, the more likely you are to have success.

 

Ann

Right. Let me ask you about that. So the first thing about finding a mentor, like I know you guys do this and there may be a couple other places that do it, but if parents don't have access, maybe they don't have the funds or they aren't near someone or whatever the reason, when we're talking about a mentor, like you mentioned, like coaches or someone like that, but I mean, how do you

 

that with someone. I mean, that's a huge responsibility. And how do they even know how to support your kid? I mean, I wouldn't even know where to start.

 

Colin MacDonald (35:49.465)

Yeah, I think one, it's just kind of looking at maybe before your kid left, like who were the positive influences in their life. And I think it's just it's about having the conversation with them. And, you know, it doesn't have to look a certain way, but just having someone else that your kid can reach out to and feel supported from is just really the key part, because you're obviously supporting them. what we see, you know, that your parents are the ones who have been telling you what to do your whole life.

 

I could say something that you've been telling your kid, but it just sounds different coming from me because I'm not their parents. So I think it's really like, I mean, you can find support in communities. Like that's why we do think AA or something like that is really great because you get a sponsor. But I think, you know,

 

Ann (36:25.333)

Exactly.

 

Ann (36:31.842)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

 

Colin MacDonald (36:36.299)

Is there an uncle that has always taken an interest in their nephew or niece that would be wanting to support that has their best interests in mind? And just that's another person to reach out. mean, obviously what Haley and I do is very much like in their life coaching, helping them address things as they come up. We're checking in with them on a daily basis. But I

 

Ann (36:52.128)

Yeah, specialized.

 

Colin MacDonald (36:57.901)

we view that one great mentor, one positive influence can shift the trajectory of a young person's life and all it takes. mean, you hear people all the time, regardless of their age, one person that kind of sees the potential in them and is that positive influence and is kind of giving them that encouragement can really help them go in the right direction. And so it's just finding that it doesn't have to look a certain way, but just finding a positive influence, could be a friend, it could even be an older sibling.

 

older siblings a little differently because they like live in the house with you and they probably have seen a lot of it. But just someone who maybe doesn't, isn't looking at that they went to treatment. That just like, yeah, maybe they know they went to treatment, but they're really thinking about their future and how they can be successful afterwards.

 

Ann (37:30.368)

Yeah. Right.

 

Ann (37:42.848)

Yeah, I've often wondered if like parents could help mentor other parents' kids. You know, if the parents could do kind of a kid swap and say, know, we'll, we'll mentor, because you're right. I mean, even if it's another, another adult, if it's coming from them rather than your parents, it's sometimes a lot easier to swallow and the relationship can be different. And so I want to ask you about the AA stuff too, because I remember when my son left residential treatment,

 

and they suggested going to AA meetings, I was really worried about that. I mean, was really kind of freaked out by it because I thought, okay, it's all these older people and do they have like young people's AA and are they not gonna be around a lot of other people that are doing drugs or drinking? I mean, can you kind of calm parents' nerves about that then maybe?

 

Colin MacDonald (38:32.727)

Yeah, think one first and foremost like AA does work, but

 

I think it's also on the person, your teen young adult kid. Do they think that they have a problem that like they, that's why they need to go to AA because I went to hundreds of AA meetings when I was in treatment. And like you said, it was a lot of older people that I was like, I have nothing in common with these people. I don't view myself as an addict in the same way that these people have to go to meetings every day, but there is, there's young adult meetings. I think if you could find a great sponsor

 

that's doing it with you, that makes a big difference. And that's like a built -in community right off the back. But I think it really does come down to like, it's one thing if they are like, yeah, I just think I want to say sober, then 100 % encourage them to go to AA. But I think, you it's not the same, but finding a strong community, finding a strong mentor can do a lot of the same things that AA does for you. And like, if your kid is coming out and they're like, I like, am gonna smoke weed, you know.

 

and they're 19 years old and then you're saying, okay, well, like you can't do it in the house. You can't drive high. You these are the boundaries that we're holding. But then like making them go to an AA meeting is not, they're still going to do it. And then you're just going to be let down that they're doing it because you're putting so much emphasis on them going to AA. So I think, you know, it's just about having the community, the structure, a sponsor, mentor type person in your life to get those benefits. And AA does provide that, but it's really

 

do you get benefit out of going to AA? Because I guarantee you in their program, except maybe in a wilderness program, they're going to AA meetings. And so they'll kind of have an idea if they like it or not, because then it's like you're forcing them to do something they don't like, right?

 

Ann (40:18.934)

Yeah, yeah. Well, and I don't know how you can even force them to go either. I mean, you know, it's impossible when they get big enough, big as you, you can't force them to go do anything. So, I mean, that's the hard part. But

 

Colin MacDonald (40:32.209)

think one thing and two with it is just like, I think it's okay if they're in their first month, like, hey, we'd like you to try A for a month, you know, and if you don't like it, we're not going to like make you go, we're going to make, we want you to go to a couple of meetings and try a couple of different groups in our hometown and seeing if that works, right? But it's not like, like I do have clients that do the 90 meetings in 90 days and that's what they need because they're committed to sobriety and like that's a big trigger for them. But that's why I think we're not asking

 

Ann (40:39.98)

Mm -hmm.

 

Ann (40:47.596)

Right. Yeah.

 

Colin MacDonald (41:02.683)

people who are leaving treatment enough what they want and what they feel like they need for support, but then also like U .S. parents can have input, but allow them to kind of design what they want that to look like, but then hold them accountable to

 

Ann (41:14.304)

Yeah, to what they've said. Well, so another thing that I know parents are always afraid of, and this was me too, this is what we moved when my son got out of residential treatment, we never took him back to South Carolina. We came to my mother's house in Alabama to make sure he wasn't around the same people and that we were starting fresh, but everyone can't do that. I mean, we could both work remotely. It was not a big deal and we had somewhere to go,

 

know, parents always worry about, what are we going to do? Because they're coming right back to the same school, the same people, the same neighborhood. How do we keep them from falling back into the same habits and doing the same stuff?

 

Colin MacDonald (41:56.229)

Yeah, I think just having the support in place right off the back is like probably the most key part. I would always recommend to like having a next step. Like going back to the same high school probably isn't the best next step. So is it like finding a new high school, finding a type of alternative school, you know, maybe it's like sending them to go live with a relative in a different place, you know, it's like.

 

it's you're not going to have as much likely of a chance of success.

 

if you're just going back to the same old song and dance and nothing's changed, but at the same time, especially if the parents aren't doing the work, right? If the parents are the same old parents, then you're just kind of hoping that it worked, right? And like I said, leaving treatment is really the start of the journey. It's not the end of it. It's not like your kid is fixed now. They've gotten a lot of skills. They've gotten a lot of tools. They've got a lot more emotional depth. So how are you now setting them up for success where they can apply all those things in their life?

 

Ann

Right, right. really, as soon as the parent sends the kid off to residential or wilderness, they need to start their own journey and they need to be working on themselves the whole time your kid is gone and start talking about this plan that you're going to have in place after they get out,

 

Colin MacDonald

Absolutely.

Yeah, and I can't tell you like how powerful it is for a kid to realize that their parents are doing just as much work as they are. mean, obviously you're not in a residential treatment center, but I can't tell you how often we see when a kid comes out and the parents didn't do anything and they're just doing the same thing. And the kids like, I've been gone this whole time and you're still getting mad at me about the exact same thing you were mad at me before. Like, how did you not move past this? Like I moved past it. But I think that's where we see like the most feuding with parents. And that's why I think, you know, joining some type of, you know, like an organization like yours, some type of parent support, doing the family weekends, going to therapy, getting a parent coach, like there's so many resources out there that you can get to be able to at least set yourself up for a chance at success.

 

Ann (

Yeah, parents just need to remember that we're not sending our kids off to get our kid fixed. The whole family needs fixing and the parents especially need to understand it. So that's, I think just key for parents to understand. So is there anything else that, mean, because I want you to tell me a little bit about not therapy, first of all, tell me about you and Haley and what you guys do and what kind of service you provide for people getting out.

 

 

Colin MacDonald

Yeah, absolutely. Like we said, when Haley and I both left treatment, we both had our own careers. used to work in sports. was working in professional sports. I worked in tech sales for a long time. And Haley worked in STEM programs. She actually started her own mental health startup for Gen Z women. But just over the 12 years, us seeing our friends pass away or just go to prison or really struggle, we're like, there's not enough support. And so we both kind of got into coaching separately at a really great program called Spain Abroad. It's a gap year program and I was the residential life coach there in the fall. And then in October, Haley and I got introduced from an Ed consultant. And when we talked, you we had the same story. We had the same goals. And by the end of it, we're like, why are we doing this alone? Like, let's do this together. And when we even talked, we call it meeting people in the wild that you have gone to a resident treatment or wellness therapy. Almost all of our stories are the same. It's all the same type of story. so then while I was doing coaching in Spain, Haley had a couple clients that she was working with in the fall of last year, we started creating not therapy. And it's called not therapy because when you're done with treatment, you're really done with therapy. And you're like, you know, I think going to a therapist after is good, but I can't tell you most parents who reach out to us is like, my kids refusing to do anything now that they're done with treatment because they're done with therapy. And so when I was thinking about it, was like, well, what are we? I'm like, well, you know, we're not therapy.

 

Ann

We're not therapy. Yeah, exactly. That's perfect.

 

Colin MacDonald

Yeah, and so we officially launched in January and we've worked with about 18 teens and young adults who have transitioned out of residential treatment and you know we're seeing that it's a huge need and we're right about at our capacity and we've actually been interviewing some other coaches that have the same background as us, went to wilderness, went to therapy programs. So it's really about bringing on people that have that lived experience. And so what we do, we do a three month contract and ideally what happens is we be with the parents obviously to start before everything's official, tell them about what we do. But then the most key part is their child has to want to at least give it a try, work with us. And so then we'll set up a call with their kid and we're just kind of to know them and telling them our story, learning about what they want and then being like, hey, know, this is kind what we provide. And so what we do is then once, you know, we decide that we want to move forward, we, right as they leave treatment, like I said, Haley's on a visit right now with a young man who just left treatment and we go out to wherever they're transitioning to and we spend two days with them. And the first day really is just us spending one -on -one time with them, doing something fun, know, going bowling. just took one of my clients go -karting the other day, you know, or just doing something that they haven't got to do in a while that they really enjoy and take them to their favorite restaurant. And while we're doing that, we're telling our stories. We're connecting on a deep personal level so they understand that we understand completely what they've gone through. You know, we can talk about our wilderness experience. We can talk about the things we did and didn't like. And they're like, you get it. You understand. then, well, usually...

 

Ann

Yes, that's so huge.

 

Colin MacDonald

Yeah, exactly. And that's what we kind of feel like is our secret sauces. I'll say it again, no one understands it like the people that have gone through it. And then we'll usually spend some time with the family, with the kid, with their parents. And that's when we'll help them kind of create all together, like what they want this transition to look like, what are the boundaries that they're willing to hold. Their child is committing to these boundaries as well.

 

So it's like we're all there together making this plan together. And so we're kind of like setting the stage and then that's when we'll set the goals. What does a good day look like? What does a good week look like? What does your first month look like? What do you want to, at the end of our three months, what would be the best outcome that you could think of? And then that sets us up so then when we leave, we meet with our clients twice a week and we meet with them at the beginning of the week and the end of the week and we're just kind addressing things as they come up like and then we're holding them to these goals that they've set, know Like hey, let's see the places you're applying to for work this week Here's some therapists that you can reach out to you know Here's a gym you can join and we're just helping them create that routine create that schedule and then additionally we provide 24 -7 tech support and I feel like this is one of the most important pieces because Therapy is great and we recommend all our clients have a therapist because that is addressing the things that you don't want to talk about, the traumas, the things that trigger you. Ours is focusing on what you want. What are the things you want, what to move forward? We're not talking about the past. So there's like a happy medium between having both. But when you have therapy, you know it's once a week. You have a therapy session every Monday. So you go to your therapy session, it's great. Something happens on Tuesday, but you don't get a meet with your therapist for another week. You can try, but the therapist isn't available.

 

And then on Wednesday, you've totally forgot about that. And by the time Monday rolls around, you didn't even remember what was triggering. And so by offering that 24 seven tech support and in all honesty, we talk to our clients, I would say on average about 15 to 20 hours a month, because when the sun is coming up, especially when it gives the parents an opportunity when there's a conflict, be like, Hey, you know, reach out to Colin and Haley and we can jump on a call with them. And we talked to our clients on Sundays, talked to a client two weeks ago at 2 a .m. when they were having like a breakdown.

 

And so we're addressing things as they come up because then we're not allowing them to build up and they can slip up, we're not letting them fall down. And so we're helping them have that. And then additionally, like I said, we just launched our community that is built for people that have gone through treatment. So they have a built -in community of just our, not just our clients, but it's for anyone who's gone to treatment. And so we have that available. And then additionally,

 

We offer two calls a month with the parents and the parents can reach out to us as much. Oftentimes the parents reach out to us more than their kids do because we're literally helping them think through everything and addressing things as they come up, talking about the wins, the lows. Also helping them get perspective, I think is like managing expectations for them and just like telling them the world's not crumbling just because your kid had a bad day. But then also talking to their kid like, hey, it's okay, you had a bad day. It's a new day tomorrow. Let's get back on the saddle. Let's keep the momentum going.

 

And we found that it works really, really well. And then also we just now partner with some parent coaches. And so that we offer a free session to any parent to get a free parent coaching session to kind of establish things as they come out as well. So, you know, we view that it really addresses all the things that I've been talking about. it's, Haley always says that when she left treatment, she wished she had like a big older sister that would have given her the cheat codes to life.

 

 

Colin MacDonald

And so that's kind what we've tried to create is something where you have support every day throughout the day, you're achieving goals, you're having success, you're having a good relationship with your parents. I'm not gonna say you're always gonna have a good relationship with your parents. We definitely have tumultuous times, but overall, like we feel like we do a pretty good job of being able to give that perspective that they can't get from a therapist, that they can't get as their own parents. And they're also, their kid is able to get advice and encouragement from someone that's not a therapist and not their parents, the ones who have been telling them what to do for years and years of their life that understands what they've been through and wants what's best for

 

Ann

Yeah. my God, that sounds wonderful. And if we had had that, that would have been just tremendous. And I know, you know, everyone would love to do this. I'm also pretty sure that like everyone can't afford it. But so is your community, is that part, like they have to do the coaching with you to be part of the community? You said no. Okay. So that's a separate thing and it's, it's less expensive, I'm sure. And all that.

 

Colin MacDonald

No, Yeah. Yeah, a lot. We created it because we wanted an option that anyone could afford to join. Our clients have free access to it, obviously, but it's really just a place for anyone who's leaving treatment to have like a low entry thing to at least have community support because we feel like that's super important. And so that's the other thing, too. And another thing I'll say.

 

Any parent and Haley and I find it very healing for us to talk to parents because we put our parents through a lot. And we're willing to talk to any parent, you know, free of charge. And we just want them to feel like they have hope. And whether it's working with us or someone else, we'll help them. You we have we have other mentoring coaching businesses that we can introduce them to. We can introduce them to parent coaches. You know, we're just trying to give everyone who's going to experience help and set them up for success because we've lost a lot of people and we feel like it was preventable if they had something like this.

 

Ann

God, Colin, it's so awesome. think the work you're doing is just fabulous. It's so needed and so appreciated. And I really appreciate you being here. I'm gonna have all the links for everything that you do. And I'm assuming all of this is, all the information's on your website and all the contact information, but I'm gonna throw it all in there in the show notes so we'll have everything for people. And I so appreciate you being here today. And thank you so much for what you and Haley are doing. And I will be watching you.

 

Colin MacDonald (53:32.358)

Yep.

 

Ann

for years to come, I'm sure.

 

Colin MacDonald

Yeah, no, thank you, Anne. And I also just want to I appreciate what you do. I think these type of groups that you've created and there's other great parent groups out there as well, they weren't around when my parents were going through it. And so I just think overall, the experience is getting better. And as long as we're willing to listen to each other, give each other feedback and really just want what's best for not just the parents, but especially their children.

 

who have gone through this really life -changing experience where, like I said, at some point you're like, how the F did my life get to this point? I think that we can really make a big difference. And the other thing too is, and I know I'll just say this again, there's a lot of stuff going on about these programs and...We believe that there's things that can change about them, but we do believe that it can be a right fit for someone and can change people's lives. And so that's why we created this, because we're hoping to make those changes in the industry to ensure that it's something that anyone who goes through can have success after and be in a better spot than they were before.

 

Ann

Thank you for saying that and amen to everything you said. I appreciate it so much and I'm sure we will be in touch in the future. Thank you again,

 

Colin MacDonald

Yeah, thank you, Ann.

 

Ann

That’s it for Speaking of Teens today – thank you for sticking around to the end!

I’ll be back on Friday so make sure you follow me where you’re listening so you never miss an episode.

Until then, remember, your teen’s doing the best they can – love them through it.