Have you ever felt stuck in a triangle within your family, where one of you takes on the role of the victim, the other the villain, and another the hero? Maybe good cop, bad cop sounds familiar to you?

This is what we call the drama triangle, or triangulation, and it happens in every single family, whether you have a struggling teen or not. It often becomes a vicious cycle leading to massive problems and dysfunctional dynamics in our family. When one of you falls into their role, it triggers the other family members to take on their role too.

So how can we stop this vicious cycle?

Let’s start by understanding these roles, why we tend to fall into them, and how this shows up in daily family life. Then, there’s a clear way to get your family out of the drama triangle. I’ll tell you all about it in today’s episode.

In this episode on the drama triangle within family dynamics, we discuss:

• The roles in a drama triangle;
• Real-life examples of what these roles look like in our families;
• How to get out of a drama triangle;
• And more!

Need 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.


Ps. Are you getting great value out of this podcast? It would mean the world to me if you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This way, you will help me reach and help more parents of struggling teens develop healthy responses and boundaries instead of acting out of fear and anxiety. You can leave a review by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, tapping to leave a star rating and then write your review. Thanks so much!

And if you haven’t already done so, make sure to subscribe to our show so you don’t miss any of my future episodes!

And remember parents, the change begins with us.

I'd love to hear from you! Click here to easily send me a quick message and make my day!

In this deeply personal episode, I share my own journey through the challenges of parenting a son struggling with anger and substance abuse.

In this crossover episode with People Who Suffer, Andrew McKee interviews me for a change and I’ll walk you through the first signs of my son’s struggles and how my emotions became entangled with his; when he was angry, I was angry. When he was upset, I was upset.

The situation escalated when my son confessed his substance use, disappeared emotionally and physically, and began skipping school, missing 60 days in one semester.

I know it sounds familiar to many of you when I say that shame overwhelmed me, causing me to shut down as a person and a mother, plagued by thoughts of what I should have done differently. I feared we had lost him. As parents, we were consumed by shame and tried to keep our struggles a secret.

Getting our son into wilderness was a decision that I firmly believe saved my son's life, leading to an incredible shift in my perspective and also many more ups and downs.

When I realized my own part in my son’s, family’s and my own struggles, and I started working on myself, it completely changed everything. It changes me, it changed my son, and it changed our family.

Now, years later, I can truly say my sons have a completely different mom emotionally. Have a listen to my personal story which I hope will benefit all of you.

In this episode on how I went from a struggling parent to a parent coach, we discuss:

• My personal story from being a struggling mom of a struggling teen, all the way to being a parent coach;
• The first signs of our son struggling with anger and substance use;
• The shame and guilt I felt as a mom of a struggling teen;
• How we learned about wilderness and got our son in;
• The epiphany needed to change our lives;
• The moment that felt like the beginning of the rest of my life;
• And so much more!

Need 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.

Ps. Are you getting great value out of this podcast? It would mean the world to me if you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This way, you will help me reach and help more parents of struggling teens develop healthy responses and boundaries instead of acting out of fear and anxiety. You can leave a review by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, tapping to leave a star rating and then write your review. Thanks so much!

And if you haven’t already done so, make sure to subscribe to our show so you don’t miss any of my future episodes!

And remember parents, the change begins with us.

I'd love to hear from you! Click here to easily send me a quick message and make my day!

Why do our teens keep falling back into old habits?

Whether it’s big changes like making healthier life choices or smaller ones like working out more, change is hard! But why? Why is change so hard?

And at the same time, it’s also hard to watch someone go through the stages of change, isn’t it? When your struggling teen knows their behavior isn’t working for them anymore and they want to change, they’ve taken an incredibly important step in the process of change, but they’re not there yet. Next thing you know, you’re thinking: “Well, if you know, then why aren’t you doing something about it?!”

Today, we’re walking you through the different stages of change and what this can look like. Remember, change is not a linear process and we can’t expect ourselves nor our teens to never fall back into old habits. It’s all part of the process.

So, let’s dive into today’s episode and learn more about how our teens change and how we can support them.


In this episode on how teens change, we discuss:

• How do people change? What stages do we go through when we change?;
• What is your job as the parent while your teen is going through the stages of change;
• The role of shame and guilt;
• Falling back into old behaviors is part of the process of change;
• The all-or-nothing mentality;
• And much more!

Need 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.


Ps. Are you getting great value out of this podcast? It would mean the world to me if you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This way, you will help me reach and help more parents of struggling teens develop healthy responses and boundaries instead of acting out of fear and anxiety. You can leave a review by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, tapping to leave a star rating and then write your review. Thanks so much!

And if you haven’t already done so, make sure to subscribe to our show so you don’t miss any of my future episodes!

And remember parents, the change begins with us.

I'd love to hear from you! Click here to easily send me a quick message and make my day!