Hopestream: Parenting Kids Through Addiction & Mental Health

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
When your child transitions from treatment back into everyday life, the real work begins. Alex Zemeckis and Cannon Kristofferson, co-founders of The Grounds Recovery and Mare's House, know the terrain intimately—not from textbooks or theories, but from walking that precarious path themselves. Now, years into their own recovery journeys, they've built a rock solid sober living ecosystem that helps young adults navigate the delicate nuances of early sobriety while building sustainable, meaningful lives.
In this conversation, Alex and Cannon reveal why employment isn't just helpful but essential for young people in recovery, serving as both anchor and compass in those vulnerable early months. They understand the peculiar challenge of leaving treatment's protective bubble, only to face familiar streets, old phone numbers, and muscle memories that can pull a young person back to past patterns. Their approach? Get young adults integrated into real community fabric immediately—working, contributing, encountering actual triggers while building the mental fortitude to navigate them. No therapeutic bubble, no artificial safety—just supported practice at living.
After years of working with young adults struggling with substances and mental health, they've noticed the themes that persist: the hunger for genuine connection, the need for purpose beyond sobriety itself, and the surprising power of peer mentorship from those who've earned their wisdom through lived experience and formal education. Their perspective offers something rare—credibility born from personal transformation coupled with professional dedication to helping others architect their own recovery.
When you listen, you'll learn:
Why meaningful employment serves as recovery's most underutilized tool and how work provides structure that therapy alone cannot 
The specific vulnerabilities young adults face when transitioning from treatment to home environments (and practical strategies for navigating them) 
How peer support from those with lived experience creates a different quality of trust and accountability than traditional counseling 
The common patterns Alex and Cannon observe across hundreds of young adults—and why these patterns actually offer hope 
Their unconventional approach to community integration that prioritizes real-world practice over extended therapeutic cocooning
EPISODE RESOURCES:
The Grounds Recovery website
Mare's House website (women's sober living)
This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Get our free, 4-video course, Hope Starts Here, and access to our Limited Membership here
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Watch the podcast on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
If you’ve ever felt uncertain about what your teen or young adult might be using—and how easily accessible today’s substances have become—this episode is a must-listen. I sat down with Sebastian Martin, Executive Director at New Life House, a long-standing sober living program for young men, to unpack the alarming rise of so-called “gas station garbage”—substances like Kratom, kava, 7-0H, and “Feel Free” tonics that are marketed as harmless but can create dependency and serious mental health fallout. 
With his deep professional experience and 15 years in recovery himself, Sebastian offers an inside look at what’s showing up in schools, treatment centers, and homes—and what parents need to know right now.
You’ll hear a candid, compassionate conversation where we explore how experimentation today can escalate much faster than it did even a decade ago, why isolation in a bedroom can be as concerning as chaotic, risky behavior, and how crucial community and connection are in early recovery—for both parents and their kids. We also discuss the life-changing potential of treatments like TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) and what true collaboration between mental health and substance use professionals looks like when it’s done right.
What You’ll Learn:
What “gas station garbage” really is and why it’s showing up in homes, schools, and even jails (but not on standard drug screens)
Why today’s cannabis and other “legal” substances are nothing like what you may have experimented with as a teen
How to recognize when isolation can be just as dangerous as acting out
The essential role of healthy community for teens and young adults—and how parents can encourage it
A powerful mindset shift for parents: how to love your child to life, not to death.
This conversation offers clarity and calm in a world of misinformation, helping you understand what’s happening beneath your child’s behavior—and reminding you that not all hope is lost.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
New Life House website
Hopestream podcast episode 241 with Dr. Martha Koo (TMS)
DEA Fact Sheet on Kratom
Information on the “Feel Free” tonic by Eleanor Health
This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Get our free, 4-video course, Hope Starts Here, and access to our Limited Membership here
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Watch the podcast on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
When Jennifer Ollis Blomqvist discovered Motivational Interviewing (MI) in a Swedish women's prison 25 years ago, she found more than a therapeutic technique—she discovered the antidote to professional burnout and the foundation for every meaningful conversation in her life. 
Now an MI expert and trainer who works with everyone from incarcerated individuals to parents navigating their children's substance use, Jennifer brings a refreshing perspective on how this evidence-based approach transforms not just our difficult conversations, but our entire energetic contract with change itself.
In this conversation, Jennifer and I explore the delicate dance of supporting autonomy while maintaining boundaries, why school refusal might actually be a sophisticated form of communication, and how motivational interviewing becomes the connective tissue between love and limits. Her renowned book, "Lighthouse Conversations: Being a Beacon for Teens," will give you a practical framework for illuminating pathways without forcing direction - a critical distinction when your child's choices feel increasingly difficult to understand.
When you listen, you'll discover:
• Why sharing responsibility for change prevents parental burnout and creates more durable outcomes than attempting to architect your child's recovery alone
• How to navigate the cognitive friction between supporting autonomy and maintaining safety boundaries—including the counterintuitive power of "doing nothing" as an active intervention
• The critical difference between rolling with resistance versus reinforcing it, and why your nervous system's response matters more than your words
• How motivational interviewing grows with you through different life stages—from negotiating with toddlers to supporting aging parents—making it the most versatile tool in your communication repertoire
• Why school refusal might be your child's way of telling you they don't fit the institutional mold, and how MI can help you excavate the real issues beneath the  resistance you see at surface level

EPISODE RESOURCES:
Lighthouse Conversations: Being a Beacon for Teens
Jennifer’s website
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +46 736 - 19 54 46
This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Get our free, 4-video course, Hope Starts Here, and access to our Limited Membership here
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Watch the podcast on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION:
"When elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers." This African proverb stopped me mid-scroll during a walk, and I saw my family's addiction story with some pretty painful clarity. While my ex-husband, husband and I stomped around trying to wage war on our son's substance use and high-risk lifestyle, we completely missed who was getting trampled beneath our giant, well-meaning feet.
This week's raw and honest solo episode unpacks the heavyweight champion of family conflicts: parents locked in battle over how to handle their child's substance use. I reflect about missing my younger son Marco's quiet suffering (spoiler: he mastered invisibility to survive our chaos), and you'll hear how our struggling kids internalize parental discord as proof they're destroying the family. You'll hear why treating addiction like toothpaste you can force back in the tube only creates more destruction, and how shifting from head-on combat to clay-shaping might just save your entire family ecosystem. (lots of metaphors in this week's show!)
Fortunately, the Invitation to Change Approach offers a roadmap for stepping more carefully through crisis - because your other children, parents, friends, and even your struggling child deserve better than getting flattened while you fight about tough love versus cushioning falls.
What you'll learn:
Why siblings of struggling kids often perfect the art of being "not as bad" - and the long-term cost of that survival strategy
How late-night battles between parents may send dangerous "I'm the problem" messages to your struggling child
The critical shift from manager to consultant when your child hits adulthood (and why this transition can spark explosive co-parenting conflicts)
Why approaching addiction like malleable clay instead of a winnable war creates healing space for everyone
Specific ways to acknowledge and tend to the "trampled grass" in your family this week
EPISODE RESOURCES:
Hopestream podcast episode with Marco Narcsio, (#70)
This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Get our free, 4-video course, Hope Starts Here, and access to our Limited Membership here
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Watch the podcast on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
When your journey with a child's substance use stretches into its second decade, you enter what we loving call "warrior mom" (or parent) territory – a place where endurance meets wisdom, and self-preservation becomes an art form. Today's conversation with Hopestream co-founder, Cathy, honors these battle-tested parents who've been navigating their adult children's challenges for ten, fifteen, even twenty years or more.
This isn't an advice-filled episode - because more advice isn't what you need. It's a raw, honest dialogue between two mothers who know the unique terrain of loving a child through active use, high-risk lifestyles, homelessness, incarceration, and the revolving door of recovery and relapse. 
Cathy shares her own marathon story, including driving hundreds of miles to share picnics with her daughter – a simple act of presence that seemed insignificant (and ineffective) at the time but later proved transformative. 
You'll hear:
Why "handing over a shift" to a higher power becomes essential for sustainable parenting through decades of struggle
How warrior parents navigate the delicate dance of support versus enabling when adult children face eviction, homelessness, or legal troubles
The unexpected and seemingly counterintuitive renewal that comes from serving others
Why those seemingly fruitless gestures of connection (like Cathy's picnics) create an energetic contract that transcends the immediate moment
The liberating truth about our children's remarkable resourcefulness when stability disappears and traditional safety nets fail
This podcast is part of a nonprofit called Hopestream Community
Get our free, 4-video course, Hope Starts Here, and access to our Limited Membership here
Learn about The Stream, our private online community for moms
Find us on Instagram here
Watch the podcast on YouTube here
Download a free e-book, Worried Sick: A Compassionate Guide For Parents When Your Teen or Young Adult Child Misuses Drugs and Alcohol

Hopestream Community is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an Amazon Associate. We may make a small commission if you purchase from our links.