The Road Home: A Guide for Parents with Teens or Young Adults Returning from Treatment

I bought this book in anticipation of my teenager daughter ("S") returning home from from a year spent in Wilderness and Residential Treatment in Utah. My daughter had started hanging out with the wrong crowd and behaving dangerously, so as a last resort we had her go to Wilderness therapy. After 2 1/2 months in Wilderness and 9 months at a RTC, we were ready to have our daughter S. come home, but had been warned that the re-entry into normal life could be rocky.We got Ruben's book and also hired him as an advisor for dealing with all of the challenges that come along with a defiant teenager coming home from treatment. It has not been an entirely smooth ride, but Ruben's book and counseling have been invaluable for helping us understand what we're dealing with and deal with our daughter appropriately. I won't say it's been smooth sailing, but after nearly failing out of high school her sophomore year, our daughter has gotten straight A's as a senior and is headed to a great 4 year college in the fall. Ruben has been patient, kind and firm, and helped us be there as parents and also take appropriate precautions for ourselves when dealing with a daughter who still has histrionic outbursts and is definitely not low maintenance. If you have a challenging teen who's returning from wilderness or treatment, Ruben's the best. Get his book, underline it, and if you still have any money after the ruinous financial debacle of residential treatment, hire him as your guide for that crucial 6-12 months after your teen comes home.

This book should be required reading for parents who are bringing their children home from any kind of residential treatment program. When my son completed wilderness therapy and therapeutic boarding school, I felt unprepared for him to be back into the environment that got him into the dysregulated state he was in the first place. All of the same temptations and friends would be around him again and I was terrified that the energy, hard work, and expenses we put forth to help him would go down the drain! Most residential programs don’t really prepare the parents for the next steps after treatment. The author is a clinical social worker who was previously a wilderness therapist so he understands exactly what parents need to set firm boundaries. There are even samples of reasonable home agreements that you can download. I highly recommend this book!Tami AnnA Wilderness Journey: The Story of a Teen's Road to Healing

I work with an adolescent treatment program and provide this as reading material for all my parents. Practical guidance to allow your child to grow and learn to make their own choices.

I wish we would have had this book a year ago when our son came back from Wilderness and therapeutic boarding school. It would have made a world of difference to our family. The lessons are simple to understand and easy to implement. If you are a divorced family it helps both parents (assuming they are working together) cooperate to create two unified homes and work together to co-parent--the best situation for kids who are struggling and in need of support.I also wish we had met with Ruben a year ago and hired him to work with our son upon his return. Unfortunately, our son has now reverted to his self-destructive behaviors from years past and now I am doing everything possible to get him back on track. We are still in the throws of it, but hopeful nonetheless. I hope this book convinces my son's mother (we are divorced) that separate unilateral parental decision making aka "parallel parenting" is not the way to go, as our son is slipping into very dangerous behaviors when he is in her care with no boundaries and no structure.I cannot recommend Ruben's book highly enough.

Our teen is preparing to return from a year in a dual diagnosis treatment center. We are excited about her return, but also scared. Although the RTC she's at is helping us prepare for the transition, this book addresses all those questions that keep coming to mind after our family therapy sessions end. At first, this book looked like a lot to read, but it is written in a direct and relatable way that makes it easy to follow. So many times I have found myself saying, "Man, that's spot on" in terms of what lead us to treatment and what the experience has been like. This is an excellent guide. I wish all the parents with children in treatment were aware of this book. Thank you so much for this excellent tool.

For us, a family that has had a child go through therapeutic treatment, this book was a blessing. The practical information provided helped us to welcome our child back home with a "can do" feeling. We felt that we could parent our child and had a renewed sense of what we valued and felt was important in raising both our children. This book is worth every penny and the chapter end action steps make it easy to turn what you read into practice. Something that is missing in other books of this nature. This is the only book of its kind that I know of and it is exceptional.

Definitely for a niche market of parents welcoming their teenage and young adult children back into the home after lengthy treatment placements. WELL worth the read! I believe most centers assist in this sort of "home contract" construction, as my own son's does, but I still found this book both helpful and empowering. Reading it helped create a good mindset before and during the creation of our family contract.

If you are looking for a practical guide to assisting your family with the transition of a teenager back home from a therapeutic facility - you have found the right source. It is full of many many real life experiences that help provide a realistic view of families and family dynamics. The book includes some working pages that are easy to use and helpful.