Teens at Muir Wood enjoy game night

16-Week Parent Aftercare Class (PAC)

Provided free-of-charge to all alumni parents 

The 16-Week Parent Aftercare Class curriculum is provided to parents free of charge following their teen’s treatment stay at Muir Wood and has been developed specifically to aid parents post discharge. Led by Rawland “Rawly” Glass, LCSW, Muir Woods Family Services Director, a nationally recognized therapist, and a past recipient of the Addiction Professional Outstanding Clinician Award, the program is delivered weekly over Zoom.

This PAC curriculum builds upon concepts learned in the weekly Parent’s Class, which parents attend while their child is in treatment. The emphasis is on practical applications of parenting skills, structure and nurturing, and a focus on how to best put those principles into real life practice as their child transitions home. Parents will have approximately one hour of homework each week for 16 weeks corresponding to each weekly online class.

The Parent Aftercare Class is about providing concrete support to parents as their child transitions back home and reintegrates into the family, school, and community. Active involvement in this program is also designed to protect the considerable investment parents have made in their child’s recovery and increase potential success of long-term goals. 

Muir Wood recognizes that parenting can be tough under any circumstances. When substance use and underlying behavioral health issues are added to the mix, it can seem impossible to remain grounded, have clarity, and take appropriate actions. Fear, guilt, shame, hurt and other emotions may overwhelm parents, and often parents need someone to help guide them out of the fray and provide assistance in moments of confusion and chaos.  

The philosophy at Muir Wood involves the whole family with a strong commitment to serving the teen as part of a “family system”. The Parent Aftercare Class is a real-time, online service that provides parents a weekly scheduled platform that focuses on the here and now. It allows the coach and parent to identify specific ideas, tools, and skills needed to successfully parent a teen returning home after a residential treatment stay. 

Muir Wood is committed to delivering the gold standard in adolescent substance use and mental health treatment. This unique Parent Aftercare Class provides the support necessary for parents to further the gains made by the family while in treatment and attain sustainable healing.

PAC is offered as a virtual 16-week series, covering three primary topics:

  • The Setup and The Shift: Codependency sets us up to embrace what I call “The Classic Parenting Model” – an approach which most of us experienced in our childhood and is still the primary approach today. The problem is that it doesn’t work, and what’s worse, it actually prevents us from giving to our children what they need. We then discuss shifting to a new approach built around creating healthy relationships and helping parents regain their influence with their children.
  • Interactions: Interactions and communication are where we meet our children on a 24/7 basis. Interactions are a dynamic flow of energy – We build on The Shift proposed in topic 1 and develop purposeful, strategic interactions designed to give our children what they need. We break through the confusion and identify specific tools and ways of showing up that are deliberate and purposeful.
  • Intra-Connectedness: Establishes and builds the foundation which is all about parents being grounded and the practice of healthy boundaries. This is the real secret to successful parenting. We move from blind, reactive-based parenting to an ability to manage our own reactions, self-regulate, and then from here into the tools and strategies of parenting. With a sense of boundaries, legitimate power, we learn to sleep at night and maintain our internal balance regardless of what is going on with our children. When we are emotionally stable, our children are more open to and in many cases actually turn to us for support and help.