#011 Todd Weatherly

Todd Weatherly: [00:00:00] Just because you know what's going on and maybe you've done a little treatment, there's still a whole world of stuff that you probably need to follow through with in order for the all of this to stick. Yeah. You know, for a person who's suffer, if you've been hospitalized or you've got something that.

Todd Weatherly: You guys would identify, say, as a primary substance use condition. Mm-hmm. And that's been identified. We know for a fact that a year of sobriety might buy you two. Mm-hmm. If you can put in a year, you might have bought yourself another one. If you can put in two, you might have bought five. Right. But sobriety is a lifelong process.

Todd Weatherly: Yep. Um, it's not just about sobriety, it's about like self-care and self-knowing and identifying things that cause you to seek out. This numbing thing that you've done with your life or cause trouble? If it's a mental illness, you know, if this big, you know, the ugly head of a mental illness starts to rear its head, and I don't even know what that is.

Todd Weatherly: The person had psychotic features, they had, you know, severe depression, or they had all this [00:01:00] impulse control stuff. It's like, what do we do with that? It's like, well, you don't turn on. It's not like breaking a leg. It's a long-term condition. We're gonna have to go for. You know, six months, a year, two years worth of various levels of care.

Graham Doerge: Good afternoon. My name is Graham Durge and I am the founder and c e o of New Water Recovery in Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome to Finding New Waters. I'm joined today by our Director of Admissions and Outreach Bee Reeves and Todd. We Weatherly managing partner at Stucker Smith and Weatherly. Todd is a pioneer and leader with over 25 years of experience in the FE field of Health and Human [00:02:00] Services.

Graham Doerge: He's passionate about building programs, creating community, and helping families. A career driven by his deep commitment to serving others as a former treatment program executive director and ceo. He's a widely sought advisor throughout the treatment community. He is focused as a mental health and substance use treatment and program consultant, consultant for over a decade, and is a qualified mental health and substance abuse prevention professional.

Graham Doerge: Our goal in creating Finding New Waters is to provide a resource for families to help navigate the complexities of supporting a loved one struggling with substance use or mental health. When we find ourselves in crisis due due to one of these issues, most people have no idea what to turn, where to turn.

Graham Doerge: We hope to shed some light onto what is often the darkest hour for many families. Todd, thanks for being here today, buddy.

Todd Weatherly: Thanks for having me. I, I'd like to add to that little bit You did about me. Thank you. That was very nice. That I'm really just a guy. Really. Just a guy. Just a

Graham Doerge: guy. Yeah. A hundred percent.

Graham Doerge: Right. And, and I think we're all, you know, we're obviously all working in this field and, and kind of, uh, doing God's work here and. You know, the reality is [00:03:00] that a lot of us are in this work because we've struggled with these things in our own lives. Right? Absolutely. Um, and, you know, I'd love to get into this a little bit today, and obviously the, you know, the real goals I kind of stated there is to, you know, provide resources for families to, to help them navigate the complexities of, of, uh, of, of dealing with substance use disorder or any mental health conditions.

Graham Doerge: And, you know, you are a therapeutic consultant and I think that, you know, for a lot of people, they don't even really know what a therapeutic consultant is. So I'd love for you to kind of dig into that a little bit and kind of explain kind of what you do for, for your career.

Todd Weatherly: Absolutely. Um, and a lot of the families that, that end up finding us, uh, and calling me or like, I didn't know you existed, I wish I had known about this several years ago or when we started this journey, because what they've done is, you know, ended up in a crisis.

Todd Weatherly: Maybe ended up in a hospital. Um, and, and, and then after that it's like, well, we're just gonna follow the advice of the people that gave us this care for three days. [00:04:00] Right. And, you know, their version of that is just, oh, some outpatient and some whatever. We know that that's not enough for folks. Yeah. Um, hospitals are largely band-aids.

Todd Weatherly: You know, they'll get a person to where they're not a harm to themselves or others. There's the criterion, right? And then after that, you're, you're good to go. Mm-hmm. Except you're not good to go. Yeah. Um, and then you walk out into this world where I. What kind of program do I have? Heck, what kind of illness are we dealing with?

Todd Weatherly: I don't even feel clear. They've handed me a discharge summary that's two pages long. Mm-hmm. It's got a couple of words I don't really understand, or it's using terminology that I'm not familiar with. I go look it up on the internet and it's like, oh my gosh. It's like, well, do I need PHP or I o p? Does they need resident residential care?

Todd Weatherly: What kind of residential care are they? You know, all of a sudden they're faced with this. Massive material, this undifferentiated mass of how to care for, uh, you know, mental illness or Coke oring substance use disorder. And they don't know where to turn. Yeah. Um, [00:05:00] some people try to do it on their own and when they do that, you know, they hit the Google consultant and mm-hmm.

Todd Weatherly: And try to figure things out and they end up spending a lot of money, a lot of time. Mises, you know, Treatment after treatment, hospitalizations, all these other pieces that they see that ultimately don't work or not, you know, designed or a good fit for the person who's needing care. And they get a year, two years down the road and there's still no better off.

Todd Weatherly: Right? Um, and so the, you know, the. A therapeutic consultant of course is, I mean, last year I tour 70 programs. Mm-hmm. I still feel like I still run into new programs. I still like, wow, there's a whole series of programs in this area I didn't know about. Right. Um, I can't imagine, I've been in the field for 25 years.

Todd Weatherly: I can't imagine being a family faced with it and then all of a sudden having to go, okay, now I'm gonna make myself an expert. Right. You know, if you find someone who can be a guide, I mean, you don't go in a, you don't go [00:06:00] into, um, a courtroom mm-hmm. Without an attorney. Right. Because you don't know the law.

Todd Weatherly: Right. Unfortunately, we don't have a user-friendly system. Yeah. Unless they come to places like New Waters, where people are very friendly and very accommodating and know what they're talking about. Right. If they happen to be lucky enough to find a resource like yours, awesome. Right. But otherwise, you know, they're, they're turning to this massive material and language and everything else.

Todd Weatherly: They don't know how to manage. Um, and if they come to someone, they come to a therapeutic consultant like any member of our team, or they're, you know, there's a whole. There's not a lot of therapeutic consultants out there, but there are a few. If you happen to find a good one, they can help you identify things, navigate the system, figure out that, hey, you know, just because you know what's going on and maybe you've done a little treatment, there's still a whole world of stuff that you probably need to follow through with in order for the all of this to stick.

Todd Weatherly: Yeah. You know, for a person who suffer, if you've been hospitalized or you've got something that. You [00:07:00] guys would identify, say as a primary substance use condition. Mm-hmm. And that's been identified. We know for a fact that a year of sobriety might buy you two. Mm-hmm. If you can put in a year, you might have bought yourself another one.

Todd Weatherly: If you can put in two, you might have bought five. Right. But sobriety is a lifelong process. Yep. Um, it's not just about sobriety. Mm-hmm. It's about like self care and self knowing and identifying things that cause you to seek out. This numbing thing that you've done with your life or caused trouble. If it's a mental illness, you know, if this big, you know, the ugly head of a mental illness starts to rear its head, and I don't even know what that is.

Todd Weatherly: The person had psychotic features, they had, you know, severe depression, or they had all this impulse control stuff. It's like, what do we do with that? It's like, well, you don't turn on. It's not like breaking a leg. It's a long-term condition. We're gonna have to go for, you know, six months, a year, two years worth of.

Todd Weatherly: Various levels of care. [00:08:00] Yeah. People don't even know, they don't even know that fact Right. When they go into it.

Graham Doerge: Right. So yeah. They think that they're gonna send their their loved one away. It's gonna be a 30 day, you know, quick fix and you know, we're gonna fix them and they're gonna come back a different human being.

Graham Doerge: Right. Right. And that's obviously not the reality. Right. You know, for

Todd Weatherly: they're not a car needing a new carburetor. A hundred percent.

Graham Doerge: Right, right. No, and, and, uh, and it's interesting because we, you know, I, I think. In general, we've seen this over the last kind of, you know, six to seven years, um, where we've started to see a ton of.

Graham Doerge: Uh, especially young adults too, who have been in treatment 6, 7, 10, 12 times. Right. Um, before the age of 30, you know, and, you know, that's concerning. Obviously we're missing something there. Right. And that was really why we started, you know, this assessment track to begin with, uh, at new orders was because, you know, again, we were missing so much.

Graham Doerge: Right. And I think there was a lot of underlying issues that weren't being addressed or identified, whether it was, you know, possibly autism, o c d, you know, thought disorders and any kind of litany of things. And, you know, we just keep sending them down [00:09:00] the same pipe and sending them to, you know, a primary substance use program that's just not hitting the mark.

Graham Doerge: Right. And so, you know, I think that you're, you're right. And, and I guess you hit on something there I wanted to, to, you know, pin on is, um, you know, you said if you get hooked up with a good educational or therapeutic consultant, what, in your opinion, what's the difference between a good and a bad? Or less than.

Graham Doerge: What would you be if somebody was out there looking for a therapeutic consultant, what would you recommend that they, the top like five questions that they would ask? Well,

Todd Weatherly: I mean, and uh, sometimes I get families a ask some of these, so I belong to an organization called the Therapeutic Consulting Association.

Todd Weatherly: If you go to their website, you'll find a very long document of ethical guidelines for therapeutic consultants. Right. So we're not gonna read that, but you know, No, no person who's behaving or, you know, claims to be a consultant should be getting money from programs. Mm-hmm. They should be getting kickbacks.

Todd Weatherly: This is not a, this, you know, they're [00:10:00] serving their clients or being an independent consultant means that you're not tied to any specific program, um, or, you know, in the pocket of any particular program. Right. Which happens. Yep. You've even got programs that will offer to pay consultants. For referrals, and it's like, I've had 'em, I'm like, yeah, that's no, you're like, don't

Graham Doerge: be sending here anymore.

Todd Weatherly: Yeah. It's like, well, it sounds like you're sending me here. Are you getting paid by these guys? It's like, it's a fair question and you should ask it. Yeah. Um, absolutely. The other piece is if you've got a consultant that's not out traveling, that's not meeting with programs and, and seeing places and getting around the country.

Todd Weatherly: Um, for the TCA we're required to visit at least 40 new programs per year. Mm-hmm. Um, we can have a few of those be a recycle or a revisit, but generally speaking we're out there finding new programs that we haven't been to, um, so that we can, you know, broaden our scope of understanding of the field and what treatment is like out there.

Todd Weatherly: Because [00:11:00] not only do you run into new places, which is great, but you also places change. Yeah. You know, we were talking earlier a little bit about wilderness programs. It's like, is wilderness work? And it's like, well there are good wilderness programs and then there are pro wilderness programs that ran into trouble of some kind and they closed.

Todd Weatherly: Right? There are programs across the board that maybe they change leadership or maybe they just change clinical model. Yeah. Or maybe they change something and it's like there are some nuances here. I want to be familiar with. Before I send my client there, cuz I want to know what, who the right client is.

Todd Weatherly: So you also want, you know, it's not necessary. I say this because I'm not a licensed clinician. I'm a, I've got other qualifications, but I've been in the field for a very long time. Look for, so look for, you know, organizations they belong to look for, um, social media presence or web presence that demonstrates that they're out there doing the work.

Todd Weatherly: I would even

Graham Doerge: say too, which I love, um, is talking to an alumni family. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You know, it's like, listen, get me, hook me up with three alumni [00:12:00] families that, that I can talk to and, uh, you know, and, and let's see kind of what their feedback is now. You know, they're gonna give you people that obviously had a good experience with them.

Graham Doerge: Right. But you can, you know, get a, a good feel for it. Right.

Todd Weatherly: You know, I had that, I had that come up and I, I gave a client, uh, an, a former client, the, their, their adult child. Mm-hmm. Um, they didn't end up going to treatment cuz they were very hesitant and they had a lot of issues that were. Kind of moving the needle along was difficult for them, but we were a resource for the family.

Todd Weatherly: They had a plan when they were, when he was ready to kind of take that help and everything else. And even though we got through it, I still heard from the family. They were, uh, they were a referral for us. And you know, they are, are a reference. And when the reference calls, it's like, why did you give me a family where the person didn't actually go to treatment?

Todd Weatherly: I was like, we don't know the end of his story yet. Mm. This family has gone through a long process and we've just been guides through that [00:13:00] process. He knows where to go. They know they've got the resources for being able to find what they need when he's ready. Mm-hmm. But everybody reaches ready on their own speed.

Todd Weatherly: Mm-hmm. And so not pushing, not pushing a person and really listening to him and waiting them for waiting for them to be ready, even if it's not set inside of this service agreement term frame is really important and. They were like, that sounds really reasonable to Yeah. Me. So anyway, you know. Yeah, a hundred percent.

Todd Weatherly: I've got

B Reeves: a question. What, um, the terms educational consultant and therapeutic consultant seem to be somewhat interchangeable, but clearly there's a difference in the, and then you've got

Todd Weatherly: educational therapeutic

B Reeves: consultant, right. Can you just shed some light on that for everybody who probably has

Todd Weatherly: wondered that as well?

Todd Weatherly: So, ed consultant was born out of, I want to get my kid into boarding school. Mm-hmm. The top boarding school. Right. Or the top college, you know, or both. And then you had, and you know, that that started off a long time ago. And same kids [00:14:00] and then

Graham Doerge: in the northeast. Yeah. In the northeast. Right.

Todd Weatherly: And then, you know, suddenly it was like, you know, my kid before they go to boarding school is gonna need treatment or that, you know, they're having problems or, and then the treatment field became to, you know, started to expand, but the ed consultant stuck because when you were sending them to a.

Todd Weatherly: Maybe you're sending to a board of school, or in this case a therapeutic boarding school. You had a, you needed a person who was able to review. Are they, you know, are they having reading issues? You know, what does their waste say? Yeah. What does their full scale iq,

Graham Doerge: your master's in education.

Todd Weatherly: Yeah. How does it match up to, how does it match up to a treatment program that's gonna help 'em address, say, dyslexia, for example, or what, or dysgraphia.

Todd Weatherly: And so you had all of that coming in and then, you know, I think as time went on, We could probably speak about this for a while, but we just started seeing, I mean, people got kids and young adults got more and more complex. Mm-hmm. They had more and more complex conditions, and their [00:15:00] conditions were complex enough.

Todd Weatherly: It's like. Forget school. We, we gotta focus on treatment. You know, we're gonna, we're gonna drop academics for a little while. Yeah. And we're gonna help this person get well. Do you think these,

B Reeves: sorry to interrupt you. Do you think the kids have gotten more complex, or do you think that there are more labels to put on the same, same

Todd Weatherly: type of kid?

Todd Weatherly: I might ask that question of you too. I. I think that, I think we've got more words and I think we've got more capability to treat and evaluate. Um, the other piece though is, is that, um, we still don't have a functional mental health system, right? Mm-hmm. It doesn't exist in the school systems. By and large, it does not exist in the colleges.

Todd Weatherly: By and large colleges will. I mean, they are very resistant, even admitting that there's a mental health or a, or substance abuse problem on their campus, right? Yes. As we all know. And so what you end up with is, uh, you kick the can down the road and a [00:16:00] person, if they had been treated when they started having problems, could have been pretty well off.

Todd Weatherly: Yeah. Except now they're X how, however far down the road and this condition has gotten much worse. And then you've got the whole parenting equation. Mm-hmm. I mean, we see a lot of. I mean, we all see trauma, just some of the worst trauma that you can kind of imagine coming out of family scenarios or even school bullying scenarios or what have you.

Todd Weatherly: And trauma just,

Graham Doerge: yeah, it's, it's absolutely insane. It's a hurt, you know, what these kids are dealing with now, you know, and then social media and, you know, I was gonna say, social media, all the things that are coming at them, it's, uh, and obviously I've, I have, uh, three daughters myself, and it's, you know, they're very young and we're already starting to have the, have to, you know, have these conversations and navigate it and, You know, you see them, they're, they just get so attached to it and addicted to the, the screen.

Graham Doerge: Right. Right. So, um, now, sorry, I had something that, I just totally lost my train of thought on that

B Reeves: trauma. I've heard it said since I've been in this field that trauma is the, the real gateway [00:17:00] drug. You heard that?

Todd Weatherly: Agree with that. What do your thoughts promised a gateway drug? You haven't heard that? The gateway, the real gateway drug.

Todd Weatherly: Um, I mean, I, I agree with that. I mean, I think that, You, it's rare that you can work with someone who's struggling with a level of condition that requires the kind of intervention you guys provide. Mm-hmm. Or needs residential care that doesn't have some trauma in their background. Right. Yeah. You know?

Todd Weatherly: Yep. Either it's as a result of their drug use or it was, you know, it's what incited their drug use. Right. For example, and, you know, co-occurring mental illness and all the other pieces. Traumas. Traumas there. Yeah. Um, resiliency is the, You know, there's a lot of, there's a resiliency model. Some schools are trying to use it, but like, why in the animal, like the they point at zebras, it's like, you see the zebra crossing the river and it's like, no, no.

Todd Weatherly: Crocodile tries to eat it and something else, and it just kind of kicks it off and shakes it off and keeps going. It's like, how do we, yeah. How do we do [00:18:00] that? You know, how do we pick that back up as, as people living in a world that we do? That's, that's a good question. I think there's good programming for it, but, um, yeah, we, we could use a little more.

Todd Weatherly: How have you, what

B Reeves: have you seen, so on the, um, subject of social media and trauma and bullying and all that, I mean, you've been doing this long enough to see the real rise of social media just taking over everyone's lives. Has it just been, what's, what's it been like to see that in your, in your world?

Todd Weatherly: Well, I mean, you know, Graham says it, you know, they're, you get, you got kids getting access to phones and devices like very early on. They're the substitute babysitter, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, and so the problem is, is that it's everything at once. Mm-hmm. You know, it's like a, it's like I need some water, so I'm gonna put my mouth to a fire hose and somebody's gonna turn it on full black.

Todd Weatherly: Like that's what mm-hmm. You know, I, I'm a Gen Xer, so I [00:19:00] grew up, we didn't have phones, we didn't have screens. You waited for your show to come on between this time and this time. Yep. And I just don't have the same draw to being obsessed with my phone that I see young adults

Graham Doerge: having. Well, I even saw, I've read something actually funny enough today, and I was talking about how.

Graham Doerge: Uh, kids today and really the phones and the screens and all that are becoming such an issue because kids today have no idea how to be bored. Right, right. And like being bored is a good thing for a kid because it makes them go outside and play and use their imagination and, you know, try to, you know, just figure things out, right.

Graham Doerge: Rather than, you know, that instant gratification of. Always being entertained and constant, you know, screen time. Um, and I think that that's really becoming a, a a, that's part of like this whole thing that's happening with social media. And I don't even think we have a, a real grasp on how detrimental this is gonna be to our society at this point.

Graham Doerge: But yeah, you know, we're certainly seeing a lot of it in the behavioral health field. And I even think too that, you know, there's gonna be a real market down the road [00:20:00] for, um, you know, techno technology addiction. You know, and yeah, I think that these treatment programs, you know, need to start, you know, trying to figure out how we're gonna start treating this technology addiction because it's just,

Todd Weatherly: well, they're out there already.

Todd Weatherly: Yeah. In fact, there's a program in the area where I am, um, foundation Asheville. They, they actually own the phones. So kids come outta treatment, they go into this transitional living program, they own the phone, it's got limited access. They monitor everything that's going on it. It's got some social media on it because they want 'em to practice, but they also are like, okay, did you feel triggered by any of these things today?

Todd Weatherly: How long did you, you were only allowed to be on the phone for this long, and then they work their way to getting their phone back. Yeah. Um, and I'm, you know, like, yeah,

Graham Doerge: that's, that's awesome. What? And that place is called what?

Todd Weatherly: Uh, foundation's Asheville is, uh, is uh, is part of the Trails, trails, Carolina Trails, momentum, family of programs.

Todd Weatherly: Very cool. Yep.

Graham Doerge: Yeah, we were at a

B Reeves: conference together. [00:21:00] Yeah. We were def at, um, Montreat, or, no, not Montreat, but I, I won't name the conference actually, but Oh, the young adult conference, right? Yes. Mm-hmm. And, um, and they, I sat in a, in a session, and I think we were just talking about the guy who was, who was the speaker.

B Reeves: And they were talking about the ramifications of the therapeutic boarding schools and the PA and the parisel and stuff. And they were, the, the, the topic was what would be the next thing that would be considered abusive? And they were, they were saying that they were afraid that taking kids phones from them now would be considered abuse in 10 years because it's, it'd be like tantamount to chopping their hand off.

B Reeves: Yeah. And that's the fear that the, that these kids are so addicted to their phones. The not having them is considered

Todd Weatherly: abuse, and there's not, and, and, and they have no tolerance for the distress. Right, right. Yeah, I, yeah, that's a scary thought. Yeah. So,

Graham Doerge: yeah, it is. And um, you know, it's certainly, [00:22:00] you know, we're doing the best that we can to, to try to like, manage those things at home and, and obviously working in the field.

Graham Doerge: You know, in dealing with these things and seeing these behaviors is always, um, you know, you try to bring this stuff home and, and implement it in your life, but it's not easy, you know, it really isn't. Um, and I, I wanted to go back and talk about, you know, you were talking a little bit earlier about, uh, touring programs, uh, visiting programs, and the importance of all that.

Graham Doerge: And that kind of brought something up for me too, because I know when, when here with, with our team and our, uh, continuing care team, you know, we really look at the program, but not only the program, but a lot of times, like who's the clinical, clinical team? Right? Right. And I think that that is something that most places don't do.

Graham Doerge: But you know, we really need to start getting very granular on how we're, you know, referring our patients because, you know, If you're just sending a, a, a client to a program, that's a good program. It's really, it's, it's, you know, throwing darts at the dart board on what therapist you're gonna get, and you don't know what that fits gonna be like.

Graham Doerge: And that's, that could be, you know, uh, that could be hit or miss on, on whether the program works. [00:23:00] Right? Yeah. So, uh, talk a little bit about that and, and, you know, well, yeah, I

Todd Weatherly: mean, you know, there's the, there's the ones, it's not a school thought. I mean, it's, it's something that a study came out. You know, it's not the, um, They took five different treatment models.

Todd Weatherly: Hmm. And they tried to measure the efficacy of the treatment models and they all came out about the same. And they found that the, the factor that made the determination as to whether or not the treatment model was successful was their provider. Yep. Was like being able to build rapport and having a trusting relationship and those kinds of things.

Todd Weatherly: I think a lot of that centers around a good leadership team and a good clinical director. Mm-hmm. You know, you might, you know, you're throwing darts at a dart board for which therapist you're gonna get. But you know, for me, if I'm placing a client, I'm sure this is true for you. That's great. I love that you've got nice buildings and, and, and pillows on the couches, but can I talk to your clinical director for a second?

Todd Weatherly: You know, and if, if what I [00:24:00] hear from that person is a person who knows how to look at the client that I'm sending to them and go, you know what? I think this person's gonna have a personality match with. You know, the new therapist that I just hired, or this therapist who's just, you know, old, old hand at this particular condition or whatever it is, or is really good at this particular practice or methodology and can really place and work a team and knows how to, you know, manage a milieu, you know, the treatment environment that way.

Todd Weatherly: That's what I'm looking for out of a program. Right. And I'm looking for the relationship. I'm looking for somebody who can talk to me and we can kind of get to the nitty gritty for a minute and, and we can. We can whittle it down in, um, in fairly short order to make sure that we are a good match and, um, and then continue that conversation as the person receives treatment.

Todd Weatherly: Yeah. You know, that's, that's what a consultant should be doing for you. Right. And then turn around and give it to the family. Maybe I'm jumping in on the call or I'm turning around and saying, I, you know, and several of my families now, they're like, even though they've been kind of through the [00:25:00] ringer, yeah.

Todd Weatherly: They still feel unclear about how does this process go? And yeah, what does this mean, right? And, you know, what, what should we expect next? And all these other things. It's like they still even three years worth of being through it with their, with their adult child. And they still are uncertain as to what like two days from now should supposed to, is supposed to look like.

Todd Weatherly: Right. So we, we have a lot of phone calls. It's like, right. Okay. You know, it's, we're, we're doing all right. It looks good so far. We're still early in, right? Yeah, a hundred percent. And we gotta be patient. You know? Yeah.

Graham Doerge: Yeah. And I, and, and from like a, a treatment provider perspective, I mean, having somebody like you in the mix is amazing because, you know, you, you're doing such great work with the family, right.

Graham Doerge: And, uh, you mean that, you know of that, that I, and listen, we worked on clients together before. That's right. I know this for fact. So, um, but you know, I think that obviously that's important to us as, as the providers because, you know, we're, we're kind of on the front end and we're, we're handling the [00:26:00] client.

Graham Doerge: And sometimes that's, that's. It takes a lot. Right? So when you throw the family into the mix, if we have a little support from somebody like you Oh yeah. And obviously you have a ton of background. I've been working with the family for, you know, uh, x amount of months. It's, it's, uh, it's a huge, huge benefit to us.

Todd Weatherly: So, yeah. They're not blowing up the program trying to figure out what's going on. And we like, you know, they've got a little, they've got somebody they can go to when they're nervous and Right. Cuz they're often nervous and rightfully so. And they don't

Graham Doerge: know that this is, this is not just, uh, as we said earlier, like, you're not sending your kid away to get fixed.

Graham Doerge: Right. Right. This is, you're gonna be doing work too. You know, this is a family disease. Everybody's got some buy-in here and everybody's gonna have to, to kind of do some, do some changing. Absolutely.

Todd Weatherly: Yeah. What do you

B Reeves: ask families typically to do in terms of keeping their side of the street

Todd Weatherly: clean? You know, a lot of, I, I think I don't want a family to feel like they shouldn't ask for information or feel like they know what's going on.

Todd Weatherly: I think that's legitimate that a family wants to know that, but, You know the, it's the contact with [00:27:00] their child. Mm-hmm. Adolescent or young? Adult or adult. Like, I want, can I call 'em every day? It's like, no, I want them to turn to the program. Right. I want them, they're using you as a let 'em fly. Let 'em fly, like Right.

Todd Weatherly: They're using you as a comfort right now. Yeah. I want them to turn to somebody else to follow, follow the program, engage in the program. Start getting benefit from the clinical care that you are paying for. Mm-hmm. So if they turn to you and you're calling 'em all the time and, and that's re there, there are some programs that take phones and then there are others where it's kind of freely available.

Todd Weatherly: Mm-hmm. Depends on where you go. If they're doing this call all the time, I'm like, well, maybe we should one call possibly two Right. At a certain time and only for this long. Right. So set limits around that is, is one of the big things that, that is important. Mm-hmm. Why,

B Reeves: um, So from what I know, consultants seem to be work with teenagers and young adults.

B Reeves: And then is there a [00:28:00] need or do you find, do you work with, you know, adults, functioning adults who are, you know, maybe

Todd Weatherly: kids? Is that ever happen? Well, you were, I mean, I think we were talking about, you know, what, what makes a good consultant? And part of it is also, you know, I have a team, so I have myself and three other individuals who, who work in my practice.

Todd Weatherly: So each one of 'em has a, has a bit of a specialty. Like, if I feel like I'm outta my bandwidth here, I'll call, you know, one of my people and say, Hey, why don't you pick up this case? Because you've got either a connection to a program that's gonna serve them or a connection to the condition that they're, that they're struggling with.

Todd Weatherly: Mm-hmm. Um, and feel like you can talk to the family. So we're, we're doing personnel line matches as well. Um, I think that you find consultants who. We'll kind of take business when it shows up. Mm-hmm. That happens. Um, 12 thir like child therapeutic placement [00:29:00] zero to to 11, 10, 11. Mm-hmm. It's own bag. Yep.

Todd Weatherly: Mm-hmm. I have, I have to refer all those out. Right. Um, I refer most of the up to 16. Out. Mm-hmm. Cause 1314 also its own bag. Mm-hmm. It's a whole, it's a whole world unto itself. Mm-hmm. You know, there's educational evaluation. The programs are different. So if I'm in the stream of visiting young adult and adult programs, I'm not picking up these therapeutic boarding schools and treatment treatment programs for that age group.

Todd Weatherly: Right. And then young adult, even young adult. Is kind of its own world. Mm-hmm. You know, there's a, there's a strong cord of young adult treatment out there. Right. And you can go to wilderness or you can go to residential treatment, facility-based residential treatment or assessment center, or, I mean, there's the wide variety, right?

Todd Weatherly: And then where you start running out, and this is part of what, you know, our practice we do is we're actually one of the few that serves older adults. So I've [00:30:00] got 25 to 30% of our client bases. Over the age of 40. No way. Wow. I didn't know that. So 40, 50. I've got a 70 year old. Wow. And, and you know, they need to stabilize their own meds.

Todd Weatherly: They need to stabilize with a substance use condition. You guys may be seeing one soon. Um, and so, you know, these are, these are people that are, They've been through lots of treatments or hospitalizations or they've, they've fallen off of, of maybe a medication has been working or they've stopped taking one because they were, was making 'em feel weird.

Todd Weatherly: Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden they're symptomatic and they, you know, they're, they've gotten really, the brain at 40 looks different than the brain at 20 and 15. You know what I mean? It, it's a whole new ball game when you start doing that. And their treatment options are less. Right. So for a, for a, a good consultant's gonna be able to know what their bandwidth is and stay with their wheelhouse.

Todd Weatherly: Right. If you came to some, if you came to me with somebody [00:31:00] regardless of their age, and they were, you know, they were, uh, on the spectrum mm-hmm. You know, ASD two pretty severe symptoms and condition. It's not my, it's not my wheelhouse. I know some people who really specialize, right? In autism spectrum disorder.

Todd Weatherly: And I'm like, Hey man, can you guys, you gotta get room for a client because this is not my wheelhouse. And being able to say that and refer out and go to people that you know, that you know, or have got, you know, skills in the area where they need to be in order to serve that client and pass off clients and have a network of people that you can pass clients off to.

Todd Weatherly: That's another reflection of a good consultant. That's awesome. Yeah. So you might not know that if you're a family, like you wouldn't know the in ins and outs of my practice, but like being able to refer out and, and know, know what your wheelhouse is, is important.

Graham Doerge: I. A hundred percent. Yeah. And I mean, it's just ethical, right?

Graham Doerge: It's ethical. It's just ethical and that's what we need to do. And, and, uh, obviously not everybody does do that, unfortunately, but I think that it's important that, [00:32:00] um, you know, families know that like there's this internal network really of people like yourself who all work together and, and, and are very well connected and know what each other's specialties are and all that.

Graham Doerge: So I, I really do feel like, you know, families, if, if you do need resources like this, please reach out to, uh, you know, Todd and, um, you know, just ask him for, for resources or, or just bend his ear, you know, because we all are constantly taking these phone calls and, and just trying to kind of help navigate families to the best resources.

Graham Doerge: And a lot of times it's not us. And, and, you know, that's what we do is, is get them to the right place, right? First phone

Todd Weatherly: call's free. Yeah, we'll talk as long as you need.

Graham Doerge: That's right, that's right. Don't use the Google consultant. Exactly. Exactly. So, um, you know, we'll, we'll end the episode, but today in wanted to, uh, just say thank you to Todd so much for coming in today.

Graham Doerge: Thank you guys. Thank you. Um, please visit our website at www.findingnewwaters.com, where you'll see all of our episodes up there, like [00:33:00] subscribe, uh, also on all streaming platforms. Um, and we'll have Todd's information up on the website as well. Um, and, uh, thank you all for joining us today.

Todd Weatherly: Thank you so much for having me be yeah, man.

Todd Weatherly: Thank you. Thanks guys.

Graham Doerge: Thank you.

Join us in welcoming Todd Weatherly, a seasoned educational consultant hailing from the serene mountains of Western North Carolina, on our latest podcast episode. Weatherly, who shares his abode with his wife, two teenagers, pets, and an impressive collection of mountain bikes, brings over 25 years of rich experience in the field of behavioral health.

Armed with a BA in Psychology, an M.Ed. in Outdoor Education Administration, and dual qualifications as an NC Mental Health and Substance Abuse Prevention Professional, Todd has been a stalwart in the field of mental health and addiction treatment. His contributions to the field are not just limited to his previous roles as an Executive Director and CEO but also extend to his association with notable organizations such as the National Association of Therapeutic Schools & Programs, the Therapeutic Consulting Association, and the Young Adult Transitions Association.

In this enlightening episode, Todd unravels the intricate challenges young individuals face today - from navigating personal and educational hurdles to dealing with social media pressures. He draws from his personal experiences as a father, providing a genuine and heartfelt perspective on how to foster resilience and creativity in young minds amidst the digital era's challenges.

Todd also lends his profound expertise on the role and selection of treatment programs in dealing with various behavioral issues. He underscores the importance of trust, leadership, and the crucial involvement of family in the treatment process. Todd's commitment to service reflects in his advice on directing clients to specialists to ensure they receive the right care.

This episode is an invaluable resource for parents, educators, and anyone interested in the welfare of young people growing up in today's fast-paced world. Immerse yourself in this enriching conversation with Todd Weatherly and glean insights on trauma, resilience, and the path to a healthier future for our youth.

Todd Weatherly Links:

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⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/weatherly/⁠

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New Waters Recovery Website: ⁠⁠https://newwatersrecovery.com⁠

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