By Kristie Campbell
It’s tough to be a parent of a teen!! Not only is there the timeless quandary of how to guide a child through the turbulent teens years, but added to that is the contemporary tendency for society to judge an acting out child as proof positive of poor parenting. Because of this societal tendency, parents often procrastinate in seeking professional help until the situation with their teen is way out of control, fearing that they themselves will be judged and blamed as the problem.
Lon Woodbury is an educational consultant who began working with schools and programs for struggling teens in 1984. He had been teaching college courses in Washington State when the opportunity came up to interview at the CEDU program, Rocky Mountain Academy (RMA). Together with his wife Denise, Lon took the 2-1/2 hour drive up to Bonners Ferry to begin the 3-day interview process that would catapult him head on into the network of Emotional Growth Schools.
As an admissions counselor at RMA, Lon interviewed many families, determining which families would “fit in” with the other students in the program. After about a year, Lon was moved into the position of Director of Admissions. During his term, RMA grew to its largest enrollment at 200 students.
After five years in the admissions department, Lon and his wife decided it was time for the next step in working with families. In November 1989, he wrote a letter to all his colleagues announcing that he was becoming an Educational Consultant who would be working directly with families, guiding them to make appropriate decisions on which placement would be best for their at-risk teens. Not only did Lon feel he could better help families find appropriate programs as an independent consultant, he felt he could help them understand where the problems come from, empowering parents with the knowledge to allow themselves to understand they are not alone. About this time 20/20 aired a story on the Hyde Schools, which overwhelmed them with parent calls that were a bit out of their specialty. They began referring some of the overflow parent call to Lon which gave a jump start to his educational consultant practice. At about the same time he founded the Woodbury Reports newsletter which began publishing insights into the network of private parent choice schools and programs for struggling teens to benefit both professionals and parents working with teens with emotional/behavioral problems.
However, even more important than his experience in the network of private, parent choice schools and programs in the emotional growth/ therapeutic network, Lon Woodbury is a parent himself. He and his wife raised four children all the way to adulthood and in our current day and age, statistics suggest that it was very likely that at least one would decide to make poor and self-destructive choices. He knew that if any of his children were to turn down the wrong path, he would be held responsible for the child’s behavior, with or without the right to know what the child had done. This would put him in a vulnerable position that many parents today find themselves in. And the scariest part was that if his child had become manipulative enough, child services could have been called in and used against him in his attempt to provide proper care and upbringing for his family, using the basis that “a child would never lie,” as an entry into the family system and potentially tearing the family apart.
While this attitude of society has provided help for genuinely abused and neglected children, it has also unfortunately had the effect of sometimes denying the child the best efforts from responsible parents who are wary of criticism. When a child needs help, the parents must accept the reality they are the real experts on their own children and take action to help their children rather than allowing the state or other professional to step in and take over.
As it turned out, his youngest daughter began making poor decisions and Lon himself turned to professional help to pull her back from a self-destructive path. From working for a program, to working for parents, to being a parent of a child needing a program, he has experienced all aspects of the journey through the network of emotional growth/ therapeutic schools and programs. For almost 30 years Lon has connected with so many families on so many levels with the main underlying theme being “some children just need to be heard, not cured.”
Today, Lon provides a nationwide referral service for parents of adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems. He publishes a Directory, the Parent Empowerment Handbook, based on research into quality schools and programs and to continue his work empowering parents in their efforts of finding the best placement for the child who is making poor decisions. He also publishes an online educational newsletter Places for Struggling Teens for parents, professionals and schools and programs to provide current information on what is happening not only in the network but in the public school system. Lon hosts an Internet Radio talk show on LATalkRadio.com at 12:00pm, Pacific Time on Channel One, titled Parent Choices for Struggling Teens, where he interviews professionals about family dynamics and possible solutions for families. Finally he oversees the publishing of a resource, Strugglingteens.com, a website over 100,000 pages strong of press coverage, articles, visit reports, etc. on the private parent choice, emotional growth/ therapeutic schools and programs.
Prior to becoming an educational consultant, Lon taught in the public school system and worked with the U.S. Senate and the Executive Office of the President on public policy. He earned his BS and MA degrees from the University of Idaho and is a long-time member of the Independent Educational Consultant Association (IECA). In addition, Lon is a Certified Educational Planner (CEP) and an Associate member of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP). He has made several presentations to professional conferences, was chairman of the Special Needs Committee for IECA, and served on several committees both with his professional associations and related groups.
About the Author:
Kristie Campbell is the youngest daughter of Lon and Denise Woodbury. She has worked for Woodbury Reports, Inc. as an intern and a consultant since 1999, working her way up to Assistant Director of the company. Kristie graduated from Explorations Wilderness in 1993 and Mission Mountain School in 1994. She has written articles for the Woodbury Reports Newsletter based on her experiences, has visited numerous schools and programs, attended and presented at IECA and NATSAP Conferences and is the editor of the Parent Empowerment Handbook and Strugglingteens.com. Kristie graduated with a BS in Psychology in 2011. 208-267-5550, kristie@woodbury.com
