Overcome The Outside Forces That May Be Limiting Your Parenting Effectiveness
The Parenting Workshop 
"Raising your Son to Be Responsible and Resilient Without Nagging, Yelling or Punishing"
How To Activate Your Son’s Mature Masculine Wisdom 
So That He Becomes Capable Of Handling The Challenges Of 
The Young Adult World
How To Activate Your Son’s Mature Masculine Wisdom So That  He Becomes Capable Of Handling The Challenges Of The Young Adult World
Dr. Mark Schillinger
You Can Learn How to Enjoy a Better Relationship With Your Son, Just Like This Mother Did
It's Not Your Fault That It's Harder Than Ever To Raise Your Son
Raising children may be the single most demanding responsibility a person can have. As a parent, I know that you have to deal with financial hardships, challenging relationships, intense workloads, time management difficulties, and constantly changing energy levels.  

On top of all that, I know that you’re doing your best to lead your children in an environment where there are more distractions than ever in human history. This is a daunting task. There never seems to be enough time in a day to properly care for your own needs, plus striving to be successful with the needs of your family. 
Unfortunately, we live in a culture that doesn’t care enough to educate parents about how to best guide your teen son as he navigates his way through the digital diversions of the electronic highway, consuming social media, endless entertainment and over-the-top commercialism. 
In addition to all of the digital distractions, our sons have to deal with stress from handling school responsibilities, exploring new relationships, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, dealing with family conflicts and figuring out how to “be his own man.”
It’s harder than ever for parents and communities to focus the attention of our teens in ways that foster their healthy development as they move into young adulthood.
Pandemic Doesn’t Help
In addition to dealing with all of the “usual” outside forces that prevent your son from paying attention to you, I’m aware that many of you are being seriously challenged during the pandemic, to have a nurturing and cooperative relationship with your teen son. Trying times indeed.

Regean

“Before we met Mark, the three of us were fighting all of the time. Our home life was awful. Mark's ability to work with our son was nothing short of a miracle. He skillfully administered wisdom and direction to us all. Now we spend our time together in laughter, discussion and creative pursuits.
 
Mark’s methods are like having a training manual on how to raise a teenage son with 24/7support. With the aid of direct training with Mark, we’ve experienced a complete turn-around.”

As Seen on CNN

Look For Us On CNN

Watch our work proflied on the awarding winning docuseries, “This is Life With Lisa Ling".

Dr. Mark with Lisa Ling

About Our Camp

About The Workshop

20+ Years In The Making

Look For Us On CNN

Our work will be featured on the show, “This is Life With Lisa Ling” in October 2020.

Lisa Ling & Mark
What Every Parent Needs to Know About Raising Sons

The Biggest Problem Parents are Facing Right Now

Dr. Mark Schillinger

As a parent, I know it must be hard for you to watch your son struggling to get it together in a world that endlessly takes his attention away from focusing on building the self-confidence he must have, in order to make it out in the world. I know you worry that your son doesn’t seem to have what it takes to strike out on his own someday, whether it’s because he’s immature, distracted, dis-organized, dis-respectful, dis-interested or defiant. 
Living in a world that currently suffers from inadequate political direction and unstable economic conditions, our sons are growing up without the mature and caring leadership they need to be observing from adults who possess authority.  
The Bottom Line
After two decades of mentoring young men, the biggest problem I see that parents are having with their sons is knowing how to motivate them to develop the passion and the direction they’ll need to become a happy and productive men someday.

               Dr. Mark Schillinger

If our sons are going to fulfill their true potential and live meaningful and fulfilling lives, it’s up to us, as parents, and to our communities, to raise the kind of young men we can trust to take good care of themselves, their families, and the world.

Glory Knaus
Kimberly Burke
Nicholas All

Marcella Hauser

“The parenting workshop taught us parenting skills that need to be used in today’s current world in which our sons are growing up in. It takes a community to raise a teen and Mark will guide you how to make it happen for you.”

Bret Smith

“I left Dr. Mark’s workshop with a plan of action. I’m far more confident in my abilities as a parent to raise a young man.”

Unite Your Family - Even If Nothing Else Has Worked

Most of the parents I mentor have tried traditional family therapy, which my family also needed many years ago. We tried different types of therapists who came highly recommended. They had good intentions and good skills. But they only had partial answers, and they couldn’t really unify all of us as a family working together. We just felt very frustrated.

It was kind of like we were trying to complete a complex jigsaw puzzle with lots of pieces that only occasionally would fit together, with no guidance as to how to complete this critically important task. The goal of finishing our family puzzle that depicted a happy, harmonious family seemed unsolvable.

What we needed was a specific way, an exact method, that would give us a roadmap which would guide us to help our son, Gabe, become happy in his personal life, responsible in his family life, and to be resilient in the outside world.

I’ve Done The Work For You
Using my practical system, “The Right Way for Family Unity®”, will save you countless hours of time, thousands of dollars, and a life time of diligent effort. You won’t have to, “reinvent the wheel” in order to learn how to fulfill your desire of being an effective mentor to your son, who you love. I give you a roadmap.

What Other Parents Are Saying
 About The Parenting Workshop
Natalie Thiel-Gebheim
Marianne Delgado & Glenn McKinney
Ed Landau

Marie Gaffney

The parenting workshop exceeded my expectations and the information and techniques at the workshop were practical. I especially enjoyed connecting with other parents and realizing that I’m not on this parenting journey alone."

Andrea Brown

“I am still on a high from the parenting workshop. Miguel has come home so different, and I’ve been practicing the script already. It’s been amazing. Transformative. Thank you for bringing this to our family.”

Introducing: The Parenting Workshop

This Workshop is Really Different:
It’s A Rite of Passage for Parents!

This “training camp” style workshop is a modern rite of passage initiation for parents, where you’ll learn how to let go of your son as a “boy”, and learn how to treat him like an intelligent young man. Once you have done this, he will learn to trust you as you confidently guide him to be successful on his own. 

 This workshop is:

  • Practical
  • ​​​Soulful
  • Insightful
  • ​​​Revealing
  • ​Reassuring
  • Intense
  • Exciting
  • Relaxing
  • Insightful 
  • ​Reassuring
  • Exciting
  • ​​​Soulful
  • ​​​Revealing
  • Intense
  • Relaxing

It’s filled with tips & techniques you can use immediately with your son and spouse. It includes ceremonies, lectures, PowerPoint, storytelling, handouts, discussions, stress management techniques, role playing and, most importantly, LOTS OF HUMOR. 

I’ll teach you how to reduce the energy drain of parenting your son and increase the energy gain from mentoring your young man. You’ll learn the secrets of successfully motivating your young man to channel his energy so that he can:

  • Adapt to life's challenges with an accepting attitude & healthy behaviors
  • ​​Feel safe to ask for help from adults
  • Make intelligent life choices
  • ​​​Have mutually beneficial relationships
  • ​Creatively express himself
  • ​​​Resiliently handle the stress of living in family & community
  • ​Develop a respectful attitude about sexuality
  • ​​​Be self-confident enough to minimize peer pressure
Dr. Mark with Parents

It Takes a Village to Raise Our Sons
For hundreds of thousands of years, parents had the devoted assistance of tribal mentors in raising their son to respect himself, and to respect the shared values of his family and of his community. One of the main ways that the tribe supported parents was to hold a formal rite of passage initiation for their sons. 

This life changing graduation into young adulthood helped every parent’s son to begin the life-long process of discovering who he genuinely is, so that he could develop and master his physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and relational skills.

I Decided To Create a Modern Rite of Passage For Our Sons
In the year 2000, along with the help of many devoted parents in my community, I founded a wilderness rite of passage initiation for young men, The Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend. Since then, we’ve had hundreds of mentors guide approximately 3500 young men graduate from the YMUW. 

I’ve been in the trenches with so many young men - just like your son - that I’ve been able to “crack the code” and discover what makes him withdraw and become disrespectful, as well as what makes him engaged and become responsible and resourceful.

Young Men with Volunteers at the YMUW

With the help of many devoted YMUW elders and mentors, I figured out a way to help a young man to become profoundly happy within himself, and become a meaningful contributor to his family and community. 

Dr. Mark Mentoring Parents

I Realized That Parents Needed a New Way of Raising Sons
Throughout those early years of YMUW, parents would call me and ask me after their son graduated from the YMUW, "What exactly did I do to help their son move his life in the right direction - in just one weekend?"

That’s when I realized that I needed to teach parents the same effective technology my trained mentors used with their son, so that the parents could better support him to stay on the new path he had just learned to walk on.

I learned that it was unrealistic for parents to expect their son to maintain the new beliefs and behaviors he learned at YMUW, if they didn’t know how to effectively support the natural individuation process of their son in this era of digital distractions.  

I then decided to create another organization, called Challenging Teenage Sons, in order to educate parents how to challenge their sons to achieve their true potential - without yelling, nagging or punishing. I knew that when parents used this proven method of mentoring their sons, it would prevent parents from perpetuating the past conflicts with their sons. 

Create a Family You Be Can Proud Of 
Throughout these past twenty years, I’ve been organizing all of the wisdom I’ve been gathering from my own experience and intuition, combined with the efforts of so many talented YMUW mentors, into an organized parenting method that shows families how to enjoy more caring and cooperative relationships. 

Create a Family You Be Can Proud Of 
Throughout these past twenty years, I’ve been organizing all of the wisdom I’ve been gathering from my own experience and intuition, combined with the efforts of so many talented YMUW mentors, into an organized parenting method that shows families how to enjoy more caring and cooperative relationships. 

This rite of passage workshop will show you how to motivate your son to become more cooperative inside of your home, more responsible outside of your home, more confident in himself and more relaxed with the world.

Justin Margolis

Earl Krause

Laura Snelling

Marcella Hauser

“The parenting workshop taught us parenting skills that need to be used in today’s current world in which our sons are growing up in. It takes a community to raise a teen and Mark will guide you how to make it happen for you.”

Bret Smith

“I left Dr. Mark’s workshop with a plan of action. I’m far more confident in my abilities as a parent to raise a young man.”

Here’s The Skills You’ll Get at The Parenting Workshop:

  • How to speak in a biological – not psychological – language that your son will understand
  • How to motivate your son by activating his own masculine c wisdom
  • How to clearly, concisely and confidently communicate to your son without yelling, nagging or punishing
  • ​​​How to use consequences as a positive way to prepare your son for adulthood
  • How to identify the exact values you know your son needs to learn in order to become more independent
  • How to have a closer relationship with your spouse (or former spouse)
  • How to skillfully handle the toughest conflicts with your son or spouse
  • ​How to use mindfulness based stress reduction techniques to relax yourself in just a few seconds
  • ​How to celebrate everyone’s lives together, now that heartfelt and sincere communications have been restored 

Parents In Ceremony

Village of Parents

Parents Practicing Communication Skills

SIMPLY STATED, this workshop series is a formal initiation into a different parenting style that’s very effective for helping a teen navigate his way through the challenges of adulthood in this culture that’s filled with unlimited distractions. 

Eve Bernstein

Christy

Shawn Crawford

Stephen Gabay

Brad Brown

“The parenting workshop taught us parenting skills that need to be used in today’s current world in which our sons are growing up in. It takes a community to raise a teen and Mark will guide you how to make it happen for you.”

Sue Silva

"Thank you so much for this wonderful experience I had at the parenting workshop with you and all these wonderful parents that I was surrounded by. I enjoyed being with parents who were committed to having more love with our precious son’s. I walked away with tools to use as a whole being, not just as a parent."

A Proven Way to Help Your Son Grow Up

Decrease Your Anxiety & Stress AND Increase Your Energy & Love

This parenting workshop shows you how to use my step-by-step system so that you’ll know how to tap into your own instinctual parenting wisdom and leadership skills.

You will be able to create a rite of passage initiation for you and your tween or teen son in your own home. 

The method applies the sciences of: 

  • mindfulness - based stress management
  • ​​adolescent brain development
  • ​​personal growth
  • ​attachment bonding 
  • ​positive discipline AND
  • ​​a strong dose of ancestral tribal family wisdom

Create a Mini Rite of Passage in Your Own Home

As soon as you apply my simple “coming of age” event in your home, you’ll be able to skillfully use your authority and influence in a way that will “challenge”, or arouse, your son’s mature masculine wisdom. This, in turn, will activate his healthy biological desire to become motivated to be more responsible for his own well-being. 

Your son then will be able to overcome his over-indulgence in the distractions and comforts that our culture provides.

Mary Ann Gabay

Pam Myers

Danielle Chelman

Sarah

"I just want to thank you so much for offering the parenting workshop at the same time as the YMUW. I got so much out of it and it is helped me learn, and therefore support the lessons that the mentors teach at the YMUW. I was surprised to see how many parents didn’t take the opportunity to attend the parenting workshop because I don’t know how they could really support or understand what their sons are learning or going through without it.

AND the fact that the parenting workshop was held during the same time as the YMUW event made it so convenient! "

Jennifer Steward

"Thank you for everything you both put into the parenting workshop: passion, compassion, energy, sensitivity, creativity, honesty, focus, service, care, humor, and heart!”

You Actually Can Have the Family of Your Dreams 

Stop Parenting, Start Mentoring

If you don’t know how to guide your son through his natural evolutionary passage into young adulthood, he’ll continue to rely on you as his main source of survival resources longer than necessary. And, what he won’t tell you is that he’ll immaturely blame you or resent you for not showing him how to patiently and firmly navigate him through his uncomfortable progression from boyhood to adulthood. 

The Key to Enjoying A Great Relationship with Your Son
The way that you can help your son become the hero he wants to be for you, is to turn yourself into what I call a, ”paleo parent.” I define this term as a parent who skillfully knows how to translate their natural, primal parenting instincts into the rapidly advancing technological era, in order to guide your tween or teen son in a way that he can actually understand.

A paleo parent knows how to stop doing so many things for their sons and start teaching them how to become more independent. This requires you to behave more like a mentor (teaching), and less like a parent (doing).

After this workshop, you’ll enjoy more personal freedom to take good care of yourself because your son will be better able to take care of himself. Equally important, this rite of passage will help you find your own way through the challenges of living in an “empty nest”, without needing your children to be the primary source of happiness. I’ll show you how to do this by growing older with good health, a loving heart, a happy mind and a peaceful spirit.

MAIN BENEFIT FOR YOU

Without a clearly defined “way”, you’ll likely to continue being anxious and possibly fearful about your son’s future. And you’ll continue to focus on your son as a main source of attention and energy.

After this workshop, you’ll enjoy more personal freedom to take good care of yourself because your son will be better able to take care of himself. Equally important, it will help you find your way through the challenges of aging, with good health, a loving heart, a happy mind and a peaceful spirit.

I’ve been on a Men’s Team with Warren Farrell (Myth of Male Power) and John Gray (Mars/Venus) for many years. Their recent book, “The Boy Crisis”, contains many facts revealing why our sons are at an alarmingly high risk for irresponsibility, laziness, feeling entitled, struggling in school or succumbing to drug, alcohol or digital addiction.

I guarantee you that it is never too late to move your family in the right direction.

Phillis Manning Lee

Haven Pollack

Shawn Crawford

You Don’t Need to Parent Alone

Let Your New “Clan” Solve Your Problems 

95% of the sons I mentor really are great young men - good souls with good hearts. And, they also often display impulsive, immature, dis-respectful or defiant behaviors. No judgement.
 
Our workshop is a safe place where the parents work together as a tribal “clan”, by sharing each other’s insight and resources. Combining my years of experience coaching families, along with everyone’s wisdom, we resolve the toughest issues you may be facing with your son, including:

  • ​substance abuse
  • ​​anxiety
  • ​​not attending school 
  • ​​threatening suicide
  • ​​avoiding chores
  • ​substance abuse
  • ​​anxiety
  • ​​not attending school 
  • ​​threatening suicide
  • ​​avoiding chores
  • acting rudely
  • bullying
  • ​​sibling rivalry
  • ​​poor grades 
  • ​​depression
  • acting rudely
  • bullying
  • ​​sibling rivalry
  • ​​poor grades 
  • ​​depression
  • ADHD
  • ​​learning disabilities
  • ​​lying
  • ​​peer pressure
  • ​​sleep deprivation
  • ADHD
  • ​​learning disabilities
  • ​​lying
  • ​​peer pressure
  • ​​sleep deprivation

I'll teach a new method of parenting teens that will foster the healthy development of your son’s emotional intelligence, whether your son is an extrovert or introvert, over-empowered or under-driven, overconfident or unwilling, entitled or indifferent.

NOTE: This workshop can benefit family therapists, school teachers, mentors, sports coaches and parent educators.

MY GUARANTEE: I will give to you the exact scripts to say, the tone of voice to speak with, the proper body language, effective examples of consequences (not punishments) and the types of rewards your son needs. We will practice this together. Once you master this style of communicating like a mentor, I assure you that 
your son will be more able to easily and safely make the formal transition from childhood into young adulthood.

Why You THINK You Might Not Want To Attend 
The Parenting Workshop

Why You THINK You Might Not Want To Attend 
The Parenting Workshop

I’ve polled hundreds of parents regarding their concerns that this workshop may not be able to help them. Here are their most common questions and doubts, as well as my responses. 

 In order to motivate my son, I've tried sending him to therapists and doctors, hiring tutors, changing school, or removing his devices. Nothing has been a permanent solution. I don't see how a workshop will open my son up to taking better care of himself.

This workshop is like a modern rite of passage initiation for parents, where you learn how to use my proven, ‘RIGHT Way of Family Unity’ method. This “Way” shows you how to confidently translate your healthy parental instincts into effective communication and motivational techniques with your son. This new method of parenting, created 20 years ago, uses the practical ancestral wisdom from small clans and combines it with the best insight from the sciences of positive discipline, stress management, adolescent brain development, personal growth and parental bonding.

By learning this up-to-date way of parenting teens, you’ll know how to “challenge” your son to become more responsible inside of the home, more resilient outside of the home and more relaxed with himself and with the world.

EXAMPLE:
One family I worked with - like all of the other parents I work with - said their 17 year old son was a great kid but they were concerned that he was withdrawing from them, and that he was unconcerned about becoming more responsible for taking care of himself. He was not taking any initiative to become more independent. After a few months of working together with the parents and their son (who also attended YMUW), I received this email that was sent to me by the parents while their son was away visiting his grandmother:

Mark, here’s what my mother emailed me:
“What a difference a few months can make. Our grandson is a wholly different person. We very much enjoy being with him. He's funny, engaging and he takes the initiative to speak. Last night our neighbors brought supper. They all enjoyed him and couldn't stop raving about him. I guess all the work that you've put into him has paid off. Congratulations!”

The email ended with the mom saying to me in Caps: “THANK YOU, Mark.”

When you have a specific “way” that calmly “challenges” your son to activate his own biological wisdom, someday he’ll thank you for having an organized system for helping him take better care of himself. 

 Many of my discussions with my son end up either with me or my son getting frustrated or angry and then 
nothing gets handled. I don't see how this workshop can resolve that kind of stress.  

I’ve listened to thousands of young men talk about their parents. They know you love them and they believe that you can’t help them in their transition into adulthood because you overly react to their instinctual, impulsive and often, immature behavior. Since I specialize in stress management, I’ve shown thousands of patients how to immediately convert their “fight or flight” reactions into positive responses based on their true values. At the workshop I’ll show you how to use simple and powerful mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques to calm yourself right in front of your son or spouse. As you become more adept at this important energy-saving skill, your son will be way more open to your knowledge, because you’ve earned his respect.

As a kid, my own mind and body operated in a way that would now be called, attention deficit hyper-active disorder. Back in the day, there was no term like ADHD. The “street diagnosis” labeled it as, “fidgeting”. No one taught me how to adapt to the demands of daily life with the kind of brain I had.

When I was raising my son, Gabe, I often became anxious when we disagreed and then I would yell, which only made the growing gap between us even wider. In a short time, I was able to master the simple stress management techniques and that’s what started to move my relationship with Gabe in a healthier and happier direction for both of us.

EXAMPLE:
Here’s an email I received from a mother who attended the workshop with her husband and whose son attended the YMUW:
“Things are generally more peaceful around the house. Thank you!! We still get into it here and there, but it does not last as long and we apologize to each other faster. Our son has been upbeat, kind, chill and even just got done cleaning the bathtub for me! I did not ask, he just volunteered. The other day he offered to buy me something from the coffee shop using a gift card that he received at Christmas.
So sweet!!!

Thank you!

Whether you are the mother or father, when you remain relaxed, you demonstrate to your son that you have the main “alpha” quality required for him to trust you: calmness.

 Even if I learn a great new way to help my son become more self-confident and independent, he's not really interested in learning how to achieve his true potential.

In this workshop you’ll learn that the secret to inspiring your son to became a happy and responsible teenager is to know how to foster his personal growth while skillfully using your authority and influence. The method does use consequences - not punishments - as a way to teach your son how to be better prepared for the challenges of adulthood. Ultimately, the method avoids unnecessary psychological over – analysis by keeping you focused on you focused on your ability to channel your son’s natural instinctual desire to live a meaningful and fulfilled life.

EXAMPLE:
This text literally came to me from a mother the next day after attending the parent workshop:

When you know how to help your son discover what his personal values are and how to turn his qualities into positive beliefs and productive behaviors, he’ll always be loyal to you.

 I'm hoping that by sending my son to that YMUW, he'll get the skills he needs to be more responsible so I don't see the value in attending a workshop.

Away from the influences of technology, the media, and their familiar family surroundings, the YMUW rite of passage adventure camp provides a “village” of trained and devoted mentors who will help your son develop self-respect by mastering his strengths, overcoming his weaknesses and learning the importance of cooperation through teamwork.
 
However, It’s unrealistic to expect your household to become less stressful and more cooperative just by having your son attend the YMUW. By attending the workshop you’ll know how to support the natural individuation process of your son.

When you learn the same technology that your son learns at the YMUW, the entire family will enjoy an immediate improvement in their relationships.

 I'm a single parent so I don't see why should I go to the workshop if my former spouse is not willing to attend. 

Together with my former wife, Suzanne (a licensed family therapist), we teach the divorced parents how to reunify a working relationship with the former spouse so that their children receive the best nurturing from both masculine and feminine wisdom. We show parents how to set aside their emotional grief, as well as their conflicting beliefs and behaviors, in order to effectively combine their parenting skills. This way, they can work together to create two cooperative households.

We accomplish this by showing you how to:
- Release the obstacles that block your family unity
- Teach your children how to benefit from divorce
- Communicate without anger
- Develop mutual respect & trust

If both parents are not willing to work together for the benefit of their son, the technology that we teach at the workshop is effective with your son, even if you’re the only parent that knows how to use it. If you do have to attend the workshop as a single parent - without your former spouse - you’ll earn greater respect from yourself knowing that you’re giving your best effort to guide your son into young adulthood.

By fulfilling your biological obligation to guide your son into adulthood, your son will notice and appreciate that you know how to be a loving and trust-worthy mentor for him – even though he won’t tell you this!

When You Attend The Parenting Workshop 
You’ll Receive This Free Gift

Listen to Dr. Mark as leads a discussion with parenting experts of some of toughest issues in  “Parenting Challenging Children.”  This is the full audio recording of a panel Dr. Mark moderated at the New Living Expo in San Francisco. Listen to experts provide real life solutions to handle the challenges parents face.

Parenting Challenging Children ($19.95 Value)  

This audio helps parents gain greater insight into the reasons why their children may be emotionally intense, disrespectful or defiant. Parents will learn how to become more sensitive to their children’s underlying needs, while applying tough love and tender love to lead their family into mutually caring and cooperative relationships.

My Family means Everything to Me

The Brutal & Beautiful Journey with My Family

Mark & Gabe

I know the feelings of sadness and frustration that a parent feels when they’re losing touch with their children. I went through the same thing with my teenage son, Gabe, and my daughter, Becca, back in the 1990’s. My wife, Suzanne, and I divorced in the 1980’s when the children were really young, so I know the intense feelings that arise from being divorced which for me included shame, guilt, self-doubt and fear. 

I made every possible mistake parenting my own teen age son, Gabe. My old school style of parenting wasn’t working. By the time Gabe was a teenager, he was getting involved in alcohol and drugs, which I didn’t even know at first. 

It felt like Gabe was beginning to sail away on a ship, withdrawing further away from me. All I could do was stand on the dock and watch him, helpless to care for him and be the father I always wanted to be. I really felt like a failure. Being rejected by my own son was really painful.

Of course, I loved Gabe more than anything in life and wanted nothing more than to be close to him. 

Gabe & Becca

Happy Long Story Made Short
I understood that I could not go to my deathbed knowing that I did not give my best effort to restoring my relationships with my family. I dedicated my personal life to re-uniting my divorced family. Once this goal was accomplished, I dedicated my professional life to helping other parents and their children learn how to care for each other by cooperatively sharing their physical skills, mental wisdom and material goods together.

For many years now, I’ve been living a meaningful and fulfilled life showing families how to skillfully apply the benefits of leading-edge science with ancestral tribal family wisdom. And now I'm blessed to have what I call, "the happiest-divorced married family in the world." We all live within a few minutes of each other. We celebrate birthdays and holidays together. And Suzanne, who’s a skillful family therapist, also teaches the parenting workshops together with me. 

Gabe & Becca

Mark & Suzanne 

I’m especially grateful that my work has interested Katie Couric and Lisa Ling to interview me about the innovative work that I do with families. 

Feel free to watch the video to learn more about my painful and beautiful journey in my personal, family and professional life. In this video, I include good lessons for you to hear about what really makes a healthy and happy family thrive .

"I did the parenting workshop with Mark while my twin sons did the Ultimate Weekend. I received so much information on how to deal with my sons, and their participation in the weekend made them receptive on the other end. At the time, I could not understand why it wasn’t a requirement for parents to do the workshop while their sons were in their weekend. Now, a few years later, I’m even more convinced this should be the case. 

We originally heard about the YMUW from a family friend whose son had done it, but they hadn’t attended the parenting workshop. It’s clear that the Ultimate Weekend did not make much difference in the end in that household, whereas in mine, because I’ve upheld what I learned about being a mentor and not a parent, it has.

Without parents making the switch from being a parent to a mentor, the sons do not go back into an environment that supports what they learned at the Ultimate Weekend. They can easily fall back into the habit of acting like a child, because the parents, intentionally or not, still treat them like a child."
Kellie deRuyter

Dr. Mark Schillinger, D.C., is both the Executive Director of the Young Men's Ultimate Weekend, Inc (YMUW), and the sole owner of Challenging Teenage Sons, Inc (CTS). This notice is in compliance with California Non-profit Law (section 5000) and the California Business and Professions Code (Sections 5230 through 5239, and Section 10133) and applies to any activities coordinated between YMUW and CTS.

What Others Are 
SAYING ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
Dr. Mark’s Workshop Includes:
The first option the tool allows you to adjust
The first option the tool allows you to adjust
Why You THINK You Might Not Want To Attend The Workshop
I’ve polled hundreds of parents regarding their concerns that this workshop may not be able to help them. 
Here are their most common questions and doubts, as well as my responses.
The Brutal & Beautiful Journey with My Son, Gabe
When You Attend The Workshop You’ll Receive These Tools 
Which Will Help You Implement What You’ve Learned
At this workshop, I do my best to keep all of the tips, techniques and scripts as simple as possible so that you can apply them immediately. 

However, I’ve learned from the busy parents who attend the workshop that they need follow up educational materials to keep them inspired and motivated to continue moving their family in the right direction.

Therefore, when you attend the workshop you’ll receive the following educational materials: