MTVs Teen Mom / YouTube Dr. Cheyenne Bryant & Amber Portwood
“Teen Mom”‘s resident life coach, Dr. Cheyenne Bryant (referred to on the show as “Coach B”) has been working with the franchise’s biggest stars both on and off the show to help them move on from past and present traumas.
This week, Coach B gave an update to The U.S. Sun on how things are going with Amber Portwood amidst her custody struggles with her 4-year-old son James and his father, Andrew Glennon.
“You know, I love Amber. She’s such a firecracker with the biggest heart ever. She is doing a lot better as far as how hard she can be on herself,” Coach B said of Portwood.
Coach B Wants Amber Portwood to Focus on the Present
One of the biggest things Dr. Cheyenne Bryant mentioned working with Amber Portwood on is not being so hard on herself for past behaviors and actions.
“I always try to work with Amber on not being so hard on herself, celebrating the victories that she does gain and have with her kids, and taking it one day at a time, because living in the past is depression,” Coach B said, “Living in the future is anxiety and the only place that we really have a chance to change the experience we want is right now in the present. And so [I’m] keeping Amber present and not going to her past and saying, ‘I screwed up, I messed up. What kind of mom am I?'”
Portwood lost custody of her youngest child James to his father, Andrew Glennon, in July 2022 after a years-long court battle. Not only that, but Glennon and James moved to California to be closer to Glennon’s family, leaving Portwood alone back in her home state of Indiana, where her oldest daughter, Leah, lives with her father Gary Shirley.
Coach B keeps Amber present by asking her targeted questions to make her re-center her focus, such as, “‘Hey, what are you doing today? What have you done today? Have you made a phone call [to the kids]? Have you reached out? Are you making sure that you are in a good space so that you can be the best parent you can be to your babies?'”
Although Coach B says Portwood is making strides with her mental health, she says every day will be different as a mother of two who does not have sole custody of her children. “Some days it may feel like we’re bonding and it’s going amazing and I’m getting this parenting thing down pat – My kids are now getting to know me and there’s this future respect, but then some days it may feel like I’m totally just, you know, going off the deep end with this and I feel like I’m not showing up in the way that my kids need.”
Amber Portwood is Regaining Partial Custody of James
Although Amber Portwood’s ex Andrew Glennon has sole custody of their son James, Portwood’s visitation guidelines were recently changed in Portwood’s favor when she was granted an increase from three days (including overnights) per month to five days per month. This increased time with James is meant to be split between his home in California and Portwood’s in Indiana.
This win for Portwood comes after six months of court-ordered drug testing for both herself and Glennon, Portwood has also been ordered to see a counselor by the court, whose eventual goal is for Portwood and Glennon to be able to effectively co-parent James independently of court oversight.
This increase marks the second phase in Portwood’s original custody agreement, with the third and final phase increasing her visitation with James to an as-yet-undetermined number of days.
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