Six-Week Self-Paced Course
You made it home.
Now find your way forward.
A six-week course for early returned missionaries, built by Jon Larsen, LMFT and peer mentor Brooklyn Larsen, who has been exactly where you are.
Bundle with coaching from $109
Returning Stronger is a self-paced six-week online course for early returned LDS missionaries. It covers identity, understanding your emotions, finding direction, rebuilding relationships, and learning about post-traumatic growth. Includes psychological principles from Jon Larsen, LMFT and peer perspective from Brooklyn Larsen, an early returned missionary herself. The course-only option is $49; a bundle with two coaching sessions is $109.
Designed for early returned missionaries, who are looking to build back better.
This course was designed for one specific situation: coming home early from a mission and not knowing what to do next.
For the early returned missionary
You came home before you planned to. The room feels strange and the questions feel impossible. You are not sure who you are or where you are going. This course walks with you for six full weeks.
For parents and families
You love them and you want to help but you are not sure what to say or do. This course gives your missionary a structured, safe path forward, taught by a licensed marriage and family therapist, so you have peace of mind knowing they have one.
For the missionary still processing
Maybe you came home months or even years ago and you have never fully worked through it. The course is not time-sensitive. If it is still unresolved, the work here is still relevant.
For ward leaders and bishops
You want to support the ERMs in your congregation but counseling is not your role. This course is educational, and it is taught by a licensed marriage and family therapist who understands the faith context. You can recommend it with confidence.
How the six weeks work.
Each week builds on the last. You do not need the answers before you start.
Arrive first. You are not asked to fix anything or perform for anyone this week. It gives you permission to be where you are, names what just happened to you, and sets the foundation for everything that follows.
Your identity shifted when you came home. This week separates your core self from your situational identity, traces what the mission built in you, and starts building a picture of who you are becoming.
This week covers shame, grief, anger, and relief, the emotions most people avoid. You learn to name what is running in the background and decide what to do with it.
This week you stop waiting for direction to find you and start building it. You work with your values, your assets, a two-year vision, and one concrete step.
Relationships with family, friends, and your ward get complicated after an early return. This week gives you tools to rebuild connection without taking on responsibility for feelings that were never yours to carry.
You revisit the direction-building work from Week 4, measure how far you have traveled, and leave yourself something to look back on in a year. The week is built around moving forward strong.
Ten components per week.
Each week combines video teaching, reflection, a faith anchor, and a service challenge, so you act on what you learn instead of only hearing it.
Video Teaching
Jon on camera, 4 to 6 minutes, opening the week with honesty and perspective from 25+ years of working with young adults and families.
Core Teaching Content
A deeper written expansion of what the video introduced. Psychology concepts made accessible, always moving toward what's next.
Brooklyn's Corner
Brooklyn Larsen, peer mentor and ERM herself, speaks directly to you in her own voice. Peer to peer, as someone who has been there.
Reflection Questions
Three introspective questions per week, with no right answers, so you can answer honestly.
Weekly Activity
A structured exercise that applies the week's content to your life. Each one is different and builds on what came before.
Faith Anchor
Four curated scriptures each week with individual reflection prompts and a guided invitation for reflection, meditation, and prayer.
Daily Touchpoints
Five short daily prompts, Monday through Friday. Five to ten minutes each. Observe, acknowledge, reframe, gratitude, look forward.
TED Talk + Reflection
A curated TED Talk each week brings an outside research voice into the conversation: Brené Brown, Angela Duckworth, Susan Pinker, and more.
Psychology Principle
Jon explains one psychology concept per week in plain language: Window of Tolerance, Neuroplasticity, Locus of Control, Post-Traumatic Growth.
Brooklyn's Service Challenge
Brooklyn's invitation to look outward each week through a specific act of service tied to the week's theme.
A father-daughter team, clinical expertise and lived experience.
This course exists because both of us know what this transition feels like, Jon from 25+ years of working with young adults and families in hard transitions, and Brooklyn from living through one herself.
Jon Larsen, MS, LMFT, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 25+ years of experience working with young adults and families. Founder of Returning Stronger Coaching LLC and Executive Director of a boarding school for adolescents. He watched his daughter come home early from her mission and walked alongside her through it. That experience, combined with his professional background, is the foundation this course is built on. Jon teaches this course as an educator. In the coaching bundle, he works with you as a coach, not as a therapist.
Brooklyn Larsen, Peer Mentor and early returned missionary. BYU student. She came home before her mission was finished, went through the exact transition this course addresses. She brings what Jon cannot: she has been where you are.
Two ways to take the course.
Both options include full access to all six weeks of course content. The bundle adds direct coaching support for those who want a guide alongside the course.
Full six-week course, self-paced, with online access.
- All six weeks of content
- 10 components per week
- Video teachings from Jon
- Brooklyn's Corner and Service Challenges
- TED Talks, Psychology principles, faith anchors
- Lifetime access
The full course plus two 30-minute coaching sessions with Jon, one at the start, one at the close.
- Everything in Online Course
- 30-minute onboarding session with Jon
- 30-minute close-out session with Jon
- Personalized guidance around your specific situation
- Coaching sessions (not therapy) from someone with 25+ years of experience with young adults and families
What to know before you enroll.
Every component was built for early returned missionaries, by people who know the research and the culture from the inside.
Built from experience
Jon has worked with young adults and families for over 25 years, and this course puts what he has learned into six weeks of structured content.
Peer voice included
Brooklyn's presence in every week means the student never feels talked at by a professional from a distance.
Coaching, not therapy
This course is forward-focused and goal-oriented. It does not diagnose or treat clinical conditions. It is built to help you move forward, not to replace clinical care.
Have questions before enrolling?
Reach out anytime, we're happy to help you figure out if this course is the right fit.
Or reach us directly at info@returningstronger.com
