Tessa works with teenagers, and has decided to take on parenting from a new perspective.   While patiently waiting for her book’s completion "For the Sake of Our Youth: A Therapist's Perspective on Raising Kids in Today's Culture" (due to hit the shelves Spring 2020) Tessa coaches and presents to parents her research on today’s teen depression, anxiety and suicide rate focusing on parent/child connection. You can connect with her at her website Tessastuckey.com or follow her on instagram @themomtherapist.

• Why she wanted to work with teens and parents.
• Kids came to me with suicidal thoughts.
• It scared me that they were going to grow up in a world where suicide was so common.

1. Social Trend - people see it and so they think it. Not being balanced with appropriate preventative care.
2. Immediate gratification - everything is just a click away. Teaching our kids how to struggle. There is no instant fix for an emotional hardship. You have to think a little unnaturally to slow things down a little bit.
3. Lack of personal connections are being made. Social media is meant for connection but it doesn’t create the same closeness and bond.
4. Attention seeking - longing to feel important. It has become an acceptable way to get attention in our society. Reacting to a lack of attention and lack of resilience.
5. Social media - 5 categories: don’t need to connect face to face, comparison, kids can’t turn their social life, cyberbullying (hurt people hurt people), phone addiction.
6. Pressure - we live a go-go-go lifestyle. No mercy and no grace. Everyone is striving to be perfect.
7. Be the supporter and helper for your child and not the fixer for all their problems.
8. How to be a transformative principal? Understand your own philosophies on the kids you interact with. What are the core values you want kids to have when they leave your school? This is not just mental illness anymore.

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