For a video of this presentation click here
We know teens need our support to grow up safe, healthy, happy, and emotionally whole. But how do we provide that when faced with their adolescent silence, curt responses, and closed doors? Pediatrician, New York Times best–selling author of puberty and parenting books, and mother of two teenagers, Dr. Cara Natterson, is here to help with scripts, tips, and strategies for getting it right – all built on a foundation of practical hard science.
Participants will learn how to talk to teens about the wide range of “normal” through the whole developmental process. Dr. Natterson will also talk about why teenagers make irrational decisions even though they look mature, and how to steer them toward better choices. She willexplore the hard topics parents and teens are steering through, including managing video game and screen time and discussing the unrealistic and dangerous nature of pornography. She will help parents prepare youth to resist both old and new social pressures – drugs, alcohol, vaping, and sexting. Dr. Natterson will also talk about how and why teens need emotional and physical contact with parents—and how parents can give it in ways they’ll accept.
As the author of the best–selling, youth-focused series The Care and Keeping of You and now Guy Stuff, Cara has become the leading voice in tween and teen health and wellness. Her journey through health advocacy began at Harvard College, Johns Hopkins Medical School, and the University of California at San Francisco. In 2000, Cara joined Tenth Street Pediatrics in Santa Monica, and in 2008, she founded Worry Proof Consulting, a practice that gives parents time their primary doctors often don’t have to cover medical, behavioral, and parenting issues in depth. Cara travels the country speaking to both kids and parents about taking ownership of their health and wellness, translating cutting-edge research into understandable, actionable, and even entertaining information, and in 2020 launched OOMLA, a company dedicated to making puberty more comfortable, literally.
Dr. John Duffy, well-known Chicago therapist and author of the book Parenting the New Teen in the Age of Anxiety, will join Dr. Natterson at the 7:00 p.m. presentation.
Additional support for this program comes from the Glen Ellyn Youth and Family Counseling Service.