Amy Morin is a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and a lecturer at Northeastern University. She’s been dubbed the “self-help guru of the moment,” by The Guardian and Forbes refers to her as a “thought leadership star.”

You can still be mentally strong and have a mental illness, it's like working out to get strong while having diabetes, you still have diabetes. - Amy Morin

Three Things We Learned

It can be tempting to make your life revolve around your child. But kids who think they’re the center of the universe grow up to be self-absorbed and entitled. Mentally strong parents teach their kids to focus on what they have to offer the world — rather than what they’re owed and it's ok to let your child make mistakes. Running to the rescue of forgotten soccer cleats or a gym bag isn't the parent's responsibility. Children need to realize there are consequences to their actions, good and bad. 

 

We could all easily could be diagnosed with something in our lives, some sort of disorder or a mental health issue. Statistics from the CDC say that 17% of us are functioning at optimal mental health at any given time. We look at people and say either you're mentally healthy or you're mentally ill instead of realizing there is a spectrum and we're all at different points in our lives at different points in that spectrum. You can build mental muscle and you can prevent some illnesses - you can't prevent it all - just like physical strength, working out is good for your body and working out is good for your mind, too. 

Today we hear a lot that we don't punish our kids enough. You have to realize the difference between discipline - encouraging our kids to want to do better versus punishment which is shaming our kids to do better. Parents post pics or videos of their kids behaving badly in an attempt to shame them into behaving better. Shaming most likely makes kids feel like losers versus kids that have healthy consequences can say 'yeah I've made some mistakes but my parents have taught me how to behave better'. 

 
Bio:

Amy’s advice has been featured by a number of media outlets, including Parenting, Time, Fast Company, Good Housekeeping, Elle, Business Insider, Cosmopolitan, Success, Oprah.com, Health, Fox News, US News & World Report, and The Washington Post. She has also provided on-camera interviews for Fox Business, Forbes, TheBlaze TV and an upcoming documentary with Red Bull. She’s a frequent guest on a variety of radio shows as well. 

 

Amy serves as Verywell’s Parenting Teens Expert and Child Discipline Expert. She’s a regular contributor to Forbes, Inc., and Psychology Today. 

 

A sought-after speaker, Amy loves to share the latest research on resilience and the best strategies for overcoming adversity and building mental muscle.

 

https://amymorinlcsw.com