Anxiety levels and struggles with mental health are on the rise in children and young people, and as mums and dads, this can feel overwhelming – even debilitating at times. But there’s good news! You, as parents, have incredible power to help your children build strong emotional resilience and healthy mental wellbeing. ‘A Mind of Their Own’ is packed with practical and preventative tools for you to use at home, helping you to better understand what’s going on in your child’s head. Together with Katharine Hill and Mark Chester, you’ll explore the science of the mind, and why children act and react the way they do. Featuring interviews with mental-health professionals, Dr Rob Waller and Dr Kate Middleton, this event will expand your understanding of the unique pressures and opportunities facing young people today, so you can help your child develop an emotional resiliency that lasts.

‘Our goal is to bring up adults who are confident, resilient and secure in their identity – adults who have a mind of their own’, says Katharine. ‘Resilient children tend to be more optimistic and motivated, think more creatively, develop strategies for problem-solving, enjoy good friendships, communicate well and have higher self-esteem. Resilience is key to our children’s well-being.’

A short video (less than 2 minutes long) about the event can be found here:

We hope it will be a useful and encouraging evening for mums, dads, grandparents, teachers, youth workers and all who help to care for children.

This event is hosted by Care for the Family’s Katharine Hill and Mark Chester, and links in with Katharine’s new book, ‘A Mind of Their Own: Building Our Children’s Emotional Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World’, which published in 2021.

You’ll leave with:

• Tools to help your child build resilience that enables them to bounce back from challenges and bounce forward in emotional strength, character and development
• An understanding that negative thought patterns can in fact be changed for more positive brain pathways, helping your child to deal with failure well
• An appreciation of how vital your child’s identity is and strategies to help them become confident in it
• Ways to talk to your child about positive body image
• Tips on how to manage your own emotions as a parent

Your hosts are:

Katharine Hill, UK director of Care for the Family. She is a well-known speaker, broadcaster and author of a number of books including her latest book ‘A Mind of Their Own’. She is married to Richard and they have four grown-up children and five grandchildren.

Mark Chester, Parent Support Manager at Care for the Family. He is the founder of Who Let The Dads Out? and has been writing and speaking about fatherhood for over 20 years. He has two grown-up children.