Raising a Kid Who Can: Simple Strategies to Build a Lifetime of Adaptability and Emotional Strength

Three mental health professionals cut through the "parenting advice" noise with this accessible, easy-to-skim book filled with actionable strategies and tips to build a child's capacity to thrive where they are planted, in good times and bad.

It's time to parent smarter, not harder. Filled with scientifically based and eminently actionable advice and strategies, Raising a Kid Who Can boils down the ten essential things that every child needs to thrive so that parents can stop drowning in information and get to the business of raising healthier, happier humans. Written by three mental health professionals who work with families, organized for easy skimming, and designed to be useful at any stage in a child's life, the book devotes one short, impactful chapter per principle, including Resilience, Attention and Self-Control, Psychological Flexibility, Self-Motivation, Compassion and Gratitude. The result is a new approach to a parenting guide, one that takes a wholistic approach to nurturing a child's development and help parents get right to the information they need, when they need it.


About the Author
Catherine McCarthy, MD, is a Duke-trained child and adolescent psychiatrist with nearly 25 years of clinical experience. Named a "Top Doctor" by the Washingtonian magazine for 15 years running, she has appeared on live television news and is a contributor to popular magazines. With her neuroscience expertise in stress, anxiety, and the developing brain, Dr. McCarthy is a nationally recognized keynote speaker and regularly lectures to parents and students in almost every school system, both public and private, throughout the DC metropolitan area.

Heather Tedesco, PhD, is a licensed Applied Psychologist with a PhD in Social Psychology.  She has a private practice where she works exclusively with parents to help them raise kids who can thrive while making parenting less stressful, more effective, and more enjoyable. Her specialty is simplifying the science into strategies parents can use right away and giving parents clarity and confidence in what to do and how to do it. She is the go-to parenting resource for many Washington, DC-area pediatric, psychological testing, and therapy practices and is a sought-after speaker for schools, community organizations, and businesses.

Jennifer Weaver, LCSW, has been rated as one of the "Best Child Therapists" in the area by Washingtonian magazine. Along with her therapy practice, she also provides workshops and training to mental health professionals, schools (faculty, student, and parent groups), and the larger community. She is the founder of two highly effective psychotherapy practices for kids, Weaver and Associates, for outpatient services, and Helix Center, an intensive outpatient program (IOP). Her programs have the direct support of colleagues and mentors at McLean Hospital in Boston, Anna Freud Centre in London, and Yale Child Study Center in New Haven.