10 powerful skills to help you manage stress, bounce back from difficult situations, and rewire your brain for happiness and success! Being a teen today is stressful. That’s why you need real tools to help you cope with all of life’s challenges—from small stressors like homework, social media, and dating to serious trauma resulting from bullying, school shootings, violence, and now—pandemics. The key to dealing with all of these difficult events is resilience—the ability to recover from setbacks or trauma, and forge ahead with emotional strength. The best thing about resilience is that it can be learned. This book will help you learn how to be resilient, so you can weather life’s storms and reach your goals. In The Resilient Teen, psychologist, teen expert, and trauma specialist Sheela Raja offers ten skills grounded in key principles from psychology and neuroscience to help you manage difficult emotions, recover from difficult situations, and cultivate a sense of joy—even in the face of setbacks and modern-day stressors. You’ll learn essential strategies for self-care, how to establish a healthy lifestyle, and how to set limits on technology. You’ll also discover how mindfulness can help you deal with stress and challenging emotions in the moment, tips for building better relationships with family and friends, and tools for dealing with disappointment. Most importantly, this book will show you how to increase your own sense of joy, purpose, and meaning—even when things seem less than awesome.
Reviews
"Sheela Raja has crafted a timely, practical, and substantive resource—not only for teens who are experiencing distress and adversity, but also for those who are seeking emotional well-being skills. It is developmentally appropriate, accessible, engaging, and beautifully written. Parents and professionals looking for an exceptional resource to promote resilience and adaptive functioning in teens will be thrilled with Raja's latest offering—arguably her best book to date."—Matt Gray, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Wyoming, trained at the National Center for PTSD, specializing in trauma
"Sheela Raja writes with brilliant simplicity. The Resilient Teen is relatable and provides the reader with practical, manageable, and realistic steps. Raja joins with the reader in ways that promote individual hope and universal compassion. The message is loud and clear: being resilient is possible and The Resilient Teen lets us know how."—Susan A. Green, LCSW, clinical professor, and codirector of The Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work
"Using research and engaging stories, The Resilient Teen offers relevant, straightforward information about physical and emotional health. It provides practical guidance for managing sleep, stress, and difficult emotions, and tips for developing mindfulness, healthy habits, and social connections. The chapter on cognitive flexibility and realistic optimism, skills that can help transform difficult situations and lead to growth after hardship, make this book especially valuable and timely (for both adults and teens)."—Brigid McCaw, MD, MS, MPH, clinical advisor for California Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Aware Initiative, and medical director (retired) at Kaiser Permanente Family Violence Prevention Program