Dr. Laura Kastner

Dr. Laura Kastner is returning to Mercer Island to share her lecture “Toxic Stress and the Pressure to Succeed.”  The event is hosted by Mercer Island Parent Edge and Mercer Island Youth & Family Services (MIYFS) and will take place on Monday, March 20th, at 7 pm at the Mercer Island High School Performing Arts Center.

In her lecture, Dr. Kastner will explain how “toxic stress” factors affect students academically, mentally, and emotionally, as well as how parents themselves are affected by living in a high-performance culture.

Parents can learn to understand their child’s stressors (and their own) and help their child develop resilience, social and emotional competence, and healthy resistance to stress.

From Parent Edge and MIYFS: 
Recognizing Toxic Stress and Improving Family Health 
Students are heavily impacted by various stressors in the home, including an overwhelming pressure from their parents to succeed academically. Toxic stress not only affects students’ academic abilities, but it also negatively affects their mental health, leading students to develop anxiety, depression, learning problems, and other harmful behaviors.

While students experience the effects of toxic stress, parents can also experience similar pressures due to living in a high-performance culture. Research shows that children benefit when their parents balance reasonable academic goals with healthy habits related to sleep, authoritative parenting, and media management.

Through understanding and recognizing these stress factors, parents can make family health a priority by building skills that improve their own overall well-being as well as their child’s.

About Dr. Kastner
Dr. Laura Kastner is a clinical psychologist and clinical professor in both the Psychology Department and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. She has given hundreds of public lectures for schools and hospitals. Her most recent books are Wise-Minded Parenting: 7 Essentials for Raising Tweens and Teens (2013) and Getting to Calm, The Early Years (2015). Visit Dr. Kastner’s website to learn more about her work: http://laurakastnerphd.com/

Event Details
This lecture is for parents of students of all ages. It’s free for PTA members within the Mercer Island School District and $10 at the door for non-Mercer Island PTA members.

The Mercer Island High School Performing Arts Center is located at 9100 SE 42nd Street.
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