Articles by Khadijah Booth Watkins and Gene Beresin

June 9, 2022

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

You Ask, Our Docs Answer! Podcast Miniseries – Shrinking It Down

This past May, Mental Health Awareness Month, we received child mental health questions from our Instagram followers. In this podcast miniseries, Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins, along with special guests, answered them in short episodes. Tune in below, or subscribe wherever you stream – just search for Shrinking It Down. How Do […]

May 12, 2022

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

The Power of Peer Support ft. Valerie Grison-Alsop & Julia Esposito – Shrinking It Down

We all know that parents and other adults tend to be the last people teenagers want to talk to about their problems. At this stage of life teens are more likely to reach out to friends in times of need. With this in mind, Valerie Grison-Alsop, founded Give Us the Floor, a nonprofit organization that […]

April 28, 2022

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

A Teen’s Take On the Pandemic: 2 Years In featuring Annabel Reddick – Shrinking It Down

The COVID pandemic is like nothing most of us have ever lived through. This is especially true for kids and teens who are still developing mentally and physically. This week we talk with special guest, Annabel Reddick, a high school senior in Davidson, North Carolina about her experience living through the pandemic, and how things […]

April 14, 2022

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

Youth Athlete Mental Health ft. Dr. Mai Uchida, MD – Shrinking It Down

At what point are we pushing our young athletes too hard? We all watched 15-year-old Russian Olympic skater, Kamila Valieva, exit the ice in tears after a doping scandal. Where did the adults in her life fail her? What can be done to make sure situations like this don’t happen again? These are the questions […]

March 31, 2022

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

Self-Esteem: How do we build our kids up? – Shrinking It Down

Low self-esteem gets all of us down at one point or another. For kids, the goal is to help build them back up. Lots of things can lower our kids’ self-esteem like body image, cyberbullying, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and surprisingly, guilt (along with lots of other things!). This week, Gene and Khadijah break down […]

March 17, 2022

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

Ukraine: What Do We Tell Our Kids? – Shrinking It Down

The crisis in Ukraine feels to many like the straw that broke the camel’s back. Between the COVID pandemic, systemic racism, the climate crisis, and now the war in Ukraine, the world may feel increasingly unsafe. Very young children, though, actually respond more to their adults’ distress than to the tragic events themselves. That said, […]

March 3, 2022

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

Body Image and Young People featuring Dr. Holly Peek, MD, MPH – Shrinking It Down

Turning on TV, opening a magazine, or going on our phones these days, kids are overwhelmed with images showing us what we should look like. Even on “reality” TV, none of the people look like your average person. With all of these images circulating in our everyday lives, it is easy for any of us […]

February 17, 2022

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

Alcohol and Adolescents, featuring John F. Kelly, PhD, ABPP – Shrinking It Down

Did you know that 3 out of 4 addiction cases in the U.S. are alcohol addictions, and kids who start drinking before age 15 are significantly more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder than those who wait? Alcohol causes more deaths each year than all other drugs combined, including around 5,000 deaths to children […]

January 20, 2022

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

Is Your Child Struggling With School Refusal? – Shrinking It Down

Does your child get stomachaches at the thought of going to school? Does your younger child throw temper tantrums? Does your teenager spend all day in the school counselor’s office, or even refuse to leave the house? When kids struggle to go to school, it can be a challenging situation. And nearly two years into […]

December 16, 2021

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

Strategies for Managing Holiday Stress – Shrinking It Down

Families have felt tremendous stress over the past two years due to the pandemic. Still, for many, this is a special time of year that we fantasize about and look forward to, so it’s not healthy to go into the holiday season and the school winter break at this heightened state of stress and duress. […]