Episode Description

For the 97th episode of the Metta Hour Podcast, Sharon shares a conversation about raising resilient children with Mark Bertin, MD & Christopher Willard, PsyD.

Buzz words such as “thriving,” “resilience,” and “mindfulness” may fill headlines and sell books, but what do they really mean, and how do we cultivate these traits in ourselves and our families? Sharon and her guests look beyond the buzzwords and towards the basic concepts of skillful parenting that have been known across cultures for millennia. Together they explore the best of what both science and wisdom traditions have to teach us about cultivating happy, healthy families.

Dr. Christopher Willard (PsyD) is a psychologist and educational consultant based in Boston specializing in mindfulness. He has been practicing meditation for 20 years and leads workshops nationally and internationally. He currently serves on the board of directors at the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and is the president of the Mindfulness in Education Network. He has presented at TEDx conferences and his thoughts have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, mindful.org, and elsewhere. He is the author of Child’s Mind (2010) Growing Up Mindful (2016) Raising Resilience (2017) and other books.

Dr. Mark Bertin, a board-certified developmental behavioral pediatrician and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at New York Medical College. He is on the faculty of the Windward Teacher Training Institute, and from 2003 to 2010 was Director of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, working in their foster care program. Dr. Bertin also leads mindfulness classes, having attended trainings at Jon Kabat Zinn’s Center for Mindfulness in Medicine among others, and he incorporates mindfulness into sessions on an individual basis for interested families.

Additional Resources

To learn more about Christopher’s work, you can visit his website.

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