Watch & Read

What Adolescents (or Teenagers) Need to Thrive

Charisse Nixon

Charisse Nixon discusses the key factors that contribute to the well-being and development of teenagers. She highlights the importance of emotional support, positive relationships, autonomy, and a sense of purpose, offering insights into how adults can help adolescents thrive during these crucial years.

The Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Daniel J. Siegel explains how the adolescent brain develops and affects behaviour, emotions, and decision-making. He offers insights to help parents and educators better understand and support teenagers during this critical stage of growth.

The Skill of Humour

Andrew Tarvin

Andrew Tarvin teaches how humor can be developed as a skill to improve communication, strengthen relationships, and reduce stress, offering practical tips for using humor effectively in everyday life.

What Teens Want you to Know (but Won’t Tell You)

Roy Petitfils

Our biggest fear isn’t being rejected, it’s being invisible. Roy Petitfils discusses the invisibility epidemic faced by teenagers and what we can do to help.

The Social Dilemma

Netflix

The Social Dilemma is  an eye-opening documentary that can help guide important conversations with your teen about the pros and cons of being online and how to balance social media use in a way that supports their well-being.

The Great Hack

Netflix

The Great Hack is a documentary that reveals how personal data is exploited by companies to manipulate political outcomes and influence individuals’ decisions, raising critical questions about privacy and democracy.

Childhood 2.0

Jayne Schooler and Chris McKenna

Is a documentary produced by Jayne Schooler and Chris McKenna, founder of Protect Young Eyes, that explores the dangers of social media on children and teenagers. It focuses on the negative effects of social media on mental health, self-esteem, and development, addressing issues like cyberbullying, addiction, and unrealistic online standards. The documentary aims to raise awareness about these risks and emphasises the importance of digital education and responsible technology use to create a safer online environment for young people.

Resolving the Heart of Conflict

Jim Ferrell

In this talk, Jim Ferrell addresses the deeper emotional causes of conflict by choosing love, empathy, and personal responsibility, rather than blame, to foster healing and connection in relationships.

The Dangers of Social Media Addiction

Simon Sinek

In his talk Simon Sinek discusses how social media creates addictive behaviours by triggering the brain’s reward system, leading to negative effects on mental health, relationships, and productivity, particularly among young people. He emphasises the need for more conscious and mindful use of social media to avoid its harmful impacts.

Screenagers

Dr. Delaney Ruston

This documentary explores the impact of screen time on teenagers’ mental health, relationships, and development, highlighting the challenges parents face in managing technology use and offering insights into creating a healthy balance.

Why Our Screens Make Us Less Happy

Adam Alter

Psychologist Adam Alter explains how excessive screen time on smartphones, tablets, and computers contributes to unhappiness and offers strategies to improve well-being.

What You Are Missing While Being a Digital Zombie

Patrik Wincent

Patrik Wincent takes us on a journey through his own Internet addiction, and gives us valuable tips to avoid becoming digital zombies.

How Better Tech Could Protect Us from Distraction

Tristan Harris

Tristan Harris discusses how current technology is designed to capture our attention and keep us hooked, and proposes ways to redesign digital tools to promote healthier, more intentional use that protects our focus and well-being.

Quit Social Media

Dr. Cal Newport 

Dr. Cal Newport refers to the ideas in his book Digital Minimalism. In it, he advocates for a more intentional use of technology, encouraging people to declutter their digital lives and focus on the few tools that truly add value. Newport explores how social media distracts us from deep, meaningful work and suggests that by embracing digital minimalism, we can regain control of our time and lead more purposeful lives.

Cost of Beauty

Dove 

The “Cost of Beauty” video by Dove is part of their campaign aimed at supporting young people’s mental health. The video highlights the pressures and unrealistic beauty standards that are often portrayed in the media, showing the emotional and psychological toll it can take on young individuals, especially young women. It aims to raise awareness about how societal expectations of beauty can negatively impact self-esteem and mental well-being.

When the Parents Change, Everything Changes

Paul Dix

Paul Dix explores how parents’ actions and attitudes can transform their children’s behaviour. Dix provides practical strategies to help parents create a positive environment that encourages growth and cooperation.

The Power of Showing Up

Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

The Power of Showing Up explains how being consistently present—emotionally and physically—helps children feel safe, seen, soothed, and secure, shaping who they become and how their brains develop. A must-read for every parent who wants to truly make a difference.

Brainstorm

Daniel J. Siegel

Daniel J. Siegel explores the adolescent brain and how it shapes behaviour, emotions, and decision-making. He offers insights into the brain development during the teen years and provides strategies for parents and educators to understand and support teenagers through this critical period.

Positive Discipline for Teenagers

Jane Nelsen and Lynn Lott

Lynn Lott offers practical strategies for parents to guide their teens with kindness and firmness. The book focuses on teaching teens responsibility, respect, and problem-solving skills, while fostering a positive and supportive relationship between parents and their teenagers.

The Power of Habit

Charles Duhigg

Charles Duhigg explores how habits are formed and how they can be changed, explaining the science behind them. It provides practical strategies to break bad habits and create positive ones, helping individuals improve their lives, businesses, and society.

Beyond Behaviours

Mona Delahooke

Mona Delahooke helps parents understand that challenging behaviours are often due to unmet emotional needs and provides strategies to create supportive relationships and promote emotional well-being.

The Conscious Parent

Shefali Tsabary

Through this book, Shefali Tsabary helps parents become more aware of their own feelings and reactions, so they can build a closer, more understanding relationship with their children and support emotional growth for both.

Why Won’t My Teenager Talk to Me?

John Coleman

Dr. Coleman aims to help parents navigate the transitional years of adolescence and build stronger, more positive relationships with their teenagers, offering practical advice on how to improve communication and understanding.

The Anatomy of Peace. How to resolve the heart of conflict

Arbinger Institute

Through an intriguing story, this book explores how internal mindsets and attitudes contribute to conflict. It insights into how shifting from a “heart at war” to a “heart at peace” can transform relationships and resolve conflicts in personal, professional, and societal settings.

Flourish

Martin Seligman

Seligman explores the concept of well-being and how to achieve a fulfilling life. He aims to shift the focus of psychology from just treating mental illness to promoting positive emotions, engagement, and a sense of purpose.

Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child

John Gottman

John Gottman focuses on providing parents with strategies to help their children understand and manage emotions, fostering emotional intelligence and strengthening relationships.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

Sean Covey

Sean Covey offers a guide for teenagers to develop strong personal and social skills. Through this book, Covey aims to help teens improve self-confidence, set goals, and navigate challenges to become more effective in their daily lives.

Irresistible

By Adam Alter

Adam Alter, a professor of psychology and marketing at NYU, tracks the rise of behavioural addiction and explains why so many of today’s products are irresistible. And explains how we can harness addictive products for the good.

Willpower

Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney

Roy Baumeister and John Tierney reveal that willpower functions like a muscle—it can be strengthened with practice. They explore the science of self-control, explaining its limits and how to improve it, offering practical strategies for better discipline, decision-making, and goal achievement.

iGen

Jean M. Twenge

Jean M. Twenge examines how the generation born after 1995—who grew up with smartphones and social media—differs from previous generations. The book explores how technology has shaped their behaviours, mental health, relationships, and worldview, offering insights into both the challenges and opportunities they face.

Digital Minimalism

Cal Newport

Newport offers a practical approach to using technology with intention—helping you cut out digital clutter, reclaim your focus, and reconnect with what truly matters.

The Internet: Are Children In Charge?

Charlene E. Doak-Gebauer

A call for proactive digital supervision to protect children online by ensuring active adult involvement in their internet activities.

Where to take the MBTI test?

If you’re looking to better understand individual personalities, a great starting point is the test on 16personalities.com. While based on the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), it also incorporates elements of the Big Five personality traits theory, offering a more comprehensive view of personality. The test provides users with a detailed profile of their type, strengths, and potential areas for growth. It helps navigate differences in how people think, communicate, and make decisions, supporting personal growth without labelling individuals.

Personality tests are not recommended for children under 13 due to their limited reasoning skills and self-awareness. However, a free type-guesser tool is available for teens on the 16personalities website, accessible with a free member’s account.

The Highly Sensitive Person

Elaine N. Aron

Elaine N. Aron explains how some people are more sensitive to emotions and sensory experiences. Aron offers advice on how these individuals can manage their sensitivity and use it to their advantage.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Susan Cain

Susan Cain argues ( watch her TedTalk ) that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She explains how introverts can thrive and make a big impact in a world that tends to celebrate extroversion.

Leadership and Self-Deception

Arbinger Institute

This book explores how self-deception impacts leadership and relationships. It explains how people often trap themselves in a “box” of narrow thinking and how recognising and overcoming this can improve decision-making, teamwork, and personal growth. It encourages leaders to adopt a mindset of empathy and openness.

Please Understand Me

David Keirsey

Please Understand me, by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates is a book about personality types and human temperament. It expands on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Keirsey’s Temperament Theory, helping readers understand different personality traits and how they influence behaviour, relationships, and communication.

The book provides a self-assessment to help individuals identify their personality type and explores how understanding temperament can improve personal growth, relationships, and interactions with others.

Sixteen Personality Types

Jenny Rogers

Jenny Rogers uses the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to help improve communication and teamwork at work and other areas of life. The book gives practical tips on how to work well with different personality types. It also contains further information on understanding ‘type dynamics’.

Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type

Isabel Briggs Myers with Peter B. Myers

It explores the 16 personality types and explains how different personality preferences shape our behaviours, communication styles, and interactions, helping individuals understand and appreciate differences in others.