Hawk Talk with Katie Koestner, Thick Skin is In! 

Thick Skin Is In: What is the Recipe for Self-Directed, Resilient Kids?

Sticks, stones, and boulders.  What are the skills that kids need today to hold up under pressure?  Whether the pressure comes from online posts by “friends” or the stress of high achievement in so many areas.  The adolescent brain learns faster, remembers more, and seeks stimulation as if it were water in a desert.  It is under siege with new cell growth and agitated by the resulting exposed, overly-sensitive raw nerves. 

More than ever before, young people live in an almost constant state of stress brought on by a combination of lack of sleep, heightened expectations, and over-exposure to endless stimuli from every direction.  Turn challenges into success with skill and strategy for your students and kids.  Learn how to help kids thrive and operate at full capacity.  Bolster your own resiliency and learn how to role model the skills needed not just to survive the brutal reality of gossip, ratings, likes and posts; but to thrive and rise above.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the adolescent brain’s capacity and implications of overstimulation and deleterious stress
• Acquire skills to boost young adults’ developmental gains in resiliency
• Enrich stress management skills in youth and learn strategies for finding the balance to achieve more confidence and sure footing in adolescence