I’m a mom and a child psychologist, and have spent most of my career working to understand and help families under stress.

Having lived and been educated on three different continents and with four children of my own, I’ve learned that even across diverse cultures and contexts, parents share one important thing in common: they will work their hardest to provide the best lives for their children. It’s a great privilege, then, to work with and support families when they are dealing with the tough stuff, from daily challenges to the truly traumatic – like war, violence, and disasters.

I became interested in understanding how families process stressful events as a kid growing up in London. My dad was a young child at the start of World War II in September, 1939, and he, along with the rest of London’s children, was evacuated hundreds of miles away to live with strangers for the next five years. 

Half a century later, I found myself in management for a large hotel chain in Israel when the first Gulf War broke out. As the first missiles rained down on Israel, I sat, gas mask on, huddled in a hotel corridor with hundreds of others. I couldn’t help but notice that the most anxious and distressed adults were the night shift workers who left children at home, sometimes alone. 

A decade later, I was a young mom with a first grader on 9/11. The attacks were a turning point in American history and left indelible marks on everyone, especially survivors, families of the victims, and those who served on the ground and in the wars that followed. Since 9/11, more than three million children have lived through a parent’s deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. 

How do families cope when stressful events hit? How can parents manage their own worries in order to help their children be resilient in the face of hard times? 

Today, I strive to answer those questions. I have devoted my career as a professor first at the University of Minnesota, and now at Arizona State University, to developing and testing skills-based parenting programs that promote children’s resilience. When I’m not working, I love hanging out with family and friends, traveling, biking, kayaking, and playing board games. I live in Scottsdale, Arizona with my family.