Kids These Days: Understanding and Supporting Youth Mental Health

Examining everything from social media, overprotection, and environmental toxins, to the erosion of connection and failings of the mental health industry, Kids These Days draws on cutting-edge research and casts a critical eye on the adolescent mental health crisis, presenting solutions for raising healthy youth.

Will Dobud, PhD, MSW has over 20 years of therapeutic experience working with youth and families from diverse backgrounds across the US, Australia, and Norway. He has developed innovative programs that integrate psychotherapy and the outdoors to improve teenagers' experience when seeking mental health treatment. A dedicated, award-winning researcher and senior social work lecturer, Will explores ways to improve the experience and effectiveness of mental health supports, and advocates for youth impacted by the United States' troubled-teen industry. He is co-host of the popular Adventure Therapy Collective Podcast and co-author of Solution-Focused Practice in Outdoor Therapy: Co-Adventuring for Change and Outdoor Therapies: An Introduction To Practices, Possibilities, and Critical Perspectives. A senior lecturer in social work at Charles Sturt University, Will lives and works between Australia and the Washington DC area.

Nevin Harper, PhD, is a Professor in the Faculty of Health at the University of Victoria, and a Registered Clinical Counsellor with over 30 years' experience leading groups and individuals through outdoor educational, therapeutic and transformative experiences.

His research in the areas of child and youth health and development examines human-environmental interactions, primarily through the practices of outdoor therapies, adventure programming, and nature-based approaches to healing and wellbeing. He has travelled and worked internationally as a consultant, trainer, speaker, and an evaluator of programs and services in related areas. Nevin is co-author of Nature-Based Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide to Working Outdoors with Children, Youth, And Families and Outdoor Therapies: An Introduction to Practices, Possibilities, and Critical Perspectives. He lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.