Welcome Grade 9 Parents!

About Dr. Alex Russell

DR. ALEX RUSSELL is a clinical psychologist who lives and works in Toronto. He provides assessments and psychotherapy to children and adults, in addition to consulting with schools, teachers, and psychologists.  He is a trainer for the Sick Kids Centre for Community Mental Health, and has been a consultant to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. His past research activities include the development and evaluation of an early intervention family therapy program serving families with children at risk, articles on children’s emotional development, and serving on the editorial board of Ideas: Emotional Well-Being in Child Care, a national journal of early childhood educators.

The heart of his message is that children learn through the experience of non-catastrophic, painful failure, and it is through the process of these failures that they mature into resilient, resourceful, and emotionally balanced individuals. Parents need to see failing—whether it’s a test, a course, or a tryout for a team—as a normal part of growing up and not a sign of parental incompetence. In his best-selling book, Drop the Worry Ball: How to Parent in the Age of Entitlement and in his training, Dr. Russell offers a fresh perspective on raising children that is reassuringly familiar and strikingly sensible          

 As a speaker, Dr. Russell has addressed many parent, teacher and counselor groups over the years. He is intimately familiar with the culture of the school system and the relationship that parents, teachers, and counselors share with regard to the children we are raising. He has been an active parent in his community and an avid hockey player and coach.