Kid Movement

If you treat children struggling with mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety, you know that approaches designed for adults do not work with younger clients. ACT for Treating Children presents skills grounded in evidence-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help children regulate emotions and cope with the inevitable ups and downs of life, and is suitable for clinicians with no prior knowledge of or training in ACT, as well as seasoned ACT clinicians.

When 6-year-old Ruby Bridges and her mother went to William Frantz Elementary School on November 14, 1960, they arrived to find an angry crowd of white people shouting racist insults. For her safety, Ruby had to be escorted to school every day by U.S. Marshals. But despite the hateful attitudes of others, Ruby didn't miss a single day of school that year.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that schools had to allow Black students to attend previously all-white schools. On September 4, 1957, nine Black students were set to attend Little Rock Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. But when they arrived, an angry mob of white people spat at them and hurled racist insults. They were also prevented from entering the school by the National Guard. After they were finally allowed in weeks later, they faced even more abuse from white students and staff.

It's March 2, 1955, and an ordinary 15-year-old girl from Montgomery, Alabama is about to do something extraordinary. When a white bus driver orders Claudette Colvin to give up her seat for a white passenger, she refuses to move. After Claudette is arrested, her brave actions help inspire Civil Rights leaders organize bus boycotts and perform similar acts to defy segregation laws.

If your child is easily knocked by obstacles and has a hard time bouncing back from setbacks, gives up quickly, or melts down easily, you may worry about them succeeding in a high-pressure, competitive world. When children have difficulties self-regulating, they may have difficulty interacting with both peers and family members. This can affect their academic achievement, but it may also prevent them from experiencing the carefree childhood you wish for them. The workbook will empower you and your child with scientifically-proven coping techniques that you can return to at any time.

You need to work to live. That’s the truth for most people, and plenty of people in power have been abusing that truth for centuries. Long before the first labor unions were formed, workers still knew what exploitation looked like. It looked like the enslavement of Black people. It looked like generations of children dying in dangerous jobs. It looked like wealthy people hiring private militaries to attack their employees. But workers have always found a way to fight back.

When famous political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville toured the new United States of America, he was impressed by the representative government set up by the Founders. At the same time, he ominously predicted, "If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil. That is to say, it will not be the equality of social conditions but rather their inequality which may give rise thereto."

The summer of 1964 had been "Freedom Summer" for a few campuses. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had drawn some 500 students, most of them White, from Ivy League and prestigious universities to help its integration efforts in Mississippi. An up-and-coming leader named Stokely Carmichael had told a group of prospective volunteers in New York that SNCC wanted to be sure that if Blacks were killed for the civil rights cause, Whites would die with them.

If you are an adult TCK, you probably sense that the multicultural, high mobility experiences of your childhood continue to impact your life in some way now. Making sense of the impact of these experiences, however, can feel overwhelming, especially if we have long experience of our stories being met with bafflement and incredulity. My hope is that this collection of my thoughts over the last seven years of working with Third Culture Kids will create space for you to explore and make sense of the incredible life you’ve lived.

With this guide, you’ll learn that self-esteem isn’t about telling kids they're “special.” It’s about helping them embrace the freedom that comes with a quiet ego - a way of being in the world that isn't preoccupied with self-judgment, and instead embraces a compassionate view of oneself and others that allows for both present awareness and personal growth. When kids are less focused on evaluating and comparing themselves with others, they are freer to empathize with others, embrace learning, and connect with the values that are bigger than themselves.