Living a Life in Balance
From Struggle to Resilience: Emotional Skills for Parents and Adolescents
With Cheryl Donaldson
Cheryl Donaldson discusses resilience and the emotional skills that can support parents and adolescents.
Listen to the conversation
From Struggle to Resilience: Emotional Skills for Parents and Adolescents
Cheryl Donaldson
Inside this conversation
Learning difficulties and adolescent self-esteem
How adult feedback can shape a young person’s confidence
Parenting, motivation and emotional development
More themes
- Resilience and growth through difficult experiences
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The guest
Cheryl Donaldson
Cheryl Donaldson is a therapist, consultant, speaker and author whose work includes adolescents, parents, couples and individuals. She focuses on emotional development, self-esteem and the relationship patterns shaped by families and other social systems. Her professional work also includes support for families living internationally. This background informs the episode’s discussion of resilience, connection and parenting. Read about her professional work.
From the host
Reflections on the conversation
Conversation notes
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Cheryl Donaldson reflects on learning difficulties and the feedback she received as an adolescent. Those experiences inform her discussion of self-esteem, motivation and the effect that an adult’s words can have on a young person. She also considers how parents can support emotional development without expecting either themselves or their children to be perfect.
Episode summary
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Drawing from her own early struggles, academic challenges, and family experiences, Cheryl reflects on the moments that shaped her understanding of resilience and motivation. She shares how the coping mechanisms she developed as a young person now guide the way she supports parents, teens, and families in her clinical work.
Tune in for a wise, supportive, and deeply human exploration of what it means to grow, parent, and find balance in an ever-changing world.
Cheryl is a seasoned mental health clinician with over 20 years of experience supporting families, parents, and teenagers through modern challenges.
She holds a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Wheaton College and began her career serving at the American International School in Vienna. Today, her focus is on empowering families and adolescents with guidance that fosters confidence, resilience, and lasting well-being.
The full transcript
Original-language transcript · EN