Strength Based Parenting, with Dr Lea Waters

Strength-Based Parenting is a style of parenting where you deliberately focus your attention on harnessing your kids’ strengths before you start trying to fix their faults or weaknesses. 

This may sound simple, but humans have a negativity bias, which means we are programmed to notice negative things first. Learning to focus on strengths, therefore, takes practice and skill. 

Dr Lea Waters is a world-leading expert in this field, which is a branch of Positive Psychology and she has published a book called The Strength Switch.

In this interview, she explains how to spot strengths in your kids, the different types of strengths to look out for and how focussing on strengths can also help address weaknesses. 

This episode is full of practical research-based ideas to help build resilient, confident and successful kids.

What you'll learn

• What is Positive Psychology
• How Lea overcome depression, an eating disorder and PTSD
• Why she moved into the field of Strength-Based Parenting
• The two reasons we are programmed to focus on our kids’ faults
• Three techniques to help identify and focus on strengths. 
• Different types of strengths to look out for 
• How to apply Strength-Based Parenting to kids on the spectrum or with ADHD
• Why focusing on strengths actually makes it easier to work on weaknesses
• How to deliver constructive criticism to our kids (3-step approach) 
• The role of fatherhood in Strength-Based Parenting

More information

Show notes and resources referenced in this episode are available at https://thedadtrain.com/13