Public Speaking

DR. ALEX RUSSELL is a clinical psychologist who helps children develop resilience and their own personal relationship with school and achievement. At the heart of his message—and his book, Drop the Worry Ball—is that children learn by experiencing non-catastrophic, painful failure. It’s through the process of these failures that they mature into strong, resourceful and emotionally balanced individuals.

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. The heart of his message is that children mature healthily through the experience of difficult but non-disastrous failure. 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 or a signal to push more pressure onto their child. In Drop the Worry Ball: How to Parent in the Age of Entitlement (co-authored by journalist Tim Falconer) and on stage, he offers a fresh perspective on raising children that is reassuring, balanced, and strikingly sensible.

As an education speaker, Dr. Russell has addressed many parent and counsellor groups over the years. He is intimately familiar with the culture of the school system and the relationships that parents, teachers, and counsellors share with the children we are raising. He has been an active parent in his community and an avid hockey player and coach.