Bonus episode: Bitesize Hacks to Support Teenage Mental Health, with Dr Lee David GP

In this bonus episode I talk to Lee David, a GP with a specialist interest in young people's mental health, and in using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help with anxiety and depression.

I chatted to Lee about how distressing the Covid 19 pandemic is for teenagers and young adults; many have had the rug pulled out from under them, missing exams, proms, and important rituals of moving on from school. Lots more are missing education at an important stage of their lives, and worrying about what their next steps - university, 6th form, or job security - are going to look like.

There's so much that's unknown for our teens right now, and to add insult to injury they've lost their social freedom, and control over their own lives. That's incredibly unsettling at an already quite stressful point in their lives.

Lee talked me through her free online programme, and what parents and teens can do to conquer any difficult emotions they might be feeling due to the lockdown and coronavirus pandemic. Best of all, Lee's strategies can all be completed in 10 minutes or less - totally bitesize! I tried the programme myself and found it really easy to run through, and I've added some of Lee's tips in to my daily stress-management.

Lee is a director of 10 Minute CBT, an educational organisation that provides training to help GPs and other health professionals use bite-sized skills from evidence-based psychological therapies in their routine consultations.

Lee is also the author of a textbook for GPs and is co-writing a new book for teenagers on 10 Minute Steps to wellbeing, to be published later this year.

You can find Lee's website at www.10minuteCBT.co.uk and the introductory video programme: 10 Minute Steps to Survive Lockdown for young people and parents to understand emotional wellbeing and ways to encourage positive mental health.

What's coming next?

Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe now to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear about the new series when it begins. I'll be talking to some fabulous guests about difficult things that happened to them as teenagers - including losing a parent, dealing with dyslexia, and battling an eating disorder - and how they overcame things to move on with their lives.

I'd love it if you'd rate and review the podcast on iTunes too - it would really help other people to find it. You can also find more from me on parenting teenagers on my blog Actually Mummy, and on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills.

For information on your data privacy please visit Podcast.co. Please note that I am not a medical expert, and nothing in the podcast should be taken as medical advice.