One of the comments that I hear over and over as I’m out there teaching how to access the clear, confident, creative part of who we are, is “Why didn’t someone tell me this 20 years ago?” And, “Why isn’t this taught in schools?”

Of course, I agree, and the good news is I have indeed begun to teach this to high school students and especially college students all around the country. And, I have even written two new books to support performing artists and college students in dealing with stress and anxiety. In fact, this population has become a major niche of mine, mostly due to the efforts of Kaitlin Hopkins (former head of the Musical Theater Department at Texas State University).

After participating in a presentation I gave to Texas State in 2014, Kaitlin, and her husband Jim Price (Head of Dramatic Writing) have been on a mission to make this material available to students everywhere. This movement just took a huge step forward with the release of a TEDx talk Kaitlin was ask to deliver this summer.

In this extraordinary presentation, Kaitlin initially focused on her experience with her students who were majoring in musical theater. Soon, however, she went on to speak to the challenges of college students, in general, and how we need to act now to give them the tools they need to deal with the unique anxiety and stress that is so severely affecting their ability to learn and become the leaders our country will need in the future.

She spoke about her collaboration with me, and her excitement about my material and the impact it has had on her kids, which as I’m sure you can imagine, is so cool to hear.

The hashtag that she came up with is #TeachMentalHealthNow, and her TEDx talk already has over 1,400 views, only having been up for less than 24 hours. If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you watch this YouTube video. It is quite good, and makes the case for not waiting to give our kids the tools they need to succeed.

So, yes, for many of us the best time to have learned this material may have been 20 years ago. But, the second best time is NOW! – Our kids need us NOW! Please contact me if you feel your students could benefit from a program such as this.

~ All the best, Dr. Bill

In addition to being named Speaker of the Year for organizations in both the United States and Canada, Dr. Bill Crawford holds a masters degree and PhD in psychology from the University of Houston. He is also a licensed psychologist, author of eight books, and organizational consultant. Over the last 40 + years, he has created more than 4,500 presentations for such organizations as T-Mobile, Shell, The American Medical Association, PBS and many other organizations and professional associations, both nationally and internationally. In addition, his two PBS specials on stress and communication have been seen by more than 15 million people, and he has been quoted as an expert in such diverse publications as The New York Times, Entrepreneur, The Chicago Tribune, Investor’s Business Daily, and Working Mother, just to name a few.