College Mental Health 101 w/ Dr. Christopher Willard
Raising Good Humans
Dear Media, Aliza Pressman
4.6 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 15 August 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today’s episode, I sit down with Dr. Christopher Willard, a clinical psychologist at Harvard Medical School and co-author of College Mental Health 101, to explore how parents can support college-bound teens through the transition to campus life. We get practical with research-backed basics like sleep, movement, medication management, and executive function supports, along with a simple “support map” for finding the right people and resources on campus. We also clarify how to tell crisis from “just crummy” and discuss practical advice for parents on how to support their children's transition to autonomy without overstepping.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast is a Dear Media production. |
| 0:11.0 | Welcome to Raising Good Humans podcast. I'm Dr. Elisa Pressman, and today's episode is so helpful for anybody who's sending their kiddos off to college. |
| 0:22.7 | I mean, if you follow me on Instagram, I have been one of those people that is posting little memes in my stories that keep catching my eye because I'm just like, oh my God, I cannot believe that my little tiny infant is 18 |
| 0:40.4 | and going off to college next week. |
| 0:43.5 | So I certainly was excited to have this conversation |
| 0:46.3 | with Professor Chris Willard. |
| 0:47.7 | He's a Harvard professor who actually co-authored |
| 0:50.5 | a book called College Mental Health 101 |
| 0:53.3 | with another former guest of mine, Dr. |
| 0:56.3 | Blaise Aguare and Chelsea Green. So they have assembled every question you could possibly have. |
| 1:03.7 | What I also liked about our conversation is that we're talking about setting our kids up for |
| 1:09.2 | a easier transition, not just for college, but also into high school, |
| 1:14.0 | because I know that's happening for a lot of you. And for those of you with toddlers or infants |
| 1:19.2 | or young school-age children, I know this feels far away, but it does go by fast. And I think |
| 1:24.4 | there are always tools that can help us as parents and just really good |
| 1:30.1 | information for those of you who know anybody. I mean, and also just a shout out to the people |
| 1:37.7 | that you do know who are sending their kids off to college. Turns out now that I'm going |
| 1:42.2 | through it myself, this is not easy. I mean, I'm going to be a shell |
| 1:46.8 | of my former self in one week when I drop my daughter Penelope off. I'll be fine. I'm just kidding. |
| 1:53.2 | But I do feel like, oh, I thought I would have a total handle on this. I'm so proud that she's |
| 1:59.7 | launched and, you know, going off and she's so |
| 2:04.0 | excited and I'm so excited for her. And also, it literally feels like my swaddled infant is going |
... |
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