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In the Age of Screens, Dr. Shefali Wants Parents to Look Within At The Ross School
The bestselling author and clinical psychologist brings her approach to conscious parenting to Ross School on November 3, with a conversation about raising confident, resilient children in a world shaped by technology and constant comparison.
Parenting has always been a bit of a mystery. There’s no step-by-step guide, and lately, with nonstop screens and the noise of social media, it has started to feel like some kind of high-stakes improv act. Everywhere you look, the world tells kids exactly who and how they should be. How do you help a child build a sense of self when so many voices are telling them who to become?
That’s exactly what Dr. Shefali — clinical psychologist, best-selling author, and kind of a parenting rock star for the Instagram age — is coming to Ross School to talk about. On Tuesday, November 3, she’s headlining a live event called “The Art of Conscious Parenting: Raising Conscious Children in the Digital Era.” If you ask any parent who’s ever handed over an iPad just to get through dinner, the digital era part of that equation probably feels way too real.
This Speaker Series isn’t only about counting hours of screen time, though. Dr. Shefali isn’t interested in device bans or TikTok horror stories. Her bigger ask is way more uncomfortable: What baggage do grown-ups themselves drag to the parenting table? What old patterns or high-flying expectations are slipping unnoticed into ordinary, everyday moments with their kids?
Over the years, Dr. Shefali has built a global following with her Conscious Parenting movement, a mash-up of Western psychology and Eastern philosophy that’s probably made a few “helicopter parents” sweat. Forget pushing or molding kids into neat, high-achieving versions of yourself. She challenges parents to dial down the control, ramp up the self-awareness, and focus on genuinely connecting with their children — flaws, feelings, messy real life and all.
She’ll tap into the ideas behind her books, Raising Conscious Daughters and Raising Conscious Sons, digging into what it actually takes for families to nurture independence, emotional steadiness, and self-worth while living in a world that screams “more, faster, better” from every screen.
Underneath it all sits a pretty radical idea: Raising emotionally healthy kids starts with the adults. What if the major parenting work isn’t fixing your kid, but noticing your own capability?
For parents just trying to keep everyone afloat through homework hell, friendship drama, and group chats buzzing at midnight, Dr. Shefali’s approach can feel like a reset button. Move past the endless arguments over devices and bedtimes. Focus instead on raising kids who trust their own gut, rebound from setbacks, and actually choose for themselves.
Helping guide the conversation is Shirley Ramos Roseman, a Ross parent, author, and Conscious Parenting Coach (she trained directly with Dr. Shefali). Through her platform ShirleyR2, she weaves together mindfulness, parenting, and community, so expect some fresh stories and hard-won advice in the mix.
According to Ross School’s Head of School, Tom Sturtevant, hosting this conversation is right in line with the school’s bigger mission: helping young people figure out the world and their place in it. “As parents and educators, it’s on us to help children develop the confidence, resilience, and self-awareness to live with purpose and care,” Sturtevant says. For him, bringing Dr. Shefali to campus is a chance to rethink what supporting kids should really look like.
The program wraps up with coffee, nibbles, a chat with the speakers, and everyone heads home with copies of Raising Conscious Sons and Raising Conscious Daughters, gifted by Roseman and fellow community members Rachel Rey and Sandra Oliveira Papp.
It all happens Tuesday, November 3, from 10:45 a.m. to noon in the Senior Building Lecture Hall at Ross School’s Goodfriend Drive campus in East Hampton. Tickets run $25, and everyone’s welcome.
Get them at ross.org/speaker-series.
For anyone who cares about raising kids with their feet on the ground, this one might just hit home. Dr. Shefali’s message lands at the perfect moment: a reminder that parenting isn’t just about teaching kids to cope with the digital age, but about parents learning and changing right alongside them. Because growing up these days? Adults are still figuring it out, too.
