The Young Person’s Guide to Health and Wellness: Keep Fit, Think Smart, Get the Most from Your Life

A practical guide setting young people on a path to greater wellbeing

The Young Person’s Guide to Health and Wellness grew out of Dr. Friedberg’s hands-on role in creating a holistic health, wellness, and athletic program at the Portledge School in Locust Valley, N.Y. Under his continued guidance, the program helps students pursue the best version of themselves in every dimension of their lives. It enables them to develop strong habits that will anchor them as they grow towards maturity. The program is based on ten principles, beliefs:

• You live in your body, so take care of it.
• Good nutrition is essential for health
• Healthy habits strengthen you.
• Self-reflection helps you find your way.
• Core moral values improve your sense of self.
• Healthy relationships are integral to your well-being.
• Empathy is essential to caring about each other.
• Building community helps you grow personally.
• Nurturing a sound mind is important to physical health.
• Making the most of good choices leads to a fulfilling life.

The Young Person’s Guide to Health and Wellness elaborates on these tenets, demonstrating how young people can apply them in their own lives. ＂What is ’good’ nutrition for someone with my body type and energy expenditure?＂ ＂How do I build community in my neighborhood?＂ The Guide is designed so that young people can approach the tenets through reading and reflection, augmented by discussion in classrooms or team meetings. Each chapter, explaining a particular tenet, will include questions for reflection and discussion. Ultimately, the Guide encourages young people not to leave health and wellness to luck or chance, but to take responsibility for their psychological and physical wellbeing. By developing an awareness of health and wellness, and making it the basis of sound habits, young people can better prepare for whatever comes next.

Ahron Friedberg, M.D. is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and served twice as past president of the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians. He is editor of American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis Academy Forum and book editor of Psychodynamic Psychiatry, as well as a regular contributor to Psychology Today. He is the author of five books with Sandra Sherman, including Through a Screen Darkly: Psychoanalytic Reflections During the Pandemic (winner of the 2021 Gradiva Award) and Life Studies in Psychoanalysis: Faces of Love, and Everyday Leadership: Taking Charge in the Real World.

Sandra Sherman, J.D., Ph.D. was a Senior Attorney in the U.S. government and a professor of English at two major universities. In addition to the five books she has co-authored with Dr. Friedberg, she is the author of four books and over 60 peer-reviewed articles on 18th century literature and culture. In collaboration with Professor Donald Pfaff of Rockefeller University, she is co-author of several books on neuroscience, including Laws of Human Behavior: Steps Toward Hard Science. Currently, she is an officer of Childsplay International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing the benefits of play to vulnerable children around the world.