Dr. Alison Escalante is a Pediatrician, Adjunct Faculty at Rush Medical College of Rush University, and an expert in children’s development and parenting. She is contributor to Forbes on the science of human performance, and Psychology Today on parenting and life in our culture of anxiety and perfectionism. Her upcoming book, “Sigh. See. Start. Emerging from a High-Pressure Parenting Culture to Raise Our Children Mindfully,” is expected to be available in late 2023.
Troubled by the epidemic of anxiety in adults and children that only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Escalante has spent her career developing a strengths-based model of mental health. She believes that the research indicates that common mental disorders such as anxiety or depression are actually good biological systems that have become dysregulated; a view that has brought relief to her patients and their parents.
She takes the same approach to parenting, showing that parents are driven by a culture of anxiety and criticism that pushes perfectionistic parenting which she calls the ShouldStorm. Her TEDx talk, The Parenting “ShouldStorm” shares her clear 3-step Sigh, See, Start method to help parents step out of the stress and into mindful parenting. Her upcoming book will focus on the Sigh, See, Start method.
She has spoken extensively both on parenting and at professional development conferences on the ShouldStorm at work and how to harness our potential without the stress using Sigh, See, Start.
Dr. Escalante graduated Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University where she received her B.A. in Medieval Renaissance Idealogical and Cultural History, where she was awarded the Laurence Hutton Prize in History for her outstanding work. She earned her M.D. from Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and did her training in Pediatrics at Duke University and the University of Chicago.
