Gene Beresin, MD, MA and Khadijah Booth Watkins, MD, MPH
186 episodes listed below
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"Shrinking It Down" highlights the fact that youth mental health is anything but simple! Child & adolescent psychiatrists Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins help parents and other caring adults to navigate tough questions about child and teen mental health. From depression and learning disorders, to digital media and societal concerns, Shrinking It Down covers it all.Tune in the THIRD Thursday of every month. Subscribe wherever you stream.About Us: The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital is a multi-media educational resource to help adults support the mental, emotional, and behavioral well-being of young...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Two child psychiatrists make youth mental health, school support, treatment choices, and public systems easier for caring adults to navigate.
Shrinking It Down: Mental Health Made Simple turns complicated decisions about young people's care into conversations adults can use. Gene Beresin and Khadijah Booth Watkins, two child and adolescent psychiatrists, keep returning to the questions behind the diagnosis: what…
College can take away the reminders; ADHD does not always leave with them.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, parent-facing guide to teen dating, ghosting, and digital-age relationship risk.
This episode treats teen romance as a plain, modern problem rather than a moral panic. It links texting, social media, and AI chat tools to the ways adolescents connect, split up, and get hurt, and it keeps coming back to the awkward truth that ghosting can leave people wary and…
A calm guide for helping kids make sense of frightening events.
Shrinking It Down treats a war-filled, politically tense moment as a family conversation about how children hear, feel, and repeat what is happening around them.
A steady guide to helping young people through summer loneliness without overcorrecting.
Closing the season on summer, this episode looks at the quieter strain that can show up when school lets out. It treats loneliness and disconnection as real possibilities for kids and teens, even in a season that is supposed to feel easy, and keeps the focus on what adults can…
A clear look at how body pressures, from social media to toys, shape boys' eating-disorder risk earlier than many expect.
Boys, body image, and eating disorders sit at the center of this conversation. The discussion follows how social media, toys, family patterns, and cultural pressure can shape the way young people see their bodies, and it makes a point that is easy to miss: this is not only a…
A measured case for stories as a way to help children name fear, resilience, and belonging.
The conversation moves from a storytelling program at Barefoot Books in Concord, Massachusetts, into a child mental health discussion shaped by the power of stories.
A careful look at ARFID beyond picky eating.
The episode presents ARFID as more than picky eating, and it makes that case without overplaying it. It shows how avoidant restrictive food intake disorder can affect people of all ages, while appearing more often in infants and children, and how sensory sensitivity, a…
A sober look at AI therapy chatbots, where access and risk sit close together.
Shrinking It Down treats AI therapy chatbots as a real pressure point for young people. It weighs the appeal of easy access when mental health care is thin against the bigger problem that these systems can sound therapeutic without carrying the duties of a licensed therapist.
A straightforward look at how ADHD can become harder to manage when childhood support gives way to adult expectations.
ADHD: The Transition to Adulthood looks at how ADHD can shift once childhood scaffolding falls away and adult life asks for more self-management. Gene Varesan, Khadijah Booth-Watkins, and Dr.
Jonquilyn Hill chases one listener question per episode to the experts who can answer it.
Three hosts and psychologist Dr Emily talk vulnerability, therapy, and imperfection with guests.
Fearne Cotton interviews guests like Boy George and Bryony Gordon about mental health and identity.
Dr. Joy Harden Bradford pairs therapy insight with Black TV recaps, maternal health, and history.
Teen nicotine use is framed as a public health reversal.
Gene Boreson and Khadijah Booth-Watkins, both child and adolescent psychiatrists at the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital, frame Thanksgiving around a year shaped by fear, anger, uncertainty, and misinformation.
Gene Boreson and Khadijah Booth-Watkins discuss the U.S.
Gene Boreson and Khadijah Booth-Watkins open a conversation about role-play as a therapeutic tool.
The episode opens with the worry many parents feel when a child may need special education support.
Shrinking It Down takes up AI therapy chatbots and asks what they mean for young people.
Gene Bresson and Khadija Booth-Watkins close out the season with a grounded conversation about summer loneliness and low mood.
A child’s mental illness can reshape an entire household.
Gene Varesan and Khadijah Booth-Watkins open by pushing back on the idea that kids simply grow out of ADHD.
Gene Burresson and Khadija Booth-Watkins take up teen romance in the digital era and start with the obvious shift: the old landline-era norm of calling the house is gone.
Gene Bresson and Khadija Booth-Watkins begin by naming the scale of suicide in the United States.
Shrinking It Down turns to boys, body image, and eating disorders.
Gene Boreson and Khadija Booth-Watkins introduce ARFID as an eating disorder that goes beyond picky eating.
Gene Boreson and Khadijah Booth-Watkins, two child and adolescent psychiatrists at the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital, open with the claim that political polarization has driven “disagreement, distrust, and violence” to extremes.
Massachusetts State Senator John Bilas discusses legislative efforts to address the youth mental health crisis, sharing his personal history with substance use disorder and insights from school listening sessions.
Child psychiatrists Dr.
Child psychiatrists Gene Beresin and Khadijah Booth Watkins interview Janice Gilman, Executive Director of Bina Farm Center, about equine therapy.
Gene Boreson and Khadijah Booth-Watkins of the Clay Center at Massachusetts General Hospital discuss the Palisades Fire and say that, as of January 21st, over 23,000 acres had burned, nearly 5,000 structures were destroyed, and more than 200,000 evacuations had been ordered.
Gene Boreson and Khadijah Booth-Watkins, both child and adolescent psychiatrists at the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital, connect the youth mental health epidemic to workforce shortages, stigma, and access barriers.
Shrinking It Down opens with a conversation about storytelling as a tool for children's mental health.
Gene Boreson and Khadija Booth-Watkins return to their series on navigating the special education system with a focus on individualizing a child's plan with the team.
Gene Beressin and Khadija Booth-Watkins open with the simple truth that children are taking in war news differently from adults.