Being there for your kids - Who are you? Finding the you that you like the best

Episode Date: August 3, 2025

We all are who we are. But who is that? Many components over our lifetime make us who we are. The parts we like? We embrace. The parts we don't like? We can do something to change them. To look at how we form our personal identity, check out the following. For more, go to https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY9PQXMZ.

Hi, I'm Dr. John Robinson, and this is Teachable Moments. Let me ask you a question. Who are you? I was part of a weekend retreat many years ago, where one exercise was to pair up and alternatively ask your partner, who are you? The usual answers to that question tumbled out. I'm John Robinson. I'm a clinical psychologist.

I'm a husband, father, son. As my partner kept asking, my answers got more profound and revealing. I had no idea before that exercise. how many parts there were to my identity. So, who are you? You were born, you live, you will die, hopefully long in the future. But what's the stuff of which you are made? Investing in counseling and psychotherapy goes a long way toward finding answers. You don't have to be broke to find yourself on your own healing journey. Often, people find significant life events that mold help define who they are. Such events, called stressors, take their toll for good,

or bad. Hans Sallier, noted Canadian psychiatrist way back in the day, researched the 50 most stressful events in our lives. Top of the list, marriage. Next, death of the spouse. The events define both the distress and the eustress that we encounter. Important stuff, but not foundational. Life events are what you encounter, but with whom you encounter these events will actually shape your personal identity. Researchers in developmental and personality psychology posit that 80 percent of our personality comes from our relationship with our parents before age five. From age five to 15, relationships with our peers take precedence and account for 15 percent of our personality. After age 15, we forge our own path toward identity and personality with our own unique

input. During adolescence, when the biggest goofs, successes, and challenges confront us, we are wholly responsible and accountable for our actions. After the Sturm-on-Drong of our life events in our late teens, we become young adults. Thankfully, eventually, 80% of us embrace the best of both parents who guided us through our most formative years. Critical to the process of coming to terms with who you are is understanding your foundational life events and how you handled them. In mental intelligence psychotherapy, that is MPT, which I introduce and explore in my new book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good Life, I help folks understand, that we have no control over what happens to us, the singular life events. However, we have every

control over how we react to them. Turning crises into personal blessings is key to overcoming adversity. So, who are you? Take time to find out and embrace all of your parts. Be the best version of who you are. Blessings, Dr. John. If these comments stir questions of your own, contact me through my website at www. dot there for my kids.com or email me at john robinson zero zero at bell south.net. I'm dr. Jonathan C. Robinson, licensed clinical psychologist and author of Teachable Moments Building Blocks of Christian Parenting and my new book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good Life. Blessings. Teachable Moments, Building Blocks of Christian Parenting is available online at amazonbooks.com

and in local and national bookstores. More on Dr. Robinson. at TMC-P-I-N-C dot com.