Anthony L. Rostain, M.D., M.A. is a nationally-recognized expert in child and adolescent psychiatry and a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Perlman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

B. Janet Hibbs, LMFT, Ph.D. is a family psychologist, and AAMFT supervisor, who has held faculty positions for more than 15 years in graduate programs for psychologists and marital and family therapists. She is the author of Try to See It My Way: Being Fair in Love and Marriage.

In his role as professor and co-chair of the University of Pennsylvania President’s and Provost’s Task Force on Student Psychological Health and Well-Being, Dr. Rostain has closely watched the dramatic rise in campus mental-illness rates with deep concern. Dr. Rostain is very familiar with the risks, challenges, and complex systems issues facing young people, and has made it his mission to find solutions for these students and parents alike.

As co-founder of Contextual Therapy Associates, Dr. Hibbs is a recognized authority and speaker on the many issues that parents and students face. Her focus on parent-child relationships addresses the many developmental challenges for parent, marriage and child alike, in the launch from home to college and into young adulthood.

Together, she and Dr. Rostain draw on their expertise, informed by decades of clinical treatment, teaching, and scientific findings, to share their insights in this book. As parents ourselves, we know all too intimately the gnawing anxiety that can be fed by pervasive media coverage of such campus hazards as hazing, binge drinking, drug use, and sexual assault, as well as the quieter desperations of “not fitting in,” or feeling that “you’re not making it.” When these all too common risks give rise to emotional disorders, students and parents alike can be overwhelmed.

That was Dr. Hibbs’s experience when her son Jensen suffered a depression that required a medical leave from college. Despite her professional expertise, Jensen’s harrowing crisis left Hibbs humbled and scrambling for answers, while more deeply informing her of the preparation, knowledge, and skills that parents and students need. Following Jensen’s treatment by Dr. Rostain—and his subsequent recovery—we resolved to coauthor The Stressed Years of Their Lives, a book that provides solutions, strategies and solidarity for parents who want to help their students avoid, resolve or recover from a mental health problem or crisis. It is also a book to give hope and support to students, through the stories of their peers. To both parents and students, we extend our understanding. Help is here.