The Digital Resilience Method: Raise Confident Kids in a Connected World

Yolanda Cook is a family therapist, digital wellness educator, and mother of three who has spent the past fifteen years helping families navigate the intersection of technology and child development. She holds a master's degree in clinical social work from the University of Michigan and completed postgraduate training in child and adolescent therapy at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City.

Cook began her career working with at-risk teenagers in the public school system, where she observed firsthand how social media and mobile devices were reshaping peer relationships, self-esteem, and family communication patterns. This experience led her to develop the Digital Resilience Method, a strengths-based approach that teaches parents how to move from fear-based restriction to confidence-building guidance. She has since trained over five thousand parents and educators through workshops, school district partnerships, and online courses.

She is a regular contributor to *Psychology Today* and has been featured in *The New York Times*, *The Wall Street Journal*, and NPR's *All Things Considered*. Her work has been cited in the American Academy of Pediatrics' policy statements on children and media. She serves on the advisory board of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital and the Harvard Medical School.

Cook lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her husband and three children, where she tests her own advice daily. Her household runs on a family media agreement that is renegotiated every August, enforced imperfectly, and discussed openly—because resilience, as she writes, is not about getting it right every time. It is about keeping the conversation going.