Children and young people who experience extreme perfectionism need assistance from the adults and trusted people in their lives. In this session, Jenny Langley will help participants to understand the distinction between healthy striving for excellence and dysfunctional perfectionism. We know that in healthy striving for excellence, the goal is a guideline and the reaction is objective; we think, "Did I do my best?" In dysfunctional perfectionism, the goal becomes a rigid rule and the reaction to failure will be highly self-critical, personalised and catastrophic, such as, “I am pathetic and a failure". The slightest slip up can result in spiraling low self-esteem.

Drawing upon her own experiences of supporting her son, Jenny will support participants to understand what resilience is and its place in perfectionism. She will look at how to support our young people to tolerate failure. Jenny offers a toolbox of simple and practical, evidence-based skills which includes advice on how to role-model our learning from our mistakes and making a “good enough” effort a healthy approach to have.