Lea Waters
PhD
VIC, AUSTRALIALea is one of the world's leading experts on Positive Education, Positive Organizations and Strength-Based Parenting and Teaching. As a University researcher, Lea turns her science into strength-based strategies to help organizations, educators and parents around the world build resilience in their employees and children, helping them to thrive.
Lea is the President of the International Positive Psychology Association, serves on the World Happiness Council's Council of Happiness & Education, and is the founding Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne, where she's worked for more than 20 years.
Lea helps parents, educators and organizations make a small switch that makes a big difference in overall wellbeing.
As humans, we're wired to focus on the negative and zoom in on what's "off." Lea proposes a better way for doing things. She says we can short-circuit our negative defaults by making a mental switch that flicks to shift our attention from weaknesses to strengths, and from negative to positive.
In her book, The Strength Switch, Lea says that the strength-based approach gives us the power to live the good life by drawing on our most abundant inner resources (our strengths!) The Strength Switch was named one of the top reads for 2017 by Greater Good Magazine, one of the top five best books on happiness for children by Five Books, the top new release in the parenting category on Amazon, and has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese, Hungarian, Arabic, Russian, Spanish and French.
Lea is passionate about helping people all over the world make the Strength Switch. Her Positive Detective and Visible Wellbeing programs are being used by schools worldwide.
Lea has been featured in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and more. As a researcher, she's published more than 100 scientific journal articles.
Lea's top strengths include: humor, curiosity and kindness.
Lea is one of the world's leading experts on Positive Education, Positive Organizations and Strength-Based Parenting and Teaching. As a University researcher, Lea turns her science into strength-based strategies to help organizations, educators and parents around the world build resilience in their employees and children, helping them to thrive.
Lea is the President of the International Positive Psychology Association, serves on the World Happiness Council's Council of Happiness & Education, and is the founding Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne, where she's worked for more than 20 years.
Lea helps parents, educators and organizations make a small switch that makes a big difference in overall wellbeing.
As humans, we're wired to focus on the negative and zoom in on what's "off." Lea proposes a better way for doing things. She says we can short-circuit our negative defaults by making a mental switch that flicks to shift our attention from weaknesses to strengths, and from negative to positive.
In her book, The Strength Switch, Lea says that the strength-based approach gives us the power to live the good life by drawing on our most abundant inner resources (our strengths!) The Strength Switch was named one of the top reads for 2017 by Greater Good Magazine, one of the top five best books on happiness for children by Five Books, the top new release in the parenting category on Amazon, and has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese, Hungarian, Arabic, Russian, Spanish and French.
Lea is passionate about helping people all over the world make the Strength Switch. Her Positive Detective and Visible Wellbeing programs are being used by schools worldwide.
Lea has been featured in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and more. As a researcher, she's published more than 100 scientific journal articles.
Lea's top strengths include: humor, curiosity and kindness.
Strength-Based Parenting: Small Shifts Can Make a Positive Difference in Your Kids
Strength-Based Teaching: Bringing Out the Best in Students & Teachers
Making Wellbeing Visible in Schools
Schools across the world are aiming to turn wellbeing policy into practice. To address this problem Lea Waters PhD, a trained psychologist and positive psychology expert, designed Visible Wellbeing™ which combines the science of wellbeing with the science of learning to make wellbeing visible in all classes and across co-curricular. In this presentation, Lea shares the Visible Wellbeing tool kit of flexible wellbeing practices that go beyond traditional wellbeing programs. She provides...
Strengths for Students
Lea Waters, PhD, shares with students how they can take a strengths-based approach to dealing with the common stress of school. Students will discover how the school journey can be a positive one by taking a Growth Mindset to help grow life skills for the future; and that the point of school isn't just about growing their grade point average. Students will also learn to identify stress and understand their body's stress response to enable a proactive approach to the management of stress...
Strength-Based Parenting for Kids on the Spectrum: How Small Shifts Can Make a Big Difference
Parents with kids on the spectrum are all too familiar with being told about the deficits and challenges their children face. Yet, what happens when we consider the upside that comes along with having a different neurotype? Like all kids, those along the spectrum have both strengths and weaknesses - the two don't cancel each other out. Building up strengths can occur at the same time as we work with challenges. The problems and differences for kids on the spectrum don't negate the many...
Visible Wellbeing Workshops
The 2015 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Centre for Educational Research and Innovation reports that over 70% of OECD countries now have wellbeing as an explicit goal of their National...
Virtual Presentation
Certifications & Awards
