Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers, therapist, author, and former competitive figure skater, joins The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe to share her expertise on shame, child development, and what young athletes truly need at every age and stage.
Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers is a licensed marriage and family therapist, sex therapist, and emeriti professor with over 25 years of experience helping individuals and families heal shame and build genuine connection. She is the author of Shameless Parenting — Everything You Need to Raise Shame-Free, Confident Kids (and Heal Your Shame Too!), a guide that breaks down exactly what kids need developmentally from birth through age 18.
Long before her career in therapy, Dr. Tina was a competitive figure skater and an Olympic hopeful from the age of five through her mid-adolescence. That experience gave her a firsthand understanding of what it means to push a young body to its limits — and what it can teach a child about their own capability, capacity, and strength when the environment around them allows it.
In this episode, Dr. Tina brings these two worlds together, helping parents understand what their children need at each stage of development, how shame quietly shapes the way kids relate to performance and pressure, and how youth athletics can become a place where kids discover the brilliance of their own bodies rather than fear of falling short.
Connect with Dr. Tina
If today's conversation resonated, I will send one idea every Friday for sports parents.
Subscribe at hernanchousa.com