The podcast is called “A Teen’s Perspective” and it launched on March 11 at ateensperspectivepodcast.com. As of June 30, Jackson has interviewed about 50 teens.
In each episode, Jackson interviews a local teen. The youth is always anonymous in the interview. The anonymity, coupled with the one-on-one conversation with an objective listener, allows the teen the latitude to say what might be difficult to say directly to a parent.
Parents who tune in to the podcast will hear some deep talk.
“It’s a different world now than when parents were teens,” Jackson said. “One of the first episodes is about vaping, vaping in school bathrooms in the seventh grade. Drugs came up– prescription meds, Adderral, weed…. And social media intensifies the power of peer pressure.”
Jackson has been an orthodontist in Four Points for seven years. His clients are primarily young people.
“As an orthodontist, I am creating smiles, but not always happiness. Parents share with me that their kids are not happy. They ask for advice,” he said.
In part to offer help, Jackson became a certified life coach for young people. He encourages them to develop leadership skills to help them navigate through the confusion of teenage years.
Jackson has also developed an online course for parents called Coach Your Teen, at coachyourteen.com. In it, he encourages parents to learn to react to problems their children are experiencing as coaches, rather than through emotion.
“As I’m coaching teens, I see a huge disconnect with their parents, who are still in a parenting mindset,” he said.
For example, if a parent finds out a child is not doing well in a class at school, the typical reaction is to express disappointment and mete out a punishment.
“Coaching, however, is non emotional. You take your feelings out of it, and ask your teen how he feels about the issue and what you can do to help him improve,” Jackson said. “Then you can unpack the issue and find the appropriate help.”
Jackson lives in the Four Points area with his wife Frances and two small children. Although between a thriving practice, life coaching, and family responsibilities doesn’t leave a lot of spare time, he has been devoting Sundays to the podcast. He interviews the teens, recording them on his phone. Then he uploads the recording to an editing app.
“It gets pretty busy sometimes,” he said with a laugh. “But my goal is to spread happiness. If I can work with parents who then work with their teens, then the wider the happiness spreads.”
