Consultation, Collaboration, & Expert Testimony

I provide mission-driven business consultation and strategic partnership with clients who develop, implement, and utilize tech products for children, teens, and parents. Consistent with my mission to help families prevent and heal from digital injury while building stronger relationships, I advise customers how to interface with families in a mutually beneficial, positive way. 

Corporate Consult in Technology, Information, & Health

I was honored to serve on the Facebook Youth Advisory Committee from 2018 to 2021 with other child development experts from around the world, including the Fred Rogers Institute, Sesame Street, and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. We collaborate with the Facebook youth product team to optimize safety, fun, engagement, and learning in the development of child and family digital programs and products. We are in a new era of transparency and accountability, where corporations must work cooperatively with experts and advocates for children and, ultimately, their customers. I’m excited to be a part of that.

I was also honored to be the 2016 grant recipient and served as the Global Ambassador of Teensafe, the first and largest text-monitoring service for parents. Teensafe brought me on their team with our joint mission to support parents to enlist this powerful tech tool in a collaborative, effective, and transparent manner. We agreed that families are best served by offering a strategy the builds parent-child connection rather than risks conflict. 

Education, Law Enforcement, & Government

In support of Mrs. Melania Trump’s 2017 Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign, I conferenced with Reagan Thompson, Special Assistant to the President and Director of Policy for the First Lady on the behalf of Teensafe. Non-profit, private and public agencies have critical roles in optimizing screen technology use benefit while protecting American citizens from digital injuryAs detailed in my book, Screen Time in the Mean Time, informed and thoughtful tech integration is critical for success. Regulation with an appreciation for privacy and human rights is needed for the better protection of children and teens. We have a long way to go yet, and I’m passionate about creating solutions.

Forensic Evaluation & Expert Testimony

Parents who share legal and physical custody often have very different ideas and practices in regard to home rules and parameters for child screen use. As a result, kids and teens may drift into screen-using behaviors that can lead to digital injury and clinical distress and trauma.

Examples of digital injury include: 

– distraction from healthy relationships and healthy activities

– body image and self identity disturbance

– repetitive use and distraction injuries (like texting and driving)

– chronic autonomic hyperarousal that can lead to anxiety and mood disorders and disorders of oppositionality and conduct)

– screen addiction

Unfiltered and unmonitored screen use can also result in:

– viewing and sharing violent and obscene content

– interpersonal exploitation by sexual predators and online peers

– financial exploitation

– cybersecurity and privacy issues

As a licensed clinical psychologist and screen safety expert, I offer psychodiagnostic evaluation and expert testimony for the assessment, prevention, and treatment of digital injury. I also provide parent training and coaching to help parents form healthier alliances with their kids and implement parenting strategies for safer screen use. My Forensic Fee Schedule is available upon request.

Television Production

I served as Technical Advisor and Clinical On-Set Support for The Learning Channel’sI Catfished my KidTelevision is an important platform for education and entertainment. It’s critical that media also strives for transparency and accountability to their guests and customers. This program was designed to blow the whistle on the wild west atmosphere of the Internet. However, with vulnerable teens and their families as guests, it was important that their freedom of choice and well being be taken into consideration throughout production. I saw my role in this project to be in support of that mission.

What Dr. Bennett’s Student’s Say

“Dr. Bennett is the most impactful and challenging professor that I have had the honor of working for. Her teaching style challenges critical thinking, problem solving and depth of knowledge in an impactful way that I have never before experienced. Her material is balanced well with book learning and real life anecdotes and contemplations. Her style of teaching forces engagement, but makes it feel like healthy debate. I learned most from the discussions and critical thinking questions in lecture.”
“Dr. Bennett is completely fascinating. She’s kind of like superwoman: she teaches, works in private practice, has a family, runs a program about childhood addiction to technology… the list goes on and on. It’s incredible getting guidance and lessons from someone who has a different perspective on addiction. She opens your eyes to a new way of thinking about addiction and its’ correlations with mental health.”
“The Professor really helped to create and maintain a positive and comfortable learning environment. The material was consistently presented in a manner which kept it fresh and interesting, and the Professor was always ready to answer any question or to engage in discussion.”
“Dr. Bennett’s teaching style kept me engaged throughout her class. She tells stories that relate to the material which helped me stay focused in a three hour lecture. She respects her students, and you can tell she cares deeply about her jobs. I have been having a hard time deciding on a career path and Dr. Bennett has helped me, just through her lectures and stories, to become a therapist. Overall a great teacher!”