Dr. Celia Banting

Dr. Celia Banting was born in the United Kingdom and moved to the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England, when she was three years old, where she lived until 1990. 

She graduated from nursing school in 1989, but as there were no vacancies to work with children on the island, she moved her own five children to Little Rock, USA, in order to follow her dream - to make a difference in children's lives.

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She has been on a journey spanning twenty years to educate herself, despite being dyslexic and failing at school, so that she could be in a position to reach out to those who needed help. She earned an honors degree in psychology, a masters degree in social work and was awarded her PhD in 2005 for studying suicide attempts in adolescents, and developing a risk assessment tool to identify those young people who may be at risk of attempting suicide. She identified several risk factors, which when combined, could increase the likelihood of an individual attempting suicide. Rather than write text books to help teenagers cope with these risk factors, Dr. Banting has incorporated therapeutic interventions into novels that adolescents will be able to identify with. These novels are designed to develop an internal locus of control, thus increasing the adolescent's ability to be able to take care of themselves should they have minimal support in their families.

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Dr. Banting is determined to reach those adolescents who may "slip through the net," those who can't or won't access mental health services, and is dedicated to reaching as many young people worldwide as possible in order to help them avoid the extreme and irreversible act of suicide.