About

Edward (Ned) Hallowell, M.D., Ed.D. (Hon., 2005) is a child and adult psychiatrist and the founder of The Hallowell Centers in New York City and Sudbury, MA. He was also on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School from 1983 - 2004.

Dr. Hallowell continues to see patients in his private practice while he also consults to businesses and other organizations, writes books, and gives about 100 lectures per year.

A graduate of Harvard College and Tulane Medical School, Dr. Hallowell has authored many books on various psychological topics, including problems with attention, focus, stress and worry. His national best sellers on ADD, Driven to Distraction (Pantheon, 1994), Answers to Distraction (Pantheon, 1995), and Delivered From Distraction (Ballantine, 2005) all stress a strength-based approach to treating ADD both in children and in adults.  They have sold close to two million copies.

When You Worry About The Child You Love, (Simon & Schuster, 1996) describes the various emotional and learning problems children may have and offers practical tips on how best to deal with them. With Dr. Michael Thompson, Dr. Hallowell co-authored a book of essays on children, families and schools, entitled Finding the Heart of the Child (National Association of Independent Schools, 1997).

Worry: Hope and Help for a Common Problem, published in hardcover by Pantheon (1997) and in paperback by Ballantine (1999), looks at worry in both its constructive and destructive forms, and gives practical advice on how to control toxic worry. From the person who broods and ruminates, to the underachiever who can’t get going because of his worrying, to the person who fears speaking in public, to the many people who have undiagnosed anxiety disorders, this book describes the host of different patterns destructive worry can take and also what a person can do to fix the problem of excessive worry.

Connect: 12 Vital Ties that Open Your Heart, Lengthen Your Life and Deepen Your Soul (Pantheon, 1999 in hardback and pocket, 2000, in paperback), focuses on the power of the various connections people make in life. The 12 different kinds of connection that Dr. Hallowell outlines in this book provide a roadmap to a satisfying and healthy life.

Following Connect, Dr. Hallowell wrote Human Moments: How to Find Meaning and Love in Your Everyday Life (Health Communications, Inc., 2001) in which he tells true stories from his own life which vividly illustrate the power of connecting deeply with other people, places and ideas. By depicting what he calls “human moments,” moments of deep connection to someone or something that really matters, he writes the story of how he found meaning and love in his own life. He extends the book beyond his own story by including true stories from other people’s lives, all converging on the theme of human connectedness.

Dr. Hallowell considers the human moment as valuable in the business world as in one’s personal life. To illustrate that point, he wrote an article for the business audience entitled “The Human Moment at Work,” which was published in The Harvard Business Review in 1999.

He extended his work on the subject of focus, attention, and mind management into the business world in his article published in the January, 2005 issue of The Harvard Business Review entitled, “Overloaded Circuits: Why Smart People Underperform.”

In connection with his books, Worry and Connect, Dr. Hallowell made two videotapes for the public broadcasting System (PBS), one about managing worry, the other about the power of connection, which formed the basis for their major fund raisers. These were shown on PBS stations around the country in 1999. He has also appeared on such national television shows as “20/20,” “The Today Show,” “Dateline,” “Oprah,” “Good Morning America,” and “The View.”

The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness: Five Steps to help Kids Create and Sustain Lifelong Joy, was published by Ballantine and released in October 2002. This groundbreaking book is written for parents, teachers, and all those who are interested in children. In practical, concrete detail, Dr. Hallowell presents the basic ingredients for the kind of a childhood that will most likely lead to a happy and satisfying adulthood.  The book is based on extensive research and empirical data, but it is written in a conversational, anecdotal tone. The book is a warm and lively celebration of childhood, as well as a guide to creating the kind of childhood that children really need.

Responding to his observation that many people both in the world of business as well as private life were sabotaging themselves due to their inability to forgive, Dr. Hallowell wrote a book on the art of forgiveness called Dare to Forgive, published by Health Communications in March 2004. This book shows that the ability to forgive is a strength, and that it is essential to living a healthy and happy life. It explains why forgiveness is one of the best things you can do to heal your body and mind.  The book also offers a practical, four part plan for achieving it. True stories are used to illustrate the power of forgiveness in the lives of real people.

Also published in 2004 (Regan Books/Harper Collins) was Dr. Hallowell’s first children’s book, A Walk in the Rain with a Brain.  Through a story with illustrations it conveys the message, “No brain is the same, No brain is the best, Each brain finds its own special way.”  .

His recent book, CrazyBusy: Overbooked, Overstretched, and About to Snap—Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD, was published by Ballantine in the spring of 2006. It is about the crazy pace of modern life, and how to manage it effectively.

Following that, in June of 2006 Walker Books published Positively ADD: Real Success Stories to Inspire Your Dreams, a book of true stories about successful and happy adults who have ADD.  This is intended for young people, to help them realize that ADD can be a gift, not a disability.

In 2008, Dr. Hallowell collaborated with Dr. Peter Jensen, an internationally known academic authority on ADHD and a leading research scientist to write SuperParenting for ADHD, which continued to develop the strength-based approach that is Dr. Hallowell’s trademark.

And in 2010 Dr. Hallowell collaborated with his wife, Sue George Hallowell to write Married to Distraction, a book about marriage in our busy modern world.

In January, 2011, Harvard Business School Press  published Dr. Hallowell’s book Shine: Using Brain Science to Bring the Best from Your People.  It is a book on how to develop peak performance written in a context of the workplace.

Dr. Hallowell lives in the Boston area with his wife, Sue, a social worker, and their three children, Lucy, Jack and Tucker.  His greatest love is spending time with them, doing whatever they want to do.  This has led to various adventures beyond the scope of this brief bio.