At an early age, Julian Reeve was driven to perfection. It has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the form of an amazing music career, including the role of Music Director on the first National tour of Hamilton and a curse because he suffered a heart attack at the age of 43.
“It’s estimated that over 30% of the world’s population struggles with perfectionism—and it’s not limited to adults. Alarmingly, studies show that by the time children reach adolescence, between 25% and 30% experience maladap
Julian has written Captain Perfection & the Secret of Self-Compassion: A Self-Help Book for the Young Perfectionist as a way to teach children that being perfect can be a super power as long as you are aware of the differences between healthy and unhealthy perfectionism.
In our interview, Julian provides amazing advice for parents on how to recognize if your child has a high level of perfectionism and how to adapt the unhealthy, or maladaptive, behaviors into cues and healthy coping strategies for children. We also talk about what the increased need for self-compassion might look as communities recover from the pandemic and the importance of modeling self-compassion for our children.
JULIAN REEVE is a former music director of the Broadway musical Hamilton turned perfectionism contributor, speaker, and author of Captain Perfection & the Secret of Self-Compassion: A Self-Help Book for the Young Perfectionist. Learn more at julianreeve.com.
