Safe Passage

Firmly grounded in psychological theory and cutting-edge neuroscience, Safe Passage maps the challenges and charts a course for individuals, schools, and accrediting bodies to navigate them. Although primarily focusing on international schools, the hopeful message within this book reaches into any school, university, or organization where human beings come and go.

Author Biography

Doug Ota grew up in La Jolla, California, near Mission San Juan Capistrano where the swallows arrive annually from Argentina. His father descends from Japanese roots, while his mother traces her ancestry to England. Their separation when Ota was three showed him and his brother how to grow up between worlds. Ota’s loss of his step-father and his brother grounded Ota in grief. He has made a career out of wondering where he – and other people – belong. He migrated east to study Religion at Princeton University, then further east to study Clinical Child Psychology at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands, going on to become a registered child psychologist with the Dutch Psychological Association. For many years, he was a High School counselor at the American School of The Hague. He now works in private practice. Half of Ota’s professional activities are devoted to counseling with children and adolescents, individuals, couples, and families (www.dougota.nl). The other half is devoted to consulting with international schools and organizations on how to build programs to address the challenges and opportunities of mobility – programs that guarantee safe passage (www.safepassage.nl). He lives in The Hague, in the Netherlands, with his wife and three children.