With nearly half of American parents reporting overwhelming stress, a children's mental health expert is calling for a shift in how families are supported—moving from crisis response to upstream prevention. Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge, a licensed therapist and board-certified neurofeedback practitioner, will speak at two Orlando events focused on strengthening families and preventing child abuse, bringing a message that parents need help before they reach their breaking point.
According to the American Psychological Association, 48% of parents say their stress is completely overwhelming on most days, and 41% report that stress is so high they cannot function. The U.S. Surgeon General has issued a national advisory declaring parental well-being a public health priority, highlighting the urgent need for better support systems. Dr. Capanna-Hodge argues that traditional parenting advice often overlooks the parent's own nervous system, leading to a collision of two overloaded stress responses.
“When a child is dysregulated, their stress response can activate the parent's stress response, and vice versa,” she explains. “Before you know it, nobody has easy access to the calm, flexible thinking needed to solve the problem.” Her Regulation First® framework teaches parents and professionals to understand the nervous system beneath behavior, regulate before reacting, reconnect, and then move into correction or problem-solving.
This approach is central to her upcoming book, The Dysregulated Kid: The Parenting Playbook for Helping Your Child Find Calm in a Chaotic World, published by Page Two Books on September 22, 2026. The book offers practical tools like the Love Pause®, CALMS Protocol®, and 10-Minute Resets, moving beyond behavior charts to address the brain's stress response. Pre-orders are available at dysregulatedkid.com.
Dr. Capanna-Hodge's Orlando appearances include The Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida and the 2026 Florida Prevention Convention, themed “Stronger Families, Stronger Florida.” These organizations focus on early intervention and strengthening families before challenges escalate. “Prevention means reaching the parent while they're overwhelmed, not after they've reached their breaking point,” she says.
The implications are significant for public health and social services. By equipping parents with nervous system regulation tools, the hope is to reduce the incidence of child abuse and family crises. “Supporting parents isn't separate from supporting children,” Dr. Capanna-Hodge emphasizes. “When we give parents tools to understand their own stress response and their child's nervous system, we're strengthening the entire family.”
She stresses that parental stress does not automatically lead to abuse, but prevention includes ensuring parents don't have to wait until they're drowning to receive support. The 2026 convention brings together professionals from across the state to advance strategies that support families proactively.
Dr. Capanna-Hodge has over 30 years of clinical experience and has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Parents, NBC, CBS, Fox, and The Mel Robbins Show. Her podcast, Dysregulated Kids, has over 2 million downloads. She will be available for interviews while in Orlando, covering topics such as the overwhelmed parent epidemic and why kids hold it together at school but fall apart at home.
The call to action is clear: prevention must start before the breaking point, giving parents practical tools for the next hard moment. As Dr. Capanna-Hodge puts it, “Every hard moment isn't a crisis, but every hard moment is an opportunity to change what happens next.”
