Dr Roseann Capanna-Hodge, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Author, founder of The Global Institute of Children’s Mental Health, In Conversation with Edx Education
Heather Welch from Edx Education is In Conversation with Dr. Roseann Capanna- Hodge Award-winning Children’s mental health expert, author, keynote speaker, and founder of The Global Institute of Children’s Mental Health.
Dr Rosanne is based in the USA, however, is known globally she has been referred to as a mental health trailblazer, Changing the way we view and treat children’s mental health”. FORBES magazine called her, “A thought leader in children’s mental health”.
She believes that no matter what the stressors are, we can calm the brain to live successful, more focused and happy lives.
One of her programs, BrainBehaviorReset™, has helped thousands address the most challenging conditions.
Today we are chatting with Roseann about children’s (mental health and well-being), a calm brain, the program BrainBehaviorReset, & The Global Institute of Children’s Mental Health.
Here are the highlights:
(02:13) About Dr. Roseann
(07:23) Covid has opened up conversations
(11:29) Diagnosing neurodivergence
(16:15) Sensory processing issues in ADHD
(26:38) We are not designed to be sedentary
(29:41) Valuable resources from Dr. Roseann
#edxeducation #childrensmentalhealth #wellbeing #drroseann
You’re listening to education experts with edx education. Education is evolving. Join Heather welds from edx education, chatting with teachers, psychologists, parents, authors, creatives, and other tons of experts to keep up with the trends and what’s happening from around the.
This podcast, series Edx education, discusses home learning, school readiness, being creatives, changes in education, and discussing what’s next in hands-on learning.
Or as we like to say, learning through play.
Heather Welch:
Welcome, everyone. I’m Heather Welch from edx education. And today we’ll be in conversation with Dr. Roseann Copanna Hodge award-winning children’s mental health expert, author keynote speaker, and founder of the global Institute of children’s mental health. Dr. Rosanne is based in the USA, however, is known globally.
She’s been referred to as the mental health trailblazer changing the way that we view and treat children’s mental health Forbes magazines called her a thought leader in children’s mental health. She believes that no matter what the stresses are, we can calm the brain to live successful, more focused and happy lives.
One of her programs, brainbehaviorreset® has helped thousands address the most challenging conditions which we look forward to hearing about today. We also chatted with Roseann about children’s mental health and wellbeing, a calm brain, the program for a brainbehaviorreset®, and the global Institute of children’s mental health.
So welcome Roseann. Thank you for joining us today. Welcome
Dr Roseann Capanna-Hodge: I’m so excited to talk about as always kids’ mental health, but we’re going to dive into play therapy and how it supports, you know, not just behavioural regulation, but future brain development. And how kids regulate themselves and learn to cope with stress throughout their lives.
Heather Welch:
I’m so excited about that. That’s definitely a passion that I have is play-based learning, learning through, by just allowing children. The time to play, I think is one of the most important things. But first of all, can I ask you to introduce yourself and your passion for children’s mental health to our audience?
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
So, you know, I, as you so graciously introduced me, am a psychologist and a therapist and an author. I’m also a mom of not one special needs kids, but two and long before I had my own kids, I really became passionate about helping kids and families. And how I started was that when I was five, my mom’s friend, Angela asked me what I wanted to be in.
Of my mouth came that I wanted to be a psychiatrist. And I look at them, what had happened is sort of a divine sort of intervention. I call it a divine download and I had no experience in mental health. I was five years old. I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember her face being like, what is she talking about?
And how does she know what a psychiatrist is? And along the way, I realized psychiatrists really well. Doing pharmacological interventions. And that wasn’t what I wanted to do, nor did I believe that is what really creates lifelong happiness. And that’s what my life’s work’s really been about. And, you know, I started working, this is my 30th year in mental health, and I started working an undergraduate and I started working with very high-risk kids.
Um, you know, kids in poverty, kids without access. You know, to mental health or behavioural support, even learning support. And I realized that with a short, a small amount of TLC for me as an undergraduate student, I could make this huge impact on a kid. And, uh, I was like, wow. I love working with kids, anybody who knows me, you know, I’m really serious about what I’m doing.
I have a high level of integrity and I’m really looking to make a global difference, but I’m also super fun and kids are fun kids like, and, and the joy about kids, they don’t know. They can’t get that. Parents come with a whole lot of history, a lot of worries, a lot of failures when their kids struggle with, you know, physical or emotional health.
And I get that right. I really get that. Not just as a practitioner, as a mom, but we often put limits on what we think. The brain can do. Right? And so I just knew that I could help kids and I could actually see an immediate difference. And that was even before I started doing some of these truly deeply scientific therapies, like neurofeedback, biofeedback, and psychotherapy.
I was really doing behavioural support and a lot of play, a lot of adventure-based activities. That’s where it is. And obviously over these 30 years, Heather, Not just in the United States, but across the globe, say that 14% of kids in their school-aged through teenage and early adulthood have a diagnosed or diagnosable mental health issue.
That’s 14% right now in the world. And that is a lot. And, you know, in the United States, 50% of kids with a mental health issues do not receive. And I just thought this is just so unacceptable. And right before the pandemic, I started the global Institute of children’s mental health, in January of 2020, because I said, Hey, we’ve got to push out.
We’ve got to teach people. It’s going to be okay when they use science back solutions, but we have to teach parents what is going on. What does it mean? Give them that psychoeducation, but also what are the steps, what they can do, and that it requires some consistent. Right. There’s no magic wand. And I think that’s the hardest message that people are not hearing because it’s so contraindicated of like what or contradictory to medication information that says, just take this.
And even when you take the pill and it maybe helps, right. Despite a hundred percent of the time having some type of toxic side effect, they’re not being shown well. Okay. Your kid has add, try this medication. Well, what else are you supposed to do at home? Because you’re supposed to do other things too. So parents are frustrated.
They don’t know their own power. They’re not provided with other choices. And that’s really what I’m all about is empowering parents, giving them the direct tools on how to change their lives today. But to create awesome future human beings.
Heather Welch:
It’s so lovely talking to you about this Dr Roseann, is that because the way that you’re talking about it takes away, any stigma to children’s mental health.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
I think actually COVID has opened up conversations.
I really do, because I think some people in my experience, I’ve seen more people, Heather, in the last two years, who’ve never received mental health. Treatment in their entire lives. So the first-time people I’m seeing more of than the entire 30 years. So people are experiencing mental health and really, they didn’t have a history of it.
Its compounded stressors are what I like to talk about. And you know, this really, you know, I, on a personal level, I saw people that I didn’t think. Uh, we’d be so affected, uh, like work colleagues, like literally lose their darn minds. Like really become completely imbalanced in the world of being at home with their kids, uh, having to manage everything.
These are adults. And I think sometimes. A small minority fared. Well, because they got to be home to get up and move. They got to have hot meals, you know, they got to do some things. And then other, the majority of kids, oh, virtual learning is a drain. So I think the conversation of the stigma of mental health is it’s there and we’re finally getting better about it.
I think the larger issue is what we’re talking about. We never talk about solutions other than medication. I mean, I can tell you that, you know, there are bots that go after social media caps and, um, and they talk about, you know, like I’ve had people get very angry with me that I’m talking about how to change the brain.
And they’re like, well, you know, I’m somebody who supports neuro-diversity and. So do I, and they’re like, this is ridiculous. You can’t change your brain. A hundred per cent of people need to be on meds. And I’m like, wait a second. You’re saying you can’t change your brain, but you’re saying their meds, you know?
And so I think that we are all an and it can be a very angry situation. I never, whatever people are doing. They need to honor what they’re doing and lean into things that are working and explore options when it’s not, but we never ever talk about the importance of, you know, supporting behaviour, calming the brain and preparing.
Are the ones, you know, a therapist appointment once a week, isn’t going to move the dial. If you’re not integrating those changes at home, when it comes to kids, you know, and adults do for themselves. So we have to talk more about the solutions and the behavioral things that need to change because that’s the way learning works.
Oh, absolutely.
Heather Welch:
And you know, you’re right. It doesn’t matter what it is. You need to be able to say, well, let’s, let’s talk ADHD, for example. So there’s no use, I suppose, in my point, giving a child a tablet and then expecting them just to be okay. You still have to, you still have to provide the sensory or.
External, I suppose it’s not the overloads, the activity, the stimulation, the hyperstimulation, you know, the sense that like you still have to cater to their needs. You can’t just expect them to then sit and learn. They’re still going to have rituals and ways. And that’s where, you know, let’s have a chat about ADHD.
I suppose. It has a chat about what’s your thoughts because you know, in, in the, in your, one of your blogs, you mentioned that 9.6% of us population. Is diagnosed not to school-age with population, but in the UK, they quote two to 5% of school-aged children are currently, um, diagnosed with ADHD. And I suppose maybe it’s a little bit of an ignorant question, but do you think people are misdiagnosed and maybe their behaviour could be through.
You know, uh, a different toolkit, you know, maybe it’s adverse childhood experiences. That’s bought out this behavior and then they’ve just decided to actually quick and easy. This is what it’s going to be, rather than routines. I don’t know, healthy, maybe sensory processing disorders or anything like that.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
Well, you know, I wrote that blog about all the things that could be besides ADHD, because at least 50% of the time somebody comes to me who thinks they have ADHD, including adults and they don’t. And you know, I do something called the QEG brain map for people that are, uh, can come to see me in person, but all my virtual clients would do a brain check, which looks at they’re both ways to look at brainwave activity.
And we know that. That certain regions do certain things. So if an area is overactive, well, this is how it’s going to act. If that another area is underactive well, this is how it’s going to act. And ADHD is very classic. It’s very apparent when you see it too many unfocused brain. Not enough focus, brainwaves it’s as straightforward as straightforward gets.
There’s no guessing, but you know, there’s a huge list of things. So what are the most common things today that I see that people misdiagnosed ADHD as anxiety? So anxiety, it looks really the same way for many kids, especially kids that are people pleasers, they’re conscientious. They want to do the right thing but are worried about it.
Drift and pull them away. Right. So they have these zone-out periods. Exactly. Right. Is that ringing a bell? Another thing that I see very commonly is learning disabilities. So many kids with dyslexia. Mom, my youngest is dyslexic John Carlo and he’s fully normal and his reading, but his spelling, you know, is atrocious, but that’s okay.
He’s going to be, he, he said in his fifth-grade autobiography, he’s getting. PhD and engineering, he’ll be fine. And you know, he will too. He will. He’s so organized. It’s not even funny. He’s like came out like organized. He reminds me to do things online. He’s my mother, my mother has an unbelievable. Memory.
She’s a contextual memory where she can pull up the day, you know, 50 years ago and literally be like, oh yeah, in September, you know, 1973, you were doing this. So he has that memory too. It’s so fascinating, but many kids with dyslexia, right. you’re brighter than the norm. And so they can be missed and dyslexics can memorize words.
They can’t it’s the phonemes, right? So not a visual processing problem. It’s an auditory processing problem. And so their brains can get very overloaded when they’re decoding. So they’re sounding out words because there are so many, uh, reading is one of the most common. Neurological tasks and human beings will never learn.
So their brains get overloaded and the system sort of shuts down and they can look very unfocused. You know, it’s like, if you think about it for yourself, if you’re not dyslexic, like, think about a time you’re in school, where you have. Daddy. And it was like one more piece of information.
Need your brain shut down. That’s what happens with dyslexia so they can appear attentive. I would say the other big thing is that birth traumas and head injuries can look identical to ADHD. So, and there are other things like seizures and adverse childhood reactions and, you know, uh, you know, uh, not reactions adverse.
Experiences like trauma, um, depression, OCD, and the list can go on. You have to really if you’re properly diagnosing somebody with ADHD, you’ve got to rule out all the things that it could be. And yes, all those things do impair attention. And we do have to address attention that we’re not going to give somebody with OCD.
ADHD medication. We’re going to send them into a rabbit hole of anxiety that just going to send them over the edge. Um, and we don’t talk enough about, you know, how common reactions are to ADHD medication. Cause there’s a misperception because it washes out of your system after the dose. And like, if it’s a 12-hour extended,, it ends.
We think there are no toxic sites. But there are so getting the right treatment, whatever it is at the right time is so critical. And that starts with the right diagnosis.
Heather Welch:
Absolutely. I read this book I ADHD 2.0, if you read that it’s by Hallowell
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
Oh yes, yes. Yeah. Okay.
Heather Welch:
He talks about people are symptomatic of ADHD, but don’t actually have. so they, they look like they’ve got the symptoms, it’s not necessarily that medication is going to fix that, or it’s going to mask actually in there. When they, they’re not being taught to deal with actually something that they need to deal with for the rest of their lives, they need the tools and the rituals.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
Heather, a lot of my very intellectually gifted. mean very high IQ. I know everyone thinks their kid is bright. My kids are bright, you know, and the right, but there’s bright. And then there’s like, you got a 99% IQ. Okay. That’s 2% of the population. So a lot of my super high IQ kids, which I have a lot of, get misdiagnosed as ADHD because their brains are like pulling on stuff.
And then. Sensory processing issues. So it’s almost rare that I don’t have a very high IQ kid with a scent without a sensory processing problem because their brains are designed to be sort of wide open. They have an increased amount of neural connections in their brain. That’s what I in Stan had.
He didn’t have a bigger brain. He had more neural connections. He actually had a genetic defect that allowed him to. 400 times the rate, typical brain, and really cool. I do neurofeedback and I only calm the brain, but it improves the neural connections. So, um, whenever anybody hangs out with me, they get kind of freaked out about how much.
I can do. And how quick, um, I’m not saying I’m not smart, but neuro took me to another level and certainly good lifestyle, you know, being active and really trying to bring joy in my life and really, really eating very, you know, anti-inflammatory diet and, you know, all those things really help, but you know, uh, the brain of somebody with intellectual giftedness, they have these sensory issues.
These are kids that can be difficult to manage, um, because they might be. Understimulated by sensory information, they might be overstimulated and many kids with ADHD have sensory issues, like many kids with autism. Um, I forgot to mention autism is frequently. It’s almost rare that I don’t get a kid. Who’s what we would consider high-level autism.
And it’s not that the social impairments aren’t there, but they might have a higher. Okay. So the impact is still there, but yeah, they’re high functioning, but not really. They just do well in school. So social is still a bear and a challenge, and they might really have a lot of sensory issues. They might, you know, not want to be because of the sensory issues.
It’s sort of a barrier to hugs and love and things like the loving kind of connection and might not be, um, it might be challenging for them. But they frequently get diagnosed with ADHD. First. They’re very missed. We just aren’t using the tools that are readily available and have been because we have a medical pharma model.
Right. So we think everything has to have a neurotransmitter problem. That just isn’t the truth. Right. So yes, these things do impact neurotransmitters but we have to start looking at, you know if your kid is struggling, What is ADHD, right? What is executive functioning? ADHD is the brain’s ability to alert executive functioning is being able to plan and prioritize for a future event.
And what all of these conditions that we talk about, they often have difficulties, a little learning, and they have difficulty planning and prioritizing for some future action. And, you know, we think about our kids, like what do people always complain to me about with kids who. EDD or Ady like, they don’t listen
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
They don’t complete tasks. Isn’t it?
Heather Welch:
That the process of the information needs to be said a different way because if they’re not, absolutely, it’s just a slow. Like they really fast and bright, but when you’re asking them to do it, they’re probably thinking about how to create the new, I don’t know, is it roadblocks sale?
If it’s an assessment or something like, well, how do I know if it’s my smallest child, it’d be thinking, how can I create a trap? That’s going to trap the dog from the bathroom. And I’d be asking him to pick up his shoes and he’d be looking at that door going, I’m going to, I’m going to create that trap.
How am I going to do it? I think so, but it’s the processing of the instruction.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
Yes absolutely. And the CRA, the crux of the difficult day spent a lot of time educating people about executive functioning is that they are not seeing the end result. So when we ask a kid with ADHD to hang up their book bag, they don’t see the book bag.
Right. As soon as I said, hang up your book bag, Brandon, who’s got good executive functioning. They see the book bag hung up, not the add kit, their brain isn’t going to that. And there’s a lot of reasons why, I mean, that areas and develop there’s a lot of skills. These are skills that can be taught. And again, parents are not aware of how to teach these things, which is why I do a lot of education for parents about it and have a cool little program for parents.
It’s very low cost, um, to get this going because. It can be very frustrating. Right. And you know, and that’s where play therapy, right. And play activities. An action-based learning rate is so important. And we know there’s even some recent research came out this week and I didn’t read the whole study. So I apologize and muse either this week or last week about how.
Are doing more adventure-based action-based learning activities that they have better attention. They have better mental health. And there are so many factors of why, but ultimately. It calms the brain. That’s the basis of my work is a calm brain happy family, and it teaches kids through motor planning, through coping with stressors.
Right? Cause some things don’t go your way. It teaches you problem-solving. Um, it helps you to work out your frustrations and movements. It’s the language of children, right?
Heather Welch:
It is definitely.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
Yeah. And we often, like, you know, sometimes parents will come to me and they’re like, my kid didn’t tell me they were depressed really.
Cause what’s the word they you’re supposed to say when you’re depressed. I don’t think kids know that unless you are, you know, we are a high IQ family, the Hodges, right. So we’re always talking. And my older son has chronic Lyme and pans and has had very serious mental health struggles. Um, since he, he got sick at 22 months old, um, and at 17 he’s on the other side of it, but he’s still the self-regulation, he’s more aware and he’s able to, to manage it.
But he has a lot of sensitivities and largely because he has tinnitus. So he has a ringing in his ear all the time. Um, and that distresses his nervous system. So he’s learned to have coping skills, but play-based action activities were a part of what I did as part of I pulled them out of school when he was really struggling.
Seven and exclusively homeschooled him for a number of years. And he’s back, you know, finishing high school homeschooling because it works better for him. Not saying that’s the only option people saying it’s the option that worked best for my own kid, but what’s so cool about having, you know, using different forms of education or if you’re going to a school like my younger one goes to a Montessori school and they get two to three hours a day, a fiscal.
Two to three hours a day.
And you know, it gives the brain, it gets blood flow to the brain. It releases all these feel-good endorphins and neurotransmitters. There’s so much that goes on. When you are actually physically moving and, and obviously play therapy is different play therapy. Is there some type of clinical issue or behaviour?
You don’t need a diagnosis and you’re getting support from a trained therapist, right? A licensed therapist. Who’s showing you how to support your child through play. Right. But. There are many activities as parents we can use and model and, you know, teach kids. Self-regulation my favourite, activity that he did with my own kid is to kids is to set up obstacle courses.
Yep. Do you, did you do that too?
Heather Welch:
We did a lot of that, in lockdown(s) any part of the house would have been floor is lava. Then we’ll do the obstacle course to get through it, those types of things, but we love and they set them up and then their most amazing elaborate.
Whereas mine wouldn’t have been that mine would have been keeping it simple.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
Right. And you know, you can use things you already have, like we would use placemats. Stepping stones and balls. Right. And you know, I think every home should have a mini-trampoline because they’re inexpensive. And even if you live in an apartment, you can flop it up and you can put it against a wall, but it’s a great way to get kids to get their sensory needs met.
And it’s, what’s called deep proprioceptive feedback. So it really gives the body needs some deep pressure. If you don’t have that, you can do things like roll your kids in a carpet or a really heavy blanket. And there are so many fun ways, to support kids and, you know, we need to move. You know.
Heather Welch:
As an adult, I need to move.
I move. If I find if I’ve had too many days, maybe at a conference or sitting down around, or just really focused on my desk, I kind of lose it after a few days. And I’m really grumpy. My husband always says to me, I think you need to go out and do some exercise.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
I mean, I couldn’t agree more with you.
These days of zoom are ridiculous and everybody wants a zoom and I’m like, but two years ago we would have been a phone call and I now, right. The phone call.
Heather Welch
Right. You know what I mean? Back to phone calls happen instead of teams, we just have a phone call and it will be quick.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
Absolutely. It seems a little different.
There’s a lot of, well, we’re not designed to be sedentary. Our bodies. This is not what we did in the, in certainly in the last, you know, few generations as we move towards computers, you know, we need to move ours took buses, as I like to say, right, we need to get that going. We need blood flow. We need activity.
And without movement, you know, motor planning, which is your brain thinking about taking action and then coordinating those actions. Those are foundational skills for executive functioning, right? And if your kid lacks executive functioning, it means they are not planning and prioritizing. They are not thinking forward like, as I talk about my John Carlo, he’s got off the charts, executive functioning skills like I could barely keep up with him.
We’re going on our trip on Friday. Did you bring this, this, this, this, what about that? Do you know what I mean? I’m like, oh yeah, that’s a good point. You know, and we were packing last night and we went through the list. He went through the list and we packed together and then he was like, wait a second. I can watch him, Heather.
He was seeing himself in the water and he was like, I need my, um, water shirt. And I was. Oh is a good thing. You were here cause mommy wouldn’t have packed it, you know, and, and we do a lot of activating, you know, kids with ADHD. They’re almost exclusively visual and kinesthetic learners at the moment.
Really. And they’re. Auditory learners yet. We’re always Gavin at them and given a list of things and they’re like, wow. So we got to get them moving. We’ve got to get them. Role-playing we’ve got to get them gesturing, just like I did with John Carlo. Like, you know, uh, when we had to do this, we never did an autobiography.
Right. I started with the end and it was. I mean, we’re talking, this is a big project that they took weeks. So I was like, okay, let’s start with the outside. When you see your book, what does the cover look like? Okay. Now open up the pages. What, what does it look like? We have to reorient how we’re doing this.
And I think one of the things that happen for a lot of parents is they think my kids got 120 700. They should be able to do this. Okay. Well, you didn’t just know how to drive a car and you might have 157 IQ,
Heather Welch:
Maybe foundation skills
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
And not everybody has everything. Right. So, so, and I think there’s such a misnomer that these skills can’t be taught.
Right. But there, you can’t, you know, Back to your kid to be on a device 10 hours a day, and then turn in their homework, you know, that’s
Heather Welch:
But it’s all even just be motivated to do their homework because it kind of would be the demo. Now I am conscious of time, but I want to ask you there are two more areas.
I just want to have a quick chat with you. And first of all, is one of your, I know that you’ve done three books. You’ve probably actually authored or you’ve released a few more, but the last one was brain under attack and that’s some..
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge
Resources. First book that I did with a non-profit and it’s about pans and pandas and the effect of inflammation on the brain and how it’s creating neuropsychiatric problems for children like sudden.
And it’s, you know, sudden onset of psychiatric issues, attention issues, regression of behaviours. Um, the conditions are it’s called pans and pandas and it’s on. So, um, especially with COVID COVID can induce it and it’s a very scary condition because kids can be totally typical. And then all of a sudden, literally be for lack of a better way to say it and nothing derogatory, essentially, almost crazy overnight.
And you know, behaviorly acting out and, or in some way, shape or form unfun manageable. And there’s so few of them. Um, that’s my speciality area. There’s so few of us who are willing to support these families because it’s a very scary place to be. So, uh, it was a privilege to, to write that with my friends, from epidemic answers and get that book out.
There are also two more there’s a tiller, teletherapy talks it, and it’s going to be okay. Yeah.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
My toolkit is for therapists. It’s the first book ever written. Therapy activities, teletherapy activities for therapists to use, and then it’s going to be okay, which we’re working on updating and making a second edition is a it’s really my whole research Bates method and shows parents the steps they need to take.
To really reduce and reverse mental health symptoms. And, you know, as I say all the time, you know, the parents have the power, they just don’t know it. And they just need those steps. I think parents are always so scared when they come to me in person. Like I said, I work with people all over the world.
This just isn’t a problem. Unique to America, even though I think America’s mental health is way worse than any other area that. Certainly, you know, uh, and, and, and that’s because, in Europe, there still is a priority on having fun and having balance and, and Americans, we just don’t think of fun in the same way.
We’re not as social. And we really are social beings. We need to be social. We need to be active. We need to be having. Moments throughout the day. And I think we’re not doing that as much.
Heather Welch:
Now the other one I wanted to touch on was can you quickly tell our audience about a program that you developed called BrainBehaviorReset
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
Yeah. BrainBehaviorReset. It’s really what my work is that if you don’t come to the brain. There’s no learning possible. So what we do is we teach parents, and individuals how to calm their brains, using science-backed methods. Only then do we come in with new learning, we show you those steps and then that resets the brain and behaviour.
That’s the key, you’ve got to calm things down. You, you can’t, you know, go into a house on fire and go, oh, where’s the kitchen. Let me make something to. You know, but yet we have a kid who’s like a hot mess, you know, punching his sister, telling you to F off, um, you know, never remembering to take their homework, you know, in whatever is going on with your kid.
And then we’re like, they need to be straight a student. They have, they have 120 600. They need to get their stuff in. So let’s focus on that. We’re going to ignore that they’re doing all these behavioral things, behavioral regulation, and what’s called response inhibition. Regulating your responses is the foundation for everything, all learning, all processing.
And you know, if you have a kid with OCD or anxiety or depression, They can’t do the cognitive-behavioural work until we calm that nervous system down. Um, so that’s my message. That’s what I’m really teaching people about. Nobody’s really talking about this and it’s so logical. It’s not even funny. Like as soon as you hear that, you’re like, of course, but that’s not how we treat people.
We’re like, okay, here’s this pill that may or may not work. It’s rushing roulette. We’re not gonna take any science. And we’re 70% of the time in the U S we’re giving. Medication that have no research behind them. They’re called off-label. So we’re giving them adult medications with a just trial and error approach.
Heather Welch:
So because of cost in the healthcare system and its private and all the rest of it is that just because
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
I think it’s two things really honest. We as a society now believe everything is a quick fix. Okay. So we’re believing that and we don’t want to change what we’re doing, right. That doesn’t mean as a parent, you’re a bad parent.
It means your kid needs something different from you. And what I challenge parents is to say, you’re already working real hard. It’s really unpleasant. You’re, you’re creating such a rift with, between you and your trial and probably with you and your spouse and probably with the rest of the. Why don’t you just shift your behaviours that actually improve learning and boy things get better.
And then the other part of this is there is a ton of money behind pharma and what their reach is and what their ability to do, what they can do is unbelievable. And not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, cause I don’t want to be that person, but they spent a lot of money, you know, in 2019, they gave Google $900 million to downrank.
So we, we, you know, there there’s things at play, there’s nefarious, things that play controlling what we believe. And so, unfortunately, most people don’t start thinking and looking at research because everything I do is research. I hate that I get pegged into alternative. How is how is therapy alternative, right.
But is that they’re either in crisis. Because all those other things didn’t work and it’s, it’s a total hot mess or they are ready, our holistic because of something that happened in the parent or the individual’s life. And they don’t want to see that happen for their child. So I’m getting more and more of the parent who’s like wise to.
Okay. We don’t have to live like this. We just got to make things different, but I that’s why I do all these talks. That’s why I get it out there. And that’s why I always encourage if you’re listening and you know, anybody who’s struggling to share these, this podcast with them, because this can hopefully is an aha moment for not just you, but somebody, you know, needs a lifeline.
Because we’re not talking openly about mental health or ignoring things, right. Yeah,
Heather Welch:
Absolutely. I suppose my next question would be what’s your next adventure work? Where can we hear from y’all? What are you doing next?
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
Well, I’m working on a Ted talk. I’m going to be talking about how to calm the brain in a Ted talk. To create some more affordable and not everybody can spend thousands of dollars to come and work with me. One-on-one they can’t.
And I have to have a high-level program because we just give you a ton of one-to-one support and guidance to get you out of this. But there are many things people can do.
That’s what I’m trying to do is create these low-cost initiatives. We are working in a small group. Program for parents because they just need parenting lifeline. Um, and that way it will be more affordable and it will be run by very highly qualified people and get input from me. So we’re working on ways to better support it and, and I really work on changing the conversation.
Like let’s get people thinking, you know, Thinking and..
Heather Welch:
Talking and mind now, listen, how can people get in touch with you best way to get in touch, or if they’re interested in your book, what’s the best way.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
You could go to Dr. Roseann anywhere. So Dr. Rosanne, you can go to Tik TOK, YouTube, Instagram.
I’m Dr. Roseann and Roseann Capanna-Hodge on Facebook. And of course, LinkedIn, you can, you can reach me anywhere. My, my website is really a resource for parents. Um, and you can, you can get a link there to the. Roseann.
Heather Welch:
Thank you so much, Dr. Roseann, and it was wonderful to have you today and to learn so many exciting things and just, you know, just interesting to hear how you started your career over 30 years ago, and that, you know, you found that you’re able to make children feel like they’re valued and belong even back then, without all the knowledge and experience that you have now.
And now you’ve got the knowledge and experience that’s even better. They’re having these, you know, making, changing the lines. Parents. It’s really hard on a marriage. It’s really hard on parents, and caregivers when you have a child that you want to fix, but there’s no quick fix and there’s not actually a fix.
You need to work within what you’ve got and, you know, nurture that. So, you know.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
And you don’t know who to follow. So I’m really trying to become that resource for parents, because everything I do is science-based, you know, I’m not just like, oh, let’s try this. There’s no spaghetti on the wall. And that’s the way mental health is mental health is spaghetti on a wall.
We need to end that there’s too much research to show us what actually works.
Heather Welch:
I know there’s a kind of marketing spaghetti on the wall. We shouldn’t be meant to be like that. So thank you again. It’s been wonderful to have.
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge:
There are so many exciting developments happening right now in education edX education would love to hear from you.
So do get in touch with subscribe to our podcast, which is available on apple beams, Spotify tune-in. And so many more. This podcast series is brought to you by Heather Welch from Edx Education. As she’d like to say, lets create lifelong learners.
