Speaking & Workshops

Practical neuroscience education for parents, schools, organizations, and professional audiences.

American Counseling Association 2026 · Society for Digital Mental Health 2026 · Duke Medical Neuroscience

Patrick Dahlstrom

Founder, Hope For Families
Creator, Childhood on the Brain

Selected Live Presenter — American Counseling Association, 2026 Suicide Prevention & Intervention Summit

[INQUIRE ABOUT A WORKSHOP OR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT]

Understanding What Happens Before Behavior Becomes a Crisis

Parents and professionals often meet children after something has already become difficult: motivation has dropped, emotional reactions have intensified, screens have become harder to manage, school has become a battle, or a family is beginning to worry that something deeper is happening.

My work focuses further upstream.

I speak about how the developing brain learns from everyday environments — including reward, stress, attention, relationships, technology, emotional regulation, effort, and repetition — and how those patterns can influence behavior over time.

The goal is not to turn ordinary childhood into a diagnosis.

It is to give parents and professionals a clearer framework for understanding what may be happening beneath behavior, and practical ways to respond earlier.

Speaking Topics

I would start with four core talks, not ten:

• The Developing Brain in a High-Stimulation World
  How modern environments influence attention, motivation, emotional regulation, effort, and learning — and what adults can do to create healthier balance.

• Why Kids Lose Motivation in Modern Environments
  Dopamine, reward, boredom, effort, and why ordinary activities can struggle to compete with fast stimulation.

• Before the Crisis: Early Family Indicators of Mental Health Risk
  How stress, regulation, behavior, relationships, and changing patterns at home can offer opportunities for earlier support.

• Screens, Dopamine & Emotional Regulation
  Moving beyond screen-time limits to understand what children may be learning to rely on when boredom, frustration, stress, or discomfort appears.

Jeg ville brukt de fire foreløpig. De dekker omtrent hele området ditt uten at siden føles som en katalog.

Workshops for Parents, Schools & Organizations

Sessions can be adapted for parent audiences, educators, schools, PTAs/PTOs, family organizations, mental-health and recovery settings, and professional teams.

Depending on the audience, sessions can focus more deeply on child development, digital environments, motivation, prevention, emotional regulation, or the practical changes families and organizations can make.

Most workshops are designed around 45–90 minutes, with time for questions and discussion when appropriate.

Available for virtual and in-person presentations.

A Different Kind of Neuroscience Education

I do not believe families need more fear around childhood.

They need better explanations.

Neuroscience can become unnecessarily complicated very quickly. My role is to translate the underlying science into language that parents, educators, and professionals can actually use without turning every behavior into a disorder or every modern challenge into a crisis.

The focus is practical: understanding what the brain is learning from repeated experience, what may be contributing to a pattern, and where adults still have meaningful influence.

Selected Presentations & Education

American Counseling Association — 2026 Suicide Prevention & Intervention Summit
Selected Live Presenter
Before the Crisis: Early Family Indicators of Mental Health Risk

Society for Digital Mental Health — 2026 Annual Meeting
Presented
Pre-Clinical Prevention: A Digitally Delivered Dopamine & Stress Literacy Framework for Families Before Crisis

Medical Neuroscience — Duke University
Completed neuroscience education focused on the organization and function of the human nervous system.

Her synes jeg vi stopper. Vi trenger ikke fylle denne seksjonen med alt du noensinne har gjort. ACA + SDMH + Duke gjør jobben.

About Patrick

Patrick Dahlstrom is the founder of Hope For Families and creator of Childhood on the Brain, where he translates neuroscience into practical education about motivation, emotional regulation, modern childhood, and the developing brain.

His work grew out of lived experience with addiction and recovery and gradually moved further upstream toward prevention: understanding how the brain learns patterns long before those patterns become deeply established.

Today, his focus is helping families and professionals understand how everyday environments shape development — and how earlier understanding can create more opportunities to respond before problems become larger.

Bring This Conversation to Your Community

If you are planning a parent evening, school workshop, professional training, conference session, webinar, or community event, I would be glad to discuss what would be most useful for your audience.

[INQUIRE ABOUT SPEAKING & WORKSHOPS]

Patrick Dahlstrom
Founder, Hope For Families
Creator, Childhood on the Brain