The Autism Mom Coach

Autism Parenting in Crisis: What Needs Your Attention and What Can Wait When your autistic child is in crisis, the rest of your life doesn't stop. You still have work deadlines, family responsibilities, appointments, and commitments. But when you're spending hours on the phone with doctors, providers, and school teams trying to manage an urgent situation, something has to give. In this episode, Li...

Your autistic child comes home from school yelling, disappears into their bedroom, or follows you around asking the same question repeatedly. Each situation requires a different response, but your automatic reactions may be making those difficult after-school hours even harder. In this episode, Lisa Candera, The Autism Mom Coach, explains how to respond to three common after-school patterns: the C...

After-school meltdowns don't always look like meltdowns. Some autistic children come home yelling, arguing, or provoking their siblings. Others head straight to their bedrooms and refuse to talk. And some follow Mom from room to room, asking repeated questions or needing constant reassurance. In this episode, Lisa Candera, The Autism Mom Coach, introduces three after-school patterns: the Collider,...

You get the call, the email, or the communication log, and now you are holding information about your autistic child's school day that they do not know you have. The question is whether to bring it up at home, and if you do, when and how. In this episode, Lisa Candera, The Autism Mom Coach, walks through the three-part decision tree she uses to make that call, with examples from her own experience...

Ben turns 19 days after this episode airs, which means Lisa has now spent a full year parenting an autistic adult. She spent sixteen years preparing for his 18th birthday (the will, the special needs trust, the conservatorship petition, the placement research) and none of it prepared her for what the milestone actually felt like. In this episode she shares what that first year taught her. In this...

Feeling like a failure as an autism mom can become the default when you are constantly measuring yourself against impossible standards. In this episode of The Autism Mom Coach , Lisa breaks down how those expectations get created, why they keep you feeling like you are always coming up short, and how to replace them with standards that actually make sense for the life you are living. In this episo...

If you have ever stood in the doorway wondering whether your child is spending too much time gaming, this conversation is for you. This week I am joined by Andrew Fishman, a licensed clinical social worker who has spent more than a decade working with autistic kids and teens and is the author of Parenting a Gamer . We talk about why autistic kids and teens with autism are drawn to video games at n...

Back-to-school season can bring up a relentless stream of what-if questions for autism moms. In this episode of The Autism Mom Coach , Lisa Candera takes five of the most common back-to-school fears and shows autism moms how to turn them into concrete plans instead of repeatedly running them through their heads. In this episo You are listening to episode 212 of The Autism Mom Coach, the final epis...

Back-to-school season floods an autism parent's mind with "what if" questions that hijack sleep. What if he refuses to go to school, what if he gets aggressive, what if I have to call 911, what if he gets kicked out of the new placement too. I have lived that spin, and here is what it taught me: a "what if" is not a question you are trying to answer. It is anticipatory anxiety on a loop, and your...

As the new school year approaches, most autism parents focus on the tactical preparation: reviewing the IEP, adjusting sleep schedules, and buying school supplies. Those steps matter, but they are only half of what you need. In this first episode of the Back to School series, Lisa talks about the other half (preparing yourself) and the mindset that shapes how much energy you carry into every IEP m...

If you are counting down the days until school starts, feeling short-tempered and exhausted, and then feeling guilty on top of it, you are experiencing end of summer burnout, and you are not alone. In this episode, Lisa Candera explains where autism mom burnout actually comes from and why the constant role of being your household's cruise director and emotional regulator drains your tank. She offe...

If your child speaks fluently, does well in school, and can hold a conversation with any adult in the room, you have probably heard someone say, "At least he's high functioning." And you have probably also lived the part nobody else sees, the meltdown in the car, the falling apart over a small change in plans, the bedtime routine you are still walking through with a teenager. In this episode, Lisa...

Is your autistic child having a meltdown or manipulating you to get what they want? The difference between an autism meltdown and manipulation is rarely as clear as parents are led to believe, especially when the behavior involves yelling, refusing, demanding, aggression, or a complete loss of control. In this episode, I share three ways to evaluate whether your child is melting down or manipulati...

Whether you have a three-year-old and you're hoping to nip it in the bud or a teenager you assume should know better by now, the same question keeps surfacing: will my child outgrow meltdowns? In this episode Lisa answers it head-on by separating tantrums, which children do outgrow, from autism meltdowns, which are neurological and don't simply disappear with age. In this episode, you'll learn: Wh...

Last week Lisa named the meltdown hangover. This week she gets practical. In this episode of The Autism Mom Coach, the second of a two-part series, Lisa shares ten specific, science-backed things you can do to avoid, interrupt, or shorten the emotional and physical fallout that lingers after a meltdown. From creating space and getting outside to cold water, movement, hydration, and the way you tal...

The meltdown ends, but for autism moms, the aftermath lingers. In this episode of The Autism Mom Coach, the first of a two-part series, Lisa names what she calls the meltdown hangover: the emotional, mental, and physical fallout that can outlast the meltdown itself by hours, days, or even weeks. Drawing on her own experience with homework meltdowns and her son's perfectionism, she walks through th...

Autism meltdowns can take over your home, your schedule, and your confidence as a parent. In this episode of The Autism Mom Coach Podcast, Lisa Candera shares the exact Before, During, and After process she developed through years of parenting her autistic son and coaching autism moms through meltdowns. Most parents get stuck in the same cycle: trying to prevent every meltdown and then scrambling...

Are you accidentally making your autistic child’s meltdowns worse without realizing it? In this episode of The Autism Mom Coach Podcast, Lisa Candera shares common parenting responses that can unintentionally escalate or prolong autism meltdowns. During meltdowns, parents often react from stress, urgency, and survival mode. Talking too much, making threats, changing tone, using sarcasm, or reactin...

In this episode, Lisa Candera breaks down the single most important skill autism moms need during meltdowns: learning how to regulate themselves first. After years of trying to prevent every autism meltdowns, Lisa shares the shift that changed everything for her parenting and coaching: moving from control and prevention to preparation and co-regulation. Lisa explains the concept of the “Solid Obje...

In episode 200 of Autism Mom Coach , Lisa Candera shares the biggest mistake many autism parents make: putting all their energy into preventing meltdowns instead of preparing for them. She explains that meltdowns are a form of nervous system dysregulation, often driven by autism-related challenges like sensory overload, communication difficulties, low frustration tolerance, impulsivity, and execut...

In Episode 199 of The Autism Mom Coach , Lisa Candera shares three truths that can change how autism moms move through parenting, stress, and decision-making. Based on 18 years of raising her son with autism and coaching more than 100 moms, Lisa explains why the search for the right therapy, school, supplement, or strategy often turns into an exhausting loop. She also tackles one of the heaviest b...

It's Autism Awareness Month, and while awareness of autism has never been higher, our actual understanding of the diagnosis is still far behind where it needs to be. In this episode, Lisa Candera draws on her 18 years as an autism parent, her background as a certified life coach, and her work with over 100 autism moms to break down three things every autism mom needs to know right now: why the exp...

In this episode, Lisa breaks down the idea of being unbothered and why it matters so much in autism parenting. Using an example from a true crime trial, she explores what it looks like to stay focused, regulated, and clear-headed when other people are escalating, pushing, whining, or pulling for a reaction. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: How being unbothered helps you stay focused on what actually...

In episode 195 of the Autism Mom Coach Podcast, host Lisa Kra (lawyer, life coach, and full-time single mom to a teen with autism) discusses the less positive ways autism parenting can change parents. She explains how advocacy, resilience, and adaptability can shift into constant battle mode, isolation, and tolerating situations that need intervention. Lisa covers chronic hypervigilance and sustai...

In this episode of The Autism Mom Coach Podcast , Lisa Candera—autism mom, attorney, life coach, and solo parent—reflects on the early days of her son Ben’s autism diagnosis and the profound ways autism parenting reshaped her identity, nervous system, beliefs, and leadership. Recording in January 2026, Lisa looks back 16 years to the moment of diagnosis. She shares what it felt like to sit in shoc...