An Atypical Life

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Warning: Carol is not a casual-contact person. 😂She will ask one innocent question and somehow, 45 minutes later, you’ll...
04/09/2026

Warning: Carol is not a casual-contact person. 😂

She will ask one innocent question and somehow, 45 minutes later, you’ll be discussing disability rights, neuroaffirming practice, systemic reform, a new community initiative, three grant opportunities and a program she has already mentally built, branded and written the implementation plan for.

She has an extremely low tolerance for bu****it, performative inclusion, “we’ve always done it this way,” and anyone describing themselves as neuroaffirming immediately before telling an autistic child to stop moving and comply.

Do not casually say, “Someone should really do something about that.” Carol will do something about it. There will be a framework. Possibly a training program. Definitely a Canva resource. And by Tuesday there may be a website.

She notices systems, inconsistencies and gaps that other people somehow walk straight past. If a policy says one thing while actual practice does another, unfortunately for everyone involved, she has already noticed.

She is fiercely protective of kids, families and people whose voices are routinely minimised. If you mistreat a vulnerable person, particularly a child, you are about to discover just how thoroughly one woman can research legislation, policy, human rights obligations and organisational governance.

Also, don’t mistake warmth, humour or informality for a lack of expertise. That’s an expensive error.

She is simultaneously running approximately 46 projects, raising a family, answering emails she absolutely should have delegated, designing resources at midnight, advocating for systemic change and announcing, “I just had another idea…”

Those words should frighten you.

Because the idea will be good.

And somehow you now have an action item. 😅

Content note: su***de and mental health.What many people see: someone presenting, advocating, parenting, supporting and ...
03/09/2026

Content note: su***de and mental health.

What many people see: someone presenting, advocating, parenting, supporting and showing up.

What they don’t see: sometimes, just getting out of bed took every ounce of energy I have.

They don’t see a nervous system carrying trauma, an atypical brain navigating environments not built for it, or the internal battles beneath articulate words.

More often than people realise, life becomes a one-day-at-a-time choice:

Today, I choose to live.

And I know I am not alone in this experience. But many fear talking about it and the repercussions this may have because of the stigma associated with it.

Neurodivergence is not mental illness. But neurodivergent people often also experience depression, anxiety, trauma and suicidality. And that interconnectedness can be disabling.

Across 36 studies of autistic and possibly autistic people without intellectual disability, pooled estimates were 34% for suicidal thoughts and 24% for attempts or behaviours. These numbers are scary. And they are creeping into our experiences of young people. Research also links distress with cumulative stress, masking, exclusion and unmet support needs - often first experienced in as young as our primary school years.

The battle is exhausting. And too often, the help offered does not fit.

Generic mental health strategies can miss sensory and communication needs, executive functioning, identity, trauma and the family system. When they don’t fit, we may feel we are broken…rather than recognising that the support failed to understand us and our whole experience.

One that recognises burnout, shutdown and withdrawal as information - not personal failure.

My journey is ongoing and it is why I am so passionate about my work.
And why our GROW™ framework is more than training.

It is personal. And it’s professional.

We need better, support systems and environments to keep our children safe. And that starts with listening to our neurodivergent adults.

If this feels close to home, please don’t carry it alone.

Tell one person. Rest. Connect in ways that feel safe for you

02/09/2026

When every time you leave the house feels like you’ve run a marathon… 😅

“We should be grateful for what we have” “We need to adjust our expectations” …We have . But what power do we have to e...
28/08/2026

“We should be grateful for what we have”

“We need to adjust our expectations”

…We have . But what power do we have to enforce them?

Rights on paper mean little when exercising them risks losing the only support available.

We are promised choice and control, school partnership and person-centred services. Yet often, the only choice is what is offered or nothing.

We let workers and providers into our lives. We disclose our needs and vulnerabilities. Parents entrust schools with their children. Yet we can be left feeling judged, spoken about rather than with, forgotten or burdensome.

Emails go unanswered. Plans are not enacted. Agreed adjustments are treated as inconveniences. A child’s distress may be managed as “behaviour”; an adult’s self-advocacy may be labelled difficult.

Ideally, we would choose someone else. But waitlists are closed, local options limited, another school inaccessible or changing providers could mean months without support.

So we settle. We bite our tongues and make our requests smaller. Parents fear speaking up may affect how their child is treated. Disabled adults fear losing essential support.

This is the power imbalance created by scarcity..

That is not meaningful choice.

We see the same powerlessness nationally. The 2026 Senate inquiry into the NDIS Bill received more than 4,500 submissions and other evidence. Disabled people, families and organisations raised serious concerns and warned of harm.

The Bill passed Parliament anyway.

We spoke. We submitted. We shared our expertise and lives. But our voices did not have the power to stop it.

Rights without accessible enforcement are promises we must fight for individually - often while exhausted and dependent on the systems we are challenging.

Silence is not satisfaction.
Attendance is not inclusion.
A completed shift is not meaningful support.
Consultation is not shared power.

We need more than recognition of our rights. We need accountability, genuine co-design, real alternatives and consequences when rights are ignored.

Because a right we cannot safely exercise is not a right fully realised.

25/08/2026

Self-care shouldn’t become one more thing you feel you’re failing to fit in.

When you are carrying more, it is okay to do less.

Sometimes selfcare is the easy dinner, lowering the demands, sitting down while you supervise, or deciding what can wait. Small windows count.

Read our latest blog on realistic self-care when rest, respite and time away aren’t available:

https://www.growtherapyservices.com.au/post/realistic-self-care-parents-neurodivergent-children



Image Description:
A square graphic with a white background and pale pink concentric circles. Large purple handwritten text reads, “It is ok to do less, when you are carrying more.” At the bottom is the GROW logo and an illustrated smiling mother holding a young child.

I cannot tell you how many times people (some known to us and some complete strangers…) have *thoughtfully* let us know ...
25/08/2026

I cannot tell you how many times people (some known to us and some complete strangers…) have *thoughtfully* let us know about .

like, we surely must not know about them because our kids are wearing such obvious, bright coloured, definitely don’t match their outfit, don’t even play music, kind of ones 😅

So, just to clear things up. Yes, we do know about them. Yes, we have tried them. But, they prefer these ones for comfort and suitability: AND they also LIKE the big bright coloured ones 🥰 AND we are happy if they’re happy. And our apologies I guess if our autism preferences offend you 😂

So, thank you - but we’re good.

And yes, I feed my children McDonalds on nights when we are exhausted 😇

I’m not sharing because I have all of the answers.I’m sharing because sometimes honesty is the only thing I have capacit...
20/08/2026

I’m not sharing because I have all of the answers.

I’m sharing because sometimes honesty is the only thing I have capacity for.

Professional knowledge doesn’t make us immune to overwhelm, and knowing what we need doesn’t mean we always have the capacity to give it to ourselves.

The last few months have been tough. And if all you did today was survive, thats enough. 🤍

12/08/2026

We laugh and joke about it in this instance - but it’s also incredibly frustrating and embarrassing when you’re an intelligent, normally articulate professional who can forget her words mid-sentence and suddenly find herself in a freeze state 😓

Sometimes it looks like laughing.
Sometimes it looks like losing your train of thought.
Sometimes it’s staring blankly at someone while your brain desperately searches for the words you know are in there.

And sometimes, the laughter is how we move through the discomfort of knowing that other people are waiting for our brain to come back online.

I can speak confidently in front of a room, run businesses, support families through complex situations and explain complicated concepts for a living; and still completely lose access to language in the middle of a sentence.

That’s one of the hidden realities of neurodivergence: capability isn’t always consistently accessible.

It doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about.
It doesn’t mean I wasn’t prepared.
It doesn’t mean I’m not intelligent or professional.

It means my brain sometimes freezes, overloads or drops the tab I was using - and having safe people beside me, like Chelsea, means I can laugh, reset and try again without shame. 💛

11/08/2026

Best practice early intervention says therapy should happen in the child’s natural environments and usually the families home - allowing opportunities to model to caregivers supports and strategies.

I’m not against this, and often will attend my own clients homes at their request - but it didn’t work for our family.

For us - home is home. Home is our safe place to unwind, unmask and regulate.

Having therapists and coordinators come to the home where we had to “work”, be clothed 😅 (IYKYK!), engage for a long period of time without the option of leaving, and feel like we had to present a certain way, took a whole lot more energy than the outcome achieved.

Our home environment has changed a lot over the years to adapt to our families individual and changing needs, from quiet spaces, big movement equipment, flexible dining arrangements, communication systems - but it is our safe space 😇 where as a family we connect, relax, recharge and are free to just be, authentically.

Our kids give a lot of energy to their daily routines and activities outside of the home, but they can do so a little more easily knowing there is a safe base to come back to. 💛

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Perth, WA

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