AB Consultancy

Let's continue to be curious!

And I cannot wait to meet the team in January! Humbled at the incredible opportunity! Andy McDonnell 🇦🇺🦘🌏🐨🏉

Make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to hear the most incredible speakers at this online web conference hosted by Studio III.

📢 Commissioner Liana Buchanan will be joining child safety leaders from around Australia at the upcoming summit on children and young people at risk. 📝 Find more information and register here: https://lnkd.in/gugR-Ahk

Free workshop on the new NDIS laws and how this may change how you can utilise your funding.

Inside my Brain 🧠 The Salad Conundrum The Double Empathy Problem, from Dr. Damian Milton, posits that communication is a two-way street. Think of it like two people speaking different languages — it’s not that one person is bad at talking, they just communicate differently! From a neurodivergent perspective, it highlights that autistic people have their own unique ways of seeing and understanding the world, and neurotypical folks often have a hard time “getting” that. So, it’s not just about Autistic people needing to adapt, but also about everyone learning to understand each other better. #thedoubleempathyproblem #communication #thesaladconundrum #ydkwydk

If you don’t learn about how your brain is different, you might not understand why you think or feel in certain ways. It’s like being in a dark room and not knowing what’s around you. It is a lonely and isolated world to exist in. But when someone that does understand helps you understand your unique brain, it’s like turning on the light. It also helps others to understand you. #disabilityacceptance #audhdbrains #competingprofiles #neurodiversity #abconsultancy #stress

This is why I’d love to see a shift with our NDIS funding model for children especially! While the NDIS has made therapies more accessible for some, there is very limited supports for the actual families and providers to understand how to best support the person. Trying to disseminate the information we have available to support them is very difficult when many are already just barely making it through the day. I just wanted to throw the next report out, not read it after countless headaches of dealing with paperwork and red tape to get basic services in place. I just wanted quick solutions and didn’t know I needed more education of how to build his skills! I should have, because I worked in disability! But it’s so different when it’s family. Quick response strategies generally don’t decrease anything but only sustain the stress responses. They are almost always a compliance based action, only escalate the stress response and don’t explore why. Nor do they help the person understand their stress response. I was only talking to a young adult about that today. Even they said ‘How to adults think saying ‘calm down’ to a kid is going to work? I get even angrier! How’s a kid going to know what to do?’ (Very Insightful) A few minutes after a session or a few minutes on the phone to a parent or support doesn’t give them the tools to make long term change and they don’t miraculously get a download overnight after their child receives a diagnosis. #findthewhy #youdontknowwhatyoudontknow #wholepersonapproach #windowoftolerance #skillbuilding

Language matters. The use of minimising language can feature at times in some media, in relation to child abuse. This can be dangerous for children and young people. We rely on the media for information, and when child abuse is minimised, it influences public perception, making it harder to recognise and address the true extent of the problem. Language that downplays the seriousness of child abuse – phrases like "incident" or “relationship” characterising abuse reduces the sense of urgency in addressing the issue. Constant exposure to this minimising language can desensitise us to the gravity and impact of child abuse. Over time, this can reduce the societal momentum that drives policy changes needed to protect children, and contribute to a culture where abusive behaviour towards children is overlooked. Minimising language can also shift blame onto victim survivors of child abuse. Phrases like "alleged" or "claimed" cast doubt on their experiences, which can make it harder for them to seek the support they need. Victim survivors who see their experiences minimised in the media may feel invalidated and misunderstood, which exacerbates the trauma of their abuse and hinders their recovery journey. Using accurate, clear, and unambiguous language in media coverage of child abuse is crucial for raising awareness, ensuring appropriate responses, and fostering a society where child abuse is unequivocally condemned and actively combated.

Tuning into our bodies is crucial, as our bodies ‘track’ our experiences and often know things before our minds do. As Bessel van der Kolk recognised in his seminal work, our bodies keep the score. We've created a new e-book focused on 'body feelings' to help children explore what happens in their bodies when they feel emotions. It includes descriptions and beautiful illustrations to help children learn about bodily sensations. Describing these sensations allows children to better understand and process them. Read our latest blog to learn more and download the e-book. You can print it as a story or posters for the children in your life to add their own 'body feelings' pictures.