About Me

Hi, I’m Cindy.

I’m a mum of three incredible neurodivergent kids—now aged 20, 18, and 12 who all share diagnoses of ADHD, autism, and PDA. Each one of them has shown me, in their own unique way, that there is no single “neurodivergent experience.” Their brains may share similarities, but how they live, feel, and express themselves is beautifully different.

My parenting journey started nearly two decades ago when my eldest was diagnosed at age 3. Since then, I’ve navigated countless systems; traditional schools, Catholic schools, virtual schooling, homeschooling, unschooling; and witnessed how often our children are misunderstood or forced into environments that don’t fit them. Over time, all three of my children have come to recognise their PDA profiles, giving me lived experience in both internalised and externalised demand avoidance, and the survival responses of freeze, flight, fight, and fawn.

While I am not neurodivergent myself, I have been studying for the last 20+ years at the university of life, listening, and amplifying my children’s truths. While I wont be graduating anytime soon, we have won some victories on the way. I don’t speak for them, but I do hope to act as an ally, to shoulder some of the work of advocacy, so families like ours can find understanding and support. There has been progress I have seen, from the name change and ideals of “curing” to realising the communication of non-verbal autistics to removing restraints, but there are areas we still have to work at build understanding. Everything I share here has been checked with my older children, because their lived experience matters most.

I believe in radical acceptance, co-regulation, and putting the relationship before the rulebook. My aim is to help parents become that safe base while supporting the unique child they actually have.

Therapists I’ve worked with often say my approach helps them see things differently too. That’s why I offer professional development for clinicians, so more professionals can support PDA families with compassion, respect, and hope.