Come join Spencer and our amazing speakers at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! Info & tickets here.

How a broken child can change the world.

At 15, Spencer McNeil tried to take his own life. He grew up in foster care, lost his stepdad at a young age, left school early, and was told by teachers he would never amount to anything. He believed every word.

Today he owns Barber Spence. He’s a mental health advocate changing lives. And at EPIC Families live, he will stand on a stage in front of 500 families and tell them something every parent of a neurodiverse child needs to hear.

In this episode, you'll hear:

📖 Spencer's extraordinary story: from a broken home and foster care to barbershop owner, mental health advocate, and keynote speaker.

🎓 Why the things teachers said to him as a child became the things he believed about himself..and the moment he decided to stop believing them.

❤️‍🩹 Why vulnerability is not weakness, and why the most powerful thing you can do is tell someone you're not okay.

💪 The concept of the broken man trying to heal broken men…and why you have to fill your own cup before you can fill anyone else's.

💤 What Spencer says to the parents lying awake at night wondering if they're doing enough.

🧠 Why the ADHD brain, channelled in the right direction, can genuinely take over the world.

💬 Why our darkest moments show us who our reals are 3am…and why reaching out is always the right move.

This is one of the most powerful, raw, and life-affirming conversations we have ever had on the EPIC Families Podcast. If you are a parent who has ever worried that your child is too broken, too different, too lost…Spencer McNeil is the proof that they are not.

The child you are worried about today could be the one who transforms a life tomorrow.

Follow Spencer on Instagram here.

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come meet Penelope and the awesome Crimson Global Academy team at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! More details here.

What If School Was Built Around Your Child…Not the Other Way Around?

Every neurodiverse family knows the feeling: The phone calls from the teacher. The emails. The labels. The sense that your child is a square peg being forced into a very round hole. And the quiet, crushing belief that this is just how education works…and there are no other options.

Penelope Barton, CEO of Crimson Global Academy, is here to tell you that's a false assumption. And she's built an entire education system to prove it.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🏫 How Crimson Global Academy went from 20 students in 2020 to over 3,000 students studying across 70 countries — and why the timing of its launch was almost perfectly accidental.

🎓 Why something as simple as a scratchy school uniform was genuinely life-changing for one of their students…and what that tells us about the education system.

🧠 Why bespoke minds need bespoke education…and how the Academy is rebuilding every aspect of school from the ground up.

❤️‍🩹 The concept of "productive struggle" and why swooping in to save our kids from difficulty might actually be holding them back.

💡 Why the options available to neurodiverse families are so much wider than most parents realise.

💻 The hybrid model that's changing everything: Combining online learning with physical school days for the best of both worlds.

🎉 How education needs to be transformed.,,and why the incentive structures in our current system are fundamentally broken

Discover more about Crimson Global Academy and how they can transform your child’s learning here: https://www.crimsonglobalacademy.school/nz

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come join Sarah and our other amazing speakers at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! Grab your tickets here.

Four kids. A growing food business. Twin nine-year-olds (one with ASD & ADHD, one with ASD). Two and a half years on a public waitlist with barely a phone call in between. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, finding a way to keep going, keep showing up, and keep filling everyone else's cup when yours is running dangerously low.

Sarah Gillum is a mum, an entrepreneur, and one of the most refreshingly honest voices we have had on the EPIC Families Podcast. And in this conversation, she holds nothing back.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🧠 How Sarah's twins went from a two-and-a-half-year public waitlist to finally getting the answers their family needed.

🔎 Why Evie's autism went unnoticed for so long…and what finally connected the dots.

❤️ How Sarah talks to her kids about their diagnoses…and why keeping it simple and positive was the right call for their family.

🏷️ Why the label matters less than the support it unlocks, and how to hold both truths at once.

🍰 What running Real Rad Food has taught Sarah about boundaries, burnout, and showing up as a regulated parent.

🎯 The hunter brain theory…and why neurodivergent kids might just be built for entrepreneurship.

🎉 Why confident, fulfilled parents are one of the greatest gifts we can give our children.

This is a conversation about the juggle, the guilt, the grace, and the moments when you realise that showing up imperfectly is still showing up. And sometimes that is more than enough.

Discover more about Sarah and Real Rad Food here: https://realradfood.co.nz/ and follow them on Instagram here

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come join Elen and our amazing speakers at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! More details here.

The Expert Who Untangles What Nobody Else Can.

Every neurodiverse family reaches a point where they know something is wrong, they know they need help, and they have absolutely no idea where to start. Too much information. Too many waitlists. Too many professionals who don't quite get it. And not enough time, energy, or clarity to figure out the next step.

Elen Nathan gets it. As an occupational therapist, sensory integration specialist, and founder of The Playful Place in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, she has spent her career doing one thing above all else: untangling what nobody else can. 

In this episode, you'll hear:

❤️‍🩹 Why Elen's premature son set her on the path to becoming one of New Zealand's leading voices in sensory integration

🗺️ What "wayfinding" is…and why it might be the most important first step any family can take

📱The concept of "infobesity”, and why all the information on your social media feed might actually be making things worse

🏆 Why traditional strategies like sticker charts and reward systems simply don't work for neurodivergent children…and what does

🚫 What to do when one parent isn't on board…and the powerful question she asks that changes everything

🤞 Why hope can actually feel dangerous for families who have been let down too many times

👀 Why compassion isn't enough…and what "empathy with action" really looks like

🫶 The moment Elen realised her job isn't just to support the child or the parent…it's to support the relationship between them

If you have ever felt lost, overwhelmed, or like nobody really understands what your family is going through, this conversation is the hand on your shoulder you have been waiting for.

Discover more about Elen and her work here: https://theplayfulplace.co.nz/

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard, and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come join us at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! More details here

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She Fought Every System. And She Won.

Some parents ask for help and get it. Anna Knight asked for help and was told: "nothing to see here". She was told to come back when her son was four. She was told her anxiety was the problem. She was told the behaviors were under control...while she was going home covered in bruises.

She kept fighting anyway. And what she built on the other side of that fight will give every struggling parent real, tangible hope.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🚫 How a daycare manager's offhand observation set Anna on a years-long journey through a system that repeatedly let her family down

🧠 Why her son's autism was missed again and again...and what finally got him diagnosed

🗺️ Why the strategies on every parenting course she attended simply didn't work...and what actually did

🎓 The two types of teachers: and why one of them can change everything for a neurodiverse child

🧩 Why sensory needs are the missing piece that nobody talks about...and how understanding them transformed her son's life

🎉 The mindset shift that changed everything: from fixing the child to changing the environment

🚀 What it means to get yourself diagnosed to become a positive role model for your own child

This is one of the most honest, raw, and genuinely important conversations we have ever had on the EPIC Families Podcast. Anna says the quiet part out loud so that every parent who has ever felt alone in this fight knows the truth: they are not.

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Join Anna in our free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🎉 Join us at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! More details here.🎉

She Looked Around and Saw Nothing. So She Built Everything.

Every neurodiverse family knows the feeling: The park visit that ends in meltdown. The soft play centre that leaves your child dysregulated for two days. The birthday party that looked fine to everyone else…and cost you 48 hours of chaos at home. The constant sense of being on guard, never quite able to breathe.

Jorgia Curtis felt all of it. And then she decided to do something about it.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🧠 How Jorgia's son was diagnosed with Autism at just two years old, and why this inspired her to create something the entire Bay of Plenty was crying out for.

❓Why getting a diagnosis can feel like the beginning of even more questions… and what families actually need on the other side of it

💡The moment Jorgia visited a sensory play centre in Auckland and thought: "Why can't EVERY family have this?"

🫣The reality of public play places for neurodiverse families… and why so many parents have simply stopped trying

🎉What NeuroPlay Studios will actually look like: soft play, dark rooms, trampolines, music sessions, sensory equipment, and a community space where no one has to explain themselves

❤️‍🩹 The powerful secret that reveals why parents need inclusive play spaces as much as their children do.

🚀 What it actually takes to go from a crazy idea to a charity to a real physical space in eight months

This is a story about a mum who saw a gap, felt the fear, and jumped anyway. And in doing so, she is building something that will change the lives of thousands of families in New Zealand and beyond.

You can connect with Jorgia by email ([email protected]), discover more about NeuroPlay Studios here and donate here.

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Your Child Isn't Lazy. The System Just Wasn't Built For Them.

What happens when a 23-year-old who left school early, worked 13 jobs, and got labelled ‘lazy’ and ‘entitled’ decides to do something about it? She builds a business that fights for every young person the system wrote off.

Nicole Hoeata is the CEO of Growth Hungry. She’s on a mission to bridge the biggest generational divide in workplace history, and make sure that neurodiverse, misunderstood, and square-peg young people finally find their place in the world.

This is for every parent who has ever worried about their child's future. And for every young person who has ever been told they just need to fall in line.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🔎 Why Gen Z are not lazy or entitled…and what's really going on beneath the surface

⁉️ The staggering stat that puts it all into perspective: the average young person today carries the same level of anxiety as a psychiatric patient in the 1970s

🚫 Why 70 to 80% of companies hire people into the wrong role…and what that means for neurodiverse young people

🏢 The generational divide playing out in workplaces right now…and why neither side is wrong

🤒 Why workplaces need to stop worrying about employees faking sickness and start worrying about employees faking wellness

❤️‍🩹 The one question Nicole asks after every experience — good or bad — that puts you back in control

🔀 Why every rejection is just redirection — and why no experience is ever wasted

📈 Should every neurodiverse young person just skip the job and start the business? Nicole gives her honest answer

If you have a young person in your life who is struggling to find their place — in school, in work, or in the world — this conversation will give you both hope and a roadmap.

Discover more about Growth Hungry here and connect with Nicole here .

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Giving tween queens the confidence to build a kingdom.

For so many girls, the journey from childhood to teenage years doesn't feel like growing up. It feels like losing themselves. The body changes. The friendships get complicated. The social media comparisons start. And nobody — not school, not mum, not anyone — quite prepares them for what's really happening.

Mariana Sala decided to change that.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🎂 What the "tween years" actually are…and why this window between ages 7 and 12 is one of the most critical and overlooked stages of a girl's development

🪞Why body image issues are starting younger than ever, and what mums might be doing without realising that makes it worse

❤️‍🩹 How neurodivergent girls experience this transition differently…and why masking, shame, and fitting in hit harder for them

🌹The "Rose and Thorn" ritual that gets girls opening up about things they'd never say at home

💥 Why mum and daughter conflict at this age isn't a crisis, it's biology

🤫 The double transition nobody talks about: when a daughter hits puberty at the same time mum hits midlife

🫶 What dads can actually do, and why father-daughter time matters more than most dads realise

👑 Queen Language, the Glowing Bubble, and the Inner Compass: the tools Mariana gives girls to own their voice and protect their peace

If you have a daughter, know a daughter, or were once a daughter who could have used someone in your corner during those uncertain in-between years, this conversation is for you.

Discover more about Mariana and Tween To Teen Queen here and connect with Mariana directly on Instagram and LinkedIn

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard, and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stop Talking. Start Playing

What if the most powerful thing you could do for your struggling child wasn't another appointment, another assessment, or another parenting book…but simply getting on the floor and playing with them?

Melanie Gilbert-De Rios has spent 35 years working with children and families. She's a registered social worker, a child-centred play therapist, and a family therapist. Most importantly, she believes something that might just change the way you see your child forever: that play is not what children do instead of healing. Play IS how children heal.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🧸 What play therapy actually is…and why it's SO much more than toys in a room

🚀 Why breakthroughs never happen in uncomfortable chairs in clinical rooms...and what to do instead

🧠 The concept of Filial Family Therapy…and why psychologists once tried to ban it for being too powerful

🪁 How 30 minutes of protected, intentional play time each week can transform your relationship with your child

💥 Why the behaviour you're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg...and what's really going on underneath

🫣 The one thing most parents do that quietly teaches their kids NOT to take responsibility (Freddie is guilty as charged…)

❤️‍🩹 Why empathy isn't something you teach a child, it's something they catch from you

🎁 The gift that matters more than Robux, more than screen time, and more than any toy in Mel's incredible playroom

If you've ever wondered whether your child is OK, whether you are OK, or whether things are ever going to feel less chaotic, this is a conversation you need to hear.

Discover more about Mel and Play Therapy Tauranga here: https://www.playtherapytauranga.co.nz/

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard, and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She Almost Lost Everything. Then She Built a Village.

What do you do when the system fails your child?

When Lisa Cowan's son Luca was five, he was being sent out of class almost every day. She had no idea. It wasn't until a little girl in his class asked, "So Luca, are you going to stay in class today?" that Lisa found out what was really happening. What followed was years of waitlists, wrong turns, stand-downs, and moments so dark that Lisa didn't know if she could keep going.

But she did. And what she built on the other side will move you.

In this episode, you'll hear:

💥 How Lisa fought the public system for years — falling off waitlists, being told "that's just normal" — until she finally got Luca the diagnosis that changed everything.

🫶 Why she started It Takes a Village Papamoa…and how 56 local businesses showed up before she even had an audience

🛠️ The LEGO moment that told her the medication was working

🧠 Why lived experience might be more powerful than any parenting course

🎓 The school assembly that made her cry…four years in the making

🧩 Her vision for one place where neurodivergent families can come and never feel like a number

❤️‍🩹 And the stat that should shock every parent: up to 95% of young people in the worst statistics — crime, imprisonment, self-harm — are diagnosed or undiagnosed ADHD

This is a raw, honest, and deeply human conversation about what it really looks like to fight for your child when no one else will. It's about shame, exhaustion, isolation…and the extraordinary things that happen when you simply refuse to give up.

Connect with Lisa on Facebook: It Takes a Village Papamoa here.

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. 

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard, and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.