Alison, the host of The Incremental Shift podcast, shares her journey as a neurodiverse parent of four neurodiverse boys, including her experiences with ADHD and ASD. She emphasises the importance of small, intentional changes in parenting and personal growth. Alison discusses her struggles with burnout, overwhelm, and self-doubt, and how she overcame them through practical strategies and support from mentors. She highlights her efforts to advocate for her children and the challenges of navigating the medical and allied health systems. The podcast aims to provide actionable strategies, real stories, and a supportive community for parents of neurodiverse children.
1:08 - Welcome to the incremental shift podcast. This podcast is about making small, meaningful changes that create big transformations in life, parenting and personal growth as a human being. So this space is for parents, caregivers and anyone navigating life as part of a neurodiverse family, or maybe you're not sure if you're part of a neurodiverse family, that's okay. It's about real stories, actionable strategies and honest conversations that help us grow one step at a time,
1:42 - Whether you're a parent with neurodiversity, or you're parenting a neurodiverse or twice exceptional child, where you simply want to foster stronger, more authentic connections with those people around you, then this podcast is for you. So what I thought I'd do is introduce you to myself, who I am, how I got here, all of those things. And first of all, I'm neurodiverse. I am ASD, ADHD.
2:17 - I have notes. So because I have ADHD, I can't organize my thoughts very well. I find that challenging, so I have notes. So if you're watching the video, then that's what I'm looking at, and if you're listening, then sometimes it may feel a little disjointed, and that's because I'm ADHD, and my thoughts go left, right and center. So first of all, I am a mother of four neurodiverse boys. I am married to a neurodiverse husband, and I come from a neurodiverse family, so ADHD, particularly and undiagnosed ASD has been my Whole life. I have grown up in a neurodiverse family where I have seen, you know, this was 40 years ago where ADHD wasn't really spoken about much, and if it was, it was classified as the naughty boy label, I guess, which now that I have four boys, that is the most heartbreaking label to receive. Fortunately, society has changed a lot, and it's not as much classified as a naughty boy thing, but back then, when I was a child that was on reflection, now and especially as a parent, that was such a heartbreaking thing to see my parents go through, particularly my mother.
4:19 - And you know, we we have spoken about it that you know it's hard when you know that your child is different, but when you have professionals telling you it's all In your head, or they just need more discipline, or they just need more structure. That's it's really hard. The other one that that I heard a lot of was, you're just a first time mum. Give it some time, even though I. I had education and knowledge that was telling me otherwise. So I grew up in a neuro divergent family, and now I have a neuro divergent family, because the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and we tend to as people navigate towards people that are similar to us. So I found my way to my husband, my neuro diverse husband, he has ADHD as well.
5:36 - I have my my four children are also twice exceptional. So that essentially means that they are, they're gifted, but they also have the disabilities of ASD and ADHD. And I think, I think any parent of any number of neurodiverse children will understand how full on it is. And I have four of them and I'm married to one, and I am one so our lives can appear very chaotic to other people. People who are in in the closed circle would call it. I don't want to use the term organized chaos, because it's just a lot, like it's organized lot that doesn't even make sense. It's a lot, but it's organized.
6:55 - I have struggled with burnout. I've struggled with overwhelm and I've struggled with self doubt. I had to learn the burnout path a number of times before I learned the lessons I feel like now I have learnt the lessons. I'm much better at catching it before it goes to burnout, and I feel kind of the same with overwhelm, too, in that I don't really suffer from overwhelm as much anymore, because I know the tactics to get through it. Self doubt we're working on that. I think that that is a lifelong one. Maybe I hope not, but maybe because the people that I speak to who are highly successful, and I'm talking like highly successful, they still have self doubt too. So I think you just get better at pushing through it, which I have in leaps and bounds to not only within, you know, my personal and my own business things, but with with my family as well, I guess so. Why did I start the incremental shift? I started it because, because I didn't have enough to do. No, I started it because when I was going through the diagnostic, not even before then, when I was going through the whole thing of this is not neurotypical, and back then, I didn't know neurotypical versus neurodiverse. I just knew that my child was not like everyone else's child.
9:15 - As a teacher, t he this child would have been put in the just a little bit quirky kind of label, but I wasn't settling for that, and I just I knew there was more to it, and the more that I pushed, the more the pushback was, you know, you're a first time mum. Just, you know, yes, Parenting is hard. You know, those kinds of really disempowering and invalidating statements and not true. Statements as well, and I just knew that I needed more. I didn't know what it was, but I needed more and I needed different, because that's what my child needed, and my job is to be an advocate for my child. So as we traipsed across from specialist to specialist to allied health to allied health,and I still like there were glimmers of support and there were glimmers of answers, and there was glimmers of hope. They kind of, they were few and far between, and it got to the point where it was like, it was like, it just, it still didn't quite fit. And you felt like you were just on this medical, allied health merry go round, which costs a lot of money and costs a lot of time, a lot of driving, a lot of stress, a lot of overthinking, a lot of over processing. You know, it just it took a lot, and I just kept thinking this, this. It shouldn't be this hard. Why is it this hard?
11:23- And I think when my youngest got to prep sorry just to backtrack because I wasn't getting the answers that seemed to fit, I then started doing study in all kinds of things and not t ypical things, like autism studies, I didn't do that. I did more like parenting strategies and and coaching and because I knew that it wasn't the answers weren't going to be typically academic. I knew that they were going to be more practical based I just knew that. So I did training with parenting experts from the United States, which was incredible. I did one on one training with, with, with a gentleman from the United States, and I had an amazing mentor where I lived at the time. And those two people really springboarded is that the word me into where I am now I will be forever grateful to them, because they changed the trajectory of my parenting back then. Maggie dent too,and anyway, so I did all these kind of courses, diplomas, certificates, because I just knew that I needed more. My children needed more. I couldn't give the attention to, you know, like a post grad degree or anything like that. Hello, Mum of four here. I didn't have time for that, but I could do the little bits on the side, so I did that. And then when my youngest went to school in prep, I started the incremental shift. And when I say, I started it, I started it in terms of I would share things with other parents who were struggling, and what I shared was making a difference in their home life, in their relationship, in their parenting, in their family, and the more and more that happened, I then had someone say to me, just you need to turn this into a business. You need to share this more with the world, because more people are going through the exact path that you went through, and they're on this merry go round of medical and allied health, which has its place. 100% medical and allied health have their place, but it feels like, when you're in it, it feels like you're just being flung from one thing to the next, hoping that something or someone, or some form of specialist help will stick, and I guess technically, I am still on that roundabout. In the meantime, though I have because, because no child listen against their parent all that much they learn. Even you know, like you will say something to your child, and then the exact same thing will be said by another adult, and they will be like, yeah, that's such an awesome idea. So my children are no different. So anyway, so that's, you know, I over the years of doing my, you know, not even as a business, just of supporting other other parents, I realized that we often feel like, or the time it's like you have to make this huge, sweeping change to fix things.
15:52 - But what I've really learned is that real impactful shifts happen incrementally, so through the small, the thoughtful, intentional steps, and that's the philosophy that I want to share here. Yes, I hope that you enjoy it and come along with me for the ride.
16:20 - The podcast will be a variety of interviews, Q and A's, book reviews, all kinds of things. But I just wanted to also explain a little bit further about what I do at The Incremental Shift. So essentially, I support parents; my background, my life, me I because I come from a neurodiverse family, and I have one I do have more of an appreciation and understanding of what it's like to be in a neurodiverse family. Be a neurodiverse parent raising neurodiverse children that said, if you align with what I say and what I what I'm doing, then you know, and you're not neurodiverse. Yeah, that's awesome, too. I help families navigate challenges with a strengths based, values driven baseline. I guess I always come from strengths based and values driven.
17:43 - I think that ADHD children, and therefore children who grow up to be adults,are pinged so often for, you know, not doing this or not being able to do that. So coming from the strengths based, values driven, baseline is always more positive, more happy, more light, more encouraging, that kind of thing. So that's why I do that.
18:19 - It also comes from the perspective of, you know, gratitude and thankfulness and what you have, as opposed to your deficit and what you don't have. At the moment, I have some memberships. I have the village membership,which is a community membership for connection, accountability and growth, and I also have the Oasis, which is a library of self paced courses and resources for learning and applying practical tools. And both of those work really well together. Both of those are growing at this point in time as well, which is fantastic, but both of them, too work independently of each other, I feel like my personal and professional experience will suit a lot of people in that I, you know, I have my family of four neurodiverse kids, married to a neurodiverse, lovely husband. I have been a teacher, so I'm across the early years in terms of I studied early childhood education, so that is prep to technically prep to grade three. But during my work life, I went right up to grade seven. I also own a childcare center, so zero to six year olds as well.
20:06 - And I just have a love of learning, so I'm really interested in learning all things, children, psychology, ADHD, ASD, twice, exceptionals. And everything I create, whether it's a course or a community or the podcast, is deeply based in what I've learned through my own experiences.So everything that I talk about is stuff and do, and in my courses, is stuff that I have done.
20:50 - So I hope that that gives you a bit of a background in who I am and what I do with the incremental shift in terms of what listeners, what you guys, can expect from the podcast. So we will be covering, when I say we, that's me, myself and my guests will be covering parenting strategies for neurodiverse and twice exceptional children. We'll also be navigating personal growth, because the biggest game changer in your parenting and family dynamics and connections is personal growth. Sorry if that is triggering for people. Stick with me. We do it incrementally, but also navigating burnout as a as a parent, but also as a partner, there will be stories of resilience and connection from real families. We will talk about some tools for building authentic relationships and fostering of that really values driven family dynamic. There will be solo episodes, there will be guest interviews, sharing diverse perspectives and experiences, it will be recorded very casually in that I am literally about to cough and have a drink of water. And the reason why I want to do that is because this is not like parenting. There is no part of the parenting gig that is perfect or has to be perfect. Therefore this podcast won't be either I am not perfect. Things I do are not perfect.
22:53 - So in keeping with that, we do not strive for perfection. We strive for progress and understanding and awareness, there will be short relaxations, because as an overthinker, and as someone who you know juggles a whole lot of balls, as someone who has a Whole lot of thoughts, because that's what inattentive add is ADHD is, as someone with ADHD, I have a whole pile of thoughts going through at once, and relaxations have really forced, I guess, encouraged me to stop, take a breath, focus on my breath, and just be. And that has been critical. It's also something that in the beginning I was like, Oh, I just don't have time. Just don't have time. And once I made the time, I seek them out now in order to regulate my nervous system, and each episode will also give you something small, actionable and meaningful to try.
24:10 - Just give it a whirl. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work,but, but you know, at least we've tried some new strategy. And you know what they might even be, strategies you've tried before. But guess what? Kids change so do parents. It's not about overhauling your life or any aspect of your life. It's just
step by step. So this is a total judgment free zone. As I said, we are not aiming for perfection. We're aiming for progress. We're aiming for connection. We're aiming for genuine, authenticity. I think that there is a lot of I don't want to use the word fake, because it's not fake. Well, it is fake, but there's a lot of you know, with the world, with social media, it's all portrayed as you know, if it's not peachy, it's kind of it's still picture perfect.
25:14 - And I'm not picture perfect. My life is not picture perfect. Parenting is challenging. It is challenging, and I know that life can feel overwhelming, especially when you're juggling life, let alone juggling life out of neurodivergent children. And this podcast is really here to remind you that you are not alone and that even the smallest shifts can lead to big changes, and also just hearing from other people going through the same things, going through similar things, can be so validating and helpful. If this resonates with you, please hit the subscribe button so you don't miss an episode. And if you know someone who could benefit from this, please share it with them. I would love to hear from you. So what are you hoping to learn or explore?
26:16 - Please, please fee free to reach out to my website or my Instagram, which is The Incremental Shift.
26:26 - Thank you so much for being here and for taking this first episode, hopefully with love and gratitude. And I'm really excited to share this with you, and I'm sure the first episodes are going to be bumpy, but I'm ignoring the self doubt, and I'm pushing through anyway, and I'm actually really excited to share this journey with you, and I am going to Make it as relatable, genuine and authentic as possible, and I'm excited. So welcome, thank you, and don't forget, it's not about giant leaps. It's not about total ovals, it's about making incremental shifts. So thank you so much for joining me for my first episode for the incremental shift podcast. See you next time. Thank you for joining me on the incremental shift. I hope today's episode gave you something to reflect on, or a practical step to move forward with. Remember, it's not about giant leaps and total overhauls. It's about starting with small, intentional shifts that add up to a big difference over time. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, leave a review or share it with someone who might need it. And if you'd like to connect further, visit me at theincrementalshift.com or follow along on social media at The Incremental Shift. Until next time take care team.
Thank you for joining me on the The Incremental Shift. I hope today's episode gave you something to reflect on or a practical step to move forward with. Remember, it's not about giant leaps and total overhauls. It's about starting with small, intentional shifts that add up to a big difference over time. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, leave a review or share it with someone who might need it, and if you'd like to connect further, visit me at theincrementalshift.com or follow along on social media at The Incremental Shift until next time take care team you.
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