Autism-specific training and support for Parents of Autistic children including PDAers

We have designed the program to be 100% flexible so just commit whatever time you have each week. 
If you want a rough schedule, each topic has 3-4 short videos which work out to about two hours per week.  Remember you have lifetime access so just make your way through the program your way. 

The group counselling sessions are held during the day and in the evening.  Your welcome email will have the exact date and times of our live chat.  Everyone is emailed a private replay link so you will never miss any info. 

Yes, Absolutely!

The Carer/Parent Training line item we use is universal across ECI and NDIS plans.

Early Intervention and Skill Development: Parent training provides parents with tools to engage their children in strategies for early intervention. When parents learn evidence-based techniques to use at home, children have more chances to develop essential skills and reduce behavioral issues.

The same criteria apply as an NDIS plan.  If you are unsure check out the first FAQ “Is my plan eligible?”

Barbara’s Story

Yes. We encourage both parents to do the program regardless of their living or marital situation and only charge one fee.

Just fill out the enrolment form with one parent’s details and when we send you your welcome email let us know you would like a second parent set up.  We just need their name, email, and phone number and we’ll set them up with their own access to make their way through the course at their own pace.

If you both want to do the training but would prefer not to be on the same live course, we can set you up to do different programs so you feel safe to share.

Regardless of whether your child has an Autism diagnosis or not you are welcome on the program! If you are facing challenges such as meltdowns, shutdowns, high anxiety, aggressive behaviour, or school avoidance and feel you would benefit from a neuro-affirming program we would love to have you.

Many parents join using their child’s ECI Plan with just a Global Developmental Delay diagnosis.  Or if you don’t have access to any NDIS funding you are absolutely welcome to join using our upfront or payment plan options

We take enrolments through the first week of the enrolment closing date.  You are definitely not too late.

We get you might have found us late-night Facebook scrolling and enrolments may have just closed.  Don’t stress, once we receive your enrolment form we can have everything set up for you our end within one business day.  

If you are enrolling using an NDIS plan just fill out our enrolment form ASAP, so we know you want to join us.

The first live session isn’t until 2-weeks after the closing date to give everyone time to get started and settle into the learning.

PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance or ‘Pervasive Drive for Autonomy’) individuals share Autistic characteristics and in addition have many of the ‘key features’ of a PDA profile:

• Resisting and avoiding the ordinary demands of life
• Using social strategies as part of the avoidance
• Appearing ‘socially able’ but this may mask underlying differences/difficulties in social interaction and communication
• Experiencing intense emotions and mood swings
• Appearing comfortable in role-play, pretense and fantasy
• Intense focus, often on other people (real or fictional)
• A need for control, often driven by anxiety or an automatic ‘threat response’
• Conventional approaches in support, parenting or teaching are ineffective

Autism is dimensional, which means that it varies a lot from one person to another. A PDA profile describes one way in which Autism presents.  If you are unsure if your child is a PDAer, using declarative language and other PDA techniques will do no harm but could be an absolute gamechanger for the both of you!

A child (or adult) can be given an ODD diagnosis without an Autism diagnosis; however every child/adult diagnosed with PDA is Autistic. 

In Autism, demands can be avoided due to increased anxiety surrounding everyday activities and situations, such as sensory overload, disruption to routines, difficulty transitioning from one activity to another, and activities/events that they don’t see the point of or have any interest.

In PDA it is the DEMAND ITSELF that creates the anxiety.  With PDA it’s a case of Can’t not Won’t.  Often even enjoyable tasks cannot be actioned because of the anxiety around the perceived demand.

The NDIS does not pay for future-dated services.   However, we are a bit of a unicorn as we offer a lifetime service so can’t bill at the end of our services.

Although you are joining a live version of our Autism Parenting Program, because we give you instant and lifetime access to all of our self-paced training and counselling resources, we satisfy the NDIS requirement that the services we are billing for are provided at the time of invoicing.

We have processed more than 3,000 of this exact invoice through the NDIS over the last few years and have spoken about our program with most large plan management companies.  If your PM has an issue, it is usually just a quick call with us, and the invoice is processed.

Jackie Hall, founder of The Parental Stress Centre and course facilitator, is a qualified counselor and a member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA). With 16+ years in the mental health field, her expertise encompasses trauma, anxiety, depression, personality disorders, eating disorders, and more. 

Her proficiencies include CBT for Anxiety and Depression, 11 years of Trauma Counselling including EMDR, residential youth care with complex needs Autistic children, and training in addressing challenging child behaviors using Solution-Focused Therapy and Trauma-informed approaches. 

Jackie is passionate about creating a neuro-affirming culture, helping parents, and ensuring young Autistic people feel safe, seen, and understood.

We have some amazing testimonials from parents of toddlers all the way up to parents of young adults and everything in between.  Our goal is always to help you to understand why a certain behaviour makes sense to your child and give you a bunch of tools and strategies to help.

We are all about helping you to create tailored and consistent support: Nobody knows a child better than their parents. Parent training allows strategies to be personalized according to the child’s specific needs, ensuring that the tools used are appropriate and effective. 

Wherever we give younger children examples we will give an older example and vice versa