Neurodivergent Conversations | Autism, ADHD, AuDHD, PDA, Emotional Regulation, SEND parent, Meltdowns, Special Needs Parent

Her sister was diagnosed with ADHD in middle school. So was her dad. And JoAnn spent years insisting it definitely wasn't her.

Her sister presented the way we all expect ADHD to look. Couldn't sit still, all over the place, pushing back against authority. JoAnn didn't look like that at all, so she assumed she was in the clear, and quietly carried a lot of shame instead. The klutziness. Running into walls. Going into class determined that today would be the day she paid attention, and catching herself 10 minutes later having heard none of it.

...

She teaches families how to sleep for a living. And then her own bedtimes fell apart.

Michelle is a paediatric sleep specialist, so she knew every rule in the book. Bath, teeth, pyjamas, story, bed. It had worked. And then, seemingly overnight, it stopped. Bedtime battles climbing, teeth brushing refused, baths refused. She sat in it feeling baffled, convinced she must be doing something wrong, and quietly not telling anyone because how do you admit you are struggling with bedtime when bedtime is your job?

What shifted it wasn't a new technique. It was letting...

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She married young, with an anxiety diagnosis, and assumed the wedding would fix it. It did not.

Jackie is back, which makes her my very first repeat guest, and this conversation went exactly where you would expect two ADHD brains to go, which is everywhere. We didn't prepare questions. We just hit record.

She talks first about showing up authentically online versus in real life, and why the internet has always felt safer than a room with two people in it.<...

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She was 21 years old before she found out that most people do not love their job.

Angela grew up in a family where her dad fell in love with cars at 12, shined shoes outside a church for a quarter a go, bought and fixed up his first car at 16, and built a life inside the thing he loved. Nobody sat her down and explained any of this. She just absorbed it. Find the thing at 12. Charge for it at 16. Build the career.

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If you started out with a clear picture of the kind of parent you'd be, and then real life quietly dismantled the whole thing, this episode is going to feel like someone finally gets it.

This week I'm joined by Carrie Grant, mom of four (one of whom joined their family through adoption), an autistic mama herself, and someone who has run a support group for more than 300 SEND families for nearly 15 years. Carrie talks about the moment...

If you've ever had that quiet little feeling that something with your child is just a bit different, and you couldn't quite put it into words for anyone else, this episode is going to feel like a deep exhale.

This week I sat down with Karla, who taught for 15 years in mainstream schools, moved into specialist neurodiversity settings, and then walked this whole journey herself as a mum. She works with parents in that tender, confusing space before there's any label or answer, and she breaks down the five stages so many of us move through without...

When you're hearing this, my family and I are in full wedding celebration mode, because one of my brothers is getting married. And while we are beyond excited, I know that for a lot of us a wedding invite can land with a stomach drop instead of a happy dance.

In this episode I walk you through exactly how we prepare our neurodivergent kids, and my own nervous system, for big family gatherings like weddings. These days stack every tricky thing on top of each other all at once. A new place, loud sounds, bright lights, itchy...

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Her son signed his first word back after a full year of her signing to him. One year. At a fridge. Asking for milk.

If you have ever been told "have you looked into Makaton?" and then felt your stomach drop because that sounds like one more thing to learn, this conversation is going to feel like a big exhale.

I'm sitting down with Kaley, a Makaton tutor and the mum behind @sign_possible. Her son Rui...

If your child's meltdowns, big feelings, and constant motion have ever left you wondering what is really going on underneath it all, this episode is going to give you a whole new lens.

This week I'm joined by Dana Kay, founder of the ADHD Thrive Institute, who has worked with more than 1,600 families and walked this road with her own son, who was diagnosed at four and is now 16 and thriving. After years of trial-and-error with medication, Dana went back to school, dug into the science, and started looking at ADHD symptoms in a completely different way.<...

If you've ever stared at a 40-page IEP and thought “I know what all these words mean, but I have no idea what they mean together,” this episode is for you.

This week I'm joined by Vicki Christensen, a parent advocate of about a decade and mom to two boys who both have IEPs and are wonderfully different from each other. Vicki has sat on both sides of these meetings, as the professional in the room and as the mum who once walked in with an empty binder and just hoped everyone was doing the right thing for...

If you're raising more than one neurodivergent kid and quietly wondering why what works for one does absolutely nothing for the other, this conversation is going to feel like such a relief.

This week I'm joined by Dalisse Sequeiros, mom to two autistic boys who could not be more different, and a children's book author who turned her family's real life into stories that help other kids feel seen. Along the way, Dalisse was also diagnosed as autistic herself, so she's parenting and understanding her own brain at the same time, something she beautifully calls rewriting her...

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If you have ever built the perfect color-coded chart, laminated it, felt so proud of it, and then watched it fall apart by Tuesday, this episode is for you.

Greer opens with a picture you might recognize: 7:42 in the morning, cold coffee, a child on the kitchen floor over socks before shoes, and that sinking thought, "I did everything right. Why is the system not working?" Here is the gentle truth she landed on. The system was not broken. The expectation was.

This whole...

Have you ever tried to talk your neurodivergent child through a big feeling and just hit a wall? Same. In this episode I sat down with Katherine, a neuro-affirming counsellor and craniosacral therapist, to talk about why words are not always the way in, and what to reach for instead.

We start somewhere that might gently rearrange how you think about feelings. You know the “name it to tame it” idea? Katherine reminds us that naming a feeling is actually the last step, not the first. For so many neurodivergent and highly sensitive kids, the felt experience in t...

If mornings in your house feel like a pressure cooker that goes off before you've even had your coffee — this episode is for you.

Greer sits down with Rob Edmonds, co-founder of MindShift Mentors and a strategic psychotherapist and clinical hypnotherapist, and Carl (Col), a movement coach who has worked with over 3,000 families. Together, they've created a program called Morning Wars — a dual approach that combines intentional movement with cognitive pattern reprogramming to help ADHD kids (and their whole families) actually change the morning experience.

What they share in this conversation is both validating and genu...

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If you've ever crouched next to your child mid-meltdown, saying all the right things, and watched it make zero difference — this episode will finally explain why. And more importantly, it will make you feel a whole lot less like you're doing it wrong.

Greer sits down with Nikki, founder of HushAway — a gentle, sound-based platform built specifically for neurodivergent children aged four to ten — for a conversation that is equal parts science and soul. Nikki has spent...

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If you've ever looked back on your life and realized how much energy went into just fitting in, this episode is going to feel like a deep exhale.

Greer sits down with author and ADHD coach Caroline Maguire for an honest conversation about friendship, masking, and what it really means to find your people as a neurodivergent adult — and to help your kids do the same.

Together they talk about why "just fit in" was never good advice, why unmasking is a journey rather than a sw...

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If you've ever cancelled plans not because you didn't want to go, but because there was just no capacity left in the house — this one's for you.

In this episode, Greer sits down with Tracey Jewel Constable, a late-diagnosed neurodivergent mum raising her son Frankie, who is autistic and navigating ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder). Together, they get into the honest, unglamorous, and also genuinely beautiful reality of parenting a child with additional needs when you're al...

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If you've ever wished the people around you just got it — this episode is for you.

Greer sits down with Jennifer Kaufman, school principal, author, and grandmother to a grandson with autism, to talk about what it actually looks like when extended family shows up well — and what gets in the way.

Jennifer brings a rare perspective. She's spent her career in autism education, but when her own grandchild was diagnosed, she had to learn something different: how...

What actually changes when a child with ADHD becomes a teenager?

In this episode, Carla names something so many families are living: as kids grow, the support systems drop (parents reminding, teachers prompting, schedules structuring)… but the expectations rise (more deadlines, longer projects, less supervision). And for ADHD brains—where the planning and regulation center is still developing—this creates a painful gap between what’s expected and what’s neurologically ready.

Carla reframes what parents often interpret as “lack of motivation” as something else entirely: a regulation + structure need. She explains why teens might say, “I know w...

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Have you ever asked your partner to pass you something and gotten a "why?" in return — and thought, wait, what just happened? If that moment felt strangely familiar, this episode might be for you.

Greer is getting honest about something she doesn't see talked about enough: what it's like to be married to someone who may have PDA (pathological demand avoidance). Not from a place of frustration or blame — but from a place of real, lived experience, ongoing learning, and genu...

If you've ever felt like you're paddling your kayak alone while your partner watches from the shore — this episode is for you.

Harry Psaros is an autism advocate, author, and dad to Gus, who is graduating from Kent State University this week. Harry joins us to talk about something we don't hear enough of: what it actually looks like inside a dad's head when their child is diagnosed with autism — and why so many of them go quiet.

Harry gets real about his own journey. He wasn't the hero in the early days. His wife Mich...

If sleep feels like the hardest part of neurodivergent family life, you’re not imagining it—and you’re not failing. In this episode, Greer Jones talks with sleep specialist Melisa Moore about why neurodivergent kids (and adults!) often have more sleep challenges… and what can actually make things gentler.

Melisa breaks down the “why” in a way that’s clear and grounding: biology and genetics can play a role, circadian rhythms can be different (like ADHD tending later and autism sometimes being inconsistent), and some neurodivergent profiles come with a higher likelihood of specific sleep disorders. Then there’s t...

If your life feels like a beautiful, noisy jumble—kids, work, relationships, responsibilities, and about 47 open tabs in your brain—this episode will feel like a deep exhale.

Greer Jones sits down with Jessica Lamb (mom, business owner, podcaster, and recently diagnosed ADHDer) to talk about what it’s actually like to hold all the roles at once—especially when you don’t naturally compartmentalise and everything feels layered on top of everything else. Jessica describes family life as “chaos,” but not in a hopeless way—more like: this is the water we swim in, and we’ve learned how to...

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Have you ever noticed that fun is usually the first thing to go when life gets hard? When the budget is tight, when you're exhausted, when you're running on fumes — fun feels like a luxury you can't afford.

But what if that's exactly backwards?

In this episode, Greer sits down with Annie F. Downs — author, podcaster, and all-around fun enthusiast — for a conversation that feels like a warm exhale. Annie gently challenges the idea that fun has to be big, expensive, or perfectly timed. She makes the case t...

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If you've ever felt like motherhood was supposed to be the thing that finally felt easy — and instead it somehow got harder — this episode is for you.

Greer sits down with Amy Marie Hann, ADHD coach and mom of neurodivergent kids, for an honest, grounding conversation about what it actually feels like to parent with ADHD. Not the productivity-hack version. The real version — the shame, the overcommitment, the mental load that never seems to let up.

...

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If you've been waking up exhausted before the day even starts, moving through the hours in a fog, snapping more than you want to, and quietly wondering what happened to the version of you that felt okay — this episode is for you.

Greer sits down with Irin Rubin, founder of MamaZen, for one of those conversations that feels less like an interview and more like someone finally saying out loud the thing you've been carrying alone.

Irin spent years in maternal burnout before she fo...

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If you've ever felt like you're living on the edge of yourself — keeping everyone else afloat while quietly disappearing — this episode was made for you.

Greer sits down with Michelle Anderson, founder of JMB Inspired and host of the Radiant Moments Caregiver Oasis podcast, for an honest, deeply human conversation about what it really means to be a caregiver inside neurodivergent and medically complex family life.

Together, they explore the parts of caregiving that don't get talked about enough: the always-on mental load...

If you’ve ever thought, “Why can’t I stay calm when my child is melting down?”—this episode wraps you in so much compassion, without letting you off the hook in a shame-y way.

Greer Jones is joined by Lisa Candera, an autism mom of 18 years who built the kind of support she couldn’t find anywhere: support that starts with the parent’s regulation first—because (as Lisa says) we are our children’s environment, and emotions are contagious.

Together, they talk about the real reason “just be consistent” isn’t enough when you’re parenting a neuro...

What if the first positive thing connected to your child’s diagnosis was… a dog in a little jacket that makes people smile?

In this episode, Greer talks with Robbie Campbell from Buddy Dogs, a service within Guide Dogs UK that places specially matched dogs with children who have vision impairments—often alongside other complex needs. Robbie explains why Buddy Dogs exists: guide dogs are trained for mobility and require a level of independence that simply isn’t realistic for most children. But the companionship, confidence, and connection that dogs bring? That can be life-changing for kids and fami...

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Some kids don’t fall apart at school or out in public. They hold it together all day… and then unravel the second they walk through the front door—because home is the safest place their nervous system knows.

In this episode, Dr. Arielle Schwartz (psychologist, author, and mom) shares the story of how she “followed the clues” to understand what was really going on for her son—starting long before the word dyslexia ever entered the picture. She takes us back to e...

If you’re parenting a child with ADHD (or you’re late-diagnosed yourself), it can feel like you’re constantly trying to “figure it out” — schedules, school, food, sleep, behaviour, emotions… all of it.

In this episode, Greer talks with Dr. Jennifer Dall about approaching ADHD through a whole-person lens: not as a “fix,” but as support for real life. They unpack why the basics (sleep, movement, food, connection) matter so much — and how to build strategies with your child so it doesn’t all sit on your shoulders.

What we cover

What if some “addictive behavior” is actually a nervous system trying to cope in the only way it knows how?

In this episode, Greer sits down with Ben Branson (The Hidden 20%) to talk about the overlap between neurodivergence and addiction, especially for people who were diagnosed late and spent years chasing dopamine, trying to regulate, and not knowing why life felt so hard.

They also talk about the bigger picture: long NHS waitlists, siloed assessments, and the painfully common experience of finally getting a diagnosis… and then being handed a letter with zero meaningful support attach...

If you’re a neurodivergent parent or you’re parenting a neurodivergent child, burnout can creep in quietly… until it suddenly doesn’t feel quiet at all.

In this episode, Greer talks with Liz (The Untypical OT) about what burnout actually is, why it’s so common in neurodivergent families, and why it’s often not your child causing it. They name the real load: the constant planning, the constant navigating, the constant advocating, and the systems that make everything harder than it needs to be.

They also talk about something that matters a lot: burnout isn’...

If you have ever heard “they can’t communicate” and felt your stomach drop, this episode is for you.

Because communication is not a performance. It’s a connection. It’s a regulation. It’s being understood. And when we only count spoken words, we miss the ways autistic kids communicate all day long.

In this conversation, we reframe what communication actually is, talk about AAC in plain language, and share how to support non-speaking, minimally speaking, and situationally speaking people with more respect, more curiosity, and way less assumption.

Today on Neurodivergent Conversation...

What if you are not “too much,” “too chatty,” “too sensitive,” or “just rude”
What if your brain has been working overtime for decades, and a diagnosis is not a label, but permission to finally offer yourself grace?

In this episode, we talk about what it feels like to be diagnosed with ADHD later in life, the quiet shame so many women carry, and the surprisingly practical supports that can change your day-to-day.

Today on Neurodivergent Conversations, I’m sitting down with Lisa, who was encouraged toward her own late ADHD diagnosis through her daughter Michelle’...

Marriage can feel hard for so many reasons… and when you’re in a neurodivergent household, it can feel like there are extra layers you can’t always name.

In this solo episode, Greer shares a very honest snapshot of her marriage: she has ADHD, her husband is autistic, and they’re raising an autistic/ADHD child (with another little one whose “brain type” they’re still learning). She talks about the real stress points, the growth they’ve fought for, and the small “language tools” that have made communication feel safer and more doable.

Greer also opens up...

If you are in a neurodivergent relationship we are doing a webinar talking about the everyday realities. The joys and challenges while being or being married to a neurodivergent person. Join us Feb. 12, at 8pm UK, replay is available!

What if the thing that feels impossible, moving countries with a sparkly-brained kid, could actually become the start of your child feeling more supported, more understood, and more free?

In this episode, we talk about the kind of preparation that helps autistic kids feel safe in big change, how to keep the vibe hopeful even when...

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Ever feel like your brain is sprinting, even when you are sitting still?
Like you can be everyone’s friend, but still feel a little… untethered?
In this episode, we talk about what it is like to be late-diagnosed with ADHD, how overthinking turns into assumptions, and why the smallest supports can be thelp you breathe again.

Today on Neurodivergent Conversations, I’m joined by Graham, an author (including Babies Don't Talk), entrepreneur, and on...

If mealtimes feel like a daily stress test, you’re not imagining it and you’re not failing. Sometimes it’s not the food that’s the problem, it’s the overwhelm wrapped around it. In this episode, we talk about what a realistic “reset” around food can look like for autistic kids, ADHD kids, and sensory sensitive kids, especially after a season like Christmas where everything felt loud and unstructured.

Today’s guest is Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD (Autism Dietitian). She supports families raising kids on the autism spectrum (and kids with sensory processing challenges) using sensory-in...

You can be “fine” on paper and still be running on empty. If you’re doing the school meetings, the appointments, the meals, the meltdowns, and the mental load, but you can’t remember the last time you booked your own doctor’s appointment, this episode is for you. We’re naming burnout for what it is, what it looks like in real life, and the smallest first step to stop the spiral before you hit the wall.

Today’s guest is Eleonora, who supports families and caregivers and has a real-life, practical lens on what burnout looks like for...