The Wondering Wattle

14/11/2025

At The Wondering Wattle, “Helping Humans Thrive” has always meant ALL humans – including those living at the intersection of disability, neurodivergence, mental ill-health and gender diversity. We know that for many trans and gender-diverse people with disability, the world is still not gentle, safe or accessible enough.

Australian research tells us that trans and gender-diverse people are more likely to live with disability, experience poorer mental health, and face higher rates of violence and discrimination than the general population. These aren’t just statistics to us – they are our participants, families, friends and our colleagues.

So during Transgender Awareness Week, this week, we want to say this clearly:

🌿 You belong exactly as you are
🌿 Your gender is valid, your access needs are valid, your safety matters
🌿 You deserve supports that affirm your identity and your disability

Our team at The Wondering Wattle includes both proud trans folk and fierce allies.

If you’re a trans or gender-diverse person with disability (or you love one) and you’re feeling worn down or left out by the system, We see you. We believe you. You deserve more than survival and we'd love to connect to see how we can support YOU to thrive.

All are welcome at The Wondering Wattle 💛

13/11/2025

Building meaningful connections with other kin-minded providers is an absolute must. Why?

1) Because people who connect with TWW have trust that we will connect them with others who are of our 'ilk' and trustworthy
2) Because my team at TWW benefit from the kindness and care of others through the wins, the losses, the highs and the lows
3) Because the sector is filled with douche-bags (not such a professional term but perhaps ok in this context?) and when we find the diamonds in the rough, we know we are all going to be ok.

Congratulations and heart felt grattitude to one of the most incredible kin-aligned providers, Fit N Well, on celebrating five laps around the NDIS sun - that's no small feat.

Anthony and the team have found a 'winning formula' for supporting mental health through exercise. TWW have participants who benefit so greatly from their support and, for me, as a Mum, I have seen first hand how profoundly impacting connecting my AudHD 15yr old with Anthony has been - she doesn't get to ANY regular appointments, except for her sessions with Anthony.

If you are south (or north from January 2026) of Adelaide - check out Fit n Well. It could be the missing piece of your, a participant's or a family/friend's puzzle to stable mental health.

Brave is kind
Meryl
Founder, Specialist and Support Coordinator

09/11/2025

🎉 Happy Birthday, Sarah! 🎉

Today we’re celebrating our Senior Relationships Coordinator, Sarah. The magician who connects participants with the very best hand-picked supports and somehow gets about “eleventy-million” things done at once. 📝

Sarah is our favourite horse-lover 🐴 and a fierce people-protector 🛡️. She brings sharp, strategic thinking to our team and notices early when something doesn’t feel quite right for participants or for us. With years of experience (and even more years of dedication and compassion), Sarah makes sure people have the extra support they need to live their best ordinary lives.

What we love about our Sarah:
Honesty & integrity 🫶
Grit & grace 🫶
A fierce commitment to matching the right support with each unique human 🫶

Sarah, thank you for embodying our values - courage, curiosity, community, and connection - in everything you do.

Big love and the happiest of birthdays from all of us 💛✨

04/11/2025

Let’s be honest: the NDIS is hard right now.

Funding is being cut, the rules keep shifting, the “guidance” feels more like restriction than support, and too many planning meetings are leaving people rattled instead of respected.

If you’re an NDIS participant, or you love someone who is, it can feel heavy, exhausting, and unfair. Especially right now. We can’t pretend to know everyone’s exact experience, and we’ll never promise magic fixes. But we can encourage you with this:

🌿 WINS ARE STILL POSSIBLE 🌿

Across the last 29 plan reassessments, The Wondering Wattle has supported participants to secure some genuinely extraordinary outcomes:

📍increases in total funding
📍inclusion (or re-inclusion) of Support Coordination (incl. kids!)
📍front-loaded supports to balance fluctuating needs
📍the kinds of funded supports that actually make an “ordinary life” possible

We’re pretty chuffed with these results because they’re not theory, they’re REAL changes for REAL people to impact REAL lives. They’re proof that even in the middle of all the chaos, our Specialist Support Coordinators and Support Coordinators are still creating impact that matters; person by person, plan by plan.

This is what “helping humans thrive” looks like for The Wondering Wattle team so, if you (or your person) need experienced, values-led coordination in this bumpy climate, reach out: people@wonderingwattle.com.au | 1300 966 337 we'd love to chat.

💛

03/11/2025

A powerful reminder, as we near the end of another school year, about the importance of inclusion and accessibility for ALL.

If you have kiddos in school who are struggling with meaningful inclusion and support, feel free to reach out.

We have a couple of exceptional paediatric specialty Support Coordinators who have guided parents and student-participants towards meaningful inclusion in their school.

We don't suggest we have ALL the answers but we certainly have strong knowledge of the obligations of education settings, ideas on how to advocate, and history of great 'wins' and success stories for meaningful, inclusive school engagement.

Transition planning starts now for 2026 to set up the strategies for success. We’d love to support you with the process.

💛

PS: "GCSE" in the video is the equivalent to our Yr12 in Australia

01/11/2025

🎉 Happy Birthday, Shannon! 🎉

Today we’re celebrating our Senior Operations Coordinator and The Wondering Wattle’s second-ever hire, Shannon.

Shannon is the yin to Meryl’s yang: the linear order to her constellation big-picture thinking. She’s the engine behind our efficiency and the calm behind the scenes who keeps us:
✅ databased
✅ tick-boxed
✅ trained
✅ systems-smoothed
✅ paddling like graceful ducks (above and below the water… mostly 😉)

Shannon loves a list… and a list of the list… and then a priority list of that list. More importantly, she builds processes that never, ever forget inclusion: for everyone, in every way, across every part of life.

Shannon has the BEST listening ears and team-holding-shoulders and, we love her deeply considered thoughts and ideas which make sure we all feel included as a team.

Shan, thank you for being our backbone and helping us deliver outstanding, rights-based support with enormous heart. We love that we get to celebrate you 💛✨

30/10/2025

Anthony and the team at Fit N Well use movement and simple exercise analogies to help people map and regulate their “big feelings.” It’s clever, practical, and meets people where they’re at.

We’ve seen real shifts for participants who’ve spent time with Fit N Well - greater understanding, more confidence, better self-regulation, sprinkles of contentment.

If you (or a young person you know; though it works for any age) find the usual “sit on the couch and talk about feelings” approach tough, consider reaching out to Fit N Well.

Why share this? Because celebrating what works helps more humans thrive and keeps the change going for our community. And that's what we're about here at The Wondering Wattle.

💛

28/10/2025

At The Wondering Wattle, we believe support should never be "cut-copy–paste".

Every person we support coordinate with has their own story, their own hopes, their own needs. We call it the 'individual experience' of disability.

So our team don’t just “find a provider.” We put considered thought into finding the *right* provider for each person, in each moment, with each individual's needs. Because no two lives are the same, so no two service connections should be either.

And when it clicks, it matters, and it works.

We received this note from one of the incredible OTs we collaborate with. This is what great NDIS supports should look like: teams working together, sharing information, staying human, and keeping the person they are all there to support at the centre.

To every allied health professional, support worker, LAC, family member and provider who shows up with honesty and care, thank you. Partnership is how we get safe, sustainable outcomes for participants. It’s how we can all be a part of helping humans thrive.

💛

26/10/2025

Some great tips to support in more neuro-affirming, trauma-informed practice from Mind Co. a kindred-aligned service provider in Adelaide’s southern metro.

We love the gentleness and curiosity of their services, particularly for those in our broader community living with PDA and/or low demand support and access needs.

💛

A few tips for support workers.

When you’re supporting someone with a PDA profile, the key isn’t to enforce compliance, it’s to build connection, flexibility, and trust.

Here are some of the skills that make the biggest difference:
🔑 Curiosity over control. Notice what lies beneath the behaviour, rather than pushing for quick fixes.
🗣️ Declarative language. Using gentle invitations instead of direct demands. (“I wonder if…” rather than “Do this now.”)
⏳ Patience & pacing. Knowing when to step back, slow down, and wait for the window of tolerance.
🤝 Collaboration. Supporting autonomy by offering choices and shared decision-making.
🌱 Adaptability. Recognising that what works one day might not work the next, and that’s okay.
💚 Emotional regulation. Bringing calm energy yourself, because co-regulation matters.

The goal isn’t to “make PDAers compliant.”

It’s to create safety, autonomy, and trust, so they can flourish on their own terms.

🤔 PDA parents, what support do you think Mind Co. could offer in our upcoming resource to best support support workers, or even other therapists in building their knowledge base and skills around PDA? Supervision, training, our upcoming guide? Tell us what you want to see.

21/10/2025

Oh. Deary. Me.

If it wasn't so discriminatory and offensive, it'd be (almost) laughable.

If our very own (SA) Government House, a heritage listed building from well before disability inclusion, can have beautiful ramps which meet dignity AND code, built then surely, SURELY, the actual Minister for the actual Disability Portfolio can have a dignified entry with inclusive access for his constituents to enter the building to meet him?

In the current hyper-focus of 'cutting back' and 'scripting supports' within the NDIS which is on the whole, only adding distress for more-deserving participants, we (they) seem to have completely forgotten to even look beyond the dollars-and-sense (pun intended).

Mark Butler MP NDIS National Disability Insurance Scheme Shane Hryhorec Anthony Albanese let's pehaps pop a few bucks from the 'savings' you've made on the back of participants into some common 'sense' inclusion for all. Please.

21/10/2025

🌼 Invisible Disabilities Awareness Week

Not every disability is visible. Infact, 80-85% of all people with a disability have one that isn't visible. That's exactly the point of this week - a reminder to check our assumptions, notice what isn’t obvious, and create spaces where people don’t have to “prove” their needs to be supported.

You may have noticed the sunflower logo in airports, sporting venues, concerts, buses.? Or people wearing sunflower lanyards or wrist bands? It's an international campaign supporting people living with hidden disabilities. Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Australia & New Zealand is a great place to learn more and to resource yourself or someone you love.

Awareness in action (today and every day) for us all:
• Believe what someone tells you about their needs; no evidence required.
• Ask, don’t guess: “What would help right now?”
• Adjust the environment - quieter spaces, extra processing time, flexible communication.
• Respect pacing - rest, breaks and sensory regulation are legitimate supports.
• Unless you've lived a moment in the shoes of a person with invisible disabilities, you are *not* the expert - the person is.

💛

19/10/2025

🌼 Children’s Week is a national celebration of children’s rights and a reminder that every child deserves to be seen, heard and celebrated in every community.

At The Wondering Wattle, Over 60% of the people we support are under 17. As Support Coordinators, that shapes how we show up during Children’s Week (and every other week).

We work with families, schools, siblings and providers to make sure plans protect space for play by considering:
📍 unstructured time and sensory-friendly downtime in schedules for supports;
📍 inclusive community activities, sports and arts that kids actually enjoy;
📍 scheduling of therapy thoughtfully so it doesn’t crowd out childhood;

Play isn’t “extra”, it’s a right, a developmental need, and a source of joy. This Children’s Week, let’s keep clearing barriers so kids can do what kids do best: play, belong, get messy and thrive.

💛




📸 Credit: Andrew Ritchie/The West Australian