NEBS Therapy

05/12/2025

Starting our Christmas Chocolate school run today, with plenty more to be delivered over the next two weeks…

We really appreciate working with schools, because we know it improves outcomes for the people we support.

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04/12/2025

Today on our mindful walk, we slowed down and explored the world using all of our senses, noticing tiny details we often walk past.

We collected textures, colours, shapes and smells… and created our very own Mindfulness Bauble to capture the moment.

We used our senses to:
👁️ Notice what we could see
👂🏽 Listen for sounds
👃🏽 Smell different scents
✋🏽 Feel the textures of nature

Such a simple, grounding activity that helps regulate the nervous system, builds connection, and brings a little calm into the Christmas season.

A beautiful reminder that mindfulness can be tiny, meaningful moments; one leaf, one seed pod, one deep breath at a time.

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03/12/2025

What an incredible day hosting the games room for the International Day of People with Disability 2025 in Tamworth today!!

Today we celebrate the strength, identity, culture and brilliance of people with disabilities across our community.

Today is a reminder that inclusion is not a one-day event. It is EVERYDAY - shaped by connection, respect, and neuroaffirming practice.

At NEBS Therapy, we honour neurodivergent children, teens and adults not by “fixing” them; but by valuing their lived experience, amplifying their voices, and supporting environments to become more accessible, predictable and inclusive to meet their needs.

To our clients, families, teachers, support workers, and community: thank you for walking alongside us.

We see you. We celebrate you. We stand with you.

Also - a huge shout out to the organising committee for a fabulous event - you seriously know how to put on an awesome party!!

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02/12/2025

📣 It’s not too late to change your Elf story!!!

If the Elf on the Shelf started out fun… but by the 10th of December (or a few years in) you are deep in regret because it has become another thing on your mental load; you are not alone! 🥴

In our family, our Elves work a little differently.

Our Elves are simply part of our family, adding Christmas cheer 🌲

They come along on all the Christmas adventures, like Carols, looking at Christmas lights, Christmas shopping and most importantly - they get snuggled to sleep every night.

Occasionally they get up to their own adventures overnight (pictured), but definitely not every night because they are hugged soooo tightly and cannot escape!

Most importantly, our Elves are NOT reporters of behaviour. They DO NOT send naughty-or-nice updates to the big red man 🎅🏽 BUT they can pass on messages to him if they have any questions, or need to update a Christmas wish list 📃

When people question why our Elves can be touched, we simply explain that our Elves are a little different. They are part of our family for Christmas, not an Elf on the Shelf ❤️

If you need to change your Elf story to make Christmas feel lighter, calmer, or more connected… you absolutely can!

It is never too late to rewrite the Christmas traditions that work for your family 🌲

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02/12/2025

Thankyou sooo much to the incredible team at .au for our amazing Christmas name badges!!!

This is our first year without a Christmas Decoration Challenge, so instead we’re spreading Christmas cheer with our beautiful name badges🧑🏼‍🎄🧑🏼‍🎄

We absolutely love them!

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01/12/2025

One little boy I knew found Christmas particularly puzzling. “Why is it on the 25th?” he’d ask. “Why not the 23th or the 28th? Why do we eat mince pies then and only then? If they were really nice, wouldn’t we eat them all year round? Why do we keep all our presents for the same day? I’d rather have mine now” Adults around him didn’t know how to answer beyond ‘That’s just how it is’.

Over time some of those adults started to see things differently themselves. “Why do we do things this way, if actually we’d prefer to do something different?” they started to ask. In particularly, why the focus on Big Days which must be waited for and then recovered from? If you don’t like anticipation at the best of times, wouldn’t it be better just to make it less of a ‘thing’?

Some clear-sighted children bravely say they will have no part of this. They say they’d like their usual food and their presents unwrapped and given in private when they come through the door. They’d like to know exactly what they are getting in advance. No piles under the Christmas tree. No opening whilst others watch. No anticipation. One child I know said if they insisted on wrapping up the presents she’d tolerate it, but only if it was clearly written on the outside of every parcel exactly what to expect inside. And no surprises.

It takes a lot of determination to do this. The social pressure to participate in Christmas is intense. But when children assert themselves and make clear what they want, typically the adults around them are upset and feel that they are missing out.

“Come on”, they say. “It won’t be the same without you” or “You’ll be sad if you open your presents now because there won’t be anything on Christmas Day”. The child feels more pressure, even if they know very well that they won’t be sad – and if they actually feel sad now, because they don’t like having to wait.

What’s the answer? Let go of expectations and focus on what brings joy. If Christmas dinner whilst playing Minecraft works for you all, then go with it. If you prefer pizza, feel good about making the choice. Turkey dinners are arbitrary (and not even something which the whole world agrees on, by a long shot). There’s nothing like travelling to another country to see just how arbitrary many of your cultural traditions are. In France, Christmas is about seafood platters. In Slovakia, it’s about stuffed carp. In the UK we have crackers and mince pies, whilst in the USA they have candy canes and Christmas cookies. And in a lot of countries, presents are opened on the 24th, not the 25th or even Jan 6th – that little boy was right. It could be (a low-demand) Christmas every day. The choice is ours.
We’ll be talked about low demand Christmases in the last Art of Low Demand Parenting webinar of 2025. Yes it’s recorded. Please share if you know parents who might benefit.

December 10th at lunchtime.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-art-of-low-demand-parenting-christmas-tickets-1965441059116?aff=fb2

27/11/2025

Today’s session included one of our favourite cooperative games for communicating perspectives.

In this game, each player sees the maze from a different side - so the only way to succeed is to explain your perspective for the other person to understand; and listen to someone else’s view.

This is exactly what the Double Empathy Problem is all about; two people with different experiences trying to understand each other.

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26/11/2025

⚠️🌲 Our December reminder to our NEBS Therapy families:

As important and valuable school events and activities start popping up in December, we start to see a higher frequency of interruptions or cancellations to our usual therapy sessions.

If you know that your child will be unavailable for their therapy session, we want to remind you that only parents or legal guardians can cancel therapy appointments. Schools and teachers CANNOT cancel on your behalf (nor do we expect them to).

If we arrive to a therapy session and discover that your child is unavailable for therapy, this is a cancellation without notice and our cancellation fees apply including travel.

If your child is available when we arrive, but we discover they have an important event or activity at the same time - in many cases we can still attend and use it as either observations or direct support for the skills we are working on.

We also acknowledge the end of year fatigue for everyone, especially the kids and teens we work with! Because of this we roll with it, focusing on connection and safety as our priority in these last few weeks of the school term.

Only a few weeks left to go 🌲

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23/11/2025

Testing out a new game…. It’s kept us entertained for the past 3 hours with lots of adaptions & challenges 😳🧐🥰

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20/11/2025

This time of year can be very busy with changing routines, emotional celebrations and fatigue.

Today we slowed it right down with a simple mindful moment by focusing on what we can see through the lens of a camera.

A gentle reminder for all of us; take a mindful moment - it’s good for the soul!

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19/11/2025

It’s natural to want the best for your child and to look for new or simpler interventions that promise big change.

But when hope is high and you’re vulnerable, it opens the door wide for alternative therapies that sound appealing, yet they may not be backed by evidence.

As Allied-Health Therapists, we carry a responsibility to practise from the best available evidence.

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Experts warn against signing up for autism therapies that are not evidence-based, as diagnoses rise.

19/11/2025

Thankyou Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association - ANPA for this info!

Soo many people have no idea what this will change for our under 9’s!

Thriving Kids is steering Australia toward a path that has already failed overseas.

In Ontario and the UK, tiered systems that moved Autistic and disabled children into cheaper programs caused immediate harm.

Disabled kids lost individual support. The highest support needs children were squeezed first - with the highest "tier" contracting inwards overnight. 'Profound Autism' advocates said that parents were terrified and panicked - parents who had expected their children to be last on the chopping block, not first.

Waiting lists blew out. Schools pushed children out. Low income families and Autistic girls were hit hardest, and families quickly spiralled into intense and widespread distress.

Governments rapidly scrambled to undo the damage while private administrators and consultants - who had sold the government assessment tools and administrative infrastructure - kept their contracts. This money - public money - was never clawed back.

Why copy a model that has already failed children so clearly?

Australia is now extremely close to repeating the same mistake. Thriving Kids will push children out of the NDIS at the very moment regional therapy services are becoming “unviable”. This raises real human rights concerns and predictable political and social blowback. Will we learn from the failures of our international peers or repeat them?

Our new policy brief pointedly challenges this direction and calls for urgent scrutiny of who benefits and who loses under Thriving Kids. It follows the money through consultants, contracts and the flow of public funds.

The pattern across international lines is clear. The ones who lose the most will always, always be the kids.

With risks this obvious, why push ahead without asking whose interests this reform really serves? And is there still time for Australia to avoid the fate of Ontario and the UK?

(Link to brief in comments)

[Image Description: Mike Freelander MP, Chair of Thriving Kids Inquiry Committee on Monday, November 17]