A reflective exploration of the difference between gentle and permissive parenting when raising an autistic child, highlighting the importance of empathy, structure, and emotional regulation. Over the years, many parents of autistic children have sat across from me in my consulting room carrying a mixture of love, exhaustion, and uncertainty. Parenting is never simple, butContinue reading “Parenting the Child with Autism: The Fine Line Between Gentle and Permissive Parenting”
Category Archives: Mental Health
Parents Matter Too
Psychological support for parents navigating neurodiversity Parents Matter Too — a weekly therapeutic reflection supporting parents of neurodiverse children. Week 5: Rebuilding Emotional Steadiness — Why Parents Need Regulation Too When the Nervous System Has Been Under Pressure for Too Long Over the past few weeks in this series, we have explored some of theContinue reading “Parents Matter Too”
When Acute Stress Becomes Collapse: A Clinical Reflection on Cumulative Trauma, Maternal Guilt, and Misunderstood Breakdown
Dr M’s Thoughts When she eventually sought help, she did not describe herself as someone who had “walked out” on her family. She described a period in which everything converged. Within a very short space of time, she was carrying the emotional and practical weight of her family, managing significant work pressures, grieving the deathContinue reading “When Acute Stress Becomes Collapse: A Clinical Reflection on Cumulative Trauma, Maternal Guilt, and Misunderstood Breakdown”
Parents Matter Too
Psychological support for parents navigating neurodiversity Parents Matter Too — a weekly therapeutic reflection supporting parents of neurodiverse children. Week 4: Parental Burnout — When Exhaustion Becomes Emotional Numbness Beyond “Just Tired” There is a particular kind of exhaustion many parents struggle to describe. It is not simply physical tiredness. It is not solved byContinue reading “Parents Matter Too”
Parents Matter Too
Psychological support for parents navigating neurodiversity Parents Matter Too — a weekly therapeutic reflection supporting parents of neurodiverse children. Week 3: Living in Constant Advocacy Mode — The Psychological Cost of Always Being the Strong One When Parenting Becomes Negotiation For many parents, there is a quiet turning point after diagnosis. Parenting begins to feelContinue reading “Parents Matter Too”
Parents Matter Too
Psychological support for parents navigating neurodiversity Parents Matter Too — a weekly therapeutic reflection supporting parents of neurodiverse children. Week 2: Diagnosis Shock — When Relief and Grief Collide The Moment Everything Shifts Parents often describe the moment of diagnosis as surreal. They may have been waiting months — sometimes years — for clarity. ThereContinue reading “Parents Matter Too”
Parents Matter Too
Psychological support for parents navigating neurodiversity Parents Matter Too — a weekly therapeutic reflection supporting parents of neurodiverse children. Week 1: When Parents Are Expected to Cope There is a moment many parents describe, often quietly, sometimes with tears, sometimes with a deep sigh. It is the moment when their child’s neurodiversity comes into focusContinue reading “Parents Matter Too”
Dr M’s thoughts 