Choosing Harmony

17/06/2025

Thank you so much Kendra Ararat Barks and Bubblesfor helping Teddi be her best self.

17/06/2025

🧠 Introducing Low Arousal Training for Educators, Children’s Services, and Support Workers
Supporting emotional safety and de-escalation for all ages and stages
At Choosing Harmony, we are proud to offer Low Arousal Training – a trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming, and person-centred approach designed for families, teachers, early childhood educators, support workers, and care teams working across all age groups.
Whether you support young children in early learning, students in classrooms, or adults with complex needs, Low Arousal Training provides the tools to better understand distress and respond with compassion and confidence.
🌱 What is Low Arousal?
The Low Arousal Approach, developed by Studio 3 and now available through trained practitioners in Australia, shifts the focus from controlling behaviour to creating calm, reducing triggers, and fostering emotional safety.
At its core, this approach recognises that behaviour is a form of communication – often an expression of distress, not defiance. Rather than escalating situations through confrontation, punishment, or power-based strategies, Low Arousal supports us to:
Regulate our own responses as adults
Identify and reduce environmental stressors
Respond non-judgmentally and non-threateningly
De-escalate with empathy, respect, and safety in mind
💡 Why It Matters – The Philosophy Behind It
In a world that often misunderstands or pathologises behaviour, especially in neurodivergent or traumatised individuals, the Low Arousal Approach offers a paradigm shift.
Rather than asking “What’s wrong with this person?”, we ask:
“What’s happening to this person?”
“How can I help them feel safe again?”
The philosophy aligns with:
Neurodiversity-affirming practice – understanding sensory overload, masking, and shutdowns
Trauma-informed care – recognising that past experiences shape current responses
Human rights and dignity – minimising the use of restrictive practices and coercion
👥 Who Is This Training For?
This training is ideal for:
Teachers and Education Support Staff
Kindergarten and Early Years Educators
Disability and Mental Health Support Workers
Aged Care and Allied Health Teams
Families and Carers seeking to better support their loved ones
Whether you're supporting toddlers or teenagers, adults or elders, this training meets people where they are – because distress can happen at any stage of life, and so can healing.
🛠️ What You’ll Learn
Participants will explore:
Signs of distress and dysregulation across different ages
Strategies to reduce arousal and support co-regulation
Techniques to manage their own stress responses
Practical tools to support emotional and physical safety
How to avoid escalation and the need for restrictive interventions
All training includes real-life examples, role plays, and reflective practice – tailored to your setting.
📚 Flexible Delivery Options
Training is available as:
Individual registrations (perfect for solo practitioners or families)
Whole team or school sessions (on-site or online)
Customised packages for organisations, services, or community groups
This means we can come to you, deliver online, or host you at one of our partnered venues.
🧭 Why Now?
Workplaces across education, disability, and care services are under increasing pressure. Behavioural challenges, emotional burnout, and staff turnover are on the rise.
By equipping teams with the skills to support others without confrontation or escalation, we reduce harm – to the person in distress, their peers, and the staff who support them.
This isn’t just behaviour management. It’s a new way of being with others – one that is calm, connected, and kind.
🌟 Ready to Learn More?
If you're ready to reduce stress, improve outcomes, and deepen your understanding of human behaviour, we’d love to connect.
📧 Email: damien.choosingharmony.com.au
📞 Phone: 0400 392 646
🌐 Website: www.choosingharmony.com.au
📍 Training offered across Australia
Let’s create environments where everyone feels seen, safe, and supported – no matter their age or ability

Positive Behaviour Support. Clinical & Professional Supervision. Counselling. Training & Facilitation.

17/06/2025

We have been a little busy. Thank you everyone for your patience. Audit time is here and what we love about the audit is it allows us to identify how we can do better. One of those things was our lack of social media presence - so here goes. Let us know when to slow down. What would you like me to share on here?
For now I will focus on some of our programs that we offer.

16/06/2025

Thank you Animal Therapies Ltd we are honoured to support our families. Animals allow us the engage through interception. Interoception is the core of all our work. 🙏

Member Spotlight: Choosing Harmony Victoria, is an approved Animal-Assisted Services Australia Professional Member, which includes being eligible to participate in the ATL Mental Health Outreach Program.

Caroline Smith is a Trauma Informed Mental Health Specialist. C.B.T., Somatic Embodiment and Mindfulness are some of the modalities they incorporate into their work. Choosing Harmony is an NDIS registered provider offering behaviour support services and intensive supports for individuals and their families.

They are neurodivergent affirming and Autistic led, using neuroscience and sensory-based interventions to support participants to understand their neurotype, body, and brain.​

Find Choosing Harmony in our ATL National Directory: https://animaltherapies.org.au/membership-account/profile/?pu=choosingharmony

29/12/2023

Teddi is excited to share the NDIA have finally processed our audit and we are fully registered for Animal Assisted Therapies, Counselling and Therapeutic Supports and Positive Behaviour Support.

26/12/2023

You will not get an out of office reply from us! We acknowledge the Christmas holiday period can be a stressful and sad time for many people. We are here to support everyone through this time. For children in care we will always support carers through training and development. Children in care deserve well supported. knowledgeable carers and stable homes. What could help your family? 🦋

23/10/2023

Good morning. If you are expecting a visit with us today please reach out. Our electronic booking system has glitched and wiped the system. Our iT man is on it however if you are our 9.30 appointment I apologise sincerely.

09/08/2023

Such an exciting day. We get to share the day with the Awesome team and Swan Hill Primary School. I love taking my must have resources and sharing them with teachers. Thankyou ❤️🙏

17/07/2023

Some great tips to share with schools from Ausome Training -

How can I be neuro-affirming with 30 kids in my class?

We often hear from teachers that one of the primary obstacles preventing them from meeting everyone's needs is the issue of large class sizes.

And yes, large class sizes are absolutely an issue just as much as a results driven ethos and heavy curriculum are.

But the good news is - you can do plenty of things to be more inclusive even in a class of 30 and even with the pressure of following a curriculum.

So what can we do?

Here are 10 things you can do right now to be more inclusive:

1. We can learn to read early signs of distress in all children. We can learn about variances in human expression so that the children in our care don’t become distressed or overwhelmed. We can learn about stimming as a human behaviour so we can empathise and understand it better.

2. We can avoid othering and treating children differently and we can presume competence. This means we presume Autistic kids are just as capable as their peers.

3. We can talk about differences in learning, communicating, expressing and sensing with our pupils to foster a sense of acceptance amongst peers.

4. We can validate the child’s feelings if they become anxious or upset instead of telling them not to worry. We can say we often feel that way too.

5. We can throw away any ideas we have that we’ve been ‘trained’ in that rely on compliance, rewards and neuro-conformative goals.

6. We can develop sensory profiles for ourselves and the children in our care. We can find out what they like and what they don’t like. We can see sensory experiences which bring joy as well as those that can cause pain.

7. We can understand that children do well when they can.

8. We can understand that listening looks different for different people. Some will look at you and nod, some will look out the window while you teach and some may move about. They are all listening

9. We can be more flexible about school uniforms and understand that some kids will wear jumpers in summer and some will wear shorts in winter. We do not all experience temperature in the same way

10. We can understand that human communication isn’t perfect and kids misinterpret us and we misinterpret them so it’s better to assume the child is genuinely asking a question for clarification or has interpreted something literally rather than them being ‘cheeky’