Wagtail Therapy, 4 Kearns Crescent, Ardross (2025)

22/04/2025

There are sensory spaces at many big events now which is great to see and makes these events more accessible for some people. These spaces are amazing for kids needing a break from noise, light or busy movement and kids who want that alone time to regulate.

Some things I've seen when using sensory spaces make me wonder if they are truly sensory spaces or spaces for only kids who are within that sensory profile. It also makes me wonder whether it's possible to meet different sensory profiles within that one space.

Some things I've regularly seen when using these spaces:
- Kids experiencing high levels of anxiety from the demand to be quiet and still within the space. This demand comes from people supervising the space or from parents feeling pressured to place the demand by the glares of others.
- Spaces that are only for kids and not adults. I've seen families told to leave sensory spaces because their kid seems regulated now while the parent clearly still looks dysregulated.
- No food or drinks allowed in sensory spaces when these are two very effective regulation tools.
- Kids seeking movement and being told off for running around or jumping on beanbags.
- High masking kids entering the space expecting to be able to be themselves without judgement but then being told to be quiet and still.
- High masking kids being told they are regulated now so they can give someone else a turn.
- Kids playing together with their neurokin and being told they can play somewhere else because this is not a play space.
- Parents being asked to remove their child because their child is being too noisy.

Sensory spaces should be safe and neurodiversity affirming with an understanding that all sensory profiles are different but valid. Surely there's a way to meet the needs of more than one sensory profile? I understand some people need a break from all the busy sensory input of a big event. There are also some people that need a space to unmask, move their bodies around and make noise without neurotypical expectations. Do we need different spaces for different needs? Or are sensory spaces the perfect areas to start modelling how to create a safe space for all.

19/04/2025

Why do we view physical safety so differently to the way we view emotional safety. I am guessing this is because the effects of physical harm are much more immediate and obvious than the effects of emotional harm so it's viewed as a higher risk. The risks of someone feeling emotionally unsafe are just as valid and just as important. It might not result in a visit to hospital that day, but it might result in visits to hospital as a young adult or as a parent.

When we identify risks to physical safety we put a safety net in place and we keep it there. When we identify risks to emotional safety we reluctantly put a safety net in place then quickly remove it or don't put a safety net in place at all. This is done in the name of resilience or building independence which just sounds like the new version of "he needs to toughen up" to me.

The "toughen up" or "tough love" approach is not a recommended tool to supporting someone physically or emotionally. It teaches people to ignore how they feel or to ignore their instincts when feeling unsafe. You can imagine the types of relationships these two patterns evolve into and the types of unhealthy regulation tools that they encourage.

We seem to have physical safety covered as a society now. Our kids wear helmets when riding bikes, playgrounds have soft landings (mostly) and we put sunscreen on before going in the sun. Could we begin to view emotional safety in the same way? Is it time to let kids sit next to their safe friend in class all year, have education assistants work consistently with the same student, let our kids have their preferred cup at dinner every night and cuddle our kids to sleep if they want. This raises a new generation of emotionally mature people who listen to their feelings and listen to other people's feelings.

The fear seems to be that our kids won't be able to handle the real world if we meet all their emotional needs. Surely someone who knows how to ask people for help and knows their people will listen when they do ask, is always going to manage in the "real world" better than someone pushing their feelings down to be "tough" and feeling unheard by others. ❤️

15/03/2025

This is why school reward systems based on behaviour matrices are ineffective and harmful for some kids. In a classroom, you have a diversity of brains and bodies and one type of brain or body should not be rewarded over others.

Imagine you have a classroom full of meerkats and cats but you only reward meerkat behaviours such as standing up straight and eating termites. Sounds ridiculous right? That would make the cats feel really hopeless and frustrated wouldn't it? It seems unfair, surely they wouldn't do that?

Sadly, this is what is actually happening in classrooms every day. We have classrooms full of neurotypical and neurodivergent brains but only neurotypical behaviours are being rewarded, such as sitting still, whole body listening and participating in discussions verbally. This is resulting in high levels of masking (not a good thing), high levels of autistic burnout, high levels of school can't and increasing pressure on parents to home school their meerkats.

The answer is so simple! Let's start rewarding both brain and body types. Let's start giving kids reward points for things like taking a movement break, using a fidget or advocating for their preferred communication style. Cats will be cats and meerkats will be meerkats. One is not better than the other. ❤️

05/03/2025

Sadly there is a Part 2 to this post. I'm consistently seeing psychology funding being replaced with PBS funding despite therapist recommendations. This results in families being given double the NDIS funding they have asked for most times which seems helpful to participants at first glance but there are serious consequences to this that might not be immediately obvious:

1. Participants have to return to a waitlist that is very long and go without psych or PBS support during this time.
2. Participants have to transition from an already trusted therapist to someone new.
3. Participants may not build rapport with the new therapist and will have to return to yet another waitlist.
4. Neurodiversity affirming PBS providers are fairly limited so they might need to go with a provider who isn't ND affirming and hope for the best.
5. There are very few regulations around specific qualifications for behaviour support practitioners so the practitioner may end up with a therapist with very little experience and no allied health degree for the same cost as a Psychologist.

All of this for NDIS to actually spend more money! 🤯

28/02/2025

This is my internal rant put into a flow chart. NDIS really needs to look at their own processes before interrogating providers and participants. This process is harmful to NDIS and to people needing support.

18/02/2025

For all my fellow procrastinators out there - I am planning on closing this job ad at the end of this week (Friday). You can email me your resume or apply through seek - https://lnkd.in/g3hKbTgA

17/02/2025

We would love to support everyone that comes to us but unfortunately we are at full capacity and have not been seeing much movement with our current waitlist. For this reason, we have made the decision to close our waitlist to new referrals.

This will not affect the people currently on our waitlist.

16/02/2025

Just a quick post in case anyone is sitting at home dreading their Monday and wants to spend their Sunday night applying for a new job. You can email me your resume or apply through seek - https://www.seek.com.au/job/82080557 🌈🧠

10/02/2025

We are very excited to be hiring again! One of our amazing Psychologists will be temporarily pausing her Wagtail duties to become a mum. ❤️🥹

This position will be permanent. We are looking forward to helping some families finally get off our waitlist as well as having someone look after our little Wagtails while their psych is on maternity leave.

Please email me at jody@wagtailtherapy.com.au if you have any questions.

10/02/2025

This is a question that comes up a lot in the NDIS space. We see a lot of families told that they can't receive psychology funding because an Occupational Therapist can support with emotional regulation goals. This is true but there are some people who need the skills of a psychologist and some people who need the skills of an occupational therapist and some that need the skills of both. This completely depends on the person and their goals. The best person to tell you what someone needs is the person themselves or their family, not NDIS.

I've tried to summarise what I see as the differences between emotional regulation support from an OT vs a Psych. This is not always going to be the case and there are times where skills overlap.

I hope that psychology skills can continue to be valued by NDIS and that the differentiation can be seen between the two highly skilled but very differently skilled types of therapists.

06/02/2025

That first week back at school can be the perfect storm for some neurodivergent brains. So many unknowns, so many changes, so much executive functioning required and so many new sensations being experienced.

I am wishing parents emotional strength this week because while your kids are in this storm, you need the strength to be their calm. Coregulation occurs when your calm meets their storm. Breathe deep and roll with the waves. 🏄‍♀️

31/01/2025

We watch Bluey in our supervision sessions at Wagtail. This week we watched Mum School which is always a beautiful reminder that every kid (and every balloon kid) has different qualities and needs different supports.

In the episode, Bluey is looking after her balloon kids. Greenie is her only helium balloon kid and "he's such a pickle" until Bluey realises that Greenie keeps running off for a reason. They just need to explore a bit more than her other kids. After realising this she gives them a little magnet to help them explore safely.

This is a nice representation of supporting your kids individual needs rather than trying to support every child in the exact same way. You simply can't parent your helium kids the same way as your other balloon kids.

Some days you will not get this perfect and you will feel like a failure. As Chilli says, you can always try again tomorrow. Tomorrow you might soar, just like Greenie. ❤️🎈

Wagtail Therapy

22/04/2025

19/04/2025

15/03/2025

05/03/2025

28/02/2025

18/02/2025

17/02/2025

16/02/2025

10/02/2025

10/02/2025

06/02/2025

31/01/2025

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