Chatterbox Psychology

17/01/2026

🙌🏼

17/01/2026

Contact us asap if you’re keen to join our next group. Scheduled to commence Wednesday 4 February. Places are limited. Email: info@chatterboxpsychology.com.au for details

13/12/2025

05/12/2025

A very helpful explanation

If I had to describe PDA in 60 seconds…

I’d say:

Imagine living in a body that constantly scans for control and safety.
Where everyday demands, getting dressed, going to school, brushing your teeth, can feel like someone’s grabbing the steering wheel of your nervous system.

It’s not defiance. It’s not manipulation.
It’s a deep, automatic survival response that kicks in when autonomy feels threatened.

So when you see avoidance, what you’re really seeing is protection.
When you see refusal, what’s underneath is fear.
And when you offer connection instead of control, you begin to see regulation instead of resistance.

PDA isn’t about won’t, it’s about can’t right now.
And when we shift from power to partnership, everything begins to change.

NOW.....If I had to explain what’s happening in the nervous system in 60 seconds…

I’d say:

A PDAer’s brain moves faster into survival mode than most people realise.
The amygdala fires quickly.
The prefrontal cortex, the part that handles reasoning, planning, flexibility, goes offline.
The body floods with adrenaline.
Their capacity suddenly shrinks.
And the only thing their nervous system cares about is regaining a sense of safety and autonomy.

This is why logic doesn’t land.
Why reasoning doesn’t work.
Why consequences backfire.
Why “just do it” feels impossible.

Their brain isn’t choosing avoidance,
their brain is choosing protection.

When we reduce the pressure, stay curious, and offer safety instead of force…
the nervous system re-regulates, the prefrontal cortex comes back online, and the child becomes available to reconnect.

PDA isn’t a behavioural problem.
It’s a nervous system response.

And understanding this is the key!

05/12/2025

If you are still unsure about what to purchase for your child's teacher or school executive, I’m sharing my gift choice. I am not joking and youre welcome 🙃

03/12/2025

Info for parents about the upcoming social media ban

03/12/2025

ADHD and working memory

03/12/2025

🙌

How Can We Help Raise the Voices of Our PDA Children?

Our PDA children are some of the least heard voices in decision making conversations, yet they are the ones most affected by decisions made in offices far away from their daily lives.

They don’t fit the standard boxes.
They don’t respond to traditional supports.
They are often misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or left out completely.

So, how do we help people truly hear them?

💬 We translate lived experience into language they can’t ignore.
We tell the stories, the missed school years, the sensory battles, the anxiety that looks like defiance, the joy that blooms when autonomy is honoured.

📚 We bring evidence to emotion.
We pair research with reality, showing that PDA isn’t a parenting issue or a discipline gap, but a nervous system difference needing compassion, not compliance.

🤝 We collaborate, not compete.
Parents, professionals, educators, advocates, we need to unite our voices, not fracture them. Collective advocacy is where systems begin to shift.

📢 We keep showing up.
In submissions, panels, community consultations, conferences, and social media....every time we speak, we make it harder for people to look away.

Because the truth is:
Our PDA children may not always speak for themselves in those decision making rooms, but we can amplify their truth.

And one day, when the world finally catch up,
it’ll be because of the parents, allies, and professionals who refused to stay quiet.

Change starts when understanding begins.
Let’s keep making their voices heard.

03/12/2025

This is where I got my sloth

28/11/2025

The Hidden Grief of Parenting a PDAer (And Why No One Talks About It)

There’s a kind of grief in parenting a PDA child that nobody prepares you for.

Not the grief of losing your child, but the grief of losing the version of life you thought you were going to have.

The grief of watching other families do things that feel impossible for yours.
The grief of having to parent differently than everyone around you.
The grief of realising the world is not built for your child, and that you’ll have to fight for spaces where they can simply exist.

It’s the grief beneath the exhaustion.
The grief inside the silence when someone says, “Have you tried being more firm?”
The grief of cancelled plans, school refusals, sensory storms, and walking on eggshells not because you're fragile, but because you’re attuned.

It’s the grief of watching siblings adapt.
The grief of losing friendships because people don’t understand.
The grief of not getting to be the parent you thought you’d be, because you had to become the parent your child needs.

And maybe the hardest part?

This grief comes with love.
Deep, fierce, unshakeable love.

So you don’t feel like you’re allowed to grieve.
Because how can you grieve someone you adore with your whole being?

But grief and love are not opposites.
Grief is love with nowhere to go.

You can love your PDA child more than anything and grieve the life you thought you were walking into.
That doesn’t mean you don’t want them.
That doesn’t mean you’re failing.
It means you're human.

If no one has said it to you:

Your grief is valid.
Your heartbreak is real.
Your strength isn’t in pretending it’s fine.
Your strength is in surviving what most people couldn’t imagine.

You don’t have to “get over it.”
You just need a space where it can be named.

If this is you, you're not broken.
You’re grieving.
And grief is not a flaw, it’s evidence of love that has had to stretch beyond what you expected.

🤍

04/11/2025

For students 16+, Reachout has a free peer chat service via text to provide someone to talk to when studying for exams

Want to talk to someone about what's going on for you? Chat to a peer worker who's been there. They'll listen and support you to figure out what to do next. You can talk about tough times or anything that's stressing you out, and you’ll learn coping skills to get through it.

04/11/2025

Strategies for parents to help their kids with exam stress

Support your teen with a range of strategies to help them manage their stress before, during and after exams.