Barossa Valley Counselling

18/01/2026

The weather was way too nice on Friday to have our session in the office. We definitely took advantage 🛶🛶🌞🌲🌲

14/01/2026

This is worth a read. It worries me that professionals in our industry are promoting and applauding this.

-And what marks her out as autistic?

Headphones. A fidget spinner. And I quote, a ‘vacant look in her eye’ according to Mattel, to represent that ‘autistic people struggle with eye contact’.

That’s it.

Be real with me. This is not representation of autistic lives. It’s aesthetic labelling. Autism reduced to a single, sanitised visual cue that has become popularised through social media stereotypes. Headphones function as a shorthand for ‘sensory sensitivity’, which is then flattened into ‘autism’.

This is branding and commodification of autism.

“Autism is where you have headphones on and a vacant look in your eye.” I mean. Are we being serious? -

Dr Jess shares her reaction to Mattel releasing 'Autistic Barbie', complete with fidget spinner and headphones.

13/01/2026

Are teens being over-diagnosed? In this episode of Parenting Shrink Wrapped, Sam and Melissa talk with researcher and educator Dr. Will Dobud about teen mental health beyond labels. They explore the difference between distress and disorder, how di...

09/01/2026

  If you’re the parent of both boys and girls you’ve likely noticed the huge disparity in the way they communicate with you. While it doesn’t hold true in every…

09/01/2026

Great first day back at work after the holiday break. The garden has excess zucchini at the moment so we made zucchini relish and zucchini bread. Then we enjoyed a fun battle of 10 pin bowling.

08/01/2026

Are you a "chilled" parent?

Some food for thought in this article. What stands out for me is " No matter how hard you try, you can't control everything ".

Do you wish you were a more relaxed, patient, and easy-going parent? Here are things "chill" moms of teens do differently.

10/12/2025

Seems to be a lot of debate around this topic as of late. What are your thoughts?

BREAKING NEWS: Australia's social media ban for under-16s has come into effect. Millions of children and teenagers will lose access to their accounts across a range of platforms that, as of now, are expected to have taken steps to remove accounts held by users under 16 years of age in Australia.

Platforms that do not comply risk fines of up to $49.5m.

02/12/2025

A few things that makes you wonder in this article 🤔

https://letgrow.org/why-kids-dont-just-do-it-anymore/?fbclid=IwdGRjcAObHkJjbGNrA5sd0mV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHsuhX2Jt9Tr6fVATIHsRLtXD5w048SYGcbsfneIR32cu7cHX1qQGdboHRHnD_aem_2MQBZBuP8A_tPCF8pvhQ_Q

28/11/2025

Today's 3 hour session was really fun. We did a field trip to the nursery for some veggie seedlings. We then harvested the overgrown 🌈 chard and green onions and replaced them with some herbs and spinach.
Once the gardening was finished, we went into the kitchen and turned the chard and onions into what you see below 😋

21/11/2025

Hopefully we start seeing more of these across the Country

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17U73VBtPL/