Nicole Beardsley

03/06/2025

The new NDIS changes are coming in thick and fast- that means report requests are in high demand (particularly for folks with Autism). So I took a mini break in Lorne the past 2 days to get through some report writing, distraction free! It was the perfect balance of work and nature. NDIS report requests are currently at capacity for 2025 as are new NDIS client referrals. I do have a cancellation wait list though so please get in touch with my incredible assistant Vicki if you want to pop your name on it: office@nicolebeardsleyot.com.au . Private/ Medicare/ JobsAccess client enquiries are still being accepted for 2025.

13/12/2024

A wonderful resource from the Yellow Ladybugs team for managing the festive season for neurodivergent families.

26/11/2024

Here’s a quick snapshot of what therapy looks like when you come into my clinic.

1) Assessment is the first place we start, so that I can get a good understanding of what’s happening for you. I assess your executive functioning skills, your sensory profile, I get a really solid medical and lifestyle history. This sets the scene for therapy and developing goals and outcome measures

2) We start with the basics. Sleep, diet, medication, untreated medical conditions, disabilities and mental health. You’d be amazed at how many clients of mine have low iron levels or just don’t drink water and the impact that this has on their ADHD or autism symptoms!

3) Nervous system support. The nervous system in a neurodivergent person can be dysregulated for a number of reasons including sensory processing challenges and interoceptive challenges. I assess the nervous system and then we use techniques to regulate it.

4)Education. Learning about how your brain works can be the most important part of therapy for many women. After a lifetime of asking ‘why am I so different?’, ‘why does the world make sense to everyone but me?’ , just understanding your brain can help to relieve a lot of the guilt, shame and embarrassment that goes with being neurodivergent.

5) Strategies. These are woven into every session to give you strategies that you can apply to everyday life. From earplugs to exercises, handouts, referrals, resources… there’s a lot of strategies out there! The trick is to tailor them to your unique neurodivergent profile which is where I come in!

05/08/2024

Brisbane, Noosa and the 7th AADPA ADHD conference was the perfect way to spend last weekend! It was heartwarming to be amongst over 500 other health professionals all hoping to advance our skills and knowledge in neurodivergence. Getting to this point has been a slow burn (40 years of undiagnosed ADHD for me!) but we can rest assured that things are gathering momentum. The conference had a lot of numbers, facts, research and talk about diagnosis and medication - the important stuff! But I have to be honest that my favourite topics were the following - the ones that showed what it's really like to live with ADHD when you look past the numbers and graphs:
- ADHD and grief - what our pets mean to us and how to navigate the loss of a pet when you are neurodivergent
- ADHD and trauma - the 'little T's' that add up by Monique Mitchelson, (The Neurodivergent Woman Podcast)
- Neurodivergence and gender diversity - being a minority within a minority
- Matilda Boseley - Author of 'The Year I Met My Brain',

There are so many intelligent and passionate professionals advocating for ADHD research and sharing their knowledge and it was a privilege to be a part of the weekend!

01/07/2024

Have you seen Inside Out 2 yet? I headed off last Friday to check out how I can use this movie as a learning opportunity for my ADHD clients, and there is still SO MUCH that these colourful characters can teach us about living with our emotions when we are neurodivergent.
Disney characters with big personalities are a great visual teaching method!

From a female perspective it hit the nail on the head. Puberty comes in as a wrecking ball and throws all of Riley's lovely easy to understand childhood emotions of Joy, Sadness, Fear and Anger into a tailspin. These emotional characters are not just confused by how sensitive Riley is to them, but they have to contend with a whole heap of new emotions that they didn’t know existed – Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment (I had to google Ennui and loved this descriptive emotion!).

From an ADHD perspective there is a lot to learn from watching this movie, and I do recommend that you give it a shot. Puberty is often the changing point for many females with ADHD. If you notice how sensitive Riley is to her emotions in the early scenes of the movie, try multiplying this by 100 to understand what an ADHD brain and body feels like. Puberty is a confusing time and so many of my clients describe it as a time where they lost a lot of their self belief and identity because they went from being the ‘smart one’ or the ‘organised one’ to being disorganised, struggling to understand instructions and their grades plummeting at school.

Just like Riley has to form a new belief system in the movie, we have all had to build a new belief system as teenagers about who we are, what we like, what we are good at, what we can offer in the world. For so many of the young women, and people identifying as women, in my clinic, this belief system is fragile and for some, our work in session is to rebuild their self belief, use their strengths and values to guide their next steps forward, and answer the question “Who am I as a woman with ADHD and how do I move forward in life with this diagnosis?”.

If you love a good Disney/ Pixar movie, and you would like some more insight into the workings of your emotions on your behaviour then I would give this one a go!

Image courtesy of press.disney.co.uk

03/05/2024

In clinic this week the focus has been on understanding the link between ADHD and perimenopause. What I'm hearing my clients saying is "I've always been a bit rushed and forgetful, but I've generally been able to get by...I'm not sure why it's all falling apart now!". The culprit here is oestrogen. Oestrogen increases the dopamine levels in our brain and enhances the brain's sensitivity to dopamine. When it decreases as we enter perimenopause we can really start to feel that our dopamine isn't being used as effectively. Our executive functioning skills such as memory, planning, paying attention and regulating our emotions all of a sudden become a lot harder...and it becomes a lot harder to mask our ADHD symptoms and 'get by'. On top of that we may be starting to deal with heavier periods, teenage children, ageing parents, a busy work role and the dreaded 3am insomnia. In my clinic sessions I chat to my clients about what they're experiencing and provide education so that they can understand their symptoms. We map out what challenges need to be tackled immediately and put a plan in place to get back on track and smooth out what can feel like a pretty bumpy ADHD ride! https://www.halaxy.com/book/nicole-beardsley-occupational-therapy/location/736391

An holistic mental health service supporting women experiencing overwhelm, burnout, carer burden, chronic illness, fatigue and physical health symptoms to rebalance their mental and physical health using an occupational therapy approach.