Karise McNamee - Paths with Purpose

16/04/2026

16/04/2026

16/04/2026

Join Stephanie Pinto for a game-changing 3-part online seminar.

16/04/2026

Congratulations to Bryden Carlson-Giving and everyone who contributed to this outstanding book!

15/04/2026

We are deeply concerned by the findings of the Psychology Supply and Demand Study report, released yesterday by the Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

This report predicts a worrying shortfall for the psychology workforce: baseline demand estimates indicate a shortfall of psychologists of 3% in 2025, widening to 28.4% by 2038.

Consideration of unmet demand in health settings suggests that access to psychology services is already falling short of demand by 57.3% in 2025.

This is projected to rise to a staggering 96.6% by 2038.

Many Australian psychology professionals are already stretched to capacity, navigating increasingly complex systems, and, in some cases, experiencing burnout.

Meaningful reform is urgently needed. We are committed to working closely with the government to make this happen.

Read the full statement from APS President Dr Kelly Gough: https://ow.ly/gTJ850YJ9aq

View the Psychology Supply and Demand Study report: https://ow.ly/cxoV50YJ9ar

14/04/2026

I saw this posted in a large Neurodiversity group and I thought, I can answer all of those. Most of these questions are answered by nervous system science!

Autistic people have more sensitive nervous systems, so these become a problem for us easier than the general population. We're the "canaries in the coal mine" which means our threshold for reacting to negative stimulus is lower than average.

- Nervous system state strongly impacts if and how caffeine works. If you're already depleted, caffeine cannot magically create new energy. Caffeine tells our body to borrow from our energy stores for tomorrow and next week and next month, and eventually there is no energy available no matter how much caffeine screams "give me the energy." There are also genetic metabolism differences that affect how fast or slow we process caffeine.

- Most gastro problems are caused by nervous system imbalance and/or hypermobility. IBS-D is associated with fight/flight responses and adrenaline surges where gut motility happens too fast. IBS-C is associated with freeze/shutdown responses where gut motility just stops. Combination IBS can be from flipping between these two nervous system states. Hypermobility predisposes for allergies and food sensitivities because it makes the gut wall weaker and stretchier.

- There's a cluster of 3 genes that is usually inherited together - one codes for Autism or ADHD or similar, one codes for hypermobility, and one codes for immune hyper-activation. This is why so many Autistic people have chronic fatigue syndrome, POTS, MCAS, gluten/dairy/soy sensitivities, chemical & fragrance sensitivity, oral allergy syndrome, and many other autoimmune conditions.

- Stims meet tons of neurological needs. Repetitive motions create dopamine. Many stims are vagus nerve activating activities.

Being sensory seeking works for our brains because checking for sensory input is how our nervous system assesses for safety. For example, if we don't get enough auditory stimulation, our body might believe that our ears don't work anymore and that's scary and stressful to our subconscious. But if we can hear stuff, then the body is like: yep ears work, no worries there.

Proprioceptive sensation is one that easily goes offline for a lot of us. Without knowing where we are in space, it's hard to even know we exist. Moving our body in space tells our nervous system that our hands and feet do actually exist.

- Around 80% of the Autistic community identifies as LGBTQ+. If you are Autistic, you are likely to be outside of the social norm in more areas than just neurotype.

- The biggest thing that Autistics do better than NTs is bottom-up processing. We observe many small details and use those to build complex big pictures. NTs could never. They do top-down processing. NTs approach everything with preconceived ideas of what is expected and then fill in details from there.

Let me know if you have more questions about the Autistic experience! I don't know if I'll be able to answer all of them here, but they will inform future post topics.


🦎 My year long-course, 50 Vagus Exercises in a Year is enrolling now! We're exploring natural nervous system support, while honoring individual pacing and considering neurodivergent differences.

The exercises are taught through short videos, with a monthly Q&A session on zoom, and several more ways to learn with me, including a copy of my eBook when I finish it.

Paying to participate is optional. There's a sliding scale option and lots of free scholarship spots. My goal is to change the world with nervous system education and I don't beleive in gatekeeping this info.

Details here: https://traumageek.thinkific.com/courses/50-vagus-exercises-in-a-year-two

13/04/2026

Sunday musings. I just had a ‘thing’ with someone on their post. Do you know the thing?

Someone on social media described a well-known trauma therapist as an IFS therapist. I couldn’t let it sit. The therapist is brilliant. Their work is extraordinary, really helpful to me and many many other people.. and they have a good collegial relationship with Dick Schwartz… but they’ve never undertaken the IFS trainings. They talk about how wonderful IFS is but they have a different lens. So I replied to this person’s comment to this effect. It didn’t land well and the other person came back with a load of words defending the therapist.

Nooo 🫣 Ah! i see.. once again.. this is an example of my information integrity drive. My correction impulse. My AuDHD pro-social truth-telling.

I had wanted to be clear, kind and relational and (it took me a while to know the difference in me) it’s not about being right. I have parts that like to be right (oh yes!). This isn’t that. It’s not about embarrassing or shaming anyone. I so believe we all do better when we’re working from accurate information, when things are clear. It comes from care, not competition.. really for me it does! However it also gets painful when the inaccuracy touches something for someone else and they don’t think I’m making a small factual clarification, instead they see I’m dismantling something or criticising them. So I’m perceived as difficult, intense, too much, too pedantic. As someone who can’t just let it go. I used to get misunderstood around this a lot and it still happens

The painful irony is that my intention is very much relational. I’m trying to make sure we’re all working from something solid and it comes from integrity. However the impact reads as attack and as one-upmanship and not being a team player. (Yes I have those parts too. I can be grandiose and superior and also withdraw and do things on my own. This isn’t that ).

When someone defends rather than receives.. especially when I know my heart was in the right place.. there’s a particular kind of loneliness in that for me. A “but nooo you’ve got me completely wrong” feeling which coincides with my rejection sensitivity (again my wiring, I also have tender ones who experienced abandonment as a child and have as an adult felt rejection)

I’ve lived with this my whole life. Long before I had the words AuDHD for it.

My mum had the same wiring. Undiagnosed and without any of the language I have now. In her later years the justice sensitivity consumed her and she could get stuck on perceived injustices for years, turning them over and over with nowhere to put them. Add in rejection sensitivity and it’s horrific. Wiringis highly inheritable I understand it differently now than I did then.

There’s a term for it: justice sensitivity, alongside information integrity drive. The AuDHD nervous system experiences unfairness, dishonesty, or integrity violations as a threat and when it can’t be fixed when the misrepresentation goes unchallenged, when bad behaviour faces no consequences then my nervous system just keeps the file open and I circle round and loop. Returning. Unable to close it. Rumination. Close to OCD… a mixture of wiring and parts.

So at home with a man I love.. genuinely, he’s wonderful.. who has a fun habit of renaming things deliberately for the enjoyment of it. Somewhere in my nervous system a small alarm goes off. My information integrity drive does not care that it’s a joke. It just knows that is not the word. It’s not right! We have a little relational tug of war around this. He knows. I know. We navigate it with love and an intention to meet this with curiosity, connection as our wiring clashes in this area, a double empathy moment to be navigated.

I look in the mirror. I’m not easy to live with! I know I’m a lot. Living with me requires patience, flexibility, and a fairly robust sense of self (and Self energy!). I correct things. I notice details . I will gently, warmly, persistently make sure the record is straight. On a bad day I can speak more sharply, I can say things directly without pausing to consider the impact and my words or tone can land badly for the other. Not my intention but I’m working on being more relational on a daily basis.

This is parts work in real life. Noticing the impulse. Understanding where it comes from. Choosing ..consciously, effortfully .. what to do with it.

The justice sensitivity is also a gift. People with a finely tuned radar for wrongness are often the ones who speak up when others stay quiet. Who notice when something’s off in a system. Who can be trusted to tell the truth. Advocates for others too.

Where I’ve got to today is that this gift isn’t to be switched off but for me learning to be relational with it. Sometimes the correction needs to happen and risk that it won’t land as intended but it’s out there.. and sometimes love is letting the renamed thing stay renamed, or the error stay as it is.

Does your justice sensitivity and drive for information integrity and truth get you into trouble? I’d love to know your version 🧡

Edit: The person I referenced in the opening of this post has since come back to me directly and pointed out that I misrepresented their response. They were gracious, not defensive. I read them through my own activated lens and got it wrong. Painfully ironic given what this post is about. I’m sorry, both publicly and personally 🧡

12/04/2026

10/04/2026

I finally got around to reading book, Unmasked. I have had it on my TBR list for a while and I was hoping it could be a new resource to add to my list for my clients.

I think it’s absolutely fantastic. 5-stars! Super easy to read for those of us with a range of attention spans, has up to date data and info, and no unnecessary fluff or misinformation.

Excellent book for ADHDers, Autistics and AUDHDers who are just starting to learn about themselves.

I’ll be recommending it to a lot of my clients!

Well done 👏 You’ve done a really great job at telling the truth in a compassionate and clear way.

10/04/2026