Perfectly Imperfect

Perfectly Imperfect Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Perfectly Imperfect, Mental Health Service, Level 1, Botany Road, Mascot, 2020, Sydney.

Perfectly Imperfect is an Australia-wide NDIS registered neurodiversity affirming and gender affirming service providing counselling, advocacy, neurodiversity affirming behaviour support, inclusive education support and disabilitity advocacy

14/03/2026

One of the most confusing barriers to late diagnosis is high achievement. You got the degree. You built the career. You’ve got the partner and kids. By every external measure, you have it together.

So how can you be neurodivergent?
The answer is: very easily.

High-achieving neurodivergent adults often succeeded through extraordinary compensation. You worked longer hours. You over-prepared. You managed environments strategically. You masked continuously. And let’s be honest, you’re really smart, so there was never a problem that you couldn’t solve.

On the one hand, these strategies worked. You have proof they worked. But compensation is not the absence of neurodivergence. It is simply what your neurology looks like when you are functioning at maximum effort.

Many people describe diagnosis arriving not when they failed at basic tasks, but when they finally collapsed despite exceptional achievements. The pace that felt “normal” turned out to be unsustainable all along.

Understanding whether neurodivergence explains your particular profile matters less for a label and more for understanding: What has achievement actually cost? What would sustainable look like? How do you build a life that works with your brain, not against it?

Sometimes the question is the first step toward answering it.

March is Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month.And this one hits a little differently for me now.Because somewhere along th...
14/03/2026

March is Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month.

And this one hits a little differently for me now.

Because somewhere along the way, my body decided to collect three autoimmune diseases. Not exactly a hobby I would recommend.

Autoimmune disease is wild when you think about it.

Your immune system, the thing literally designed to protect you, gets confused and starts attacking your own body instead.

Wrong target. Friendly fire.

Some days it’s pain.
Some days it’s inflammation.
Some days it’s exhaustion so deep that even basic things feel harder than they should.

And the strange part is… most people will never know.

You can still look “fine”.
You can still show up.
You can still run businesses, parent, advocate, do the chores, run a home…

But behind the scenes there’s this constant calculation happening in your body.

How much energy do I have today?
What will this cost me tomorrow?
Is this just a tired day… or the start of a flare?

Living with autoimmune disease has forced me to learn things I probably would have ignored otherwise.

That rest isn’t laziness.
That pushing through has consequences.
That our bodies eventually demand to be listened to.

And if I’m honest, I’m still figuring that part out.

Because slowing down when you’re someone who likes to build things, lead things, and change things… is not exactly natural.

But this is the reality for millions of people living with autoimmune disease and other invisible illnesses.

Bodies that look fine on the outside…
while quietly fighting a battle on the inside.

So this month is a reminder:

Just because you can’t see someone’s illness, doesn’t mean it isn’t shaping every part of their day.

And for those of us living inside these bodies…

we’re doing the best we can with the nervous system, immune system, and energy we’ve got.

Some days that looks strong.
Some days it looks like rest.

Both count.

Jess xx

11/03/2026

An Open Letter to Uta Frith
From a neurodivergent clinician watching the field change:

Dear Professor Uta Frith,

Your work has shaped decades of autism research. Many of the frameworks clinicians use today exist because of the foundations laid by researchers like yourself.

But something important is happening in the autism field right now. And the research world doesn’t seem entirely comfortable with it.

Autistic people are no longer just being studied. They are part of the conversation. They are researchers. Clinicians. Parents. Advocates. Educators. People with deep insight into their own neurology and experiences.

And that shift is changing the questions being asked.

Recently, conversations with you and Dr Naomi Fisher, have emerged suggesting that people diagnosed as autistic later in life may represent a different group from those diagnosed in childhood.

On the surface, that may appear to be a scientific question.

But for many autistic adults, it lands very differently.

Because from the outside, as a neurodivergent clinician working with autistic individuals and families every day the explanation often looks far less complicated. The system didn’t suddenly discover a new population of autistic people.

The system simply failed to recognise them for decades.

For much of the history of autism research, diagnostic frameworks centred on a very specific presentation:

young
male
externally disruptive
socially obvious

If you fit that mould, the likelihood of recognition was high. If you didn’t, it dropped dramatically. Girls were missed. ADHD-autistic presentations were missed. Highly verbal autistic people were missed. Children who internalised distress rather than externalising it were missed.

Not because their neurology was fundamentally different. Because their traits were less disruptive to the environments around them.

Schools refer the child who flips desks. They rarely refer the child who silently studies social behaviour like a survival strategy. The one who scripts conversations. The one who forces eye contact despite discomfort. The one who suppresses stimming because they were taught it was “inappropriate”. Those children were often praised for being compliant - and still do to this day!

But compliance can hide extraordinary levels of distress.

And when those children grow into adults, the cost of decades of masking eventually shows up in ways we are only beginning to fully understand:

anxiety
burnout
identity confusion
chronic exhaustion

So yes, late-diagnosed autistic adults may present differently from children diagnosed earlier in life. But i don't think we are observing a different type of autism. What we are seeing are the long-term psychological impact of years spent adapting to systems that never recognised their neurology.

There is another concern that many clinicians and autistic advocates share.

When conversations begin to separate early-diagnosed and late-diagnosed autistic people into distinct categories, there is a risk of unintentionally creating a hierarchy of legitimacy.

The autism community has lived through this before.

High functioning vs low functioning.

Level 1 vs Level 3.

Each attempt to categorise autism has, at times, been interpreted as a way of determining whose autism is more “real” or more valid.

That is a dangerous path.

Autism is not a hierarchy.

It is a neurodevelopmental difference shaped by biology, environment, access to diagnosis, masking, trauma, and the expectations placed upon individuals by society.

The rise in adult diagnosis does not necessarily mean autism has changed. It may simply mean the diagnostic lens is finally widening. And that widening is being driven not only by research, but by autistic people themselves: through advocacy, community knowledge, and lived experience.

From where many of us stand in clinical practice, that shift is not a threat to autism science. It is a sign that the field is evolving.

Science grows when new perspectives are incorporated. And the growing presence of autistic voices in autism research may be one of the most important developments the field has seen in decades.

Not because it replaces scientific inquiry. But because it deepens it.

So please, take the time to listen to autistic voices, and autistic allies in your research, in your discussions and in your opinions.

Respectfully,

Jess
Founder & Clinical Director
Perfectly Imperfect

Schools are being asked to create inclusive environments.But inclusion doesn’t happen in isolation.It happens inside com...
08/03/2026

Schools are being asked to create inclusive environments.

But inclusion doesn’t happen in isolation.

It happens inside communities made up of parents, teachers and students.

And sometimes the hardest conversations are about how we as parents respond to difference.

Because our kids are watching.

And how we respond shapes the kind of community they grow up in.

What do you think schools are missing when it comes to inclusion?






24/02/2026

Meet Kate & Jess!

Kate Broderick (CEO, Spot & NeuroWay) and Jess Dolev (CEO, Perfectly Imperfect) are both working to create meaningful impact in our community, with therapy, support worker and educational services grounded in trauma informed, neurodiversity affirming and relationship-based paradigms.

Connection is the secret sauce, and for founders with such lofty visions, moments like these are so important. None of us can effect the change we hope to see, alone. Together we can do so much.

Little things you can look out for, especially if you’re a neurodivergent adult or a parent to kids with disability - please follow us. We’re working hard to create:

• ND adults looking for community
• A parent or carer who would value a free tea or coffee with others who truly get it (next meeting this Friday morning!)

• Parent to a child living with a sibling who has high supports needs, and would love a sibling program focused on fun and friendship for them

We have SO much planned for 2026, m and we genuinely believe that flourishing lives at the intersection of connection and community.





Most social groups are too big!Ours are capped at 6.Earlier this year, we trialed a new interest-led model of online soc...
24/02/2026

Most social groups are too big!
Ours are capped at 6.

Earlier this year, we trialed a new interest-led model of online social groups - and the engagement spoke for itself.

So we’re officially launching three social groups for Term 1.

🚀 Star Wars
💜 Swifties
🎮 Pokémon

Ages 10–15
$30 per session
8-week commitment
Online in the comfort of your home

Scan the QR code in this post to secure your place.
Once full, enrolments close.


24/02/2026

You are invited to join !


Empowering Autistic Woman Workshop
Term 1 & 2 – 2026 - 10 sessions over 18 weeks = 20 hours
Numbers: Min 4- Max 10
Age: 16yo+
Length of each workshop: 2 hours + 1 Hour social (at local café or restaurant)

When: Thursdays each fortnight 11am-1pm plus lunch Starting March 5th 2026
Where: Woodchix 95 Great Western Hwy Emu Plains
What to Bring and wear: work boots, jeans or work pants, no loose tops, hair to be tied back if long. Water bottle and snacks.

Cost: To be discussed for individuals depending on NDIS funding and plans
(NDIS: SLES, Employment supports or Core)

Registration and Enquiries to:
autismstepaustralia@gmail.com Berinda 0407063843

Program:

• WHS for all hand tools, machines & conduct of students in workshop
• Numeracy & Literacy – measurements & use of rulers, terminology of woodworking,
names of hand tools & machinery.
• Making up to 3 projects

LESSONS
1. Measuring, marking out, use of a marking gauge, using a try square, kerf, use & technique with a tenon saw, bench hook, what is a 90° angle,
2. Practice tenon saw technique, cutting all pieces to length, squaring pieces on disc Sander, Demonstration of use & WHS on disc sander.
3. Cutting at a 45° angle, sanding, learning about a dry set up, use of Pedestal Drill, making a drilling mark, demonstration & WHS of Pedestal Drill, demonstration of Battery Drill & drill bits, drilling holes in sides for nailing,
4. Marking out & measuring grid for base of project (20mm X 20mm), drilling marks, drill bit measurements. Setting up gluing station, put project together.
5. Continue putting project together, sand for finish
6. Measure, mark out, project 2. Cut to length.
7. Mark out joint & cut to correct depth. Use & WHS of a chisel. Cut out rebate.
8. Measure & mark out lid, curve lid with plane, demo on WHS & use of plane

Woodchix Foundation Hawkesbury NSW Mums, Dads and Carers Penrith & Blue Mountains Community Noticeboard Blue Mountains Autism Family Support Group Western Sydney Autism Community Western Sydney Autism Support Group

22/02/2026

Neuro-affirming doesn’t mean above accountability.

Being neurodivergent doesn’t exempt someone from ethical standards. Being trauma-informed doesn’t remove the need for governance. Being an advocate doesn’t give permission to harm in the name of “safety.”

Power exists in our movement now. There are directors. Boards. Influencers. Large platforms. Funding streams. Reputations on the line.

And when power goes unchecked, it doesn’t matter how affirming the branding is.

If people are scared to disagree…
If private messages get shared publicly…
If dissent leads to exile…

That’s not safety.

We cannot criticise coercive systems while replicating coercive culture inside our own spaces.

Neuro-affirming must include power awareness.
It must include humility.
It must include accountability.

Otherwise, we’re not disrupting the norm.

We’re just repainting it.

16/02/2026

“He’s fine at school.”

If I had a dollar for every time a parent was told that…

“He’s fine at school.”
“She doesn’t do that here.”
“We don’t see those behaviours.”

Cool. And when does he fall apart? At home. With you. In the car.
At bedtime. Over absolutely nothing. Over everything. And suddenly it becomes:

“Maybe it’s your parenting.”
“Maybe you need firmer boundaries.”
“Maybe you’re reinforcing it.”

Let me say this clearly:
Children don’t fall apart where they feel unsafe. They fall apart where they feel safe enough to. Masking is expensive.

For autistic and ADHD kids especially, school can be eight hours of:
• sensory suppression
• social decoding
• compliance
• performance
• holding it together

That is cognitive labour. That is nervous system strain. That is survival mode. The prefrontal cortex (thinking brain) gets tired.
The amygdala (threat system) gets loud. Cortisol builds up all day.

So when they walk through the door?

Boom.

You’re not seeing “bad behaviour.” You’re seeing nervous system discharge. You’re seeing decompression. You’re seeing the crash after a full day of self-control.

The fact they hold it together at school doesn’t mean they’re fine. It often means they’re in survival mode. And survival mode always collects a debt. Usually paid at home. With the safest person.

You.

So if your child is “perfect” at school and volcanic at home… It doesn’t mean you’re failing. It usually means you are their safest place. And that’s not weakness. That’s attachment. That’s trust.

Now, does that mean we just accept aggression? No.

But we respond with:
• regulation support
• sensory understanding
• lower demand transitions
• decompression rituals
• realistic expectations

Not shame. Not blame. Not “he doesn’t do that here.” Because kids don’t save their hardest moments for people they don’t trust. They save them for the ones who feel like home. And that tells you everything.

– Jess
Perfectly Imperfect
Neurodiversity affirming. Always.

13/02/2026

Fo you think we, as a society, could stop calling neurodivergent kids “so resilient.”???

They’re not resilient.

They’re surviving.

There’s a difference.

Resilience is growing with support.
Survival is adapting without it.

When a child:
• shuts down instead of melting down
• masks to avoid being targeted
• forces eye contact
• scripts conversations
• stops asking for help
• “holds it together” all day

That’s not resilience.

That’s a nervous system in threat mode.

And the scary part?

We reward it.

We praise the quiet child.
We praise the compliant one.
We praise the one who doesn’t “cause issues.”

Then we’re shocked when they crash at home.
Or at 14.
Or at 24.

Burnout isn’t a personality flaw.

It’s the long-term cost of survival.

If a system requires a child to override their nervous system to succeed, that system isn’t building resilience.

It’s building trauma tolerance.

And those are not the same thing.



Address

Level 1, Botany Road, Mascot, 2020
Sydney, NSW
1141

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 8pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm

Telephone

0407 022 216

Website

https://www.tiktok.com/@perfectlyimperfecttok?lang=en, https://www.instagram.com/perf

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Since 2006, we have worked with children, teenagers and adults to provide empathetic counselling and accurate assessments to assist with a range of common life problems and events.

Whether you need assistance with depression, anxiety, trauma, court events or disability needs, we strive to be flexible to meet you and your family’s needs.

Sydney Allied Health Family Practice is based in Maroubra in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. We also provide home visits!