SEND Parenting Podcast

In February 2026, the UK government, under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, issued a white paper outlining recommendations and reforms to the schools and SEND system in England.In this live masterclass, Olivia discusses the good, the bad, and the key points from this paper that impact you, and to do that she is joined by Kelly Jarvis, Head of Advocacy and Consultancy at Sunshine Support and Education Consultant Sara Donnelly.Read the white paper and full report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/every-child-achieving-and-thriving Together, Dr. Olivia, Kelly and Sara discuss: ✨ the SEN legislation gaps ✨ problems in the tribunal process ✨ the problem with inclusion hubs ✨ the new OFSTED framework ✨ is the White Paper really delivering anything?🤝Contact Kelly and find out more about Sunshine Support: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-j-100095225/ 🤝Find out more about Sara’s work at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-donnelly-177300217/ 💛 If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it.📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...

How many times has your AuDHD child missed a deadline, or simply not done something really important?Spoiler alert: they’re not lazy or naughty, because neurodivergent brains do not process things in the same way. Their reward system is entirely different. And their executive dysfunction can make even the most straightforward tasks feel impossible.I am joined by Nicola McAllister, a specialist in child development and founder of The Regulated Child, to break down why our children can’t just do the thing.Nicola explains her ‘brain house’ model that she uses to understand and support neurodiverse brains, and why simply telling a neurospicy brain to do something is not only unhelpful, but might actually make a frustrating situation even worse.Together, Dr. Olivia and Nicole discuss: ✨ how to understand the neurodiverse brain ✨ the regulate, relate, reason framework ✨ why consequences don’t work with ADHD ✨ practical tools to help you work through the wobbles🤝Contact Nicola and find out more about her work at https://www.regulatedchild.co.uk/ 💛 If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it.📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...

In today’s attention economy, parenting has never been more challenging. Our children are surrounded by gadgets, technology and screens actively trying to distract them from you.And they’re really good at it!So what do we do about screen time, how much is too much, why do our kids always prefer to look at their screens over the world around them - or us - and what can you do about it?I am joined by Ekta Khera, illustrator and founder of Tiny Thinks, to discuss the big questions around screen time looming over every parent today.Together, Dr. Olivia and Ekta discuss: ✨ Encouraging children to think deeper ✨ Creating realistic alternatives and harnessing the hyperfocus ✨ Supporting neurodiversity with non-screen based activities ✨ Why Cocomelon is evil ✨ How to build an offline world that helps kids thrive ✨ The importance of curiosity and progress🤝Contact Ekta and find out more about her work at ourtinythinks.com 💛 If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it.📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...

Parenting at the best of times is hard work, but having a neurodivergent child is like parenting on steroids. Nothing works, you never feel like you can catch a break, and worst of all, you often feel like you’re not good enough.If this sounds like you, this episode is going to help you find your mojo again. Dr. Olivia is joined by Dr. Melita Ash, a clinical psychologist and the director of Percuro Psychology, a specialist practice in assessing and supporting anxiety, neurodivergence and school-related distress.Together, Dr. Olivia and Melita discuss: ✨ The challenges of identifying ASD in children, especially girls ✨ Managing overwhelm and emptying the stress bucket ✨ Social anxiety and autism ✨ The demand-capacity gap ✨ Patterns to look for in your neurodivergent children🤝Contact Melita and the Percuro Psychology team at https://percuropsychology.co.uk/ 💛 If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it.📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...

What happens when a child spends their entire life being told they are “too sensitive,” “not trying hard enough,” or that they “have so much potential”… while secretly struggling just to cope?In this deeply moving and honest conversation, Dr. Olivia Kessel is joined by author and illustrator Eliza Fricker to explore the hidden reality of growing up as an undiagnosed autistic girl. Inspired by Eliza’s powerful new book, Could Try Harder, this episode unpacks the emotional cost of masking, people-pleasing, perfectionism, and constantly feeling “different” in a world that misunderstands neurodiverse girls. Together, Dr. Olivia and Eliza discuss: ✨ The subtle signs of autism in girls that are so often missed ✨ The exhausting reality of masking and living behind a “coping” facade ✨ How phrases like “everyone else manages it” shape identity and self-worth ✨ Why neurodiverse girls are frequently overlooked in schools and families ✨ The grief, relief, and self-compassion that can come with late diagnosis ✨ How parents can better support children who are already trying their absolute bestThis episode is a powerful reminder that what looks like “not trying” is often a child trying harder than anyone can see. It is a conversation filled with compassion, insight, humour, and hope for parents, educators, and late-diagnosed women alike. 📚 Could Try Harder by Eliza Fricker is available now.💛 If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it.📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...

Today is a special one. It is publication day for my debut book, Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls, and I wanted to mark it by recording something just for you.In this episode I share the things I wish someone had told me the day we got Alexandra's diagnosis. Why ADHD is so consistently missed in girls, and what it actually looks like in the home rather than the classroom. The one symptom that causes more chaos in families than almost anything else, and that does not even appear on the diagnostic checklist. The piece of neuroscience that changed the way I parent completely. And the four things that have made the biggest, most tangible difference for our family.This is not a clinical overview. It is what I know now, after years of living it, researching it, and supporting hundreds of families through it.Beyond the Label is available everywhere books are sold from today. The link is below. And if you are looking for a community of parents who truly get it, details of the ADHD Warrior Mums membership are in the links too.You are not alone in this. You never were.📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...

Following her recent Daily Mail feature, Dr Olivia Kessel opens up about one of the most misunderstood and most common aspects of ADHD: emotional dysregulation and flash anger.In this honest and practical episode, Olivia explores why emotional dysregulation isn't in the ADHD diagnostic criteria and why that matters. She unpacks the neuroscience behind flash anger and why reasoning in the moment makes things worse. She also goes into the hidden triggers behind explosions at home, including sleep deprivation, masking at school, hormonal cycles, hunger, transitions, and the "school angel, home devil" pattern so many parents recognise. And she shares the practical tools that transformed daily life in their household.Plus, messages from the community, including parents who felt, for the first time, that their experience was finally being reflected back to them.If you have ever felt trapped, ashamed, or utterly alone in what is happening behind your closed front door, this episode is for you.📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...

Can I be honest with you for a moment?For so many parents, the hardest part of the SEND journey is not the diagnosis… It is the paperwork.The forms. The reports. The endless documents. The fear of getting it wrong.And for many, that fear becomes so big that they never even make it to tribunal, despite the fact that 95% of cases that get there are decided in favour of families.In this episode, I am joined by Stevie Hayes, founder of Bundle Creator—a tool designed to simplify one of the most overwhelming parts of the EHCP journey.We talk about: Why the EHCP and tribunal process feels so complex (and why that is not your fault)  The hidden “gatekeeping” role of paperwork that stops families in their tracks  How to break the process down into manageable, bite-sized steps  The shocking statistic that fewer than 10% of families reach tribunal  Practical ways to organise evidence, meet deadlines, and feel more in control  How technology can support neurodivergent parents to navigate a non-neuroaffirming system This is not about pretending the system is easy. It is about giving you the tools to face it with clarity, confidence, and support.Because you are not failing the system. The system has not been built for you.And when we change how we approach it, everything begins to shift. If you have ever felt overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure where to start, this episode is for you.Stevie Hayes: [email protected] here for SEND BundleThe NeuroDiverse toolbox - YouTube**The local authority is responsible for submitting any bundle to a SEND Tribunal. Parents are best prepared when they understand the constraints and can submit their evidence as a partially completed bundle to the local authority.    📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...

Easter holidays can feel like a breaking point for many ADHD mums.Less structure. More demands. And that quiet, heavy loneliness that no one else seems to understand.In this deeply honest solo episode, Dr. Olivia shares what came up again and again in her group coaching this week: 👉 the invisible load 👉 the emotional exhaustion 👉 and the feeling of doing it all aloneIf you are heading into the holidays feeling overwhelmed, stretched, or already running on empty… this episode is for you.This is not about perfect routines or getting it “right.” This is about something far more important:Not losing yourself in the process.Inside this episode, you will find: Why parenting a neurodiverse child can feel so relentless (and why it is not your fault)  The hidden “invisible load” so many mums are carrying  A powerful mindset shift to take the pressure off this holiday period  One simple daily anchor to help you reconnect with yourself  A short guided meditation to calm your nervous system and give you space to breathe Because you are not just the organiser, the advocate, or the regulator.You are a person within this, too.And you matter.If this episode resonates, please share it with another mum who might need to hear this today. 🧘‍♀️ Meditation Link 📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...

Have you ever watched your child fall apart over something that seems small — a correction at school, a cancelled plan, a simple “not now”… and wondered what is really going on?In this powerful solo episode, Dr Olivia explores Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD) — a term you may have seen everywhere on social media, but one that is often misunderstood.Blending medical insight, real-life parenting experience, and practical tools, this episode unpacks:• What RSD actually is (and why it is not in the DSM) • The science behind emotional dysregulation in ADHD • Why some experts support the term — and others challenge it • What RSD really looks like in children and teenagers (especially girls) • Why your child is not “overreacting” — and what their brain is doing instead • The link between ADHD, rejection, and lived experience over timeMost importantly, Dr Olivia shares practical, compassionate strategies to help you support your child:• How to respond in the moment (what helps — and what makes it worse) • How to build emotional awareness before meltdown • Why validation matters more than logic • How to gently reduce avoidance and build resilience • The role of therapy and when to consider medicationIf you have ever felt confused, exhausted, or alone trying to support a child who feels everything so deeply, this episode will help you understand what is really happening — and how to move forward with confidence.You are not alone in this. And neither is your child. 📚 New Book — Out Now  👉 Order your copy Beyond the Label: Empowering Parents of ADHD Girls A powerful blend of science and lived experience to help you truly understand and support your daughter.💬 Connect with Us🌱 Join our SEND Parenting Private WhatsApp Community — a free, safe, welcoming space to share, learn, and feel supported by parents who truly understand the realities of neurodiverse family life.⚡ Ready to go deeper? Become part of the ADHD Warrior Mum’s Membership — a paid membership space with group coaching with Dr Olivia, access to masterclasses with neurodiverse experts, monthly self-care and real connection. You don't have to navigate this journey alone.📩 Contact Me If you wou...