9-Week Autism Parental Stress Relief Program

The Parental Stress Centre has been working with parents for the last 14 years, and many of them have had children with autism.   It was due to the high demand of parents asking for an autism specific program like this, that has driven the creation of this program, as well as providing parents access to all our other programs that have also been helping parents of children on the spectrum for years. 

Jackie Hall, founder of The Parental Stress Centre and this course facilitator, is a qualified counsellor (comes under Allied Health Practitioner in NDIS terms) with membership with the Australian Counselling Association (ACA), who has worked in mental health for the past 12 years, including trauma, anxiety, depression, personality disorders, eating disorders, drug & alcohol addictions, and more. 

Jackie has also worked in residential youth work, often working with autistic children with co-existing complex backgrounds, and applying the very strategies you will learn in this program, including therapeutic crisis intervention strategies for complex and aggressive behaviours.

As part of this course creation, Jackie Hall also became an Applied Behaviour Therapist, however soon realised that some of their approaches were not in alignment with our values and thus, we do not teach ABA principles in our courses, hence why I do not openly advertise this qualification. 

Evidence based approaches and concepts that are integrated into this program are:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Solution Focussed Therapy
• Mindfulness
• Circle of SecurityeTM concepts
• Attachment Theory
• Heart-centred Breathing Techniques
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Narrative Therapy
• Neourscience Pyscho-education.
• Trauma Informed Approaches and Therapies

When reading the content of this course, many parents can sometimes get caught up in just the behaviour management strategies that will or won't be used, however we like clients to keep in mind that the topics of behaviour management, specifically, only form a part of this overall program (week 5 & 6).

This program is primarily about mental health - your and your child's. 

Raising a child on the spectrum is incredibly stressful. You are often stressed and worried about your child, and your child is often under a lot of stress too. 

This program is more a mental health improvement program than it is a child behaviour management one. 

Before you even get to the child behaviour management section of this program, you will be learning to:

• Understand Anxiety and Depression in yourself
• How to provide your own emotional first aid (help yourself to help your child)
• How to parent from a place of calm and acceptance so you can help your child with their mental health.
• How to identify Anxiety and Depression in your child.
• How to help your child to think differently about the challenges they face in life to alleviate stress.
• How to observe your child's behaviour to answer the question, 'What must my child be thinking/feeling to be behaving this way?'
• By understanding the function of the behaviour, you will then set YOUR goals on what you want help your child with. (we do not tell you what goals you 'should' have for your child).
• Then in week 5 and 6 you are learning some behaviour management strategies that are about teaching your child how to reach their goals, not trying to train them out of their autism. 
• Then we look at therapeutic crisis intervention techniques for dealing with aggressive behaviours. 
• And the rest of the program focusses on Mindfulness strategies, relationships, time management and the impact of autism on siblings.

So you can see that this program, is not just about child behaviour management.  It is a comprehensive program that looks at many different angles of raising a child on the spectrum, and is a culmination of professional mental health experience, combined with experience working with many parents and their challenges that they've faced raising their child. 

The content is delivered as daily lessons from Monday through to Friday,  and weekly videos delivered on Sundays, all of which can be consumed at your convenience.

You do not have to be online at any particular times to view, read or listen.

The daily lessons take on average, around 15 minutes per day and can be listened to or read.

The weekly videos take about an hour on average (some a little more and some a little less).

We deliberately do NOT give you daily lessons on Saturdays and Sundays to allow weekends as an opportunity to catch up if any lessons were missed during the week, and to give you some space to digest the week's content.  It's also an opportunity to use this time to watch the weekly video too. 

The only times that are set are when we have our 4 x live group webinars that are run as an optional Q&A session you can attend if you want to have a real time conversation with me.  They are held fortnightly from 6th September, starting at 8.30pm AEDST (Sydney / Melbourne time. Daylight savings time applies for the first webinar only). 

If you cannot attend them, support from me can also be given through the closed facebook group specifically for participants of this round of the program only and via email if you don't wish to post in the group.

There are three criteria a plan needs to meet for you to be able to use your NDIS funds for this course.

1. You need to be plan managed or self-managed. (unfortunately, we cannot use NDIA managed plans).
2. You need to have available funding in either your Core support section so we can put it under Parent & Carer Training, or money available under Capacity Building - Improved Daily Living (this is where most people use their funds for this program).
3. Your plan must include goals for your child that are similar to emotional regulation or mental health improvement.

The two places that funding can be accessed on your plan are either, 'Parent & Carer Training' or Capacity Building - Improved Daily Living. 

In your core support the line item we use is #01_741_0128_1_3 - Allied health Therapy Training.

In your Capacity Building the line item we use is #15_038_0117_1_3 - Parent & Carer Training. 

If you are unsure, below is a link to a pdf you can view and print off to send to your LAC, plan manager or support co-ordinator so they can understand the program and help you to see where it best fits in the plan. 

Alternatively, if you feel comfortable you can send us the plan (at [email protected]) for us to take a look at or call us to discuss it further (1300 948 608). 

Click here to download an itemised costing report with line items from NDIS Pricing Arrangements & Price Limits (formerly none as NDIS Price Guide)

What if the NDIS plan is NDIA Managed?

Unfortunately to use your plan for this course when you are agency managed, we would need to be NDIS registered which we are not.

Some parents have different buckets that they can pull from that are self-managed or plan managed, which can sometimes be an option. 

However, if this is not the case, then perhaps at your next review you could ask for a certain portion of your plan be dedicated to training like this so you can do our course in the future.

Some LAC's and plan managers will tell you that they cannot pay for this course until the date of commencement, as the NDIS does not pay for future dated programs. 

However, although the 9 week Program itself has a start date, as part of this program all participants get  immediate access to our full suite of 15 programs and online support and webinars once payment is made through our gold program.

We know that usually anything to do with the NDIS is complicated, but surprisingly, our process is easy!

All you have to do is click on the button below to fill in the NDIS Invoice Request form, and we will take care of the rest. 

Here's the full process of what happens next...

No. Not at all.  Many people sign up to the program in the final days, and even the first few days after the program begins, and that's completely fine. 

Whenever we are close to the starting date of the course and it is unlikely that we will receive payment before we commence, here's what we do:

• If Plan managed - we simply call your plan manager and get confirmation that your invoice is being processed and that verification is enough for us to see that payment is pending and we are happy to set you up on the program right away.  We don't need to wait for fund to finalise before you can get started.
• If Self-managed - Once you submit your invoice to the NDIS portal, just take a screen shot of the receipt you get afte you submit the invoice, and we will take that as verification that payment is pending and set you up on the system.  If for some reason the NDIS declines your payment and we cannot help you to troubleshoot we would just withdraw you from the program.   You would NOT be obligated to fund the program yourself. 

You see, it's super simple.  Now all you need to do is click on the button below to fill in the NDIS Invoice Request Form and we'll be able to get the ball rolling for you.

This program is designed as an 'in between session' support service. 

With the increase of wait times for psychological support and the uncertainties of COVID-19 lockdowns, never before have we needed an online solution to help parents manage stressful situations. 

While face-to-face psychological support will always be superior to online support, the reality is that you see your psychologist once a week, fortnight or month and then have to wait until your next session before you can troubleshoot a problem. 

Because this program provides lifetime access online support from a qualified counsellor 7 days a week, you can be reaching out for help whenever you need it, and from the comfort of your own home. 

In addition, you are getting this support for life, meaning you can access it through any of the stages of your child's life, using the support service as well as the 15 programs that will be available to you, to help you to navigate through the different ages and stages of your child's development. 

When you have your initial plan meeting with the NDIS, you will be setting some key goals for your child to meet.  NDIS funding is designed to support the achievement of these goals.

If you want to get this program fee included in your child's NDIS plan, you need to demonstrate to them how this program, along with the suite of programs (15 of them) you get as part of this fee, is going to help you to learn the skills necessary to ACHIEVE YOUR CHILDS' GOALS (this is important to the NDIS), then it will likely be funded.

Setting and meeting your child's goals are what's going to be the focus point from the NDIS perspective, so the more you can convince them that our programs are going to help you to obtain the skills to meet those goals, the better stead you'll be to get funded.

Often 'emotional regulation' is a goal that usually aligns with a program like this as I'm teaching you skills that can assist your child to regulate their emotions and by regulating your emotions, you're going to be able to regulate your child's more easily too.

FYI, your LAC (local area coordinator) may not remember to tell you this, but any specific request for funding that you make has to be submitted, so it would pay to specifically ask for this course fee to be funded somewhere in the program.

Typically, it will come under the 'Parent & Carer Training' section which is the best place to receive it.  The other place is the Capacity Building - Improved Daily Living section, however if you can get the P& C Training section with funding, then the CB section can be left for direct support for your child.

Here is a link to an itemised costing report that breaks down the program and has a course overview that aligns with the emotional regulation goals I just spoke about, and also contains key line items from the current NDIS price guide where I've highlighted on page 108 and 104, the two, line items that are most popularly if you do end up using your Capacity Building section.  You can download this document and take it to your LAC so they can submit your request to have this course included in your plan.

If you have the funding available under your core support budget, these line items won't apply.

Typically page 108 is where we do the most invoicing, under Line item # 15_038_0117_1_3 because most people don't know to ask for specific parent and carer training in their core budget.

Also, some LACs and plan managers may try to tell you that this program is not NDIS registered and therefore cannot be accessed.  However, this only applies to NDIA managed plans.

If you are self-managed or plan managed, or you have partial plan or self-managed sections of the plan that have access to capacity building – improved daily living and adequate amounts available, and the program aligns with the child’s goals, this program can be eligible for funding.