NDIS – Josephine Moon

Calling all writers or aspiring writers!

Lovely ones, I am for the first time ever opening my doors to mentor, coach and assist developing writers. Why now? Maybe because The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose is my 10th book, which has a nice feel to it. Maybe because I’ve been in this game for a long time now (with a string of bestsellers, international publications and never out of contract) and, ridiculously, it’s only just occurred to me that i could share my skills and knowledge and others might even appreciate it 🙂 (Yep, I’ve been the queen of imposter syndrome and have just realised how wrong I’ve been.)

(It’s also highly possible that the introduction of ADHD medication has finally given me the energy, focus and capacity to do a heap of things I am passionate about but never had the energy to do. But, I digress…)

It’s certainly because I remember how difficult it was when I was a writer who was past ‘the beginner’ stage but not yet at the ‘accomplished’ stage (a truly awkward and at times isolating experience). Maybe it’s because I am a homeschooler now and there’s something about homeschooling that makes you think differently about, well, everything. And it’s certainly because my ‘teacher genes’ have been re-activated over the past year. And as much as I remember that awkward ‘in between’ stage of writer development, I have huge passion for beginning writers too and in homeschooling I’ve become exceptionally sympathetic to the plight of writers who simply don’t believe they start, better their work, or finish a work. (Newsflash, you can.

If you’re a writer and would like some help, please do check out the four programs I have put together (just to get us started…. because spending weeks of website maintenance is really not my favourite thing to do and four was all I could manage right now!). And because I am committed to helping you long term, you’ll find I’ve built in long term support past your initial package. (See this example.)

If this is the year you want to write or you want to move to the next level of writing, I am here for it. I’d love nothing more.

Raw beginners through to published authors are welcome, as are all ages and abilities.

(Also, if you are an NDIS client, you may be able to claim your investment. Email me for more details on NDIS.)

I hope to see you soon!

You may have heard people talk about ‘the spectrum’ or ‘the Autism
spectrum’. You may have heard people say that “oh, everyone’s on the
spectrum somewhere” or “we’re all a little bit autistic”. The first
thing to know is that those last two statements are flat out incorrect.
You are either on the autism spectrum or you aren’t.

The spectrum essentially refers to the fact that every Autistic person
is different, with different strengths and challenges. As the saying
goes, if you’ve met one Autistic person, you’ve met ONE Autistic person.
There is as much diversity in the Autistic community as the neurotypical
community.

The second thing people tend to believe is that the spectrum is linear
and every Autistic person is a dot on the line, either less autistic or
more autistic, or “high functioning” or “low functioning”. These are
difficult terms and ones a lot of the Autism community rejects. In old
school language, I would be called “high functioning Autistic” and until
recently I would have been labelled as having “Aspergers Syndrome”
(which was another term for high functioning). It’s important to note
that the label of Aspergers Syndrome has been removed from official use
and those of us previously thought of as “aspies” are now included in
the spectrum.

The challenge with the term “high functioning” is that it makes it
difficult to get the support you need. High functioning mostly just
means we’re really good at masking our distress, or camouflaging
ourselves to “pass” as neurotypicals. This costs us a lot in terms of
our mental health and energy and high masking individuals are more
likely to experience episodes of Autistic burnout, which I can certainly
attest to.

The challenge with the term “low functioning” is that it is used to deny
agency to the individual, might be confused with an intellectual
impairment, is demeaning and locks the individual into a box that might
be difficult to get out of.

An Autistic’s person’s ability to “function” (whatever that truly means)
can change from day to day, hour to hour, year to year. The truth is,
though, that while I may look “high functioning” I can assure you that I
can be very “low functioning”. If the perfect storm of stressors strike,
I can be confined to bed. In other words, if the spectrum was indeed
linear, I could move up and down it depending on whatever else was
happening in my life at any given time.

Last year, I went through a prolonged Autistic burnout (though I didn’t
know it at the time because I hadn’t yet received my identification) and
I cried every day for eight months and I was convinced I need to quit
writing. Now, post diagnosis, I know so much more about how to help
myself and I am excited as all get out to bring you a new book! That would be
‘movement’ up and down a linear scale but the truth is simply that our
abilities are determined by our capacity at any given time.

In reality, the spectrum is like a pie chart. Every Autistic person has
a ‘spiky’ profile where we’re really good at some things and struggle a
lot with others. Everyone’s pie chart will look different.

Technically, these days Autistic people are given a category based on
the likelihood of how much support they need. These are “needs support”,
“needs more support”, “needs high levels of support”. These are boxed
this way so that the NDIS can decide how much funding they wish to offer
that person.

p.s. I’d love to be able to credit the owner of that image but there’s
no tag on it and I see it everywhere online so it’s been shared so many
times it’s impossible to find.

Have you signed up so we can keep in touch?