ABOUT ME
A MUM AND A DOCTOR NAVIGATING THE WORLD OF PDA
Hello and Welcome
If you’ve found your way here, there’s a good chance you’re trying to understand a child whose behaviour doesn’t always make sense to others, or even to you. You may be feeling exhausted, isolated, overwhelmed, in crisis, or simply searching for someone who truly understands.
Introduction
I’m a UK based doctor with almost two decades of medical experience, including many years working as a GP. I hold a postgraduate diploma in Clinical Psychiatry. I’m not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, and this website isn’t intended to replace professional advice. Instead, it brings together my experience as a doctor and, perhaps more importantly, as a mum to an autistic child with a demand avoidance profile.
Our Journey
Like many families, ours has been on a journey we never expected, and we’re still living it every day. We don’t have all the answers. We continue to learn, adapt, and sometimes get it wrong along the way. This isn’t written by someone who has reached the finish line. It’s written by someone still navigating this path, one day at a time.
A Doctor, A mum, one story
I’m a GP by profession and a mum to a wonderful, autistic son with PDA. This site is where those two parts of my life meet, the clinical evidence and the everyday reality of raising a child who sees the world differently. I hope it helps you feel a little less alone.
Challenges
Over the years, I’ve come to realise that the greatest challenge isn’t always understanding neurodivergence itself, it’s helping others see and understand it too. Families often find themselves explaining behaviours that are misunderstood, while advocating within systems under real pressure.
Navigating the day-to-day, let alone a crisis, can feel lonely without the support every family deserves.
One of the most challenging periods of my life inspired this website. Everything here draws on lived experience, my medical background, and the best evidence I can find, and wherever possible, I’ll signpost to high-quality sources so you can explore further for yourself.
I haven’t reinvented the wheel. My hope is simply to bring trusted resources together, make sense of the science, and bridge the gap between research, lived experience, and everyday life, so we can better understand how to support our loved ones and ourselves.
Every neurodivergent person is different, and every family is different. What has helped us may not be right for you, and that’s completely okay. Nothing here should be taken as the only approach, or the “right” one. If something resonates with your own experience, I simply hope it helps you feel a little less alone, or offers another perspective worth considering.
Out of respect for my son’s privacy, I won’t share identifiable details about our lives. Instead, I’ll focus on the lessons we’ve learned, the questions we’ve asked, and the resources and insights we’ve gained along the way.
If even one article helps a parent feel less alone, helps a teacher see a situation differently, or helps a young person feel better understood, this website will have done exactly what I hoped.
Thank you for being here, and welcome.