"What are your qualifications, really?"

I’m asked often about my qualifications. In fact, just yesterday someone asked if I had “any actual qualifications or is it all just personal experience?”

I don't typically answer this. But here goes:

Are these two things separate? For colonised minds, yes. How much money I paid for my degrees that consisted of someone else’s ideas and how well I regurgitated them on paper, used the correct referencing and then how I was graded based on individual interpretation is important to many.

What I personally understand, relate to, have experienced myself and how that has made me who I am today and how I treat and consider others, and what I put out into the world is more important to others.

Credentials are important because the system has made it so.

I have a mixture of both.

Here’s a little (and I truly mean ‘a little’!) about me if you’re new here or wondering..

I have a BA with a triple major in Sociology, Politics and Culture, and Literature, Film and Art.

I have a Postgraduate in Education with a disengagement specialisation. I’m currently working on a Postgrad in Counselling and a Postgrad in Psychology (I’ll probably withdraw from the Psych).

I have taught in classrooms as a teacher from early childhood, through primary and into secondary. I’ve taught adult literacy and numeracy to asylum seekers and refugees. I’ve designed, delivered and run outside of school hours programs and school holiday programs including for disabled youth.

I’ve worked as a childhood behavioural and family support specialist (yes, that was my title), where I worked across Melbourne with early childhood education and educators, families and professionals to understand and ultimately support children with emotional, social and ‘behavioural challenges’ based on my observations across environments and my recommendations.

Previously I employed many autistic adults within my own company and I’ve worked with many people all over the world in the autistic field.

I’ve delivered presentations on current research in childhood trauma approaches to professionals, and my work has been referenced in journal articles, and other publications. I’ve supported and assisted the writing and publication of several books where I’ve written chapters and been invited to do the same for scientific literature and academic texts.

I've completed A LOT of training on childhood trauma, dissociation, somatisation, etc in order to learn about myself.

My company and incredible friend and colleague Kristy and I have run social groups for PDA children and KT built an incredible Minecraft server that hosted many children and their families, this was incredibly beautiful to witness.

I ran an online community of over 500+ families in crisis, unable to leave their homes, struggling in the school system, and more.. we created a beautiful community together. Like family. We had guest speakers, creative events, connection via live groups and support, and I closed this in August last year after half a decade.

I've consulted with thousands of families, supporting them through school transitions working in liaison with educators and other allied health professionals.

I’ve educated on PDA, autism and childhood trauma for a long time now and yes, people often think I only possess lived experience without formal qualifications and training. But I want to say this: formalised education is crucial, yet inaccessible to many.

I am the first and only person in my immediate family to attend university.

Research in neurodivergent and psychiatric-survivor communities has been heavily shaped by the impacts of colonisation and by systems built through a Western, white, medical lens. Much of this work was not created with our communities, but done to us via a biased, behaviourist lens. This has caused real harm - through pathologising difference, erasing culture, ignoring community knowledge, and reinforcing power imbalances where white researchers held authority over people’s lived experiences.

For many neurodivergent people, and especially for Black, Indigenous, migrant and culturally diverse communities, research has often been a tool of colonial control. It has framed ways of being as disorders, treated distress as defects, and placed white, non-disabled perspectives at the centre as the ‘neutral’ or ‘objective’ standard. This has invalidated culturally grounded understandings of mind, body, kinship, healing, and identity.

Moving forward requires centring lived experience, community-led knowledge, and culturally grounded understandings of neurodivergence. Decolonising research means returning power, letting communities speak for themselves, and recognising that colonial frameworks caused harm and are not the only lens for understanding the mind or human diversity.

So yes, I absolutely have qualifications and agree this is at times, important, depending on the person’s offerings and skill sets. But using a lack of education to discredit or disapprove of any person by a system heavily gatekept is a problem.

Brilliant minds exist everywhere and have so much to offer. And disability is still not adequately supported in the education system.

After all, I am a survivor of an education system that excluded me, isolated me and caused incredible suffering. I became an educator to combat this happening to as many families as I could possibly support and assist to avoid this. Prioritising my education over my experience is counterproductive.

Most of what I have achieved in life has been in solace, working it all out myself, without the support of a loving family. I left school after many years of ‘school can’t’ at 15.

I have survived things I share openly about, and I have survived things most people will never have to experience that I am still in therapy for and will continue to be in therapy for, all of my life that led me to being functionally multiple, also known as dissociative identity disorder (I don’t relate to the disorder part or feeling disordered about my identity at all - I know who I am, all of me) and this includes but is not limited to organised abuse.

I have been a homeless, pregnant teen. I have been in and out of the juvenile court system as a young person, have survived unaliving attempts earlier in life and have worked my arse off to be where I am today. I have mixed heritage which is a contentious issue here on these lands due to the stolen generations and missing generations and so I choose not to discuss this as it isn't for public consumption and has contributed to mountains of confusion and a deep loss.

I am autistic, PDA, have ADHD, cPTSD and chronic illnesses and I’ve just had a year ‘off’ - not doing active live work to work on my therapy intensively.

Today, I am a single parent of four children, all PDA autistic among other forms of neurodivergence. Their ages range from 11 through to 27 and they are a beautiful eclectic mix of non speakers, and never stop speakers and everything in between (I float up and down on this continuum)..

I’m currently seeking supervision to enter into a PhD on consciousness, dissociation and trauma recovery and I’m actively working on designing some beautiful products for families, again with my good mate Kristy T who many of you know and have worked with.

I know I will have missed so much information and experience here, but welcome, if you are new!

Thanks for being here.

KF

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