Our Team
Meet a few of our team members
Instinct Au's team works with clients and their families to understand the way clients navigate and experience the world and identify what they need from their environment to feel safe and regulated
Everyone in our team is a NDIS registered Specialist Behaviour Practitioner, however as the work we do differs greatly to work typically done by Behaviour Practitioners (usually involving Applied Behaviour Analysis, which we actively reject), we refer to our Practitioners as 'Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioners' as this is what we are striving to support and achieve when working with our clients.
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Our Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioners have a diverse range of experience and qualifications such as Reframing Autism's certificate in Autistic Wellbeing and multiple bachelor's and/or master's degrees in various fields, while some are still on their learning journey and as such, are supervised by a suitably qualified Supervising Practitioner.
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All of our Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioners can provide the following services:
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Create Positive Behaviour Support Plans - PBSP
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Write Functional Behaviour Assessments - FBA
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Provide Specialist Behaviour Intervention
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We legislatively have to refer to the plans we develop as Positive Behaviour Support Plan's and the assessments we conduct as Functional Behaviour Assessments, however, we do not practice ABA in any form and actively reject any practice utilising ABA strategies.
Please see more information about the language we use.
To summarise, Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner is the title we use for our registered Specialist Behaviour Practitioners.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
I've always been passionate about working with and supporting individuals, however this passion grew significantly after exploring the work of Dr Dan Siegal, Dr Ross Greene, Mona Delahooke, and Alfie Kohn, as well as identifying as autistic and ADHD myself.​ I love working with people from a neurodivergent-affirming and trauma-informed lens to understand what they are needing to feel safe and live their life the way they want to live it. I have a keen interest in neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology and apply this knowledge in the use of brain and sensory based strategies with clients. I have completed Dr Ross Greene's CPS pre-certification, a Graduate Certificate in Autism, an am currently completing a Master's Degree in Autism, I am also one of the four directors of Instinct Au.
Developmental Educator & Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
Tara Kent has been working in the education, community services and justice sector for over 20 years. Tara is multiply qualified in Education, Human Services, and Law. She has been the Director of Instinct AU (Instinct CBT) since it's commencement in 2001 and has been steadily helping it grow as she advanced her skills in many other roles. Tara is a NON-ABA Practitioner and instead uses sensory-based and brain-based strategies including Dr Ross Greene's Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (DPS), Dr Siegel's 'whole-brain learning' and implements strategies conducive with the bottom-up and top-do approaches endorsed by Mona Delahooke.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
I am an accredited Social Worker and have been working in the child protection area and community services, both in the United Kingdom and Australia, for decades. My background is in working with children, youth and families in multiple domains, including education, trauma therapy, family function therapy and family mediation.
Recently, I developed an interest in Neurodivergent affirming therapies. Also, recently I embarked on the importance of practising, and educating others of, NON-ABA interventions. Like many of the Instinct Au practitioners I am an avid supporter of the strategies used by DR Ross Greene.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
Having worked in the Community Services sector for many years, I am passionate about providing trauma-informed and neurodivergent-affirming services. Working with Instinct Au is amazing, as it allows me to work with awesome humans in a collaborative way to best identify and address their needs.
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I am very excited about expanding my professional development further with Instinct so that I can continue to work with individuals and their families in the most supportive way possible and keep providing education about neurodiversity.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
My background is in Psychology and I have experience working both in the Disability and Education sectors. After becoming a parent, my interest in assisting children with meeting their needs grew considerably so I started researching strategies to better support them and their families. I became a huge fan of the work of Dr. Ross Greene, Gregory Santucci and Mona Delahooke, deepening my knowledge in sensory and brain-based strategies. I am excited to be part of the team at Instinct Au and be able to provide trauma-informed and neurodivergent affirming strategies. I’m looking forward to assisting clients throughout their journey and to offer educational support to the wider community.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
I'm Alannah, and I began my journey with Instinct Au as a student on placement at the beginning of 2022. Since then, I have been working for the tecAntz program in Ipswich. I am on track to completing my Bachelor of Community Welfare, and my interests include disability support work and sociology. I am super grateful my introduction to neurodiversity and neurodivergent-affirming practices was taught to me while working alongside professionals and experienced individuals who value acceptance and the dignity of others. It is important to me to practice through Non-ABA practices and encourage everyone I engage to embrace their authentic self.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
I have a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Master's degree in Social Work. I've worked as a clinician, group facilitator, and support worker in the community and disability sector. I'm passionate about working with children and adolescents. At Instinct Au I work as a tecAntz Specialist Behaviour Practitioner. My role is to empower young people to live their best lives and “Find their tribe” through neurodivergent affirming practices, sensory-based and brain-based integration strategies developed by Dr. Ross Greene and others. I feel very privileged to work alongside a dedicated team committed to ensuring our clients and their families are well supported. It's an exciting time to be a part of the Instinct Au team.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
My first steps towards where I am today started with my journey with living with ADHD and it wasn't until I worked with at-risk youth in New Zealand, that I realised my passion for helping others who are neurodivergent. I gained a Bachelor of Counselling and Psychotherapy and took an interest in eco-psychotherapy and addictions. On this journey, I’ve been able to connect with clients with my interests and hobbies. I have a love for the outdoors, skateboarding, snowboarding, hiking, circus performance (specialising in fire-spinning) and more homebody hobbies such as gaming and JDM car videos. I am optimistic about the direction the world is heading in becoming more accepting of neurodiversity, and I love that I get to be a part of that with Instinct Au.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
I realised my passion for working with neurodivergent people when my own children were diagnosed as Autistic and ADHD. Following the advice of many medical professionals, I went down the path of ABA which I soon realised was not helpful for, and actively rejected by, the autistic community. This realisation brought about years of research and learning about neurodivergent-affirming and sensory based practices.
I look forward to continuing this journey and furthering my professional development with the team at Instinct Au and supporting people to be their authentic selves.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
I believe that people are able to live their full potential, reach their goals and be happy, if quality, appropriate and timely support is provided.
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My friends would describe me as being responsible and approachable. I am honest and willing to provide a supporting hand to those who need it most.
My clients deserve the best possible outcomes, therefore I always make the effort to ensure that they achieve their goals.
Acceptance, Autonomy, and Authenticity Practitioner
When I moved to Brisbane 5 years ago a friend Suggested I should try support work as they thought I would be a good fit for the role, so I did, and then kept further developing my skills to help not only others but, myself and my ND Family.
I have now worked with Instinct Au since 2020 as a Support Worker and Therapy Assistant, and now as a Provisional Practitioner. People say that I am one of the most exceptional Practitioners Instinct AU has for Rejection Sensitive Participants and I'm amazing at helping people feel safe. I have a very calming and loving nature that allows me to make connections and allows others to feel safe and heard.
