Growing Gently Psychology

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Growing Gently Psychology

Please note Rebecca is unable to offer personalised advice or counselling services via Facebook or Instagram.

Rebecca Cefai
Child & Perinatal Psychologist
Board Approved Psychology Supervisor
Conference Presenter
🧠 Neurodivergent & Neuroaffirming

A gentle approach to parenting and development in the early years

14/06/2026

Growing Gently Parenting Cards are currently on clearance as we make room for our newly packaged stock.

The Growing Gently Parenting Cards are a deck of 24 reflection and discussion cards designed to support parents to parent in a way that is informed, mindful, compassionate, and values-driven. The prompts encourage parents to be gentle not only with their children, but also with themselves, helping them build confidence in their parenting, enjoy parenthood, and grow alongside their child.

Drawing from attachment theory, responsive parenting, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and self-compassion, the cards offer practical prompts that encourage reflection, connection, and intentional parenting.

The cards can also be a valuable resource for therapists, psychologists, counsellors, social workers, parent educators, and other professionals supporting parents. They can be used to facilitate reflection, encourage mindful parenting, explore parenting values, cultivate self-compassion, support self-care, and help parents nurture their child’s emotions alongside their own.

Some ways therapists have used the cards include:
• Laying out the cards and inviting clients to choose prompts they feel drawn to explore.
• Using the cards to identify parenting values and intentions they would like to embody.
• Supporting clients to identify parenting practices they would like to prioritise in therapy.
• Facilitating discussions about mindset shifts, self-compassion, emotional regulation, and connection.

If you’ve been considering adding them to your therapy room or parent support work, now is a great time to pick up a deck while clearance stock lasts.

https://www.growinggentlypsychology.com.au/product-page/gentle-parenting-cards

14/06/2026

The theme for Infant Mental Health Week 2026 is Attunement. Attunement is often described as a parent’s ability to notice, understand, and respond to their child’s needs. However, many traditional understandings of attunement have been shaped by neurotypical assumptions about communication, connection, and development.

What if connection doesn’t always look like eye contact?

What if communication isn’t always verbal?

What if difference doesn’t mean disconnected?

I’m sharing a free resource: Tuning into Neurodivergence: Introductory Insights into a Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach to Attunement.

This one-page resource explores how neurodivergent infants and children may communicate, connect, and regulate in ways that differ from dominant expectations, and invites us to broaden our understanding of what attunement can look like.

Please note that this resource is intended as a brief introduction and reflection piece rather than a comprehensive guide.

📥 Download your free copy here: https://www.growinggentlypsychology.com.au/product-page/tuning-into-neurodivergence-introductory-insights

If your organisation, workplace, school, or service would like to learn more about this topic, I am available to present Tuning into Neurodivergence: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach to Attunement. This presentation was first delivered at Ngala’s Infant Mental Health Week celebration in 2026 and can be adapted for a range of audiences.

14/06/2026

Yesterday, I had the privilege of speaking at .official ‘s Infant Mental Health Week event, sharing my perspective on attunement through a neurodiversity-affirming lens.

At the heart of this work is a simple but powerful belief: every child deserves to feel seen, understood, and accepted, and every parent deserves support from professionals who understand both them and their child.

Attunement is a dynamic process that involves a parent noticing their child’s cues, interpreting meaning, responding contingently, and repairing ruptures in connection when they occur.

Much of what we know about attunement has been developed through a neurotypical lens. Research and clinical practice have often focused on behaviours such as eye contact, facial expressions, vocalisations, and spoken language as key indicators of connection and engagement. While these behaviours may be meaningful for many children, they are not the only ways that infants and children communicate their needs, interests, emotions, and intentions.

To apply a neurodiversity-affirming approach to attunement, we must broaden our understanding of communication and connection across the parent-child dyad. We must move beyond neurotypical assumptions and become curious about the unique ways both children and parents experience, express, and make sense of the world. Rather than expecting families to fit conventional ideas of communication, neurodiversity-affirming professionals recognise, understand, and respond to the unique strengths, needs, and communication styles of every parent-child dyad. In doing so, more opportunities are created for genuine connection, mutual understanding, and belonging.

It was an honour to share this message with more than 80 professionals attending both in person and online. Seeing so many people committed to deepening their understanding of neurodiversity and strengthening relationships between parents and children gives me hope for the future.

Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the conversation. Together, we can build services and communities where all children and parents feel understood, respected, and supported to thrive.

24/05/2026

I have a few Neurodivergent Parenting Cards left and I want them gone so I have space for the new version of the cards… Soooo, I am selling the rest of my stock for 50% off!

24/05/2026

I’ve officially submitted my concerns regarding the proposed NDIS changes.

As both a psychologist and parent working with neurodivergent children and families, I am deeply concerned about the direction these reforms are taking.

These changes are not just about budgets. They will impact real children, real families, real clinicians, and already overstretched systems including schools, healthcare, mental health services, and communities.

The slides below summarise my 8 main concerns.

Disabled people and families deserve systems that are accessible, evidence-informed, neuroaffirming, and genuinely designed to support participation, wellbeing, and inclusion, not systems that create further barriers, exhaustion, and exclusion.

I encourage people to continue speaking up, sharing lived experience, and advocating for meaningful consultation and disability-informed policy.

23/05/2026

These women 💚 My “Mum Tribe”

We met over 10 years ago when we worked together as part of an allied health team. Yes, we make an EPIC team…

💪Gab (Our resident paediatric physio- rare find)

☄️Nicki (Our sensory and trauma informed OT and the one that supplies our sensory tools during training days)

🌈 Michelle (the neurosparkly speechie whose brain I pick about Gestalt Language Processors)

❤️ Miriam (Speechie and the one with the biggest heart)

💾 Katie (Speechie and the one that finds the facts and converts them to plain English)

Since then, we have become mothers, had 13 kids between us, and have supported each other through many parenting ups and downs. One of my greatest accomplishments was managing to convince two of them to move to the Blue Mountains to be my “neighbours” 😂

They have always accepted my quirkiness, awkwardness and intensity and I am so grateful to have them on my side 💚

21/05/2026

The Growing Gently Parenting Card Deck has a new home… a beautiful canvas bag 🤍

A safe place to keep your cards together, protected, and close by for the moments you need them most. Whether they’re beside your bed, tucked into your therapy bag, or brought along to appointments, or being gifted to a friend, they now have a safe mobile home to keep them better protected.

New home, same heart 💚

Available now: https://www.growinggentlypsychology.com.au/product-page/gentle-parenting-cards

21/05/2026

The theme for Infant Mental Health Week 2026 is Attunement and I have been 🤿 deep-diving 🤿 into preparing for my keynote presentation for Ngala’s Infant Mental Health Week event:

🌈 Tuning In to Neurodivergence: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach to Attunement

I’ll be exploring the diverse ways babies and caregivers communicate, connect and regulate, and how traditional understandings of attunement can overlook neurodivergent sensory, relational and communication differences.

📅 Thursday 11 June 2026
⏰ 7.00am–10.00am (WA time)
📍 In-person and online

In person:
Ngala – 9 George Street, Kensington WA 6151
WA locals can attend in person for a light breakfast and opportunity to connect with fellow clinicians.

Online/livestream:
A livestream link will be provided upon RSVP.

💛 This is a free event, though places are limited: https://www.ngala.com.au/imhw-2026-event/

21/05/2026

Neuroaffirming practice is not an “extra” or something you can opt into or specialise it. It is part of responsive and inclusive care.

If supporting neurodivergence feels unfamiliar or outside your confidence, that is okay but it’s also time to start learning more…

🌱 Like this post so I know you’re listening 💚

15/05/2026

If you work with parents and families, you are already supporting neurodivergent parents. Whether you know it or not.

That’s why you might find me at your next conference even though you think neurodivergence isn’t even on the agenda…

Not all clients will disclose their neurodivergence.
And not all clients feel safe to.

Some clients may not yet recognise their own neurodivergence. Even in adulthood.

No diagnosis does not mean no neurodivergence.

Many neurodivergent people are missed or diagnosed later in life. Especially those with intersectional identities.

All health professionals need to know how neurodivergence can shape communication, sensory experiences, regulation, relationships, parenting, feeding, sleep, engagement with services, and help-seeking.

Because neurodivergence does not exist in isolated “autism” or “ADHD” spaces.

It exists in maternity wards.
In feeding clinics.
In therapy rooms.
In schools.
In primary healthcare.
In mental health services.
Everywhere families are.

And when professionals understand this, support becomes safer, more accessible, more attuned, and more effective for everyone.

That’s why you might find me at your next conference or training day.

Address

Valley Heights
Springwood, NSW
2777

Telephone

+61450012252

Website

http://www.growinggentlypsychology.com.au/

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