EPIC Families

Come join Spencer and our amazing speakers at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! Info & tickets here.

How a broken child can change the world.

At 15, Spencer McNeil tried to take his own life. He grew up in foster care, lost his stepdad at a young age, left school early, and was told by teachers he would never amount to anything. He believed every word.

Today he owns Barber Spence. He’s a mental health advocate changing lives. And at EPIC Families live, he will stand on a stage in front of 500 families and tell them something every parent of a neurodiverse child needs to hear.

In this episode, you'll hear:

📖 Spencer's extraordinary story: from a broken home and foster care to barbershop owner, mental health advocate, and keynote speaker.

🎓 Why the things teachers said to him as a child became the things he believed about himself..and the moment he decided to stop believing them.

❤️‍🩹 Why vulnerability is not weakness, and why the most powerful thing you can do is tell someone you're not okay.

💪 The concept of the broken man trying to heal broken men…and why you have to fill your own cup before you can fill anyone else's.

💤 What Spencer says to the parents lying awake at night wondering if they're doing enough.

🧠 Why the ADHD brain, channelled in the right direction, can genuinely take over the world.

💬 Why our darkest moments show us who our reals are 3am…and why reaching out is always the right move.

This is one of the most powerful, raw, and life-affirming conversations we have ever had on the EPIC Families Podcast. If you are a parent who has ever worried that your child is too broken, too different, too lost…Spencer McNeil is the proof that they are not.

The child you are worried about today could be the one who transforms a life tomorrow.

Follow Spencer on Instagram here.

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come meet Penelope and the awesome Crimson Global Academy team at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! More details here.

What If School Was Built Around Your Child…Not the Other Way Around?

Every neurodiverse family knows the feeling: The phone calls from the teacher. The emails. The labels. The sense that your child is a square peg being forced into a very round hole. And the quiet, crushing belief that this is just how education works…and there are no other options.

Penelope Barton, CEO of Crimson Global Academy, is here to tell you that's a false assumption. And she's built an entire education system to prove it.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🏫 How Crimson Global Academy went from 20 students in 2020 to over 3,000 students studying across 70 countries — and why the timing of its launch was almost perfectly accidental.

🎓 Why something as simple as a scratchy school uniform was genuinely life-changing for one of their students…and what that tells us about the education system.

🧠 Why bespoke minds need bespoke education…and how the Academy is rebuilding every aspect of school from the ground up.

❤️‍🩹 The concept of "productive struggle" and why swooping in to save our kids from difficulty might actually be holding them back.

💡 Why the options available to neurodiverse families are so much wider than most parents realise.

💻 The hybrid model that's changing everything: Combining online learning with physical school days for the best of both worlds.

🎉 How education needs to be transformed.,,and why the incentive structures in our current system are fundamentally broken

Discover more about Crimson Global Academy and how they can transform your child’s learning here: https://www.crimsonglobalacademy.school/nz

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come join Sarah and our other amazing speakers at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! Grab your tickets here.

Four kids. A growing food business. Twin nine-year-olds (one with ASD & ADHD, one with ASD). Two and a half years on a public waitlist with barely a phone call in between. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, finding a way to keep going, keep showing up, and keep filling everyone else's cup when yours is running dangerously low.

Sarah Gillum is a mum, an entrepreneur, and one of the most refreshingly honest voices we have had on the EPIC Families Podcast. And in this conversation, she holds nothing back.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🧠 How Sarah's twins went from a two-and-a-half-year public waitlist to finally getting the answers their family needed.

🔎 Why Evie's autism went unnoticed for so long…and what finally connected the dots.

❤️ How Sarah talks to her kids about their diagnoses…and why keeping it simple and positive was the right call for their family.

🏷️ Why the label matters less than the support it unlocks, and how to hold both truths at once.

🍰 What running Real Rad Food has taught Sarah about boundaries, burnout, and showing up as a regulated parent.

🎯 The hunter brain theory…and why neurodivergent kids might just be built for entrepreneurship.

🎉 Why confident, fulfilled parents are one of the greatest gifts we can give our children.

This is a conversation about the juggle, the guilt, the grace, and the moments when you realise that showing up imperfectly is still showing up. And sometimes that is more than enough.

Discover more about Sarah and Real Rad Food here: https://realradfood.co.nz/ and follow them on Instagram here

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EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come join Elen and our amazing speakers at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! More details here.

The Expert Who Untangles What Nobody Else Can.

Every neurodiverse family reaches a point where they know something is wrong, they know they need help, and they have absolutely no idea where to start. Too much information. Too many waitlists. Too many professionals who don't quite get it. And not enough time, energy, or clarity to figure out the next step.

Elen Nathan gets it. As an occupational therapist, sensory integration specialist, and founder of The Playful Place in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, she has spent her career doing one thing above all else: untangling what nobody else can.

In this episode, you'll hear:

❤️‍🩹 Why Elen's premature son set her on the path to becoming one of New Zealand's leading voices in sensory integration

🗺️ What "wayfinding" is…and why it might be the most important first step any family can take

📱The concept of "infobesity”, and why all the information on your social media feed might actually be making things worse

🏆 Why traditional strategies like sticker charts and reward systems simply don't work for neurodivergent children…and what does

🚫 What to do when one parent isn't on board…and the powerful question she asks that changes everything

🤞 Why hope can actually feel dangerous for families who have been let down too many times

👀 Why compassion isn't enough…and what "empathy with action" really looks like

🫶 The moment Elen realised her job isn't just to support the child or the parent…it's to support the relationship between them

If you have ever felt lost, overwhelmed, or like nobody really understands what your family is going through, this conversation is the hand on your shoulder you have been waiting for.

Discover more about Elen and her work here: https://theplayfulplace.co.nz/

>>>>>>>>

EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Join the free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard, and discover strength in neurodiversity.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come join us at EPIC Families LIVE on August 16th: New Zealand’s biggest EVER event for Neurodiverse families! More details here
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She Fought Every System. And She Won.

Some parents ask for help and get it. Anna Knight asked for help and was told: "nothing to see here". She was told to come back when her son was four. She was told her anxiety was the problem. She was told the behaviors were under control...while she was going home covered in bruises.

She kept fighting anyway. And what she built on the other side of that fight will give every struggling parent real, tangible hope.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🚫 How a daycare manager's offhand observation set Anna on a years-long journey through a system that repeatedly let her family down

🧠 Why her son's autism was missed again and again...and what finally got him diagnosed

🗺️ Why the strategies on every parenting course she attended simply didn't work...and what actually did

🎓 The two types of teachers: and why one of them can change everything for a neurodiverse child

🧩 Why sensory needs are the missing piece that nobody talks about...and how understanding them transformed her son's life

🎉 The mindset shift that changed everything: from fixing the child to changing the environment

🚀 What it means to get yourself diagnosed to become a positive role model for your own child

This is one of the most honest, raw, and genuinely important conversations we have ever had on the EPIC Families Podcast. Anna says the quiet part out loud so that every parent who has ever felt alone in this fight knows the truth: they are not.

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Join Anna in our free EPIC Families community here. Be seen, be heard and discover strength in neurodiversity.

EPIC Families is part of Bay Paediatrics, New Zealand’s leading child Neurodevelopmental clinic. We believe every family deserves to be an EPIC family with Extraordinary Parents and Incredible Children.

Discover more about our award-winning ADHD and ASD assessments, family therapy support, and our free tools and resources here: https://baypaediatrics.com/

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.