Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we're live at Covent Garden and we're talking all things autism. My guest today is Alison Knowles, but before I go over to Alison, I know a lot of you are listening in because you want to know who is going to Autism's Got Talents and Ives. So we finally have the list of names. It's been so difficult to choose. I wish I could choose everybody but we can't. So I'm just gonna go through everybody's name who's gonna be performing at Autism's Got Talent Roadshow but it's in Ives with Phil Barnard and Kids R Us on June the 29th. So it's going to be Macaulay Elvin, Aston Avery, Charlotte Fieldson, Liam Burgess, Sophia Owens, Daniel Daugherty, OJ Bridges, Alfie Horrell, Jonah Bly, Oliver Priddy, Cal Ruddy, Lekele Delarmony, Ollie Venning and also the Kids R Us are going to be performing some of their fantastic routines. So I'm so excited. I can't wait. We went for the first time last year. It was amazing. So I'm gonna go over to Alison. Good morning, thank you. I just remembered you don't like me calling you Alison because you think I'm telling you off. I did sit up. Did you notice? I said I would. So thank you Ali for coming in. I'm just gonna read a little bit about you so everybody knows who you are and then we're going to have a little chat. So Ali created the Ollie concept. So it's children are not machines. Everything around mental health or as she likes to call it emotional well-being is seriously over-engineered. The success of the Ollie model is simple. Keep it simple. So Ali trained to be a cognitive NLP neuro linguistic programmer. I can never get my marker on that and then CBT and so it went on giving her an extensive toolbox of techniques and schools of thought to help her help just about anyone who came into our clinic. So Ali before we go into what you actually do, who is Ali? Tell me about Ali. Ali is someone that struggled at school with dyslexia for letters and and Numbers, so I didn't do very well. Okay. Wanted to get out as quickly as but that meant Ali then couldn't get a decent job. All Ali's friends are really smart went to University and Ali had a massive tip on her shoulder, although Ali wouldn't admit it. The job I did get because Ali learned to be the clown in the group to keep protection really was sales. Long story short, I became a salesperson and I ended up being sales director in a demolition company. Wow! So how was that for you? Oh, it's fantastic but the dyslexia was a problem because obviously when you go out in the morning with the crews and you'd have an address of what building had to come down. Okay. Nothing bad happened, but it was you know, not ideal job for me. Talking about demolition. When I very first set up Hilling-Demanner School, the very first mini bus that we got that was donated to the school was from a demolition company. So they were great and they came to present it to the school and I was so grateful because obviously, you know it was the first time we'd set up something. We didn't have anything for the kids to travel around in. So we were so pleased that they donated the bus. So yeah, and also on Facebook, we've been friends for a year. How weird is that? We've met two or three times, but this is the first time I'm sat with that Emma Kennedy and she's lovely. So tell me a little bit about why you created the model of Ali and what is Ali? I think it's a funny thing, isn't it? You can lose yourself in all the things you can't do or you can have this moment where you go. Well, actually there's lots of stuff I can't do, but there's lots of stuff I can do. And I was mainly working with adults as a therapist because I actually don't have children. I've got thousands of them now. And somebody brought a child along to me and everything I've been taught was too grown up and it was too tick boxy and if it wasn't working then they were being resistant. It wasn't that I was a rubbish therapist which worked for me at the time and yet it didn't and I realised that actually if the tables were turned and I was seeing a therapist and I felt that I was being in any way talked down to or forced into a box, I'd really struggle. I've come to you because I've got an issue. You're giving me a bigger one and it just needed simplifying. And I think through my dyslexia and my need to understand things at a very simple base that just helped me take everything I've learned and make it something that everybody could understand and use. Because if you understand it, you don't actually need a therapist and I think that's the real power of the model. Okay, so Ollie is a... Well, there's a question. A lot of people ask me where the name came from. At the time, my nephew had a little boy called Ollie. It just came. This is weird, right? I'm not religious. I think I'm getting very spiritual. But something happened and I can't explain it any better than this, that if there is a supreme being, it went, you know, we've got to do something about mental health down there. It's a mess. We need to simplify it and we need someone to steer it. And of all the people on the planet, I don't know why. And Ollie came about probably from that first child. It was in order for me to work with children, I need to have something that they can relate to. And Ollie was born. So Ollie is a doll. Is that right? Ollie's a character in the books that I wrote initially to explain the concept to children. They're sort of adventure books rather than a self-help book because he needs it. And he's also used in our therapy sessions, but he kind of just travels around with his eye like a mascot, I think now, really. Yeah, I've seen him dressed in lots of different outfits. Yeah, a football kit at one of your events. I remember that. So is it effective with young and old and how do you adapt? So just for people listening in, might have a child just been diagnosed and going through a few difficulties and they might be looking for something? Yeah. The model that we use, the only thing that changes whether I'm working with someone that's five or 105 is the language I use. Okay. But I change my language anyway, depending on who I'm working with. And when we're talking about people that are newly diagnosed, again, we're not autism experts, we don't profess to be. Our real strength is supporting the family, supporting siblings and the parents. And the whole thing is we can't change an event. We can't change something that's happened or it is happening, but we can change how you feel about that. And just by changing how you feel about it, it gives you back control. And that's the true power of Ollie. We give people back the control. And with moms and dads and siblings, it's put your oxygen mask on first because just watching you chaps, watching Tally, our friend, and how they're coping with their family. If you burn out, then we're in real trouble. So our kind of approach and involvement is to make sure you guys don't burn out. It's really hard when you have a child with autism or who is autistic to not focus purely on that child, even though you may have other siblings as well. And it's because of the system. It's the way it's set up. It's like a minefield to navigate. And then you've got to learn all this various different language. Like I was chatting to you when we were having a coffee about, you know, some parents first hear the word salt and they think, well, what's up then? You know, you put it on chips and it's just like it's a speech and language therapist. And there's all these different acronyms and it's a different language altogether that you've got to learn to help you navigate the system so that your son or daughter gets the support that they need. And that's the most stressful thing I would say about it, because there's no one actually that sits down with you as well and says, this is what's best for Tommy. This is what's best for Alison or whatever. It's just about your having to make the decision. And it's almost like all the burden is put onto your shoulders because there's no one to sit down with you to support you, to help you. It is getting better, but we've still got a long way to go. I have kind of two points on that. I think, again, and not just in the world of autism, but we work with all sorts of people. I think parents do know what's best for their child. I think they know better than the professionals what's best for their child, because just because you've got the label of autism doesn't mean you're exactly like the child next year. And I think that's the same in all of us. And that's my whole approach to therapy, because someone says to me, how would you work differently? Well, I wouldn't work differently. I'd do exactly what I normally do. But I think if you are very stressed because you're exhausted, you're tired, you're not getting any downtime, you're not getting support, that is not a good time for you to even try and learn. And your family are going to pick up from that. The autistic family and the non-autistic, especially the autistic, they're incredibly tuned into that. And that just spirals the whole thing. So I think it's really, really important that moms and dads are given the support. So if a parent was interested and wanted to come along to one of your sessions, what would they do? And what would the first session be like, just to give a little bit of a flavor? Okay. We call ourselves coaches, not therapists. We don't fix anyone. And we do not give advice. I'm quite scruffy. Fortunately, we're on radio. I have tidied myself up because it's Anna Kennedy. But we're just like everybody else. So it's very, very relaxed. We don't have all the answers and we don't profess to because we know you do. You just need the support. You need that time to relax so that you can think clearly and straight so that you can make the decisions that you need to in all the ways you need to. So it's very, very relaxed. We teach you how to do what we're doing. Because for me, I don't want anyone in therapy. What I want is for the moms and dads who are best placed to have the tools to do it themselves. And I don't mean that they have to do everything. You know, I know they need support in other areas. But the best one for a child to learn from is mom and dad. So we actually teach parents how to do what we do so they can take care of themselves and the whole family. Okay. So would you have to fill out a lot of forms? I'm just trying to give a picture. We actually only have two films. So if you came along to me, for example, the initial consultation, we just sit and chat and I'd ask you what was going on, where you thought you needed help. There's two forms. Are you happy to work with me? This is a non-disclosure. This is GDPR and all of that. And are you happy for me to work alone with your child or would you like someone else in the room or be present? That is it. We don't need a history. I'm not medically trained. Okay. So are you based around the country? How does it work? I'm based in Cambridge, but we've now got Ollie coaches all over the place, including Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Oh, great. So if somebody was living close by, they would be able to meet somebody and have a little chat. Just maybe have an initial chat to see what is it about? Absolutely. And we really encourage that, that you can just have a chat and make a decision because it's got to be about you. I can sit here and wax how wonderful the Ollie coaches are, but you decide. Okay. So do you have parents that have just children with autism or is it various different disabilities? Absolutely. From physical disabilities to mental disabilities. I hate that. We call it emotional wellbeing. Yeah. And again, the only thing that stops us working with them is whether or not they're happy to work with us, because it's our job to learn, to communicate their way. Okay. Could you give me the website address? So if somebody's listening in, they might be interested to learn a little bit more. Yeah. It's www.ollienysuperpowers.com. Was it Ollie or double L I E? You're asking someone with dyslexia, but yes, that sounds about right. So, and you're on social media. Yeah. We're on social media. Again, you can find us if you search for on the Facebook pages for Ollie the superpowers and Twitter and Instagram. Okay. So, um, if you haven't quite got that, you can always go through the Anna Kennedy online website and we can pass the messages on. So just to remind you, it's www.annakennedyonline.com on Twitter at Anna Kennedy one on Instagram at Anna Kennedy OBE. And on Facebook, it's Anna Kennedy online. And we're listening to Ali chatting. Welcome to women's radio station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan and welcome to Love Lessons Live on women's radio station. Hello and welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stepania Passamante on women's radio station. Hello and welcome to June May is listening. Hi, this is Anna Kennedy and we're at women's radio station supporting women's wellbeing and we're talking all things autism. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hi, I'm Farguni Desai of Action Coach. Are you a business owner with more than five employees? Do you want to grow your business? I'm a London-based business coach who helps small and medium sized businesses to grow and make a profit. I will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses in your business and then work with you to improve it using a structured framework. To find out more, contact me on 07721-654-640 and book your one-hour complementary one-to-one coaching session. Thank you. At Brown Hills, we've got you covered. My show and share my love of books and writing. Check out our website at media matters for women.org. You're listening to women's radio stations supporting women's wellbeing. Women's radio stations creating a global network for the empowerment of women and we want you to be involved. Join us on Instagram and Twitter at women's radio station that's women's radio STN or Facebook women's radio station to keep up to date with all our exciting programs. Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we're talking all things autism. We're live and we're in Covent Garden and it's a beautiful sunny afternoon. Before I go over to my guest alley, I just wanted to remind you about our Autism Hero Awards. We've finally found a venue. We've had a venue for the last couple of years but then they told us that they're going to refurbish it for two years. So we thought, where do we go? So they found us a wonderful venue called Chelsea Harbor Hotel. So if you want to nominate somebody that goes the extra mile for your family or it might be at school, there's 12 different categories and the closing day is the first week in September. So check out the charity website and there's a specific website for the Autism Hero Awards. So it's www.autismheroawards.com. My guest today is Ali and we're talking about Ollie and his superpower. So tell me a little bit about how are you using the model of Ollie and his superpowers to support families with autistic children? So you might have a family that's listening in and think I might like to try that. The whole, I think to do that, just to briefly explain how the model works. Yeah, that would be great. When you go and see a therapist, you're probably going to go in and say I'm angry or I'm depressed or I'm exhausted or I'm anxious and it's a label. I've got a real problem with labels because that defines you and it defines all of us, doesn't it? If you have a label, this is who you are and that's so not the case. We're all so unique and we specialize in recognizing that uniqueness. And what we do is we work on the principles. Little kids will explain it that inside you, you've got like a little army of emotions or we call them superpowers. And that they're the ones that actually have the problem, not you. So you're not angry, just that part of you. What we need to do is just ask him why and then maybe we can help him with the other superpowers. And with regards to scaling that up through the age groups, we just change the language. So with teenagers, we don't call them superpowers because they're all grown up and sensible and that's very childish, but we use their language. One lad called angry vexed in it, so be it. Mums and dads, they're just good fun and we switch back to superpowers. And with regard to supporting families too far, we are very family focused in everything that we do. I have children brought to me that have high level anxiety. It's a massive thing. And by working with the family, it's quite apparent to me, not all the time, but sometimes that they're feeding off their environment. Mums and dads are exhausted. They're fighting to get the services and support they need. And all children learn from what we're seeing going on around them. So they're feeding off mum and dad and the majority of the time, depending on the age of a child, certainly in the very young ones, when they're brought to me to help them with their anxiety, I help them by helping mum with hers. Because if mum's in a better place, they're learning from you all the time. Especially autistic children, they do not miss a trick. Their sixth sense is so powerful. It's blowing my mind the more time I spend. Just what they can do, what they know, they don't miss a thing. But our main role, we're not experts in autism and we don't profess to be. There's enough people that are. But our role is to support the family because the services aren't there. You have to fight for any help you can get. And if mum's and dad's burn out, or if the other siblings have forgotten and pushed back, not on purpose, then, you know, that's when the problem starts. So we're very much a support service. Yeah. There's not a lot of respite for families, which is sorely needed. Because I remember when all those years ago, it's like 20 years ago when we were setting up the school for my boys because there was just nothing and they were just getting five hours home tuition. I was getting three hours respite a week and they were at home all the time. And I was trying to set up a school. And then once I did set up the school, they said, oh, you don't need the respite anymore because you've got a school. And I thought, I need it even more because I've set up something that it's all new to me. You know, if it doesn't work, we'll lose our home. And it's just, I speak to so many families. They just, at the point of burning out, they just need a little bit of time where they can just be them. Do you know, I wish I had a magic wand. I wish I was a multimillionaire or a really powerful politician because coming into this world is an eye opener for me at the lack of support and how hard you guys have to fight to get any blooming help. I can't change that. I wish I could, although maybe we can. I don't know. But what we can do heightened emotion makes you incapable of thinking straight and doing and fighting the corner for your child. And our job is to give parents that downtime to give them that space where they can put things back in perspective, to show them how to put themselves in the emotional space so that they can keep fighting because you're going to have to. Let's deal with it. So let's make sure they can. So with reference to visiting you, is it depending on the levels of anxiety or the difficulties that the families are having for how long they have to come to see you? How long is a session? I'm just trying to give a little bit of a picture. And this is a lovely question and again relates to why I created Ollie. With some of the other therapy that I was trained in, I would expect to see someone for at least 12 months, if not forever, because you need therapy, because you need fixing and need me to do it because I have all the answers. As a rule, and this isn't 100%, if I see someone, regardless of the level of anxiety, for more than four-stroke five sessions, I've done something wrong because they've got what they need inside. And my job is to show them they've got that. It's not that hard. We don't need to be controlled by our emotions. We really can control them. But the powers that be would rather that you didn't know that. I remember when Patrick was younger and it was difficult for him because he was getting bullied at school. And obviously at that time, we didn't know he'd been diagnosed. And then we'd found out he'd been diagnosed, but they'd known about it for three years. And we hadn't known about it because they hadn't shared it with us. So Patrick was going to see a therapist and he was there for like about four years. And it's just every single week. But it's not that he didn't want to go. He actually quite enjoyed going. And I think he led the session, if you like. But yeah, he talks about it now and again to me. And he talks about his therapist with fondness. I think he got on with her. But when you're talking about labels as well, I think in our world, if we don't have the labels, you don't get the support. No, I completely get that. And and I understand why that's a requirement. But there's some labels you don't need. You know, I'm not anxious. I'm anxious in this situation. I'm not normally nervous. I am sat here with Anna Kennedy. There's labels and labels, you know. So tell me about training the therapist or your Ollie coaches. Oh, yeah. How does that work? If somebody might be interested, they might like to try. Amazing. Again, it was I just look at what's out there in a minute. What's working, what's not. And I'm of the age now where I'm like, well, it's not working. I'm going to do something about it. And I want it. We needed more therapists because Ollie's name was spreading. And I couldn't get a therapist to people when they needed them. And that's the problem with the mainstream therapy at the moment is overrun. I didn't want that. So we needed to train our own. And I decided, well, I could get a load of people with PhDs or whatever they are. Did I even get that round the right way with my dyslexia if I did? Well done me. But they're going to come in a very set. This is how we do a bit. I'm going to fix you and put you in a box, which is a bit of a sweeping statement, but it bothered me. So I thought, you know what? I want to train moms and dads. And to be fair, the people around me kind of looked at me sideways. I said, no, I think we can do it. That's how I was trained. I'm doing it. So what we've got now, we call it the Ollie School or Ollie Academy. And we don't have therapists there. We have moms and dads, regardless of what they do for a living. And we can take them through to doing what I do every day now, which is change someone's life. And we're training them to do that and to be Ollie coaches. We're training teachers. We're training people who have got children with additional needs, autism, aspergers, because they can either use it in their own home with their own family, or they can come and help you guys out with your charity or whatever. And we need more people to come forward and do that, because it's not just about you then being a therapist and helping other people. And I hate the word journey, but it really, really helps you to sort yourself out and understand why you react the way you do in certain situations and all that stuff we carry, all those limiting beliefs. And to be honest, we're on, oh, school three now. And they're blowing my mind. These guys are amazing therapists because they're natural moms and dads. So they've got naturally got the rapport and the understanding of what we're facing out there. So how long does it take it to become an Ollie coach? OK, it's going to take five months. And, you know, oh, my God, that's not long enough. It's not long enough if you want to be a psychotherapist or you want to do CBT. I got an email from NHS England a while ago asking for an innovative approach to emotional well-being, filling this form. And I tried filling it in, and I couldn't fill it in because I didn't have all the badges. So I phoned them. And I said, I can't fill your form. You haven't got all the badges. He went, oh, right. And I said, but if I did have all the badges, then I'd be like what you've got right now that isn't necessarily serving its purpose. So it wouldn't be an interview. And then, of course, when I say we can get someone up and running and really, really helping people in five months, we're looked at sideways until you actually work with one of our coaches. OK. Seeing's believing. So is it weekly sessions or? We work at weekends. Our moms and dads will work. We've got bills to pay. They've got kids to look after. So it's weekend in the classroom. There's a fair bit of paperwork and practice hours and case studies. We have to be wider than white. Safeguarding is huge for us. I'm going to ask about that. Yeah, it's massive. And that's not my field of expertise. But that's why we have people like Jill Tonks with us and various other people. That is their area of expertise to make sure our coaches are working in an environment that's safe for them, safe for their client. They're not taking on clients that they're not skilled to work with. We don't deal with schizophrenia and all the big stuff. We don't need to. There are millions of people struggling with anxiety and self-worth. We can sort that out. OK, so it's about five months and it's at weekends. And how many hours would you say at the weekend? We make them work. We usually start at nine in the morning on Saturday. Finish about five in the afternoon. Same on the Sunday. It's all hands on, but it's so playful and fun. You won't notice the day going by. OK, so it looks like a lot of fun because I've seen a few bits and bobs popping up on Newsbeat. And I think things like that have to be fun because it's just... How do we learn? Stories and fun. Yeah. So, OK, so if somebody's interested, again, they just check on the charity website. If they'd like to become an Ollie court. Completely do. And we've had, you know, well, hang on a minute. You're not listening earlier. I get seven hours respite. How am I going to do that? Talk to us. If there's enough interest, I think that mums and dads in autism world need this probably more than most. So you can be flexible, which is good. We can come up with something, I'm sure. So when's the next session? Have you got one coming up? Well, London's just started again. So, and the next one will be Manchester, which is in September and then London again in January. OK, so you've got them ticking over. So that's great. So we're going to talk a little bit about in the next session about how it works in schools, if that's OK with you. And then I believe Ollie's got a friend called Molly. Oh, yeah. So be interested in that. So again, if people are interested, can you remind them of the... Not the charity. The website address. It's www.ollieandhissuperpowers.com. And you're on social media. So you're on Twitter, you're on Facebook, you're on Instagram. And again, if you haven't quite got that, you can go through the charity website and we can pass on the messages to Ollie. So that's www.annakennedyonline.com at Anna Kennedy OBE on Instagram at Anna Kennedy One on Twitter and Anna Kennedy Online on Facebook. And you can keep up to date with all our events. We've got lots of stuff going on at the minute and we're little bees working in the background. Welcome to the Women's Radio Station supporting women's wellbeing. Women's Radio Station is all about diversity from opinions, career, ethnicity, education and most importantly, women's wellbeing. We aim to celebrate the individuality of every woman everywhere, providing opportunities and the platform for your voice. Visit our website, www.womensradiosation.com for more information. Hi, I'm Liz Van Linden, the UK travel consultant for Hazelmere Travel. People come to me as they want unique experiences and a personalized service. This happens from the moment that they enquire till they come back home. I work with luxury tour operators. You can contact me on 07825-44-1212 and Liz spelled L-I-S at Hazelmere Travel dot co dot UK. I'm Tamina Zaman, founder of Empower and Enrich. When it comes to money, do you clam up or get confused? Do you wish you could save more money or are you hoping you have enough for retirement? You are not alone. Many women want to be smarter with their cash but just don't know where to start. At empowerandenrich.org, you will find a host of options to help you take charge of your finances and learn how to put your money to work for you in an easy, affordable way. Get in touch with me at empowerandenrich.org. And let's change your future together. Hi, I'm Carolyn Van Beers. Please join me for a brand new show here on Women's Radio Station. It's Mother's Hour. If like me you're a mum juggling far too many balls and dropping most of them, this is definitely the show for you. We'll examine the highs and lows of motherhood and make sure you laugh out loud as we take on this challenging role together. With spoonfuls of advice, incredible stories, it will be refreshing, honest and funny look at being a mum. Are you struggling with money? Turn to us as a national charity helping people struggling to make ends meet. Job loss, illness or bereavement can cause a real financial crisis. We give practical help to get people back on track. Whether you're thinking of having a baby, trying to get out of an unhappy relationship or just unsure what benefits you may be entitled to, we can help. Visit www.TurnToUs.org.uk Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we're talking All Things Autism and we're live in Covent Garden on a beautiful sunny afternoon. So next week there's lots of preparation that's going on for the SEND which is the Special Educational Needs and Disability National Crisis Marches. They're going across the country, so many parents. I'm going to be supporting the one in London. People are coming down in the coach load. It's going to be an exciting day. So that's going to be happening on the 30th of May at 12 noon. They're going to be handing in a petition to turn down in street and then at one o'clock going to be speaking outside Parliament Square. So just to let you know about some of the March locations in case you might like to go along. So we're going to be in London, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Derbyshire, Buckinghamshire, South Gloucestershire, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Brighton and Hove and Sussex, Isle of Wight and Hampshire, Dorset, Liverpool, Greater Manchester, Suffolk, Worcestershire and Hertfordshire, Birmingham and Walsall, North Wales, Yorkshire and Humber, Cumbria, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Norfolk. And I know there's more and more that are popping up. So they're planned marches and rallies across the UK to raise awareness of failings to those with special educational needs and their families and education providers who are expected to provide an appropriate education on continuous budget cuts. And it's not only parents and carers that are coming to the March. I've spoken to head teachers. I have spoken to teachers. So Ali, you take Ollie into schools. So tell me a little bit about what happens in school. Yeah, initially we took Ollie into school to work with children that already have an issue. So they're an exclusion that kind of thing. And we still do that. And we have coaches now in the schools working with those kids. All right. But more and more what we're doing is prevention work. Such a massive problem. But if we can get to the kids young enough and teach them they can control their emotions, we could just... I'm not a dreamer. We're doing it. We could change the world. But in schools, what we do is we work with the teachers, the carers, and we work with all the therapists and we teach them to use what we call the Ollie language, which is about dealing with the emotion, not the label and giving back power to the kids. And by doing that, then all of the children speak in the same language and I mean all the children. And it's a lovely way for them to communicate how they're feeling with letting those feelings get curled up inside because they don't know how to express them. So do you speak to the child individually or do you do group sessions as well? We do a bit of both. So if the child's actually specifically been singled out as having an issue and needing a little bit of support, that's usually one-to-one because it's kind of private and you don't know what's going to come up. But we have this lovely program. I mean, we're so family driven and this was created by a family. We have a program called Ollie Kids. Okay. You'll love this one. Kent County Council said, could you do a program for the kids in early intervention? I said, I can. So they said, it'll give you 10 kids and the program was over 10 weeks, hour and a half a week. Can you sort their emotional well-being out and their resilience? And I thought I'd have 10 kids of approximately the same learning abilities. Naive me. They gave me 10 of the most diverse kids ever. I have guys that couldn't communicate. I have guys that were disabled and I remember walking into the room going, oh my and panicking. And then I remembered what I keep preaching. Ollie just adapts. They didn't like us in the beginning. They didn't like one another. But by the end, I was in tears. I've never seen anything so supportive and they all grew. Actually like one another. So do you go into mainstream schools or do you go into schools as well that have children? Both, both, both. More and more and more. We did, we were invited to do a short talk at something called Pinpoint in Cambridge. Same groups. Anyone would come and talk to us because who are we and nobody had heard of us. It was standing room only. We've been invited back to do a bigger stage. But off the back of that, we've been invited to do work all around Cambridge and suffered with them and we're going in and working in those schools now. It's the same principle. Okay. It's exactly the same. So is that primary and secondary school? Have you ever been into a college? Not yet. And all it is, is language change again. There's no reason why not. I say not yet, but we've just been talking to Shambra Academy. This is lovely. We were getting into one school at a time. But all his name's flying. So the Academy are now looking at all their schools and they said, can you come and do an assembly? Yeah, of course I will. I turned up 800 kids, everything from I think they were about age 7 to 13. They didn't want to be there. We don't do emotions. But oh my God, again, just by changing the language, they got it. You do anti-bullying awareness as well. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So and on both sides, everyone hates a bully. All behaviour serves a purpose. Why are they a bully? So we kind of can work from that aspect, but we can also teach children of all ages and adults, bullying in the workplace, how to defend themselves from that. Why are you letting those words in your head or your heart? We show you how not to and explain why you might be. Okay, so tell me about the Ollie books. I believe there's three and you've got some on the pipeline. Yeah, that was really funny. Basically, I didn't intend this to happen. It was just me in my little therapy room in Cambridge and people were coming down from Liverpool quite literally because of the effect that we were having and they couldn't get support for their kids. And then one mum said, could you write a self-help book? And I said, no, there's too many of those. But I'll have a go at writing some stories because then the children will get it. And of course, I'm dyslexic. So I needed a lot of help writing those stories. So we did three and I thought we might sell a couple. They're all over the world now. It's just, I don't even know where they are. It's amazing. Well, tell me about a book. What is in the book? Is it like a social story? Is it a cartoon? Is it photographs? What is it? It's Ollie's character in it. So it's a cartoon character. His mum works at an old people's home. Right. We don't know anything about Dad yet. That's book four. This is like Game of Thrones, isn't it? That's book four. Game of Thrones. I can't believe people have won counselling because the last episode was yesterday. I've never seen it. Don't spoil it at school. I've never seen any of them so. Ollie goes to the old people's home with his mum and he's being bullied at school. This is how it all starts. And some bigger boys, Nicky's nice and new trainers. Mum's a single mum. She can't afford another pair. And he's a bit upset. And there's this lovely old chap called Mr Wilcox, who tells Ollie about his superpowers. The fact that he can control his motions, make them bigger and smaller and that will actually help Ollie through everything. And it kind of runs from there. But then it goes on to explain to Ollie why some people are frightened of this and others are afraid of that. So phobias and stuff like that and how the brain works. But in such a playful, fun way, the kids get it better than the adults do. Well, I feel that because this happened and they completely get it and they know they can change how they feel. So if a parent wants to buy one of your books, they don't have to go on a course or anything. They just combine a book just to read. Yeah, OK. Yeah, they're story books. And again, that's on the website. Yeah, OK. Now, I believe Ollie's got a friend called Molly. Who is Molly? What does she do? Well, Molly came about because all the little girls were getting cross that only a little boy had superpowers. Oh dear. But then for Molly to come about I needed a character. And this is very true. One of the clients I was working with, I know she won't mind me sharing this, a lady called Monica had tried everything to get support for her daughter who was basically terminally OK, very depressed. And she didn't know what else to do to brought to me. And if I could explain her face, it was this isn't going to work either. What am I doing to my daughter? But we turned it around. Obviously, she didn't survive. But she survived a lot longer than she should and had a hell of a time when she was doing that. And I learned a lot from her. And guess what her name was? Molly. Yeah, I suppose that you're learning from parents. Yeah. And they're learning from you. So it's a two way process. I learned something new every day. And as I said, you know, we're not experts on autism, although I'm getting more and more autistic children, teenagers especially brought to me. And I don't know enough to know why they're OK with me. And I think it's just the rapport and I'm harmless because they're so sensitive to that. I mean, this is a learning curve for me. But you know, they have the same issues. I have, you have. They just maybe can't say it. They can't explain it. And just by using the only techniques, we can usually find a middle ground. So are there any more characters in the pipeline? We need to. Yes, obviously Molly and Ollie are. This was seven, eight years old. I was going to say how old are they? Oh, well, they're seven, but Ollie must be at least nine now. So we're getting on to Ollie the teenage years. That'll be fun. Yeah. But yeah, we need to we need to widen it. We need to diversify across the board and that will include things like autism and disability because it's a lovely way to do it. I remember when we introduced Molly and this is why we must do it. Molly's, Molly's adopted. Okay. Okay, so we went through the attachment thing and explained it in a lovely way. And Molly was really angry and pushing people away all the time. And we're able to explain why because, you know, there's no point getting attached. I'm going to be moved on. So I don't want to be a spoiler, but it works out well for her. And I got email after email from Mum who's really crossed with me. We've got a spare room and our child's decided we need to go and foster or adopt someone so that Molly has got a home. It was like, they get it. Imagine what we could do if we started putting additional characters in and how we could change people's mindsets. So where can you see Ollie in 10 years time? I don't know where he'll be, but I'll be in Australia fishing. I'm knocking on a bit now. It's just going to go and go. As I said, this was an idea I had to work with my clients in my little... When did it start? Two, three years ago. That's it. And it's gone mad. It really has. Already we've got people from all over the world wanting to know are we going to take the training overseas? It doesn't matter. The one thing we've all got in common is our emotions. So we're looking at that and ideally that will happen. I want Ollie in every school. I want Ollie accessible to every parent, every carer, everybody that has interaction with children, everybody that has a problem. Okay. Well, what do we do as a webinar or something like that? We can. There's a lot we can do online. The actual training to utilise it is quite hands-on. But who knows? Is the answer? I don't know anymore. I didn't expect this. So you've obviously been learning about autism as you've been going along. What have you picked up so far? What have you picked up from families? What have you picked up from moms, dads, carers, siblings? It's been one heck of an eye-opener because if you're not in that world you have no idea. And as you know, a very dear friend of mine is Tally and I've learnt so much watching her with her son. I've also learnt that... I remember again, I think it was probably one of your events and this mum sat with her son and said, he can't do that. And I was, what can't he do? Don't tell me what he can't do. What can he do? And I realised that was because he'd have a meltdown and she didn't want that to happen. But I'm learning there's a lot they can do. Yeah. Our kids are so in tune with the way we feel. I said to you before that even though Angelo's got minimal verbal skills, he knows when I've got a migraine. He knows when I'm not feeling so good. I know he'll just come up to me and stroke my cheek or my eldest son Patrick. He'll keep asking me, you know, are you okay, Mum? Because he says he likes to see me with my smiley face. So, but sometimes you just don't want to always be a smiley person. It's just... He's telling you how he communicates. I know. It's fantastic. Yeah. So again, if people are interested and they want to buy books, are they on the website? They're on the website. And how much do they cost? I think they're about £10. Okay. So just to remind everyone of the website address, just keep plugging it away for you. Disllection. I'm going to do it the third time. Right. Okay. Yeah. W. I can't get that wrong. Can I? www.aleoneysuperpowers.com So, Ollie, spell O-L-L-I-E. And again, if you want to ask Alison questions or Ali if she likes to be called, please email us on Anna Kennedy online. So that's www.annaKennedyonline.com. Welcome to Women's Radio Station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan and welcome to Love Lessons Live on Women's Radio Station. Hello. And welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stepania Passamonde on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to June May is Listening. Hi, this is Anna Kennedy and we're at Women's Radio Station supporting women's wellbeing and we're talking all things autism. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hi, I'm Farguni Desai of Action Coach. Are you a business owner with more than five employees? Do you want to grow your business? I'm a London based business coach who helps small and medium-sized businesses to grow and make a profit. I will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses in your business and then work with you to improve it using a structured framework. To find out more, contact me on 07721 654 640 and book your one-hour complimentary one-to-one coaching session. Thank you. Hi, I'm Tracey Weeden of Brown Hair Insurance Group. We are an award-winning family-run insurance broker covering a wide range of insurance products, ranging from commercial lines to personal household, high net worth and fine art. You can contact us on 0208 658 4334 or visit our website www.brownheelgroup.co.uk for your free no-obligation quotation. At Brown Heels we've got you covered. Hi, I'm Hazel Butterfield, a blogger, book lover and mental health advocate and you can listen to my show Get Booked here at Women's Radio Station daily at 5am and 5pm. Throughout my shows we'll talk about the books I've read, new releases, chapter authors, publishers and book enthusiasts all with a theme and aim of supporting women's emotional well-being. If you have a book to tell us about, get in touch at presenters at womensradiostation.com join me on my show and share my love of books and writing. Hi, I'm Valentina Barbacci and I'm the Executive Director of Media Matters for Women. We're a registered charity operating in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo and we produce and share podcasts via Bluetooth and mobile phones focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty. We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access, own and share information. To find out more and be part of this movement come check out our website at mediamattersforwomen.org. You're listening to women's radio stations supporting women's well-being. Women's radio stations creating a global network for the empowerment of women and we want you to be involved. Join us on Instagram and Twitter at womensradiostation that's womensradiostn or Facebook womensradiostation to keep up to date with all our exciting programmes. Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we're talking all things autism and we're promoting women's well-being and before we go over to Allie with her top tips on emotional well-being and what she does to relax I'm just so excited to listen because I love to hear what people do to relax. You've probably seen across all of the media about the unacceptable high number of children with learning difficulties in autism who are spending months and sometimes years as inpatient in mental health hospitals often miles away from their families and homes. I've been watching my friend Leo who's spoken on my radio station talking about her son Steven the horrid horrid horrid experiences that he experienced in what she calls institutions not hospitals and now he lives actually quite close to me and in his own home with carers and supporters but Matt Hancock the Health Secretary said that he had been deeply moved and appalled by the distressing stories of some autistic children and adults and I listen to them all the time from parents last night he ordered a review of every single case after the Care Policy Commission found vulnerable people being left in segregation for up to 10 years. Some children as young as 11 years old in hospital for 11 months 10 months it's just like horrendous I just can't even imagine what parents are going through and what their children are going through so hopefully Matt Hancock will get his act together and do something to support our children and adults so that other children and adults who are autistic or whatever disability they may have don't have to go through this terrible experience our kids are not second-class citizens they are entitled to education care and support just like anybody else so Ali let's talk about well-being because a lot of us parents go through a hell of a lot and we're always looking for ideas of how can we get a little bit of well-being to keep us going so what are your top tips? I think the biggest problem is that things build up in us and stress and anxiety and the lovely thing is just to be able to move away from what's stressful or anxious but the truth is you can't because it's emotional as well isn't it you can't move away from an emotion for me I make sure that I get some downtime and for me it's fishing now the reason I go fishing is because where I go fishing there's just loads of old chaps who kind of tolerate the fact I'm there now oh okay the intruder no no no but they'll wonder around and they'll go what bed you're using lass or what and because they worry I never catch any fish and the reason I don't is there isn't a hook on the end of my line because I'm not there for that it's just downtime and just for me watching the water watching the wildlife and the ducks I can step away from my day job and it's so important to do that so whatever works for you I mean I also love just lying in the bath with a good book and some candles certain music it's about just allowing your brain to switch off just giving it that time just to focus on something else so you can just slow it right right down and it's so important I just don't know how to relax I just like I can't switch my You need to see an ollie cape well sort that afterwards I can't seem to switch my brain off I remember my friend gave me a voucher to a spa and they were giving me a back massage and I remember lying down face down and you put your head through the hole and they're doing the massage you're just going relax I was going I am relaxed you're not you've got such a big ball of stress in the middle of the back of your neck so I just find it really difficult I find it hard to switch off because I feel like oh what can I be doing next I need to be doing something but all behaviour serves a purpose and I work with lots of children and adults that cannot switch off and cannot let that go and even when they're doing something like yoga or something their mind's elsewhere but the truth is that if you can't actually do anything with that information at that point then all you're doing is burning your engines out and the whole point that you're stressing or worrying about anything is because there's something you need to do and if you burn your engines out you can't do it so one of the key things we do is teach you how just to let that go just for whatever time you've got available a couple of minutes an hour it doesn't matter it's so so powerful yeah I've tried yoga but I just find that really boring I need noliketra I saw you out after this I tell you the only time I switch off is tap dancing Zumba or when I'm dancing I'm out dancing with the girls I can really let myself go but I think it's because when I was four or five years old that's when I started dancing and I was at school and I was tapping my feet under the table and the teacher said to my mum can you take your daughter dancing because she's driving me mad she just never keeps her feet still so I started tap dancing and I thought oh I love this so much I love the rhythms I loved everything that went with it so and I've kept it up and I just think that everyone should learn how to dance but you know what you're doing and it's just one version of it it's called a pattern interrupt everything in therapy is about pattern interrupt you cannot focus on all of the things that you're trying to deal with for your son and for the rest of the world and focus on getting the moves right or the dance right or listening to the music you cannot do all of that at once so and you've actually given yourself permission to be there and do that so it's kind of a that's why you can do it with the right emotional guidance just give yourself that time out and create a pattern okay we've got any more top tips for our parents anything else that you find that helps parents relax or adults themselves or might be on the spectrum you you really do need to make time and I know that I'll be thrown straight back at me I've been talking to you earlier I get seven hours but you know what the bottom line is for all the stories you tell yourself about why you can't take time out for you the reason you can't is because you're fighting so hard for your children and your family if you do not take that time out guess what? yeah yeah yeah I totally get what you're saying but I think you know what the matter as well is with a lot of us parents who have adult children we worry and we worry about when we're dead and gone who's going to look after and who's going to look out for our our kids especially like my youngest son Angelo he's non-verbal I hear all these well look what we're listening to on the media at the minute in these awful units and it's just like Angelo wouldn't be able to tell anyone if he was being abused or you know but again if you are so so exhausted you can't look after the more you are here okay when you're not here it's not like you can do about it but the only thing you can do about it is what you are doing raising awareness trying to make those changes but seriously if you burn out who's going to leave that charge? this is why you must everything you're doing for your children whatever that's about and there'll be a hundred and one emotions in there if you do not take time out you will burn out and then nothing will change are you telling me off? how did that happen but yes it's so important it really is okay so is there anything else that you'd like to share with parents that are listening in about Ollie about Molly about what you do? yeah I mean we do I do talks all over the country now I'm quite happy to come along to any groups parents evenings seems like that one of our coaches will come and explain in more detail what we do and how it could help you just get in contact we have other training programmes we do day courses for parents who only have seven hours a week breakdown I am having a go at you running you need to rest there's an awful lot of things we can do and if we're not already doing it tell us because just like you your battle to sort what's going on in your world mine's the same in therapy I know it's not right I know people shouldn't have to wait I know but I have 10 year olds brought to me that are self-harming six months ago they just had just had blessed them low self-worth issues and they can't get to a therapist it's wrong even to get a diagnosis as well for their child they're you know people are waiting two years five years we can't diagnose anyone but while you're waiting for that and the anxiety of that and dealing with the lack of support the way schools are teaching you treating you the way other people's are you will burn out and if you burn out then your child's got no one our job is to put your oxygen mask on you first I was going to ask you do you get many siblings because I get a lot of parents that feel guilty because they're so hands-on with their children and obviously the system is complicated or they're fighting or they're going to tribunal or they're going to a solicitor or whatever it is do you get many siblings that feel maybe they're a bit left out not intentionally you do and it's really really interesting because they're also kids are lovely given the chance I remember one child in particular and it's pretty much where the concept started and he he was brought to me because he was angry all the time and mum said can you help him with his anger and I did that thing where I pulled anger out of him and I explained that mine lives on my foot because when I'm angry my foot taps and he clenched his fist and said I don't know where mine lives oh really so I just reached in and made a play of pulling angry out of him and I started talking to angry and you could see this kid looking at me again this one's a nutter mum I'll behave please get me out of here and I was chatting away to angry and said is he angry because his mum makes him do this that we have a silly stuff well you know and this kid behind me is going and the kid got so frustrated with me and this happened in one session with all my other training this would have been blooming months the kid said I'm angry because I don't want to be the big boy he was 10 okay so I said all right what what what does he mean he doesn't want to be the big boy disassociated it yeah yeah and he said ever since baby brother had issues shall we say and he did a lot of support everyone comes to the house and is looking after him mum and dad are very focused on him and mum said look please I need you to be the big boy and yes he felt pushed away and he was expressing it as anger well that's what we read it as well mum read it as it was and it was frustrating hurt fear so oh yes it really affects siblings but if he'd have said anything because I said why didn't you say something to mum she'll think I'm being selfish no she didn't it's like Patrick as well even though they're both on the spectrum and both very different from each other Patrick does say now and again oh you love Angela more than me and it's like no I don't Patrick it's because he needs more hands-on he's got no sense of danger all children need to know that they're safe they're loved they're protected and they'll do all they can to get your attention and make sure that's okay so if they do feel pushed out it does begin to affect their emotional well-being so again if parents are interested because we're coming towards the last few minutes of the programme please let me know again so it's at the Ollie website so if they want Ollie coaches to come into the schools again all this information is on the website if they want to buy the books they're on the website we've got any more books on the horizon there's a couple more coming out where we actually start to teach Ollie and Molly to do what we do as coaches because for the Ollie Kids programme the kids are now ambassadors in their own school and the last thing I'd like to mention is because of the work we do with Send we're now producing this Ollie Mums and Ollie Carers and again there'll be information about that soon and that will be your oxygen mask oh okay okay so I need to get myself an oxygen mask I'm not letting that one go okay so again Ollie is on any information any information about courses any information about what they're doing check the website or you can check on Twitter on social media find out what Alison is up to Tally one of my ambassadors for the charity if you like or volunteers however everyone's got so many hats within our charity that she also supports Ollie and Ollie so yeah so that's a very very interesting concept so hopefully it will be across the country like you want to so if you want to have any questions if you want to ask any questions of me if you'd like to be a speaker on my All Things Autism show which is on every week please contact me at the charity website just to remind you it's www.annakennedyonline.com don't forget if you want to nominate someone that goes the extra mile it might be an Ollie coach it might be a teacher it might be a carer it might be a business please check out autismheroaward.com I'd just like to thank you Ollie for coming along today and I wish you all the best thank you very much Welcome to the Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being Women's Radio Station is all about diversity from opinions, career, ethnicity, education and most importantly women's well-being we aim to celebrate the individuality of every woman everywhere providing opportunities and the platform for your voice visit our website women'sradiostation.com for more information Hi I'm Liz Van Linden the UK travel consultant for Hazelmere Travel people come to me as they want unique experiences and a personalized service this happens from the moment that they inquire till they come back home I work with luxury tour operators you can contact me on 07825 441212 and Liz spelled L-I-S at hazelmeretravel.co.uk I'm Tamila Zaman founder of Empower and Enrage when it comes to money do you climb up or get confused? Do you wish you could save more money or are you hoping you have enough for retirement? You are not alone many women want to be smarter with their cash but just don't know where to start at empowerandenrich.org you will find a host of options to help you take charge of your finances and learn how to put your money to work for you in an easy affordable way get in touch with me at empowerandenrich.org and let's change your future together Hi I'm Carolyn van Beers please join me for a brand new show here on Women's Radio Station it's Mother's Hour if like me you're a mum juggling far too many balls and dropping most of them this is definitely the show for you we'll examine the highs and lows of motherhood and make sure you laugh out loud as we take on this challenging role together with spoonfuls of advice incredible stories it will be refreshing honest and funny look at being a mum Are you struggling with money? Turn to us as a national charity helping people struggling to make ends meet job loss illness or bereavement can cause a real financial crisis we give practical help to get people back on track whether you're thinking of having a baby trying to get out of an unhappy relationship or just unsure what benefits you may be entitled to we can help visit turntotus.org.uk Welcome to the Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being Women's Radio Station can give voice to your brand with a wide range of sponsorship opportunities including individual programs we can tailor your experience for you For more information on how you can sponsor a show go to womensradiostation.com Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being