Neuroaffirming disability support, practised in real life.
The Nest is the Australian home of the FREE 2B ME Practice, a neurodivergent-led community practice built around autistic and neurodivergent life.
A place where people can connect around things they genuinely care about while receiving skilled, individual support for communication, relationships, practical capability, self-advocacy, participation and everyday life.
Same space. Different goals. Individual support.
Less fixing. More living.
People do not live their lives in therapy rooms.
Communication happens while plans change.
Self-advocacy happens when you actually want something different.
Relationships happen with real people.
Decision-making happens when the choice matters.
Skills have to work somewhere beyond the place they were taught.
So we built somewhere for real life.
The Nest brings skilled support into meaningful, shared environments where people can move, communicate, participate, take space, connect and be themselves.
Not everyone in the room is working on the same thing. They shouldn’t be.
The interest brings people together. The support stays individual.
You might be…
Gaming.
Drawing.
Playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Talking about anime.
Using AAC.
Moving around.
Sitting quietly beside somebody.
Taking space.
Joining in completely differently from the person next to you.
You do not have to perform belonging here.
Built around autistic life. Not adapted to it afterwards.
The Nest was designed around different sensory experiences, communication, movement, processing, interests, relationships and changing capacity from the beginning.
That is FREE 2B ME.
Same space. Different goals. Individual support.
It might feel natural. The practice behind it is deliberate.
Behind what looks like an ordinary afternoon is skilled work.
Practitioners are noticing communication. Access. Relationships. Choice. Skills.
What is helping.
What is costing too much.
What somebody is trying to communicate.
What support is making possible.
And what needs to happen next.
Goals, support, documentation and professional responsibility remain individual even when people share the same room.
The support may feel natural. That is the result of careful design, not the absence of support.
One place. Different kinds of support.
You do not have to know which one you need before you contact us.
Counselling and Specialist Behaviour Support are individually assessed professional services.
The FREE 2B ME Practice, applied at The Nest
The Nest applies the FREE 2B ME Practice in real life. We look at the whole situation - the person’s own knowledge and goals, skills and capability, communication, relationships, support, health and body considerations, environment and wider systems. The question is not automatically “How do we change the person?” or “How do we change the environment?” It is: what needs to change, develop, be supported, be understood or be redesigned - and who has the responsibility and authority to act? If you would like to explore those ideas more deeply, we have begun sharing them through the FREE 2B ME Practice Library.
An approach that adapts to you.
Access is created with you, not earned through performance. Capacity is contextual, agency is respected at every level of it, and self-determination guides the support. These hold together, at the pace that fits you - not as steps you have to pass through in order.
We do not assume the person is the problem - and we do not assume the environment is always the answer. We begin by understanding what is happening and what matters to the person. The useful response might involve teaching or practising a skill, supporting communication, solving a problem, strengthening a relationship, providing practical support, changing something around the person, using a professional intervention, or asking an organisation or system to do its part. The question is where the work actually belongs.
Read more →Progress is personal.
Sometimes it looks like attending regularly. Sometimes it looks like making a friend, communicating a need, trying something new, recovering from burnout, building confidence, increasing independence or participating more fully in everyday life.
We document progress through the person’s own account, observation, relevant family/support-team input and review over time.
Progress might involve communication, practical capability, relationships, self-advocacy, participation, confidence, choice, access, quality of life or progress toward something that matters to the person.
The aim is not simply more attendance, more independence or more visible compliance.
For some people, greater independence matters. For others, better support is the outcome.
A place where you can be more of yourself, not less.
Good support can help people learn. Develop skills. Communicate. Receive treatment. Build relationships. Try hard things. Ask for help. Change things they want to change.
And sometimes decide that the thing being asked of them should change instead.
FREE 2B ME is not about expecting nothing from people. It is about making sure belonging, choice and support are not rewards for becoming more typical.
You don’t have to become less of yourself to have more of a life.
Does this leave room for the person to be themselves?
And, for practitioners: what does our practice require the person to become?
Neither replaces clinical judgement, evidence, treatment, safeguarding, professional responsibility or the requirements of the NDIS.
They help us notice what support may be asking of a person before we call the outcome success.
Talk to us before you work out the paperwork.
The Nest is operated by Neurodivergent Empowered, a registered NDIS provider and professional practice on the Sunshine Coast.
We work with participants and the people around them to understand what support is actually needed, how it connects to the person’s goals and what we can appropriately provide.
You do not need to know the right support category before you talk to us.
Get started →You do not have to work it all out before you begin.
No pressure. No jargon. No expectation that you already know the right service. Just a conversation about what matters to you, what you are looking for and whether something we offer is a useful fit.
How it works
Four steps, no surprises.
