The Nest brings individual disability support and therapeutic practice into real life, around communication, relationships, practical capability, meaningful interests, self-advocacy, participation, choice and what matters to the person.
You may share a space or an interest with somebody else. Your goals, support and evidence remain yours.
Neurodivergent Empowered is the registered NDIS provider and professional practice operating The Nest within the wider FREE 2B ME ecosystem.
Same space. Different goals. Individual support.
You do not need to know the correct service label before you contact us.
We begin with what matters to you, what is happening in your life, how you communicate and participate, what support is already helping, and what you would like to become more possible.
The Nest is the real-life practice environment. Neurodivergent Empowered provides the support. What a person receives depends on their individual goals, disability-related support needs, professional requirements and agreed service.
Neurodivergent Empowered also provides separately assessed professional services including counselling and Specialist Behaviour Support.
Every person's support is shaped around what matters to them, their goals, communication, support needs, strengths and current life. The shared environment creates context and opportunity. It does not decide what service a person receives.
These are not four separate products. They are different support pathways within one practice. Every person’s support is individual, and you do not need to know which pathway is right. We work that out together.
Understand before deciding what needs to change.
Rights-based, neurodivergent-affirming Specialist Behaviour Support that seeks to understand what is happening before deciding what should change - including assessment, formulation, Behaviour Support Planning, implementation guidance, team capability-building and review. If you are asking about behaviour support, please contact us first. We will let you know what support is currently available, what needs to be separately assessed, and whether another provider or pathway is needed. Specialist Behaviour Support is individually assessed and is not automatically part of attending The Nest.
Learn more →A therapeutic process that leaves room for you to be you.
Neuroaffirming counselling is separately assessed, individually agreed and delivered within professional scope. Communication, pacing and the therapeutic process can be adapted around access. Where it is clinically appropriate and meaningful to the person, counselling may connect with interests or real-life contexts. Counselling is not automatically included because somebody attends The Nest.
Support for the places where life actually happens.
Individual support with communication, everyday skills, practical capability, relationships, self-advocacy, confidence and meaningful participation in everyday life. At The Nest, shared interests can create an accessible real-life context in which this work happens. The interest or activity itself is not automatically the funded support.
More influence over what happens next.
Support may involve understanding options, making decisions, navigating services and systems, planning transitions and building greater influence over your own life. Support should add information, options and practical help without quietly taking over authorship.
This pathway includes Support Coordination, Specialist Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaching. Each is separately funded, individually assessed and delivered within its own scope.
Book a Support Coordination chat → Book a PRC chat →The goal is not simply to attend more sessions. Or look more independent. Or become easier to support.
Support may help make more possible: communication, relationships, practical capability, self-advocacy, decision-making, participation, access, confidence, skills, choice, community, quality of life, or something else that matters to you.
We document what changes over time through the person's own account, Practitioner observations, relevant family or supporter input, support-team collaboration and review of agreed goals and evidence.
For some people, greater independence matters. For others, better support matters. Often both capability and support matter.
Support does not cancel capability.
Two people can be sitting at the same Dungeons & Dragons table and be here for completely different reasons.
One might be building confidence communicating what they want.
Someone else might be practising what happens when a plan changes.
Another might need support to enter and stay in a shared space.
Another might be working on relationships, self-advocacy or everyday decision-making.
Same table. Different people. Different goals. Different support.
That is what Same space. Different goals. Individual support. actually means.
Sessions are built around what people genuinely care about. Gaming, art, Dungeons and Dragons, Pokemon, music, movement, making things, being together. When participation is shaped around real interest, connection, confidence, communication and skill development become more accessible and more sustainable. The Nest is not a standardised recreational or social offering, and nobody is expected to take part the same way.
Sessions are held at The Nest, our purpose-built space at Caloundra Rumba Resort on the Sunshine Coast. The Nest is sensory-aware and designed to feel welcoming, low-demand and human rather than clinical. It is a place where people can settle, connect, participate and build confidence in ways that make sense for them.
Using NDIS funding? The funded support is the individual disability-related support being provided, not the game, friendship or ordinary activity itself. We will explain what we are proposing and how it relates to your goals before you start.
Caloundra Rumba Resort, Sunshine Coast QLD
The Nest is our home base. It has been built with sensory access, flexibility, choice and different ways of participating in mind. Sessions are small, shaped around what people actually love, and never run to a script.
Lighting, layout and noise levels are designed for a range of sensory profiles. You can arrive in whatever state you arrive in. Loud, quiet, talkative, non-speaking, settled, frayed - all of it is welcome.
You bring your interests, preferences and goals. We bring skilled support and a deliberately designed environment in which participation can happen in different ways.
The environment, pacing, support structure and participation pathways are intentionally designed around access needs and sustainable engagement.
The team in the room. The matching of people who share something in common. The setup that makes the space feel okay. The planning, matching, pacing, observation and support structures that help participation actually work and show what is changing over time.
If you are using NDIS funding, what is covered depends on your plan, goals and the disability-related support needs being addressed. We are happy to walk through this with you before you start - or your plan manager, support coordinator or trusted person can help you work it out.
We’re opening some additional Nest sessions across the school holidays.
These are in addition to our regular weekly sessions, which will continue over the holidays for people who are already booked.
The additional sessions will follow the same Nest approach, with the interests and activities shaped around the people attending rather than us deciding the program in advance.
At this stage, these sessions are Expressions of Interest only. Sessions will go ahead depending on the number of people interested and the mix of attendees.
Choose any days and times that could work for you. We’ll let you know as soon as possible if the session is proceeding and you have secured a place.
Regular sessions continue during the holidays
Our regular Nest sessions continue across the school holidays for people who are booked. Existing age groups and session times remain the same.
Session names describe the shared interest or environment, not the funded service. Where NDIS funding is used, the service and claim relate to the participant’s individually agreed disability-related support, not the ordinary activity itself.
Sessions run Monday to Saturday at The Nest in Caloundra, 52 weeks per year. We only close on public holidays. Use the filters to find sessions for a specific age range.
Scroll right to see all days →
Want more detailed session information?
The Session Information Tool explains participant experience, functional-capacity focus areas, likely support needs, and NE-delivered support descriptions across different age groups and support pathways.
The tool is informational only. Final support pathways and service alignment are reviewed by NE during follow-up.
Explore the Session Information Tool →Tell us what lights you up.
The Nest is built around genuine interests, not a fixed catalogue of activities we expect everybody to enjoy. Tell us what matters to you.
If enough people share an interest and there is a viable support context, we may explore whether a new session could work. That does not guarantee a particular group, friendship, service or funded support. It gives us somewhere real to start.
Same space. Different goals. Individual support. The visible activity can be shared. Each person’s support remains individual. In the same room, one participant may be building communication and self-advocacy, another may be supported to enter and stay in a shared environment, and another may be implementing strategies from a Behaviour Support Plan. Each person's support is designed, delivered and evidenced individually. What always stays individual:
Sessions at The Nest happen alongside others who share similar interests. That is why you may see several team members working together in the space at the same time. People come with different access needs, and the environment is shaped so connection and participation can happen more naturally between people who actually share something in common.
The Nest creates real-life opportunities for communication, relationships, skill development, self-advocacy, decision-making, practical capability and meaningful participation. Shared interests can make those opportunities more accessible, while skilled individual support is matched to what the person actually needs.
The level, type and purpose of support remain individual.
Before deciding what to teach, introduce or ask of someone, we consider whether they can access the communication, information, relationship, environment, pace and modality involved.
Being offered an opportunity is not the same as being able to access it.
Fees are confirmed for each participant in their service agreement and Schedule of Supports. For a quote confirmed for your situation, please contact us.
If you are using NDIS funding, your plan manager, support coordinator or trusted person can help you work out how the cost fits with your plan.
The Nest is an autistic-disability-specific, neuroaffirming, neurodivergent-led and LGBTIQA+ affirming practice environment. It is built around neurodivergent access, sensory access, different communication and participation styles, meaningful interests and individual disability-related outcomes.
It is not a general community activity programme with accommodations added afterwards. And it is not a place where everybody is expected to participate in the same way.
Different participation is still participation.
If you are a parent, carer, partner, sibling, or someone who walks alongside a person who comes to The Nest - you are welcome here too.
Many of the people who come to The Nest do not come on their own. Family looks different for everyone, and so does the role you play in someone's day-to-day life. Some families want to be closely involved in what happens at sessions. Others prefer to drop off and pick up. Some want to talk through what is working and what is not, and others want a quiet space to themselves while their person is here.
How involved you are depends on the person, their age, circumstances, preferences, consent and any relevant decision-making arrangements. Some people want family closely involved. Some want their time at The Nest to be theirs. Some want something in between.
Support should extend the person’s authorship, not replace it.
We work to keep the person at the centre while recognising the relationships and responsibilities around them.
The Nest is a practice environment, not an NDIS support category.
The Nest is a therapeutic practice environment. That does not mean every activity or support delivered at The Nest is therapy. Professional therapeutic services are separately assessed and delivered within the relevant practitioner’s scope.
Where NDIS funding is used, the service agreement identifies the individual disability-related support being provided. Shared interests and ordinary activities may provide the context in which support occurs. They are not automatically the funded support.
Whether a support can be purchased using a participant’s NDIS funding depends on the participant’s plan and circumstances, current NDIS rules, the support being delivered and the provider’s applicable registration and professional scope. Neurodivergent Empowered cannot guarantee an NDIA funding decision.
We will explain the proposed service, support arrangement and fees before service begins.
People come to The Nest in different ways. Some use NDIS funding where their goals and plan allow it. Some come privately. You do not need a diagnosis, an NDIS plan, or anything else worked out in advance to start a conversation with us.
If you are using NDIS funding, we can help you think through how The Nest may relate to your goals, disability-related support needs, participation, capacity building and functional outcomes. Final funding decisions remain the responsibility of the participant, nominee, plan manager, support coordinator and/or NDIA, depending on the plan.
You do not have to explain everything perfectly. Tell us what you can. Tell us what matters. Tell us how you would prefer us to contact you.
We will respond within two business days and work out whether something we offer appears to fit.
Get Started Ask a QuestionThe FREE 2B ME Practice Library explores the thinking behind the work from both sides of support: books beginning with the person, and professional companions addressing practice, evidence, scope and accountability.
The books are not required reading for receiving support. They are not homework. And they are not claimed from a participant’s NDIS plan.