Specialist Behaviour Support
Rights-based, neurodivergent-affirming Positive Behaviour Support.
Registration status
Neurodivergent Empowered's registration to deliver Specialist Behaviour Support is currently with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and has not yet been approved. We are not taking on Specialist Behaviour Support work while that is the case. This page describes how we approach the work and is here so you can understand it, not to offer it as an available service.
Tanya Hicks is separately registered as an NDIS Behaviour Support Practitioner. A practitioner's own registration is a different thing from the provider being registered for this class of support, and we will not treat one as standing in for the other.
Behaviour makes sense in context. The objective is not to suppress autistic expression or make the person easier for systems to manage. It is to improve quality of life, strengthen communication, identify the conditions contributing to distress, and support the person and their team to create safer and more sustainable environments.
We explore communication, unmet needs, sensory and environmental conditions, health, pain, relationships, trauma, demands and previous support experiences before deciding what intervention is appropriate.
What this support involves
- Specialist assessment and functional behaviour formulation
- Behaviour Support planning grounded in rights, communication, sensory safety, autonomy and environmental fit
- Consultation, implementation guidance and team education
- Monitoring, review and reduction of restrictive practices over time
How this support is governed
The NDIS Commission's Specialist Behaviour Support standards require suitable practitioners, supervision, participant involvement, functional behaviour assessment, tailored and proactive plans, implementation guidance, monitoring, review, and a commitment to reducing and eliminating restrictive practices.
You are involved throughout - in the assessment, in what the plan says, and in how it is implemented. A plan is developed with the person, not applied to them.
What this is, and is not
A current Behaviour Support Plan does not by itself make a person's attendance at a session Specialist Behaviour Support. Plan implementation is also distinct from plan authorship, functional assessment and specialist practitioner work. Where Neurodivergent Empowered has an agreed implementation role, that role is scoped explicitly with the person and their team.
The practice, explained from both sides
You Make Sense is the person and family companion: a rights-based guide to distress, communication and support that helps.
Behaviour Makes Sense is the professional companion: rights-based Positive Behaviour Support beyond compliance, including assessment, formulation, planning, implementation, review and restrictive-practice reduction.
Tanya Hicks was deemed suitable by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to work as an NDIS Behaviour Support Practitioner on 23 April 2026. Practitioner ID: P1362818.
The Commission assesses practitioner suitability; this should not be described as authorisation or as endorsement of a capability level.
Specialist Behaviour Support is a distinct, individually assessed service. Whether it is the right support for a person, and how it is delivered, is determined with them through assessment and support-fit review.
We are not currently accepting Specialist Behaviour Support referrals. If you would like us to let you know when that changes, or you want to talk about our other supports, please get in touch.