Interview Siobhan Wilcox: Self-Care Strategies for Parents of Special Needs Children
Caring for your own mental and physical health is not selfish but necessary for the well-being of parents of special needs children and their whole family. The team at Special Needs Book Review thanks Siobhan Wilcox for her guest post introducing her book, Thrive Now Blueprint: Self-Care and Success Strategies for Parents of Special Needs Children. Ms. Wilcox holds over 16 years’ experience as a stress management consultant and spiritual life coach and she’s the mother of two boys, one whom is on the autism spectrum with multiple other challenges.
We are very pleased this busy mom who describes herself on Twitter as, “Special Needs Mom (Autism, ADHD, Apraxia, Sensory) with to two beautiful boys, Inspirational Speaker, Author, Autism Researcher, Success Coach, Gluten Free Fan, and Yogi” is making time to take part in our Author Interview Series!
Lorna: Congratulations on all you are accomplishing while raising two boys. How old are your children? Tell us about your child with special needs. How is he doing? What support/services does he need?
<< Siobhan Wilcox: Thank you Lorna and thank you so much for taking the time to interview me and sharing my passion for supporting other parents of special needs children. I feel very honored to be included in Special Needs Book Reviews. My sons are 11 & 13 as I write this. My eldest son was diagnosed with appraxia at 3.5 years old, ADHD at 5 years old, depression & anxiety at 7 and sensory integration disorder and autism at 7.5. It has been a rough and bumpy ride for us all.
Life for my special teen is quite challenging right now. He has been struggling to stay balanced as he deals with normal teenage issues – social interaction, increased expectations at school and hormones changes. This has increased issues at school and home with more episodes of aggression, depression and mood swings. To support him we have a behavioral coach twice a week in our home, regular psychiatric sessions, speech and occupational therapy at school, plus a mental health therapist as he has being making suicidal threats. He is at a therapeutic special needs school. We take each day at a time. He is such a beautiful boy, highly intelligent with some great gifts and talents so we are focusing on helping him build on these to support him increase his self-esteem and feelings of value.>>
Lorna: How is your other child? Often we hear of siblings who feel their parents are giving too much time to the child with challenging needs. How do you balance the time both your children require from you?
<< Siobhan Wilcox: My other son also has an IEP and sensory integration disorder but his needs are much less than his brother’s. He is a boy scout and regularly goes hiking and camping, this helps regulate him as he is in his element when out in nature.
To support him and our relationship I bring him on special dates. Tonight he has requested to go to Rubios and then snuggle on the sofa and watch a movie together. Sometimes we go camping, hiking, biking, to the movies, trampolining, or to the beach – he always gets to chose. I use some of my respite care hours to make sure we have our special time together. I also arrange a lot of playdates for him and his friends so he can have a break. This is very valuable if his brother is acting out. To further support my youngest I am in the process of getting him a ‘Big Brother’ from the wonderful Big Brother Big Sister program. This, I believe, will bring into his life another strong male figure that can support him.>>
Lorna: Your bio says, “Siobhan Wilcox’s personal story makes her an expert in the area of self-care and stress reduction. After burning out from executive stress at the early age of 24 she needed to rebuild her life. ..” Please elaborate.
<< Siobhan Wilcox: Just as my executive career should have been taking off, it halted with the onset of chronic stress burnout resulting in adrenal burnout, chronic fatigue and symptoms that appeared to be either fibromyalgia, MS or ME. My doctor was unsure how to treat me, so he referred me to a stress management consultant. This changed my life completely, and within 6 months my chronic burnout symptoms started to dissipate. I had more energy, less pain and my passion for life was returning. This experience then catapulted me into a new career with a passion for discovering how to support others and share my new found wisdom. Since then I have gone on to study with master teachers around the world in health and well-being and I hold over 2000 hours in holistic health and stress reduction training.>>
Lorna: For over 16 years you have enlighten the lives of thousands as you share your secrets of inner peace and work life balance. This journey has gone on to become a life mission to support others to live a more prosperous, productive and passion filled life. I see it is not only when you became a mom of a child with special needs that you began helping others lead more stress free lives.
<< Siobhan Wilcox: Once I had recovered myself from my stress burn-out I was excited to support others in similar need. By twenty-seven I had my own personal development training and stress management consultancy business working with corporate businesses and community projects. I had the pleasure of working with such a variety of people, from busy bank managers, to those coming out of mental health institutes, recovering drug addicts, special needs aides and respite workers, long term unemployed, single moms struggling with their challenging kids and even members of the Irish gypsy community. I was interviewed for TV, radio and print in the area of holistic therapies and stress reduction.
All of the wonderful people I had the honor of working with offered me so many insights into the true reasons we create stress and our true innermost desires. Everyone I worked with, no matter what their background or level of prosperity all had similar desires – they wanted to look after their children and family members, they wanted to be loved and they wanted to make a difference and add value in the world.>>
Lorna: Please tell us about your book. Why did you think it was needed? Name a few life skills overwhelmed parents of children with special needs will find in your book.
<< Siobhan Wilcox: My book ‘Thrive Now Blueprint’ was written to support parents of special needs children. Personally I think this journey, although often very rewarding can also be very challenging – daily overwhelm, anti-social behavior which can create increased parental stress, exhaustion and community isolation are just some of the unique issues we have to deal with. Although the stress burnout in my early twenties seemed like a complete disaster at the time, now I see it as a wonderful gift that up-skilled me to be prepared for my special needs parenting role.
I feel very passionate about sharing these stress reduction gifts with others. The truth is our children need us more than most and they may need our concentrated support for the rest of their lives. So as parents we need to keep our stamina strong, our health levels high and our stress chemical levels low.
‘Thrive Now Blueprint‘ offers ways for the reader to assess their stress levels and find simple techniques to help counterbalance stress exhaustion symptoms. This book offers parents simple yet powerful tools and techniques to support themselves; for example, we look at ways to support releasing emotional stress and de-sensitizing stress triggers as well as various proven relaxation techniques that we can easily be incorporated into daily life. ‘Thrive Now Blueprint‘ is packed with support strategies all easy to follow and absorb. Each reader will have their own favorites that align with their life style and unique challenges.
Knowing how busy parents are, I consciously designed this book to be easy to consume. Chapters are short, no more then 10 pages in length, filled with easy exercises that help create awareness and build on each other as the reader moves through the book. Feedback from moms reading it right now is wonderful. I’ve been told it is ‘saving my life’.>>
Lorna: While Thrive Now Blueprint functions perfectly as a stand-alone empowering book, your comprehensive on-line resource for readers of Thrive Now Blueprint adds extra value. Please tell us about your Thrive Now Toolkit.
<< Siobhan Wilcox: As a personal development trainer I know how important it is to offer learning in different formats to support all types of learners. This on-line resource offers a video demonstration of one of the tools in the book ‘Emotional Freedom Technique’ or ‘Tapping’, a relaxation audio, a comprehensive nutrition guide, interviews with special moms and downloads of all the exercises in the book, so those that buy Thrive Now Blueprint on Kindle can make their own exercise journal.>>
Lorna: Tell us about Special Moms Tribe with Siobhán Wilcox & Chantal Sicile-Kira Mentoring Program for Moms of Special Needs Children.
<< Siobhan Wilcox: Thanks for asking Lorna, Special Moms Tribe is a project that myself and autism expert Chantal Sicile-Kira are working on to support other moms just like us. Chantal has written six books on autism and travels all over the world speaking as an advocate for parents of special needs children and adults, as well as supporting the transition of individuals with autism to live successful and full lives. I’ll bet that most of your readers will own at least one of Chantal’s books. She really has been a leader for us all.
Both of us know, first hand, the challenges that parents face daily and we wanted to offer practical support to make a difference in the lives of special families. We will be interviewing special needs experts, having bi-monthly group coaching calls and even live spa events for those close to San Diego. We are still gathering our expert panel and working out all the fine details and plan to have Special Moms Tribe ready towards the end of 2015. If you are interested in getting true support and connecting with like-minded moms please visit www.SpecialMomsTribe.com – register your interest and we will let you know when we launch. :-)>>
Lorna: Thank you very much for your guest post and now for this interview. Good luck with your book and all your other endeavours!
Follow Siobhan Wilcox:
Facebook
Twitter: @spiritualcoach
Visit Website: www.SiobhanWilcox.com
LinkedIn
Buy
Thrive Now Blueprint: Self-Care and Success Strategies for Parents of Special Needs Children by Siobhan Wilcox (Nov. 18, 2014) Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Autism Spectrum Disorder (revised): The Complete Guide to Understanding Autism by Chantal Sicile-Kira (Jan 7, 2014) Amazon.com Amazon.ca
A Full Life with Autism: From Learning to Forming Relationships to Achieving Independence by Chantal Sicile-Kira, Jeremy Sicile-Kira and Temple Grandin (Mar 27, 2012) Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Read Also: Review of Thrive Now Blueprint: Self-Care and Success Strategies for Parents of Special Needs Children by Siobhan Wilcox.
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