FREE TO BE ME

Before you explore

Acknowledgement of Country

Sovereignty was never ceded. No treaty was ever signed. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waters on which this work is made, and that does not become less true with time, legislation or silence.

FREE 2B ME acknowledges Elders past, present and emerging. This body of work exists because systems cause harm when they ask people to become easier to accommodate. No community in this country has been asked to do that more often, or for longer, than First Nations peoples.

We hold that as a matter of practice, not sentiment.

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Practitioner Pathway

Neuroaffirming practice should be visible in what you do.

Using the language is not enough.

Knowing the theory is not enough.

Agreeing with the values is not enough.

The Practitioner Pathway is about developing practice that can be observed, questioned, supported and improved. Because the person on the other side experiences what you do, not what you intended.

An audience listening at round tables during a Women Changing the World session
Women Changing the World · 2025

At a glance

How the Pathway works.

  1. Who it is for

    Practitioners who want neuroaffirming practice to be visible in what they do, not only in the language they use.

  2. What happens

    Five stages: foundation learning, supervised applied practice, observed practice and feedback, capability evidence and authorised practice.

  3. What you take away

    Supervision, observation and feedback that change practice, and capability you can evidence.

  4. Next step

    Ask about current availability, entry routes and supervision.

Course completion alone does not establish competence or authority; a separate authorisation process applies. Becoming a FREE 2B ME Practitioner does not confer, replace or extend an underlying qualification, legal authority, competence or scope.

Ask about the Pathway Print the practitioner question card

Good intentions matter. So does impact.

  • A practitioner can use affirming language and still hold all the authority.
  • Understand neurodiversity in theory and still miss what the person is communicating.
  • Offer choice while making only one option realistically possible.
  • Provide support while slowly taking over authorship.
  • Mean well and still get something wrong.

Good intentions are a starting point. They are not evidence of good practice.

That is why capability has to become visible.

Tanya Hicks smiling at a book signing table beside an Authenticity & Action banner

The Pathway asks more than attendance

Not: did you complete the training? But: what can you now do differently?

  1. Learn the reasoning

    Understand why a decision is being made, not merely which words sound affirming while making it.

  2. Apply it in real practice

    Work with complexity, uncertainty, competing needs, evidence, scope and real people.

  3. Be observed

    Capability cannot be established only by self-description. Practice needs opportunities to be seen closely enough for feedback to mean something.

  4. Use supervision

    Not as reassurance. As a place to test interpretation, power, assumptions, uncertainty and what happened when theory met reality.

  5. Take feedback that changes something

    Including feedback that is uncomfortable. Including feedback from people whose experience challenges the professional account.

  6. Demonstrate capability

    Not perfection. Not ideological agreement. Practice that can be evidenced.

Tanya Hicks speaking as attendees stand and participate

What should become visible?

  1. Can you distinguish observation from interpretation?
  2. Can you recognise when access conditions may be shaping what you see?
  3. Can you communicate without assuming speech is the only valid route?
  4. Can you support decision-making without taking over?
  5. Can the person disagree with you, or say no, without losing support?
  6. Can you hold uncertainty without rushing it into certainty?
  7. Can you identify when the useful action belongs somewhere other than with the person?
  8. Can you work within your scope?
  9. Can you notice when something is not working and change course?
  10. Can you document a person without turning inference into fact?
  11. Can you remain accountable when your interpretation carries power?

That is the level of practice the Pathway is trying to develop.

The person should remain visible in the evidence.

A practitioner can demonstrate excellent technical reasoning and still leave the person absent from the work. So capability must include:

  • choice
  • communication
  • consent
  • privacy
  • supported decision-making
  • access
  • rights
  • authorship
  • accountability

Can the person recognise themselves in the practice being described as “person-centred”?

Attendance is not capability

This is not another badge.

A course can teach. A workshop can provoke. A framework can help. None of those, by itself, establishes competent practice. Vocabulary is not practice.

The aim is not to create another label people can place after their name while their practice remains unchanged. The aim is to develop practitioners who can make FREE 2B ME more possible in actual work.

Support should increase authorship, not replace it. That has to be visible.

The shape of the Pathway

A supported bridge between potential and responsibility.

  1. 01Foundation Learning
  2. 02Supervised Applied Practice
  3. 03Observed Practice & Feedback
  4. 04Capability Evidence
  5. 05Authorised Practice

People are given space to learn, apply, be observed, receive feedback and grow into greater responsibility without being expected to perform certainty before they have developed capability.

Two questions practitioners should learn to carry.

  1. What does my practice require the person to become?
  2. Does this leave room for the person to be themselves?

The Pathway should eventually make those questions unnecessary as prompts. They should become professional reflex.

Tanya Hicks speaking with a microphone alongside four other panellists seated on stage

The standard is not perfection.

Practitioners will misread things.

Miss information.

Make decisions they later revise.

Need supervision.

Encounter areas outside their scope.

Get feedback they do not like.

Good practice is not demonstrated by never being wrong. It is demonstrated partly by what you do when the first account no longer holds.

Learning for teams and organisations Understand the Practice Read the professional companions Work with Tanya

Less fixing. More living.