About
Hi, I’m Mary, Mum to a 11 year-old daughter and kindy-age son, as well as a menagerie of pets; 7 chickens, an old young dog Blossom and cats, Mr. Boy and Ruby. We live on the South Coast in Adelaide, South Australia. I enjoy burlesque, bachata, blogging and apparently a lot of interests starting with 'B'! Seems like I can't expand on that sentence ever now to keep the alliteration intact.
Professionally, I am founder of auDHD Life Hacks, an auDHD Coach, student counsellor, and long-time professional organiser. For over 13 years, I ran a professional organising business, helping people transform clutter and chaos into a calm organised home. Over time, very organically, more and more neurodivergent clients sought me out. They got the feeling that I could help them in a way that mainstream services just couldn't. I had a knack for tuning into the way they thought and tailoring solutions that when scaffolded together made a life-changing improvement to their everyday functioning, helping them to get out of survival mode and actually start thriving and go out into the world with confidence and success. Their children slept better, my clients voices returned and way of dressing evolved, they decorated their homes in ways that bought them joy and comfort, they started new jobs or passion projects and had time for their interests again.
At the same time I was helping so many others, I was deep in my own health journey. I was a single parent dealing with undiagnosed mystery chronic illness, burnout, sensory overload, and executive function struggles. Organisation helped me manage life but never quite break free from the trauma and burnout cycle I felt stuck in.
Like many late-diagnosed adults, it was when trying to understand my daughter Pearl’s challenges and research solutions, that I first discovered that I met the critera for ADHD too. I was startled to recognise myself in everything I read, even though Pearl and I had such different personalities and presentation. So Pearl and I started by getting ADHD diagnoses and learning about why we struggled with focus, brain fog, motivation and impulsivity among other things. I did a lot of crying as I looked over my life with a new lens of understanding.
A couple of years later when my adhd was somewhat 'managed' through diet changes and life support systems, quitting drinking (now 7 years sober ), my autistic clients helped me final piece of the puzzle that had been hidden under years of shame and masking! Metaphorically they held up a mirror and that 'peer diagnosis' lead me to seek a second diagnosis of autism for myself and my daughter.
What did these diagnoses do for me? I stopped trying to force systems that didn’t work for me because the shame had lifted and started creating ones that did. I already had the skills but not the permission to make my life work for my brain type. Life is still not simple - my brain type comes with challenges that are exacerbated by a chronic illness (Mast Cell Activation syndrome) and peri-menapause but I am always learning and finding new ways to rise above.
I feel called to share everything I have learned and embodied - through a rich career as a professional organiser such an intense awakening spiritually - to shine a light to others struggling in the muck and darkness of a world not built for us and internalised ways and stories that do not serve our amazing potential. auDHD Life Hacks encompasses my strengths which are writing, speaking from the heart, dancing without care and guiding people by unlocking their own intuitive path.
AuDHD Life Hacks is a blog, soon-to-launch podcast, resource hub, and an offering to work together to make your life yours - auDHD coaching 101 for people who are ready; ready to work together to build a life that work with their neurotype, not against it.
This is not about “fixing” yourself. You’re not broken. You’re just wired differently — and that difference is something to be worked with, not pushed through.
Let’s create something that works for you.
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