Building the skills, knowledge and confidence of people living with disability and their siblings to successfully navigate transitional life events.
Life Changes is a skills building program that seeks to empower people with disability and their adult siblings to navigate the ups and downs of life together.
Facilitated workshops will introduce you to strength-based approaches, like supported decision making, future mapping and using person centred tools to solve challenges.
Workshops are free, with separate groups for siblings and people with a disability over the age of 16.
For siblings, during the workshops you will:
- Discover how you can champion and advocate for your brother or sister.
- Build and practice skills to manage challenges and help with difficult conversations.
- Learn strategies for taking care of yourself and building/maintaining resilience during challenging times.
- Create action plans for yourself and with your brother or sister.
For people with disability, during the workshops you will learn skills:
- To help you manage relationships and communicate better.
- To talk about hard things and how to ask for help.
- To look after yourself if you feel angry or stressed or worried.
- Create action plans for yourself with your brother or sister.
We are currently recruiting for our 2026 workshop rounds.
If you’d like more information about participating in these workshops, please complete the registration form below.
Interested in joining a workshop?
Workshops for people with disability and for their adult siblings will commence in March 2025. Register your interest below to receive news and updates about upcoming workshops.
Workshops for siblings and people with disability will run throughout 2026. All dates will be confirmed once you have registered.
Our facilitators
Rachel Dickson
Rachel is an experienced humanistic psychologist with more than 20 years’ practice in the human services sector in clinical, training and research fields. She is an advocate of empowering others to navigate life’s challenges with honesty, congruence and self-actualisation. Rachel’s areas of passion and interest include:
- supporting individuals with neurodivergent brains to discover their motivations and unlock their creative strengths.
- strengthening teams through humanistic approaches to problem solving.
- Mental health awareness.
A skilled facilitator in person centred approaches, leadership development, and reflective practices, Rachel has worked nationally and abroad, sharing her approach with others.
Claire Gore
Claire is a clinical psychologist, researcher and facilitator with over 13 years’ experience working in both public and private settings. Claire is a skilled clinician with expertise in the provision of person centred therapy and planning, as well as acceptance and commitment therapy and schema therapy amongst others. She has facilitated professional development programs in person centred practice across NSW.
Her research interests are varied and include the mental health and well-being of people with disability, as well as addressing the supportive care needs of people with cancer.
Life Changes is a collaboration between Siblings Australia and Kaleidoscope Focus.
Find out more about Kaleidoscope Focus at kaleidoscopefocus.com.au
Life Changes is funded through the Department of Social Services (DSS) – Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) grant.
