WIRED DIFFERENTLY, PARENTING TOGETHER
Location
Hosted by
Simon Tidy About
Strengthening Your Relationship While You Grow Your Family
Research shows 67% of couples experience a significant decline in relationship satisfaction in the first three years after a baby arrives. For neurodivergent couples — where one or both partners are navigating ADHD, Autism, or other neurological differences — the challenges are amplified.
Executive function overload, sensory overwhelm, disrupted routines, and rejection sensitivity collide with sleep deprivation and identity shifts.
This workshop is different. Built on
Gottman research from 3,000+ couples and designed with a neuroaffirming lens, every tool and exercise works with your brain — not against it. Neurotypical couples benefit equally. Good design for neurodivergent brains is good design for everyone.
WHAT YOU’LL COVER
Module 1: Understanding the Shift
How babies change relationships. The neurodivergent amplifiers: executive function overload, sensory overwhelm, routine destruction, RSD, unmasking. Your brain under pressure profile.
Module 2: Strengthening Your Friendship
Love Maps — staying curious when baby takes centre stage. Bids for connection (including ND bids: info-dumping, parallel play, acts of service). Building a culture of appreciation even at 3am.
Module 3: Managing Conflict Without Damage
The Four Horsemen and their antidotes — with ND reframes (blunt communication ≠ criticism, shutdown ≠ stonewalling, RSD ≠ defensiveness). Softened start-up formula. Repair attempts. Co-regulation strategies. The 20-minute flooding rule.
Module 4: Co-Parenting as a Team
Mental load audit — who carries what? Strengths-based roles instead of 50/50. Externalising executive function into shared systems. Emotional inheritance — how your upbringing and neurology shape your parenting instincts.
Module 5 -Intimacy & Connection After Baby. The sensory reality of being “touched out.” Reframing alone time as a regulation need, not rejection. Intimacy mapping. Starting the conversation about what’s changed.
Module 6: Building Your Safety Net -
Designing sustainable daily and weekly rituals. Burnout and meltdown emergency protocol. When to seek professional help. Your personalised 3-month couple action plan.
WHAT MAKES THIS WORKSHOP DIFFERENT
🧠 Neuroaffirming Approach
Every concept, exercise, and tool is adapted for brains that work differently — not a neurotypical program with a disclaimer.
💚 Gottman Evidence-Based
Built on decades of research from the Gottman Institute. Sound Relationship House framework throughout.
📝 15 Interactive Exercises
Relationship check-in, Love Maps update, bid inventory, conflict rewrite, mental load audit, intimacy map, ritual design, 3-month action plan — all in your workbook to keep.
📓 46-Page Participant Workbook
Structured worksheets, reflection tools, and 6 quick-reference appendix cards (Four Horsemen, repair phrases, start-up formula, planning meeting agenda, sensory check-in, resources).
🧘 Sensory-Friendly Environment
Breaks built in. Low lighting available. Fidgets provided. Babies welcome. Opt-out friendly.