Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Breann Colpitts. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Breann, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Well, this might ruffle some feathers, but in my opinion resilience comes from surviving trauma. And as a late realized AuDHD (Autism + ADHD = AuDHD), I’ve lived through plenty of trauma. Here’s the thing, when you don’t know you’re a neurocomplex person, you live your life trying to figure out how to fix yourself to be like everyone else or at least that’s my experience. So for MANY years I built my resilience by going through hard things not knowing I was neurodivergent and struggling with finding the thing I needed to fix. Turns out, I just needed to know more about my brain…so now here I am, a resilient AF neurocomplex human in midlife learning how to unmask and raise resilient twice exceptional kids (with my spouse) without burning myself out….and helping other parents do the same.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Oh hey readers! If we haven’t met yet, here’s some insight about what I’m up to these days…so I’m an AuDHD (Autism + ADHD) social coach for twice exceptional and high masking humans. My private coaching practice serves mostly kids and teens, but also a few young adults as well, and of course parents. The goals at Successfully Social are to support clients to navigate and regulate in the social world in a way that allows folks to meet their personal social goals. We fully believe that a person’s social life should be self determined, so we don’t have a standard for what being “successfully social” means because it’s different for everyone.
This way of supporting clients, leaning into Autistic culture and neurodivergent ways of being, feels pretty special because most social skills support comes from a “here’s how to be neurotypical” lens and well, that’s harmful. Of course there is a community aspect to what we do because we live in a world we share with others, but as far as how we coach clients, it’s from a neuroaffirming perspective; we aren’t trying to “fix” or “cure” people.
A new offering that has been so fun is a virtual offering for parents called Brain Chat. It’s a virtual group coaching format for parents to problem solve together and it’s hosted by myself and Successfully Social’s co-founder Allison, who runs her own practice in New England. We’ve gotten some really great feedback from parents! My favorite piece of feedback so far is, “This hour has been more helpful than a year of ABA!” Allison and I are excited for this offering to grow in 2024 and what’s really exciting is that folks can get support from us no matter where they live, since it’s a virtual offering!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think one of the most important qualities that has guided me on my journey is the willingness to unlearn things. For example, I referenced behavior plans in my wedding vows to my spouse. When I worked in schools, my Behavior Intervention Plans were the gold standard and I was pretty proud of them. Now that idea gives me a shiver because I think using traditional behaviorism with kids is so old school and often times super harmful. I’ve done a 180 from how I was trained and what I used to believe about behavior.
Another impactful quality has been understanding that rest IS productive. When you’re an entrepreneur, it’s critical to rest and reflect! No one’s best ideas are coming through during burnout.
And the third would be that if it’s not bringing joy, then why are you doing it? If you’re not working for “the man”, then why not design your work around having fun?!?
I guess these are more pieces of advice, than qualities, but without these things, I’d be completely lost with my mission and vision.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I’m always looking at adding neuroaffirming service providers to my referral list, so if that’s you, please reach out. I’m also restructuring my parent support group to a more collaborative endeavor (no spoilers because it’s still in creation mode), so if you’d be interested in partnering for a workshop or being a vendor at one of my quarterly events, please email me!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.besuccessfullysocial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsbreanncolpitts
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/262546968874192/
Image Credits
Breann Colpitts
