Parenting a neurodivergent child in a system that was never designed for their brain is hard. Parenting that child while you are still healing your own school trauma is something else entirely.

In this episode of This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast, Dr Emma Offord is joined by parenting coach and host of the Parent Unplugged podcast, Charis Halsall. A mum of three and an outspoken advocate for children and adults with dyslexia, Charis was diagnosed at seven and spent her school years collecting what she later learned to call “micro-traumas”: the red pen, the laptop that was meant to “fix” everything, the report cards that said “try harder” when she was already at her limit.

Charis shares how those experiences shaped her sense of self, the long shadow they cast over her confidence, and the moment she realised the problem was never her brain. It was the system. We explore what happens when a diagnosis is treated as the end of the story rather than the beginning of systemic change, and how many dyslexic children are still being asked to fit an environment that actively dysregulates their nervous system.

Now a neuro-affirming parent to a dyslexic son, Charis talks honestly about advocating in school, asking for small but powerful adjustments, and choosing self-esteem over “catching up”. From changing bright blue maths squares to softer grey, to switching to voice-to-text and watching his ideas finally spill onto the page, she offers real-life examples of what support can look like in practice.

We also talk about Charis’ own path to reclaiming her voice: reading over 300 parenting books as a very slow reader, turning her curiosity into the Parent Unplugged podcast, and treating those conversations as the “degree” she was once told she would never manage.

If you have ever been told to try harder, if you are parenting a child the system does not understand, or if you are still untangling your own school story, this conversation is a reminder that there is nothing wrong with your brain. It is the environment that needs to change, and there is always another way.

Follow Charis and her work on her Instagram account here.