We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vicky Westra. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vicky below.

Vicky, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

After many years of unsuccessfully trying to conceive a child, we adopted our daughter Gabbi from Romania. We knew there would be an adjustment period for her and us. However, her delays were more significant than we expected, and it wasn’t easy to deal with the behavioral challenges that she was exhibiting. After many medical consults and tests, we received the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Our life was very challenging during these early years, and we spent much of our time in what I now call the “Red Zone.” In The Red Zone, you experience stressful emotions such as worry, anger, fear, and despair. We didn’t understand what was happening in Gabbi’s world, making connecting with and supporting her extremely difficult.

During our journey with Gabbi, we also found that many of those who supported Gabbi, like teachers, medical professionals, therapists, and even our own family and friends, didn’t understand her or how to deal with her effectively.

In 2007, I left my Corporate role and started a Non-Profit supporting Autism. In 2010, I had the opportunity to start the first-of-its-kind cafe providing training and employment for young adults on the autism spectrum. This program gave me the rare opportunity to accomplish what I truly desired, which was to gain a better understanding of my daughter and those considered autistic or Neurodiverse.

I realized through this experience (and since) that the stigma associated with Autism as being different, misunderstood and underestimated, through no fault of their own, negatively affects these individuals’ chances of leading purposeful lives.

Today, we at Neuroshifts are even more excited to work with those who don’t fit into society, to help them become more confident about their authentic selves and unique talents and abilities, and empower them to live a joyful and purpose-driven life.

At the same time, we want to equip those within the broader neurotypical community to understand how they can create spaces and opportunities for this population to thrive.

We are launching a new program in the first quarter of 2024 called “Green Zone Life.” In the Green Zone, we experience emotions such as hope and positive expectations about our lives. We also extend love and compassion to those around us, even if they don’t fit into our image of “sameness.” We seek to create an environment of understanding them versus judging them as different or not enough.

We invite you to join our movement as together, we will shatter barriers, foster inclusivity, and inspire all communities to thrive as one.

Vicky, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have learned through my journey that life’s challenges can either pull us down, or allow us to grow and align. This was certainly the case when we received the diagnosis of Autism for our daughter Gabbi. Initially, I didn’t see the opportunity to learn and grow but instead saw it as a deviation from the plan and vision we had for our lives. Because of this, my faith waivered, and I even asked the question, “Why would God allow this to happen to us?”. Because I didn’t trust our path during this period, I suffered. Being in despair for so long made me realize I was missing something about my daughter and her Autism diagnosis. What was I supposed to learn from this, and how could I live in a place of joy, no matter what challenges life brought? This realization helped me understand that I could do something to change my feelings about our daughter’s Autism and help others to deal with their challenges as well, which led me to start our Non-Profit, Neuroshifts.

Our mission is to ignite the power within individuals, enabling them to unleash their full potential and embark on transformative changes toward greater well-being. We equip them with the knowledge, tools, resources, and a nurturing community so they can live their lives filled with purpose, joy, and boundless possibilities. We believe that together, we can create a ripple effect of positive change, inspiring others to embrace their transformative paths and thrive.

Today, I am most proud that through my transformation and that of my family, we have created a life filled with hope, joy, and love with our daughter. This has resulted in her own journey of self-discovery and finding hope for her future. I am also proud to have been a part of helping so many other young adults embrace who they are, their talents and abilities, and develop a positive outlook for their desired futures. We want our clients, followers, and fans to realize that no one can stop you from leading a joyful and purposeful life but you.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When we started serving the Autism community in 2010, it was through a first-of-its-kind cafe that served tasty coffee and frozen beverages and food. However, our primary mission was to equip those with Autism to become employed. Our baristas were all diagnosed with Autism, and they helped train others who came through our program to get ready for other/future employment opportunities in the community.

Through this process, I started including more emotional and mental well-being training within our employment training curriculum. We found early on that our young adults who were a match to work in a cafe could quickly learn the physical skills necessary to make the beverages or stock the cafe. However, for many, the lack of social awareness, emotional management, and their limiting beliefs about themselves would likely keep them from finding success in this role and, ultimately, achieving their life purpose. The well-being side was instrumental in helping them to make the inner changes needed to change their circumstances.

Over time, this work became my life’s passion, and I decided to pivot after the pandemic and dedicate our programs to helping equip individuals to unleash their full potential. We want to partner with other organizations that are working with the neurodiverse community or other underserved populations to incorporate this life-changing program into the work that they are doing.

The lesson is always to follow your passion and where life takes you on your journey.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I am an avid reader, and as a visionary and entrepreneur, the book “10x is Easier than 2x” written by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan was very inspirational.

Since I launched Neuroshifts, I’ve had the vision of an empowered movement for those in the Neurodiverse community. I’ve always believed that more has not happened for this population because there are not enough within our community who feel sufficiently empowered to create the change that we want to see. With an empowered community, we will experience higher employment levels, more inclusion, and greater compassion and understanding amongst the broader population.

After reading this book, I re-ignited that vision, and I feel more strongly now than ever before that the time is now to create the needed shift in our homes, schools, and businesses. Together, we can make meaningful and lasting changes for our Neurodiverse community.

This book shares how creating a larger vision is easier than growing it incrementally. There are fewer paths to take; therefore, I have more clarity about the most significant changes we need to focus on. I also realize that we will create more roles so that people who are called can join this movement and be a part of building and expanding it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.neuro-shifts.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neuroshifts/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neuroshifts.org/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/neuroshifts/about/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/neuroshifts

Image Credits
The picture of Gabbi with her Spell to Communicate (S2C) therapist Evelyn Moldal owner of Meraki Collective in a Letterboard therapy session.