A Book Written to Offer Hope
I was destined to be a teacher. From age six, I played school and always took the role of the teacher. Teaching was my calling. Then I became a mother in the Spring of 1992. So, while teaching is what I loved and pursued as a career, being a mom has been my purpose.
Hearing my son Joseph’s autism diagnosis in 1996, I searched for answers to help him. I took whatever information and therapies I found and began sharing with our community. Folks would call if they had a diagnosis or suspected their child might be on the spectrum. When Joseph was six, we were on the front page of our local newspaper to kick off the first support group in our small rural Arkansas town. It was a safe place to share knowledge and our stories.
I closed the doors after two years, but the search continued. Joseph slowly began to verbalize and loved to read. He could retain every fact and loved sharing his knowledge.
The idea of writing a book began when Joseph was in elementary school. The original idea was to write a children’s book to offer parents and teachers a tool to help classmates understand autism. This was in the 90s, when the movie Rain Man was people’s reference to understanding what autism was about.
I was a ball of stress searching for answers, and most days ended in confusion and grief. I was desperate to find something to help Joseph find his way in a world that made no sense.
I moved forward on my autism parenting journey without writing the book and going through what I refer to as life tsunamis (difficult life events). But the idea of the book was always living inside of me.
The world opened for me when I became interested in life coaching. I was a single mom, so although I found my second career, I couldn’t afford to pursue it. After about a decade, my parents offered to pay for training. I signed up and never looked back. Life coaching seemed to be what I loved the most about teaching, which was helping students find direction.
Once I began my coaching career, I searched for my niche. I didn’t want to become an autism coach because I felt I hadn’t dealt with the deep darkness within myself completely. In a coaching session with a master coach, as I began sharing my autism journey as a mom, the passion poured out of me. I realized that helping other moms would also help me.
The first project Joseph and I did together was a podcast. We needed a name, so I asked Joseph what I had been to him on our autism journey. He first replied, “You are like a wise old man on top of a mountain stroking your long white beard.” I thought that’s great if he sees me as a wise old man. A few minutes went by and he came back and said, “No, you have been my tour guide of my life. You have guided me and shown me how.” The name felt right and we became A Mother’s Guide Through Autism.
I was coaching moms, had a podcast, and offered group coaching. Still, I felt I wasn’t reaching the number of moms I wanted to help navigate their autism parenting. Through conversations with friends, family, and my work team, I decided it was time to write the book. I pitched the idea to Joseph, and although he had some questions about the process, he, too, wanted to get our message into the world.
We agreed to work together on the book. I was happy because I knew my son could offer what I couldn’t…the perspective of living with autism as an autistic person. One of the essential pieces of this book was to show that although Joseph and I were on this journey together, we were experiencing autism completely differently. There were times in our past when I was in deep pain, yet Joseph was enjoying that same experience; watching and observing him on the playground was painful for me, but joyful for him. I felt our book could give others hope and offer healing and joy in their lives.
With this in mind and many coffee talks later, the book came to be. And how cool is it to have two book covers as a physical metaphor? The half of the book, Mother’s Guide Through Autism, that I wrote would be one cover; flip it over to the half that Joseph wrote, Through The Eyes Of The Guided, and you gain both our perspectives. Literally, readers would experience the deeper message — a mother and child on the same journey but with completely different life experiences that offer knowledge, hope, and inspiration.
Once we decided we were going to turn the idea into reality, I needed to figure out how I could make this project a priority. I was already spread thin with our podcast, blog, and coaching clients. I had heart-to-heart conversations with my team, close friends, and family and we were all on the same page. The consensus was to put everything else on hold while writing this book if I could handle the commitment financially.
I spent several days calculating and meeting with the team and our publisher. I worked for the next few weeks finalizing all the steps to make Mother’s Guide Through Autism materialize. I began writing and didn’t look up until it was completed.
Were there challenges? Yes. While writing this book, I had water damage in my home which required a lot of attention. I stuck to our book commitment and kept moving forward.
Next, as Joseph’s mother guide, I began to guide him through the process of writing Through The Eyes Of The Guided. I loved watching my son, who seemingly needed very little guidance, take off on his own and finish his part of the book.
I have had many conversations with people about how, when you find your true calling, the process of getting to the end falls into place. Even with all the personal challenges that popped up, it all worked out. This “calling” of writing Mother’s Guide Through Autism has been one of the most extraordinary experiences of our autism journey.
When a calling knocks on your door, I personally recommend answering it. And I hope you find healing and comfort in Mother’s Guide Through Autism and Through The Eyes Of The Guided.
It has been written from my heart to reach your heart.
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Brigitte M. Volltrauer Shipman is an author, life coach, speaker, and teacher. She specializes in coaching mothers with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Her current book is A Mother’s Guide Through Autism, Through The Eyes of The Guided. She is also the author of Is It a God Thing?
A Mother’s Guide Through Autism, Through The Eyes of The Guided
A mother and son have teamed up to give both views of what their journey of living with autism has been like over the past 30 years. The good thing is, both stories are all in ONE tome! Brigitte shares stories that she applies to her guided practices to heal a mother’s heart. She offers all mothers to become inspired to live more joyfully, no matter where they are on their autism journey.
Joseph gives his own perspective and insightful views of what living with autism has been for him, and what we all can do to understand and help those like him. The first half of this book, Mother’s Guide Through Autism, will give you tools, guided practices, support, and inspiration through Brigitte’s own experience as a teacher, life coach, and mother guide.
Metaphorically, when you flip the book over you will gain knowledge, insightful life experience, and hope from Joseph’s life who is now an adult autistic person. Mother’s Guide Through Autism is the second book authored by Brigitte, following It’s A God Thing. However, this is Joseph’s debut as an author. Whether you’re a blossoming guide yourself, or just a curious soul, this is sure to bring insight and perspective to a large, yet still mysterious phenomenon of human development.
Category: On Writing
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