Holly Bridges
- Creator of Anxiety Reframe Technique
- Author of Reframe Your Thinking Around
- Autism; Bridging the Gap
- Educator, Keynote speaker
- Winner of 2018 NDS Innovation Award
- Director Zebr and LicenseToThink
After a lifetime of investigation into psychology, psychodynamics, somatics, neuroscience and spirituality, Holly discovered the Polyvagal Theory and everything fell into place. Over the past fifteen years, Holly has refined Anxiety Reframe Technique into a world-class practice that meets the needs of those who are often hardest to treat.
Historically, Holly gained a degree in psychology, women’s studies and youthwork, after which she worked in youth services and then home-schooled her children. Since then Holly has worked for a leading autism provider – earning her a nomination for the Australian National Disability Awards in 2014 – as well as a Post School Options Coordinator and a Community Inclusion Project Officer as part of Australia’s NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme).
Holly was involved in planning and implementation for NDIS with individual clients and she worked closely with a number of organizations around Australia in ideation and collaboration of ideas for implementing co-design and community inclusion. She developed programs for PSO, ran workshops on co-design and mentored staff.
What became obvious during this time in the industry, were the gaps in the autism therapies and practices. As well, Holly became increasingly aware of how autism informed her own life. Both these points, plus a streak of defiance prompted the creation of A.R.T.
As a pioneer in this field, Holly is gaining accolades internationally from psychiatrists, psychologists, and other allied health; she has also begun to scientifically evaluate her work – Bridging The Gap/Autistic Inertia and to train therapists in this innovative modality. Where A.R.T. began as a response to autistic needs, it is now applied far more widely into a range of issues that affect the human condition. Most importantly A.R.T. addresses anxiety, inertia and early existential states of dorsal vagal shut-down.
