Bridging Life’s Transition Cliffs

Lisa interviews Liz Wheeldon, creator of Circle Talk, an app-based platform designed to address the “transition cliff” where key personal information is lost during life changes, especially from around age 15 through life after school and across services like education and NDIS. While many tools help people organise information, Circletalk is about helping people communicate who they are, what matters to them, and how they want to be supported through life’s major transitions. Liz developed Circletalk to help people maintain their voice, identity, agency, and ability to advocate for what matters to them as they navigate significant changes in circumstances. One of the main areas of support need is young people transitioning from school to adulthood, but the same principles apply throughout life, including employment, changes in support, and later transitions into aged care. Liz runs Transition Bridge Workshops, designed to support specialist schools and their parent/carer communities, with Circletalk scaffolding the journey before, during, and after the transition. In this interview, Liz explains how repeated intakes force families and participants to retell deficit- and risk-focused narratives, leaving people feeling overwhelmed and retraumatised. Liz argues for a strengths-based, participant-voiced living profile that stays current as interests and needs change. Lisa and Liz also chat about: - barriers such as turnover in care teams, - consent and disclosure, - administrative milestones like Medicare access at 15 and NDIS nominee changes at 18 - the option to trial the Circletalk platform for 30 days through OTs or speech therapists Circletalk isn’t just another app, it is a platform for empowering people through life’s major transitions. 00:00 Lisa introduces Liz Wheeldon 00:25 Why Circle Talk Exists 01:25 Explaining the Transition Cliff and Transition Bridge 03:01 Empowering Teens At School 04:27 The pain of having to retell your story over and over 12:16 What Good Intake Looks Like 13:55 Lightening Carer Load 17:11 Life Admin At Age Eighteen 18:49 How To Use Circle Talk This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lifebalanceessentials.substack.com/subscribe