🌱 Welcome to By UnCommon Design: Your First Step Home
"Your dreams don’t expire when your child gets diagnosed... Design a happier life as an autism mom."
🛑 STOP: Did you read the About page?“Your dreams don’t expire when your child gets diagnosed... Design a happier life as an autism mom.”
You can listen to my Welcome Message below:
💁♀️ Who Am I?
I'm Cheniece Patrick: a solopreneur, new hobbyist podcaster, Tarot certified attuned Reiki Master, and proud Mother to my two amazingly pretty toddlers on the autism spectrum. Like many special needs parents, I've experienced the particular kind of isolation that comes from navigating a path few others understand: The grief that lives alongside profound love. The guilt that accompanies wanting something for yourself beyond caregiving…
After months of experiencing emotional tumult and a sticky depression during which I barely knew myself, I re-started my writing practice as a lifeline… as a way to make sense of the complexities that Motherhood, particularly of the special needs variety, brings to the table.
📚 What You'll Find Here
This is the official email newsletter for the UnCommon Momma micro-membership community.
UnCommon Design isn't filled with picture-perfect parenting answers or strictly inspirational platitudes from a prayer devotional. Instead, you'll discover:
Honest Essays: My real reflections on the landscape of Motherhood reshaped by autism: the grief, the joy, the identity shifts, and the search for self.
Mind-Body-Spirit Exploration: Thoughtful approaches to healing that honor the whole person, including mindfulness practices, practical self-care for depleted Mothers, and even insights from the Tarot (!).
Permission to Feel Everything: This is a sanctuary where complex, contradictory emotions are welcomed rather than judged. Bring them with you here.
What to Expect as a Subscriber
ALL email subscribers get to experience:
✔️ A free download of The Survival Mode Exit Strategy Workbook - A gentle, practical guide to help you start stepping out of survival mode and into a life that feels more like your own.
✔️ Deep Soul-Work Essays - I write from the heart, and I write for both of us. You’ll receive my bi-weekly-ish essays filled with raw reflections, gentle encouragement, and the kind of honest conversations that remind you you’re not alone. You’ll go beyond the surface with my intimate reflections on finding meaning in a life reshaped by special needs parenting. They are in-depth writings covering identity shifts, mental health, resilience, and finding joy in unexpected places.
✔️ Audio Diaries - Podcast-style episodes where I share the unfiltered highs, lows, and revelations of autism motherhood. Think: raw, honest, and deeply personal. Listen to my unfiltered audio diaries capturing the 2AM doubts, the guilt-ridden confessions, and the unexpected breakthroughs worth celebrating.
✔️ Direct Support Line - Feel free to send a message to ask me anything about Motherhood, burnout, identity, and self-care, and I’ll answer in an exclusive post or chat reply.
✔️ Chat + Direct Messaging – Engage in a private (non-social media) community space for deeper conversations.
✔️ Your People - An invite to our no-cost sacred space for real talk, deep support, and genuine friendships with fellow autism moms who get it—without judgment, just realness and encouragement. No toxic positivity, just real connection.
Ready to go deeper?…
Join the UnCommon Momma micro-membership community—a supportive space for mothers who truly understand this journey.
Our Forever Free tier gives you immediate access to meaningful conversations, practical encouragement, and a community that values your story as much as your child's.
Join the UnCommon Momma Community for free
Looking forward to seeing you there.
With an upgrade to the paid UnCommon Momma membership community, you unlock:
✔️ Regular “Your Pulse” Check-ins - A ritual space to process your daily life, celebrate small wins, release what’s heavy, and reconnect with your inner wisdom.
✔️ Private Audio Content - Access guided audio resource content and the private podcast series: your source on-the-go for calm, clarity, and connection during the moments of chaos.
✔️ Real-time support – A safe place to share the hard days and celebrate the good ones within the quiet, deep spaces of the community for your most vulnerable shares and profound connections.
✔️ Self-Care & Mindfulness for Moms – Simple but powerful practices designed for our reality—quick grounding techniques, energy resets, and nervous system support.
✔️ Exclusive Resources Collection - Downloadable workbooks, planning templates, and resources designed specifically for reclaiming peace and rediscovering yourself.
✔️ Virtual Live Gatherings - Intimate co-regulation/care sessions, support circles, and guided self-care practices in a safe, judgment-free space.
✔️ Guest Conversations & Chats – Thoughtful, heart-centered discussions with other special needs moms, therapists, and advocates. Because we shouldn’t have to figure this out alone.
🗃️ Section Topics
Assignments, Audio Diary, Diary, Events & Replays, Health & Wellbeing, Home & Family, Inner Circle, Magick, Membership, Podcast, Resource, Self Studio, Soulful Spirit, The Village & Society, Video, Voice Notes, Work & Craft
👉 Start Here: Essential Reads
If you're brand new, these pages and posts capture the essence of what UnCommon Design aims to be:
💭 The Philosophy
You shouldn’t have to choose between being a good mother and being a whole woman. You can create a life that honors your own sacred humanity. Here, I get to walk beside you as you create a life that truly feels like your own, one gentle and powerful step at a time.
Through the ecosystem of support here:
You will transition from depletion to deep nourishment.
You will move from feeling lost in the role of "autism mom" to being rooted in your identity.
You will shift from guilt-ridden self-abandonment to grounded self-advocacy.
You will transform from burned out to lit-up, as moments of genuine joy, rest, and ease become woven into the fabric of your daily life.
✍️ A Personal Note
Simply said, I created this space because I needed it for myself, and desperately so. On my days spent feeling the most lost that I have ever been, I searched for other voices that could articulate my particular ache without sugarcoating it, while still holding space for the hope that exists all around…
If you've felt invisible in these same struggles, or if you've ever questioned whether you'll find joy again amid the therapies and advocacy and endless responsibilities, you're in the right place.
This isn't just a newsletter. It's a lifeline, a community, and the gentlest reminder that even in your most overwhelmed moments, you still exist. Your dreams matter. Your identity matters.
You are never, ever alone in this journey And you have the ability to decide how you show up in this life.
