Autism Month : From Corporate America to Autism Advocacy: Michael Pereira's Path to Supporting Special Needs Families

Michael Pereira shares his family's journey from denial to acceptance after his son's autism diagnosis, explaining how this experience led him to create The Autism Voyage blog and develop financial planning strategies specifically for special needs families. He reveals the transformative power of physical activity, particularly jiu-jitsu, in helping his son develop discipline, social skills, and a daily routine that brings excitement and structure.

https://theautismvoyage.com/

• Started questioning what would happen to his autistic son if he or his wife passed away or became incapacitated
• Created a blog after finding most online resources were outdated or too shallow for complex needs
• Discovered jiu-jitsu as a game-changing activity that helped his son follow instructions, socialize, and develop discipline
• Reduced screen time after noticing it led to addiction-like behaviors and aggression
• Offers financial planning focused on scenarios beyond death—including disability, illness, or long-term care needs
• Emphasizes understanding current financial situation before making future plans
• Balances parenting between his son with autism and younger daughter who's now in speech therapy
• Shares weekly newsletter with practical tips for parents at TheAutismVoyage.com

Visit www.theautismvoyage.com to subscribe to Michael's newsletter and access resources for your own autism journey.

Chapters

• 0:48 Meeting Michael Pereira
• 1:28 Early Signs and Denial
• 3:59 Physical Activity as a Game Changer
• 12:19 Financial Planning for Special Needs Families
• 18:56 Balancing Family Life and Progress
• 26:20 Connecting with The Autism Voyage

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Hi, how are you? This is Dr Damaris Maria Grossman and this is the Mindfully Integrative Show and I want you guys to meet a wonderful guest, michael Pereira. He is going to talk to you a little bit about his family life and things of why he kind of changed his perspective and his health and for his family and especially his son. So I really can't wait for you guys to meet him and kind of dive into where he would like to tell you about his journey. So thank you so much for joining in on the show today.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Perfect. Thank you so much, Damaris, for having me we appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 0:57

So tell the audience a little bit about yourself and before they kind of go into what you know, why you're here and what you want to discuss, Of course.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Well, I'm Michael Pereira. I'm the founder of the Autism Voyage. I would say everything started a couple of years back. Came from corporate America, wanted to build that American dream, what we call the American dream in that moment, got married, bought a house, got pregnant with our first child, christian, and we thought that, based upon that lifestyle, we, you know, everything was going to go that way.

Speaker 2: 1:32

But obviously life throws you a curve ball or so, and around one year old, we started seeing some symptoms that we knew that needed to be addressed, you know. And even though there was, there was some denial from our side and we would just say you know what? I hope it's not what we think it is, let's give it some time. Obviously, around that time we also shared this information with some family members and in some cases they would say hey, don't worry, you were the same name. You know that obviously the denial, plus listening to a possible best intention, you know, opinion could procrastinate early intervention. In our case he was too young, one year old, it's still too young, but I think it fueled even more the denial. So, long story short, covid came, came by, was able to stay here uh, not no travel, so a lot of the symptoms we saw just reduced. I would say why? Maybe because I'm stricter than my wife was here at home. All the attention was on him.

Speaker 2: 2:43

But when COVID released that I started traveling again, a lot of the symptoms returned, returned, I would say, full force. He wasn't good with transitions, so, hitting his head against the wall, tippy, toeing, aligning stuff, he started to say a couple of words. He just kind of almost regressed in some case. You know all those symptoms. You know it became evident that we needed to address it and and and full forward. And that's what we did. Long story short, we were able to obviously get him diagnosed, started to obviously that phase of denial now transitioned into an acceptance phase. We from my side try to see if I can get another employer but to do the same trouble less, but it wasn't the case and I started also. You know that through that phase between denial and acceptance I started asking myself questions okay, if, if, if he does say ever, like everybody says, he is diagnosed, what happens if I pass away? What happens if my wife passes away? Even though my mom is the best grandma there is, she physically cannot take care of him right so yeah, what do you?

Speaker 2: 4:03

so I started asking financial advisors. Everybody just want to sell me something, just wanted to recruit me. Very frustrating, so I just developed my own. We developed our own blog to be able to just share all the topics any parent, we believe, would ask themselves.

Speaker 1: 4:20

Right and also provide. That's what we're in. I mean because I feel like so you started a blog on financial advisement or just for support and financial advisement for patients or families with autistic children.

Speaker 2: 4:32

I think it was both at the same time, but more on that. We wanted the content there because we believe that we're not I'm not salesy, I'm not pushy, so I believe, just provide value and whenever a parent wants to talk about it, see the seeds, the benefit. I'm here, but we just dabbled into topics around OK, maybe overprotecting early signs. Obviously, now the blog has evolved a lot, but we just wanted to be a resource for families like ours.

Speaker 1: 5:02

That's amazing. And what have you found has been the most impactful? Not for yourself, first.

Speaker 2: 5:08

First let's say that for you, with the starting the blog of course I would say um, we use a lot of different sources to create a blog, including ai, and it's helped us a lot, even me, to learn about topic technology?

Speaker 1: 5:22

yeah, of course yeah, I would.

Speaker 2: 5:23

I would never, you know, think about and obviously, by just being there being able to write. Also, it serves like a journal, I would say, for me. Just okay, this is gathering my thoughts, being able to reflect. Oh, my God, believe in that. There's always um a way to better the improvement in the lifestyle. And, uh, we wanted to talk about topics that are often not talked, so that's why we want to use it as a platform for that and what have you found like?

Speaker 1: 6:03

so you started this, you know, for your son and for your family, obviously, new profession, new job. But what was it that was so important for you to discuss in this blog about what you transitioned to do for you and your family? Because obviously you were like one, you were trying to, you know, do something financially for other families, right? So that was one part of the topic.

Speaker 1: 6:24

And for you, what did you do for you, you do for your son, that made it different that you wanted to discuss with other people so that they felt like you, because you want to advocate for other people.

Speaker 2: 6:34

Correct. But the main thing was, damaris, that each time I would look for a blog post, it was seven years old, it was very old content. I couldn't find a place that was new and if it was updated, it was very short form content. I couldn't find a place that was new and if it was updated, it was very short form content, nothing, nothing. A little bit more in deep dive. So I say, okay, that's the first thing, there's nothing right now. I think parents, like me, have a lot of questions. I'm a I'm a person that always asks too many questions. So I said, okay, that's the first thing. Secondly, when we went through all this phase of denial and acceptance, we felt alone a lot of time because obviously, going through that phase, you feel judgment from family, friends, society maybe not intentional, because they may know, but we felt like that and we wanted to have this safe space, if you will, to be able to provide parents to feel OK. Now, if Michael's went through these thoughts and I'm doing this, you know there's somebody out there that that understands.

Speaker 1: 7:47

That makes a lot of sense. What was your? What helped your son the most and for you guys as a family to be healthier, or you know cause you went to the doctors. You've done therapy. You did that for him. Now he does. He go to school.

Speaker 2: 7:56

Yeah, yeah, he does.

Speaker 1: 7:57

He's progressed a lot, that's great you do daily activities with him to kind of be.

Speaker 2: 8:03

You know a lot, a lot we believe in in being able to provide an environment that very active. We, at one point we got to be honest. We gave him a lot of tablets, of tablets. We gave him a lot of like tv cartoons, just because he it was so much for us that even for me to take a call, I would just put, give him my another phone and you know, just to see a way to calm him down because the energy was too much.

Speaker 2: 8:33

But, uh, we noticed that it became addictive, it became his. Even if we would take away the tablet, for example, he would get aggressive. So, um, behavior started to change and I said you know what, with my wife, we need to do something. So we, you know, opted to be able to do physical activity. Um, so a lot of things happened. Even we started walking as well. So we did as a family activity. So what we're doing is he was a um he. We we got him into soccer at one point started to look for ways and to do that I can agree with you on that.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Like my son is little and I mean it's so much easier to you know with these screens and stuff to just okay, here you go. And they, they need to be active, they need to get their energy out, whatever, whether they're diagnosed with something or not, these kids need to be active.

Speaker 2: 9:23

They need to get their energy out. Whether they're diagnosed with something or not, these kids need to be addicted to these tablets. I know.

Speaker 1: 9:26

So I get you, I totally get you.

Speaker 2: 9:28

Yeah, Even when I was raised as a child, we were always on the street. We were always, you know here Bike riding outside.

Speaker 2: 9:35

Correct, correct, correct. So we started in soccer, correct? So, um, we started in soccer. It wasn't good for us because he has, he had elopement, which is just running away with no, no, looking back. So when you're in the open field and there is, he has elopement, it's dangerous, right, because he just runs, uh, like for his gum, uh. So that wasn't good. Then we put him into swimming, but he saw more as a play date, didn't follow instructions, more as a party cannonball and it wasn't working. So we got him into jujitsu, being disciplined. He wasn't sociable, he was always in the corner. Now he's starting to socialize with other kids and when they say sociable, he would say hi to anybody. But when, if it's a, if it's in a group setting, you would always see him trying to go into a corner or something. Now we see him involved, we see him discipline, we see him imitating other children. So if everybody's in a line, he's in the line. If everybody's doing one exercise, he's doing it as well.

Speaker 1: 10:46

So for us, physical activity, especially jiu-jitsu, was a game changer for us oh, that's really interesting because I mean so he did you find that it caught like he was. He shows up, he puts his uniform on, he he gets into like a pattern and he was able to really get into it Everything.

Speaker 2: 11:02

He goes to school and each morning before going to school he's always hey jujitsu ho exercise. You see him. He's looking forward for that, and for us that's a huge blessing.

Speaker 1: 11:18

And does he do that every day or?

Speaker 2: 11:21

Every day, every day, every day. Except weekends. Except for the weekends, yeah, that's amazing, that's amazing.

Speaker 1: 11:26

So you found something for your son to kind of really open up and grow and then you started this blog and business and being a financial advisor for other families with autistic children or special needs children. Yeah, I think that's what special needs people that may need more support than when their kids get older.

Speaker 2: 11:50

Yeah, the thing is, at the end of the day, I don't have any special product or any special sauce. You know, secret sauce it's sometimes social media sometimes exaggerates something to give you a hook. Secret sauce Sometimes social media sometimes exaggerate something to give you a hook. My main thing was when I started looking for financial advice was I wanted to think about all scenarios, not necessarily if I pass away. So, for example, a lot of people talk about, hey, buy this term or life insurance If you pass your family's a millionaire. I would say, yeah, but what if I don't pass away? What if I get sick? What if I get cancer, stroke, get into a car accident and I'm two years out? A term will not do anything for me because I didn't pass away. What type of strategy can I create?

Speaker 1: 12:38

because you have your son to take care of.

Speaker 2: 12:41

Correct. A Christian depends on me a hundred percent. I don't know until when, if something happens to me while I'm living, I need to have a strategy, something that replaces my income or gives me a lump sum, and it was very difficult to find somebody who can talk about that. I think that's very important.

Speaker 1: 13:03

I'm, I'm. I'm just saying in general. I think that you know people are becoming elderly. We're not discussing, you know, changes. The kid, you know your child, you know you've had to find a different way for him to grow a better life, but you don't know how he's. How old is he now? He's seven, so seven. So I mean he still has many years to you know, many years of learning, and he may do very well, may live on his own too and stuff.

Speaker 1: 13:26

But I think, like you said, having that backup plan and then being um an advocate resource for so many other families, that's important, um and then this could, um, you know I feel like there's many um individuals that could you know reach out to you that need your support and that you know business, and you know I feel like there's many individuals that could you know reach out to you, that need your support and that you know business, and you know, on both ends Is this, you know, I think it has many opportunities for you.

Speaker 2: 13:52

Yeah, even for long-term care, like, for example, a lot of people say, hey, how do you want to? How do you see yourself in 20 years of retirement in a, in a beach, with a car? I say I don't know. I don't know, I get it. You know, it's very difficult for me to see myself that way if I'm still planning now because I don't know what's going to happen.

Speaker 2: 14:11

So something that I wanted to talk about at that point is long term care, because if I'm 80 and Christians, I don't know 30 something, 40, and I need care and he may not be able to support me, assisting living facilities, nursing homes are becoming very expensive. So we need to think about, hey, if your son or daughter may not be able to support you. I'm from Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico you see a lot of families living together, grandparents, everybody in the same home. But here in the States there's again living facilities, nursing homes, and they are becoming very expensive. So you need to have that conversation about, hey, what if post-retirement? How can you start now having those conversations, because you don't know if you might need help on those later years.

Speaker 1: 15:04

That is like so I mean it's. It's something we don't always think about, right, and the fact that our health, it's it's lifespan. So here we're trying to. You know, you're trying to grow your child to be the healthiest that he can be, so they be the most optimal, but then you're also have to additionally think about your long-term.

Speaker 2: 15:25

Yeah, which is not talked about.

Speaker 1: 15:27

Like two, two aspects of this. It's one you're trying to financially help individuals. Think about both of that so one to grow your son to be healthy and happy. And then one now, how do you live? As cause, you probably want to make sure you're living as long and healthy as possible too.

Speaker 2: 15:43

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:44

But you know then, but also you're also thinking of it. Well, what if something? You always want to have the what if right.

Speaker 2: 15:51

The just.

Speaker 1: 15:51

I don't think people are in the what if stage. To be truthful, I mean. I'm, you know, just in my health alone. I was grateful to have that. You know, just be like okay, I want to my long span, lifespan. I want to change and have a different perspective. So you're not only trying to get yourself healthy for your family ask you for questions. What do you think is the major advice that you give them, like or question what's the first question people usually ask you when, when they're reaching out to you?

Speaker 2: 16:27

where do I start? Um? And at the end of the day, I only do insurance planning. I don't do any type of investments.

Speaker 1: 16:35

But my suggestions though I feel like I think people need insurance, so 100 because you're building a foundation right, the plan B.

Speaker 2: 16:44

If something were to happen, you're covered. But I would say the majority asks where do I start? And I would just say, gaining clarity, like you want to know what's coming in, what's going out. I've had conversations with families that when they really dig in, they have two accounts of Netflix. They have to.

Speaker 2: 17:03

You know it's just digging in your current state, because if you already know what you have today, where you are, it's going to be very, very easy to make an informed decision as of where do you want to go. So it's just understanding your current state. If you have any type of coverage, if you have an employer coverage, how much is that? Just understanding what's coming in as an income, what's going out, how are your expenses. You need to understand it regardless, because sometimes there's a lot of expenses that go into a credit card. You're not thinking about it, you're not monitoring it. You know it's just gaining clarity. That's the first thing I would suggest. And secondly, not procrastinate. You know there's a lot of people who think that they have time and as time passes by, obviously the risk is higher, the price gets higher, right?

Speaker 1: 17:57

Oh, that's true, To put into these insurance plans so that they're more prepared. Have you found that there's a certain time frame, like you recommend, people starting when, as soon as they know that they may have a disabled child or a special needs child? Or just do it because you're just trying to plan?

Speaker 2: 18:17

Yeah, I would say, at least start with a conversation with a professional. It doesn't mean that you need to commit Just by having a conversation with me, doesn't mean that you're going into the call thinking that you're going to get invoiced or, you know, into an agreement. You know, at the end of the day, it's having those conversations because, for example, the other day I talked with someone oh, I already have a policy. I said, perfect. Now one question. It means you're proactive. That's amazing. Does that policy also consider you're a guardian? He's like what do you mean? Well, if you pass away and that guardian needs to assume responsibility for your child, they may need to leave work and become a caregiver. Does that policy consider an income for that future guardian, just in case? And that type of conversation. We're not talking about product, we're talking about scenarios, we're talking about what ifs. And that's the type of conversation when I say everything starts with the conversations to be able to talk about all these scenarios, to be able to just, you know, bulletproof whatever you're trying to do.

Speaker 1: 19:27

I mean, it's not only important to understand the future stuff, but I wanted to ask you kind of a deep dive in the sense of for your health. When you were kind of going into these insurance policies and you're looking into, like what do I do, were you really like, oh my God, I could die tomorrow. Or you were like, okay, what can I do to make sure I live like until like I'm 90? Or were you just like, okay, I got it.

Speaker 2: 19:54

I got to just no, my, my, my thought process at that moment was thinking the worst, Like oh my God, what am I going to do if I pass away tomorrow on an airplane because I was traveling? What happens to my wife? Because her health was at that moment was kind of, I would say, sensitive. Okay, and you know, we thought about the worst. I wasn't thinking about, okay, I want longevity, I wanted I was thinking about the worst and start doing a diet and start changing because I want first, I want to be present, but I want to also be healthy and and that's where we started doing some changes but at that point we thought about the worst, which I assume.

Speaker 1: 20:44

But then in a way it impacted you to transform and to pivot in I mean, I'm not saying business, but to pivot into this blog. It's an advocacy plus business, you know it's not just one, it's not really full.

Speaker 1: 20:58

I mean, yes, there is an advisement there, but then there's the point of giving people information that they need. I mean that's why I started my podcast. I mean to give just the passion project, for you know people to learn and more information on a different way of thinking and health and you know, integrating your conventional and your you know holistic thoughts. So get it. I get where you're coming from and wherever that turns for you.

Speaker 1: 21:22

Um, what, um, if you could you know, before we go, today you know, what insight or tip would you like to leave the audience? One about yourself in this journey, and to one that you've that's helped you with you and your, your, uh, your son with you and your, your, uh, your son.

Speaker 2: 21:44

Yeah, I would. There's a couple um, I would say um it it's hard to be able to function while being exhausted and um, I think it's good for parents to understand in this podcast that they're not alone, that a lot of the thoughts that may be going through their mind or frustrations, you know we all go through it and that's why one of the thoughts that may be going through their mind or frustrations, you know we all go through it and that's why one of the reasons why we developed the blog is to, you know, just share awareness that there's always a community that they could build. In our case, obviously, your circle becomes smaller, but just try to build that circle that suits you. Always try to. You know, in our case, we didn't want to go into the victim mentality, so we just said OK, there's a quote by a coach that would say hey, it's not your fault, it's not your fault. Ok, it's not your fault, but it's your problem. In our case, fault. Okay, it's not your fault, but it's your problem.

Speaker 2: 22:40

In our case, we would just say it's not our fault, but it's our responsibility and let's try to make us as positive as possible to be able to not only provide the support he needs, but for our own mental health, to understand that this is a process. We are not, we just try to adapt activity to be able to help us. There's nothing that I don't you cannot go wrong by doing activity right, like, for example, in our case. That's why we inclined towards putting in jiu-jitsu, walking every morning, eating healthier. We didn't want to go inclined towards the medical part of you know, just bombarding everybody, even ourselves, with pills or anything. Just, we don't agree with that. Anything can change. But as of the moment, we're 100% convinced that what we're doing is what we believe is the right way, which is providing a good environment, healthy environment and everything we're doing and we're seeing the results. So that's why and we're not looking for perfection, we're just looking for progress for all of us.

Speaker 1: 23:53

So I would say that oh, that's great, I mean, I think it's. I mean, like you said, it is progress, right, it's a work in. I think it's. I mean, like you said it's it's, it is progress, right, it's a work in progress. It's a little bit, little by little, and then your, your insights in one day could help someone else for another time, you know, whether it's financially or just, you know, getting them to get through the day. You know, with their, their little one or their older one could even just be an adult and they're just finding out. Hey, I have other options out there.

Speaker 2: 24:19

Yeah, and for example, in our case we have a little one, amanda. She's three and you know she's taking speech now she hasn't been diagnosed. But you can see also that there's factors that you're going to see along the way when you have a child that has autism or any other diagnosis and a child that doesn't. And in our case, for example, we're trying to balance out how we raise them to be able to include everybody the same way, trying to not show any type of not be more empathetic with Christian and not Amanda or vice versa. We're trying to remain equal. But at the same time we see stuff like, for example, amanda's in speech now, because Christian at one point was nonverbal. He started talking but not conversational. Obviously that goes into her too, because she doesn't have anybody to talk to. So her delays, we believe, come from that. So again, but but we're okay with that.

Speaker 1: 25:20

Yeah, I mean, once you put her in more schooling and work, you know more social events, and it's not a little. You know it doesn't mean it's a different child. Yeah, correct.

Speaker 2: 25:30

So we're not worried Again. We're just pacing ourselves with what we need to do and just provide, be a support system for them. So, no, that's important and I think we need to do and just provide, be a support system for them.

Speaker 1: 25:39

so no, that's it's important and I think people need to. You know, keep an open mind right 100 yeah, I really appreciate you being on the show. I mean, is there anything else you'd like to leave the audience before you go?

Speaker 2: 25:54

no, no thank you?

Speaker 1: 25:55

how can they reach you first? What's your blog?

Speaker 2: 25:57

Perfect.

Speaker 1: 25:58

Yeah, it's wwwtheautismvoyagecom and I'll put that on the in the show notes. Okay.

Speaker 2: 26:05

Yeah, they're going to see the blogs, they're going. They're going to be able to subscribe to our newsletter, which goes out weekly providing practical tips for parents, and, yeah, everything's there.

Speaker 1: 26:16

So, by all means, and then also the one for your financial resources. Of what website is that?

Speaker 2: 26:22

Well, it's there. It's there, Okay, our services. Yeah, there's a tab that says our services and you can see everything there.

Speaker 1: 26:28

Oh, perfect, okay, All right, so I'll have that in the show notes for everyone too, and I greatly appreciate you being on and thank you so much for your time.

Speaker 2: 26:37

No, thank you.

Speaker 1: 26:38

And thank you guys for joining in to the Mindfully Integrative Show and make sure you make it a mindful one every day.