-
An Autistic’s Vision for Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy
As a neurodiversity community self-advocate, I have come across far too many stories of emotional distress and trauma in connection with neurodivergent individuals' lived behavioral therapy experiences. I understand where they're coming from and I empathize. As a late-identified autistic, I, like...
-
Services for the UnderServed’s Positive Psychology Approach to Serving People in Crisis and Their Families
Since 2016, Service for the UnderServed’s START/CSIDD (Crisis Services for Individuals with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities) Program offers crisis prevention and response services to people who have both developmental disabilities and complex behavioral needs and their families and...
-
Autism, Masking, and Sense of Self
In a rightly ordered world, the need to mask, or to hide one’s true self in order to "fit in," would not exist. We all deserve to be who we are without being punished for doing so. But the world in which we live is anything but rightly ordered in this respect. A multitude of autistic individuals...
-
Adaptive Sports Promote Physical, Social, and Emotional Health for People with Disabilities
As COVID hit in March 2020 I was let go from my job at an adaptive sports organization for people with physical disabilities. Instead of bemoaning the fact that, along with many others, I now had no income, I started talking to some friends and colleagues about starting an adaptive sports...
-
Promoting Happiness in Autistic Individuals
The traditional approach to autism treatment and support is predominantly concerned with focusing on a person’s challenges, rather than building upon their strengths. Programs and services focus mainly upon eliminating or reducing socially inappropriate behavior, rather than developing practices...
-
No Labels on My Clothes, No Labels on Me: Why Functioning Labels Need to Be Cut Off and Tossed
Autistic folk spend an inordinate amount of time discussing the torture of labels on our clothes. In a discussion about sensory issues, right after we discuss how much we loathe the grocery store, the hatred of tags on our clothes comes up. It’s amazing how something so small, can invisibly...
-
The Importance of Friendship for Youth with Autism: Strategies for Finding Friends
Childhood loneliness has life-long consequences. Children who do not have friends are at higher risk for anxiety and depression as they get older which can lead to life-long mental health and medical problems (Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. T., 2010). Even having just one friend can be a...
-
Different is My Identifier
I was eight years old the first time I remember being aware of my difference. It didn’t have a name yet, that was still decades away, but nonetheless, suddenly at the ripe old age of eight, I was cognizant of that I was indeed different. For the seven years of life prior to that, I happily lived...
