The AutSide Podcast

Today’s episode is a reflection by Jaime Hoerricks, PhD, on the interwoven experiences of being AuDHD, a gestalt language processor (GLP), and queer and trans. Dr. Hoerricks argues against the cultural assumption that true intimacy and depth are measured by full disclosure and complete legibility, especially for marginalised individuals. She clarifies that her practice of “selective depth” is not avoidance or shallowness but a necessary boundary for safety and nervous system regulation, protecting against extraction, which is defined as attention without attunement. The reflection stresses that demanding a full narrative—whether about one’s trans identity or cognitive process—often serves as a means of surveillance and commodification, turning lived experience into “raw material” for others to consume. Ultimately, she advocates for queer intimacy organised around consent and presence rather than performance or possession, ensuring the unmarketed self remains intact.Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/selective-depth-queerness-glp-andLet me know what you think.The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit autside.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s episode examines an article, “When Writing Breaks Down,” which acts as a guide for teachers on understanding struggles related to writing and communication. The author, Jaime Hoerricks, PhD, argues that difficulties in student writing, which often involve structural, mechanical, and integrative barriers, are frequently mislabeled as simple behavioural problems rather than symptoms of underlying issues. Dr. Hoerricks specifically highlights that many adolescents arrive in high school with unmet needs—such as those related to speech-language therapy (SLT) or occupational therapy (OT)—that were ignored in earlier grades. The system’s failure to identify these needs early leads to students being blamed and punished for struggles they cannot control, perpetuating a “quiet violence” within the educational pipeline. Ultimately, she aims to help educators properly distinguish these barriers so that students receive the appropriate classroom and therapeutic supports.Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/when-writing-breaks-down-a-teachersLet me know what you think.The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit autside.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s episode offers a personal and critical reflection on Gestalt Language Processing (GLP), trauma, and memory from an autistic perspective. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, details a temporal collapse that led to a meltdown, where multiple “nows” (past and present moments) layered together, an event she argues is not adequately explained by existing psychological literature. Dr. Hoerricks critiques the academic and clinical establishment for dismissing or negating the lived experiences of autistic GLPs, framing this exclusion as “institutional gaslighting.” She presents a series of writings that emerged after this temporal event, explaining how recursion and repeated narration function as necessary mechanisms for survival and coherence in a gestalt system, directly challenging therapeutic frameworks that demand linearity and “moving on.”Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/when-time-refuses-sequence-livingLet me know what you think.The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit autside.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s episode explores the function of speech for gestalt language processors (GLPs), arguing that talking is primarily a form of memory integrity and maintenance, rather than mere recall or rumination. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, posits that speaking aloud helps keep complex, atmospheric, and relational memories whole over time, preventing them from hardening or fracturing, especially following trauma or narcissistic abuse. Furthermore, the act of talking together provides mutual verification, which anchors internal coherence to external reality, acting as a crucial structural support against gaslighting and isolation. This continued speech is reframed as resistance to erasure and an ethical act of repair, challenging the common therapeutic misreading that views repetition as a sign of being stuck.Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/talking-as-a-form-of-memory-integrityLet me know what you think.The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit autside.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s episode presents a careful examination of the perceived binary between trauma and gestalt cognition, arguing that choosing between these two explanations for a mind’s functioning is a “trap” that fails to capture complexity, especially in AuDHD GLPs. The author of the source article, Jaime Hoerricks, PhD, who is an AuDHD gestalt processor and parent, asserts that gestalt cognition is the fundamental “architecture” of the GLP mind, which exists first, whilst trauma acts as “weather” that strains or shapes that existing structure without creating it. She grants parents “permission” to trust coherence and respond with “relational steadiness” rather than seeking a definitive, single cause or pathologising difference simply because it does not fit linear, analytic models. Ultimately, Dr. Hoerricks advocates for shifting from seeking “origin stories” to understanding the “interaction” between innate cognitive structure and lived experience.Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/is-this-traumaor-is-this-how-my-mindLet me know what you think.The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit autside.substack.com/subscribe