This week we chat with Jennifer Kemp about perfectionism. Jennifer is a Clinical Psychologist based in Adelaide, Australia. She is the author of ‘The ACT Workbook for Perfectionism: Build Your Best (Imperfect) Life Using Powerful Acceptance & Commitment Therapy and Self-Compassion Skills’ as well as several e-books, which are linked below. Monique and Jennifer are currently co-writing a book on Neurodivergence and Self-Compassion, which is due to be released in 2024.   In her private practice Jennifer uses acceptance and commitment therapy and compassion-focused approaches with adults experiencing perfectionism, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and chronic illness, as well as many late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults. Jennifer balances this quite imperfectly with writing, presenting, and providing consultations to professionals seeking to deepen their therapeutic practice.   On this episode Jennifer shares her personal experience of neurodivergence and perfectionism. She explains what is perfectionism, how perfectionism interacts with neurodivergence, and what can cause perfectionism. Jennifer shares with us what can perfectionism look like, for kids, teens, and adults. Throughout the episode we chat about strategies to work with perfectionism, and Jennifer also shares her top tips for managing perfectionism, including the ‘passengers on the bus’ metaphor.   You can find more of Jennifer’s work here:   Her website: https://jenniferkemp.com.au/ The ACT Workbook for Perfectionism Free E-books: https://jenniferkemp.com.au/publications/ - including ‘Autistic Burnout: A Brief Guide to Recovery and Prevention’, ‘More than Procrastination: Strategies for Navigating Autistic Inertia and ADHD Paralysis’, and ‘The Perfectionistic Helper: Striving to Help and Never Fail’. The Passengers on the Bus Metaphor Worksheet   Want polished copies of our episode in pdf article format? Grab them here. We currently have listener favourite episodes from seasons 1-3 available for download, with more being added!   We are on Patreon! Patreon subscribers receive basic episode transcripts for Season 4, access to a monthly live zoom hang out, 50% off our episode articles, plus bonus monthly content (depending on subscription tier). Check out our Patreon page to support us, as we aim to make quality mental health care information accessible to everyone: www.patreon.com/ndwomanpod   Contact us at [email protected], or visit our website: www.ndwomanpod.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy Monday! This week we chat about Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). We cover what is an acquired brain injury and what can cause an ABI, how does ABI fit within the neurodivergence umbrella, and the prevalence of ABI in Australia. We explore what are some of the cognitive manifestations of ABI and what can impact how an ABI manifests, identity shifts that can occur with an ‘acquired’ neurodivergence and the role of grief and compassion, and factors to consider in recovery.   Access the nun study we mentioned here.   Want polished copies of our episode in pdf article format? Grab them here. We currently have listener favourite episodes from seasons 1-3 available for download, with more being added!   We are on Patreon! Patreon subscribers receive basic episode transcripts for Season 4, access to a monthly live zoom hang out, 50% off our episode articles, plus bonus monthly content (depending on subscription tier). Check out our Patreon page to support us, as we aim to make quality mental health care information accessible to everyone: www.patreon.com/ndwomanpod   Contact us at [email protected], or visit our website: www.ndwomanpod.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we welcome Chantell Marshall to the podcast, who some may know through the social media handle @shylittlepixie. Chantell is an autistic woman, who lives with selective mutism, severe social anxiety and c-PTSD. She spends most of her time at home with her plants and her foster kittens. Chantell shares her personal journey through autism and mental health openly on social media; Chantell says that she finds this rather bizarre because in person she often cannot speak two words to a new person. So it is for this reason that we have run this week’s episode a little differently. Because of Chantell’s selective mutism she is not able to speak with us, but she shares her experiences and answers our questions through the written word. Chantell’s words will be read by an autistic voice actor, Allison Welch.   On this episode we cover Chantell’s path to understanding her own neurodivergence and what this meant for her, what is selective mutism, language considerations and why Chantell prefers the term ‘selective’ mutism over ‘situational’ mutism, and Chantell’s experience of living with selective mutism throughout her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We also chat about the overlap of autism and selective mutism, how the fight flight and freeze responses play into selective mutism, and how common it is for internalised stress to be mistaken and praised for ‘compliance’, particularly in girls and afab individuals. Finally, Chantell shares what has been helpful and not helpful for her over her lifetime, her top tips for others, and some of her special interests!   Chantell would like to add the following: I would like to thank Allison for being so kind to offer to be my voice for this podcast. I am so genuinely grateful to you! I would also like to thank Michelle and Monique for being so incredibly understanding in regard to my difficulties with speaking, and for being so willing to provide accommodations to enable me to still be able to share my story here on their wonderful podcast. This is honestly all it takes! I hope others can learn from their foresight and be willing to make adjustments for other Autistic people when needed, too.    Want polished copies of our episode in pdf article format? Grab them here. We currently have listener favourite episodes from seasons 1-3 available for download, with more being added!   We are on Patreon! Patreon subscribers receive basic episode transcripts for Season 4, access to a monthly live zoom lang out, 50% off our episode articles, plus bonus monthly content (depending on subscription tier). Check out our Patreon page to support us, as we aim to make quality mental health care information accessible to everyone: www.patreon.com/ndwomanpod   Contact us at [email protected], or visit our website: www.ndwomanpod.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s guest is Adina Levy. Adina is an AuDHDer, speech therapist, professional educator, and podcaster. She runs Play. Learn. Chat., and her podcast is called The Exploring Neurodiversity podcast. Adina loves intertwining her personal and clinical experiences with the lived experiences and perspectives of other neurodivergent people. She is dedicated to helping professionals and families to better understand the unique interests, individual strengths, and support needs of neurodivergent children.    In this episode we focus on understanding language and communication differences in neurodivergence, and the role that speech therapists can play. Adina talks to us about what a speech therapist is, why she doesn’t use the term ‘speech pathologist’, and how speech therapists can work with neurodivergent folks in an affirming way. We unpack what it means to communicate and the societal bias toward speech as the only form of communication. We chat about what can be behind communication differences in neurodivergent folk, and touch on gestalt language processing, the purpose of echolalia, the importance of incorporating nonspeaking time into daily life, literal interpretation of language, and interrupting. Finally, Adina shares her own experience as a neurodivergent speech therapist and gives her top tips for others.   Things we mentioned:  Visit Adina’s website here: https://playlearnchat.com/about/ Adina’s podcast is called The Exploring Neurodiversity podcast Check her out on instagram @play.learn.chat You can access Ido Kedar’s book, ‘Ido in Autismland’ here Adina's checklist for parents looking for the right speech therapist for their child is here   Want polished copies of our episode in pdf article format? Grab them here. We currently have listener favourite episodes from seasons 1-3 available for download, with more being added!   We are on Patreon! Patreon subscribers receive basic episode transcripts for Season 4, access to a monthly live zoom lang out, 50% off our episode articles, plus bonus monthly content (depending on subscription tier). Check out our Patreon page to support us, as we aim to make quality mental health care information accessible to everyone: www.patreon.com/ndwomanpod   Contact us at [email protected], or visit our website: www.ndwomanpod.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we chat friendships – this was a huuuuuge topic! We cover understanding your friendship needs and how these might change over time, different ways of connecting and forms of friendships, maintenance and management of friendships over time, and factors specific to neurodivergent women and afab folk in friendships. We also chat through the impact of attachment and personal triggers on friendships and how to engage in healthy conflict management and boundary setting in friendships.   Want polished copies of our episode in pdf article format? Grab them here. We currently have listener favourite episodes from seasons 1-3 available for download, with more being added!   We are on Patreon! Patreon subscribers receive basic episode transcripts for Season 4, access to a monthly live zoom lang out, 50% off our episode articles, plus bonus monthly content (depending on subscription tier). Check out our Patreon page to support us, as we aim to make quality mental health care information accessible to everyone: www.patreon.com/ndwomanpod   Contact us at [email protected], or visit our website: www.ndwomanpod.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.