A note to our listeners: In this episode we chat about self-harm. Some of our listeners may prefer to skip this one.

Happy Monday! In today’s episode Monique interviews Joanne Seymon; AuDHDer Occupational Therapist, and co-founder of Kaiko Fidgets. Jo is passionate about developing appropriate sensory tools for teens and adults, with a focus on harm minimisation and emotional regulation. She uses both her lived experience and her background in occupational therapy to match sensory needs to the right sensory support. In this episode Jo shares some personal details about her son Kai’s mental health journey, and Kai has given his consent for these details to be shared.

In this episode Monique and Jo cover:

1. How Kaiko Fidgets came to be and Jo’s path to diagnosis and understanding her own neurodivergence.
2. What actually is ‘Occupational Therapy’ (OT) and how can OTs work with neurodivergent folk?
3. Different sensory needs and ideas around supporting sensory regulation.
4. When pain is used as a regulator – Jo’s approach to this and some options for harm minimisation.
5. Understanding and managing the cumulative effect of sensory load.

Find Jo on her website (www.kaikofidgets.com), through her socials (@kaikofidgets), or reach out to her via email (jo@kaikofigets.com)

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Enjoyed the episode and want to support us further? Join our Patreon community! Patreon subscribers receive basic episode transcripts from Season 4 onwards, 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 ndwomanpod@gmail.com, or visit our website: www.ndwomanpod.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s episode Monique interviews Marie Camin about stimming. Marie is a multiply neurodivergent clinical psychologist, researcher, and a neurodiversity advocate. Marie is currently completing her PhD on Autistic stimming at La Trobe University and she is a Founding Committee Member of the OTARC Autistic Advisory Group; she believes strongly in contributing to a more accurate and affirming understanding of Autistic experiences through co-production with the community. She loves animals, pop culture, and anything creative.

This episode is jam packed with goodies! Monique and Marie cover:

1. Community as a key part of the neurodivergent identity.
2. Marie’s experience as a neurodivergent clinical psychologist and her path to discovering her own neurodivergence.
3. A side quest on special interests.
4. Everything stimming – what is it, how is it understood (both from a community perspective and based on the DSM), and many examples of what stimming can look like.
5. The evolution of thinking in the psychological field around the purpose of stimming and responses to stimming.
6. Harm minimisation approaches for stimming that is harmful to self or others (please be aware that self-harm is mentioned here, and so some listeners may decide to skip this).
7. Marie’s advice for other neurodivergent folks trying to function in a neuro-normative way.

Want to learn more about Marie or get in touch with her? You can find her through her website here, or on Instagram @mariecamin.

Check out her digital downloads and ND Pride stickers here!

Want polished copies of our episodes in beautiful and readable pdf article format? Grab them here.

Enjoyed the episode and want to support us further? Join our Patreon community! Patreon subscribers receive basic episode transcripts from Season 4 onwards, 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 ndwomanpod@gmail.com, or visit our website: www.ndwomanpod.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the podcast we interview ADHDer and physiotherapist Shan Morrison. Shan is a Specialist Women’s, Men’s & Pelvic Health Physiotherapist and fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists. She has practiced exclusively in pelvic health for 30 years, and is the director of Women’s & Men’s Health Physiotherapy: a private practice based in Melbourne that exists to restore pelvic health and empower every person to live their best life. Shan’s clinical passion is being part of a like-minded multi-disciplinary team that takes a whole person approach to supporting those experiencing persistent pelvic and sexual pain.

In this episode we cover:

1. Shan’s experience of neurodivergence, particularly as an ND physiotherapist, and her path to discovering her own neurodivergence.
2. The role of a Pelvic Health Physiotherapist in general, and we learn all about Shan’s specialty of pelvic pain, including the causes of persistent pelvic pain, some common pelvic pain conditions, and factors that contribute to persistent pelvic pain.
3. Shan’s approach to treating persistent pelvic pain wholistically – what does this involve and how does she do this in her practice.
4. The overlap of neurodivergence and persistent pain conditions.
5. Why is it so important to screen for multiple aspects of an individual’s mental and physical health as a health professional, regardless of your specific speciality.
6. What to do if you are experiencing persistent pelvic pain.

You can connect with Shan via her practice website – www.wmhp.com.au – or by email: shan@wmhp.com.au

Shan recommends the following resources:

• This simple pain education website (general not pelvic pain).
• The book ‘Healing Pelvic Pain’ by Dr Peta Wright and Dr Wright’s website which has a number of resources.

Things we mentioned:

• Michelle’s on-demand webinar that Shan mentioned, for allied health professionals on Identifying Neurodivergence, can be accessed directly here or through our website.
• You can access the study Shan mentioned on psychoeducational needs around persistent pelvic pain in women here.
• The qualitative study on heterosexual sexual satisfaction that Michelle mentioned is in ‘Girls & Sex’ by Peggy Orenstein

Want polished copies of our episodes in beautiful and readable pdf article format? Grab them here.

Enjoyed the episode and want to support us further? Join our Patreon community! Patreon subscribers receive basic episode transcripts from Season 4 onwards, 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 ndwomanpod@gmail.com, or visit our website: www.ndwomanpod.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.