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Be Mindful, Be Present, Be You: How to Handle Crisis Anxiety – Becca Lory Hector, CAS, BCCS

With the world around us a chaotic mess, it is getting harder and harder to avoid becoming a giant, swirling, ball of anxiety. The current pandemic has disrupted our lives and the world as we know it is on hold for the foreseeable future. It has interrupted routines, forced schools to close, and sent many of us to work from home or not at all. It feels as though the rug has been pulled out from under our proverbial feet. If you are feeling a growing sense of dread, you are far from alone. Most of us are feeling overwhelmed and afraid, as we are being bombarded with changing facts and statistics on what feels like an almost hourly basis. Yet, it is hard to [...]

The Carnival by Lisa Morgan M.Ed CAS

When I was a kid I went to a carnival. It was one of those small town carnivals celebrating summer with music, craft tables, the smell of fried food, and games to play for a stuffed animal. This carnival had a cake walk. It’s a game like musical chairs where people walk around an area until the music stops. If you happened to stop in front of a cake, you got to keep it. All the cakes were homemade and delicious! But, I digress. It wasn’t a time for cake then as you will see as my story progresses. So, I was taken to this carnival to have a good time, and I really, truly wanted to have fun. For many people carnivals are happy [...]

Autism: A Brave New World? by Maura Campbell

“You’re very brave.” I get that a lot. In fact, I’ve been hearing it constantly ever since I ‘came out’ as autistic. It’s usually said kindly (I think) and so I try to take it in the spirit intended. But every time someone says to me “You’re very brave” it gets me thinking: why is it ‘brave’ to be open about being autistic? I think there might be a few reasons for that. They might see it as ‘brave’ for me to apply a word to myself that’s generally represented as something very different in popular culture – usually a young, white guy with savant skills. Autism often looks very different in women and girls, which is why historically we’ve flown under the radar. A [...]

I Didn’t Know Back Then by Lisa Morgan M.Ed. CAS

Being born autistic in the 60’s put my life on a trajectory of unknowns. Although there were hints about the way my brain was wired – they were misunderstood back then. People couldn’t figure me out. I couldn’t figure me out. The comments I heard the most were: ‘you are so quiet’, ‘you are too sensitive’, ‘you should try to make friends’, and ‘can I copy your homework?’. ‘You are so quiet.’ I’ve heard this statement so much throughout my life I could scream, but that would be uncharacteristic – wouldn’t it? One of the great mysteries of my life is why so many people thought they needed to tell me I was quiet. Yep, I already knew, thanks! It’s not that I didn’t have [...]

Reducing Workplace Stress: Working Together on Self-Care by Barb Cook, M.Aut., Dip.HSc.

How often do we hear ourselves saying “I just need to finish this job and then I can take a break”, or “If I can get this project finished, I can then take a couple of days off”? When we tell ourselves this over and over again, without taking action to ‘look after ourselves’, the cracks inevitably will begin to appear. The internal motivation of “I’ll get this job done, then I can…”, becomes the ultimate words of dread, with the “then I can…” seeming to never come, and the list of ‘things to do’ becomes increasingly bigger. The more we push and tell ourselves to get this job done, then I can…. becomes empty promises that eventually erode our health and mental wellbeing. We [...]

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Today by Lisa Morgan M.Ed. CAS

by Spectrum Women in Featured

My alarm goes off. As my mind transitions from sleeping to waking up, I wonder what day it is. Oh, yeah, it’s today. It’s always today now. There’s no schedule to discern one day from the next anymore. It’s the spring of 2020 and the whole world changed just a couple of weeks ago. Then, I start to remember. This today is going to be a great day! Things are really going to get exciting! [...]

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NeuroEmploy provides a variety of neurodiversity specific educational and training programs for neurodivergent individuals, workplace staff, management and businesses. Training and tailored consulting delivered by NeuroEmploy provides essential knowledge on being a neurodiversity inclusive workplace, how to support neurodivergent employees and how to re-evaluate workplace design, policies and practices for all staff. Webinars, workshops and facilitated programs for neurodivergent people and staff have been designed by leading authorities in neurodivergent conditions and are delivered by neurodivergent people.

Event Review: Attwood & Garnett Events 1 day Conference ‘Women & Girls with Autism’ Senate House, London 17 Jan 2020 by Yvonne Moore, Mixed Media Artist.

I recently attended the final day of the three-day Attwood & Garnett Masterclass programme focusing on Autistic Women and Girls as part of a 200 seated delegated conference. This was made up of autistic individuals of all ages (diagnosed, self-diagnosed in the process of self-identification or pursuing a diagnosis), professionals, parents, at the beautiful Senate House in Bloomsbury central London. This building is famous for its links to iconic films [...]

The Carnival by Lisa Morgan M.Ed CAS

It’s Never too Early to Start: Planning Employment Futures with Autistic and Neurodivergent People by Barb Cook, M.Aut.

Opinion piece. The employment world can be a difficult one to navigate for most people, let alone for autistic and neurodivergent people. The employment journey starts way before getting a job. Society is led to believe that from a young age we need to get a good education, strive for a well-paid job, earn money to buy your first car, earn more money to move out and live on your own or with a partner, [...]

Seeing the Unseen Premiere Thursday June 6, 2019

By Christine Jenkins, Spectrum Women Magazine international correspondent. I talked recently with Kristín Vilhjálmsdóttir about this new documentary. She is a translator based in Reykjavik, Iceland, and one of the 17 voices in the 90-minute film, Seeing the Unseen. When you consider the whole population of her country is 340,000, about one third of my urban municipality of Ottawa, Seeing the Unseen is a major achievement. It looks at the lives of 17 teen girls [...]

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THE TOP TEN THINGS PARENTS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GIRLS ON THE SPECTRUM

March 8, 2018

Feature photo: Becca Lory with her mom ©Becca Lory 2018 A Spectrum Women collaboration, edited by Maura Campbell In honour of International Women’s Day, the Spectrum Women writers have compiled a list of things we think it’s particularly important for parents or carers of girls on the autism spectrum to know. 1. Recognise how autism presents differently in girls In adult studies, the 4:1 male/female ratio in autism diagnosis disappears. This means autistic girls are not rare. Persist when they say so. Look for intensity and insistence on sameness. Many of our behaviours are quite typical but we won’t choose to […]

Six Kindnesses for Living by Jennifer Lisi in partnership with Happy Hands Toys

by Spectrum Women in General

The body is a wonderful thing, complete with a glorious system of nerves for experiencing our resplendent world. Most individuals seamlessly navigate their sensory environment. But for myself and other autistics, simple tasks lay at the mercy of sensation. I am forty-one years old trying to make each day of my life matter. I have [...]

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