Remember to take a break - to ripen and mature - before harvesting and gathering inHi all, I'm writing before I sign off for my yearly month's break from the newsletter and as much as I can, social media. I'll be back in August, after the new moon and Lammas festival. This has become a regular and much-anticipated pause for me - where I consciously take a break, to ripen and mature what has grown, and to connect, before the work of harvest and gathering-in starts. I hope you can also create time to switch off, to receive and be too. The July newsletter updates from what has been a busy June, plus there are some summer journalling prompts and links to freebie replays of some of the events/talks I mention - so for them, if you are interested in the topics click on the links. I hope you enjoy it. Best wishes, Kay x My work in June wes focused on acknowledging collective responsibility. I started the lunation reframing wellbeing. Wellbeing ... it's a matter of we ~ llness not i ~ llness ... our individual wellbeing is inextricably linked to the wellbeing of all. And so our individual wellbeing practice must include a call for collective wellbeing #ceasefire #endgenocide #endpoverty #endvawg #ecojustice ... We ~ ll ~ being We'll being We all being We will being We ~ Being Wellbeing is dependent on remembering our we~beingness, our interconnectedness And so our individual wellbeing practice must include a call for collective wellbeing #ceasefire #endgenocide #endpoverty #endvawg #ecojustice ... Two talks - with replays 1. The PDA Space - Supporting Family Wellbeing during Transitions click here Feedback below from @the_pdaspace live workshop & Q & A 'Supporting Family Wellbeing during Transitions' which I presented. Such an important topic for #neurodivergent #families as the #exam season is upon us & the #summerholidays are approaching. I wish I'd had the education I now share when my children were younger! Feedback Pleased I made/had time to be here! thank you, it’s been fab! Such a beneficial session- thank you This has been amazing! This has been brilliant. I need to practise these exercises more. This is really helpful Acknowledging, accepting and moving on is how I try to live! No other way! Lovely Thank you so much - a fabulous session Gratitude to host Nicola, Karen & Helen @autisticrealms for their support. 2. Local Government Association - Working with Autistic Women and Girls in the Community- click here for FREE replay I presented at the Local Government Association webinar on Working with Autistic Women & Girls in the Community on behalf of Neurodiverse Connection, with my colleague Molly. Suitable for those who work in public services, education, health, social care and therapeutic settings. Raise awareness. Centre lived experience. Raise silenced voices. Summer Journalling Prompts:
And some of my answers ... Retrieve It's not a disembodied & dissociated soul retrieval we're seeking ~ it's 'body' & nervous system regulation retrieval we really want & need. It's humane humanitarian humanity retrieval we seek - which is our collective soul. Restore We've lost our mammalian, animal, embodiment & therefore collective humane, humanitarian soul due to living in mind dominant, individualistic, dissociated systems & structures. Restore BODY FIRST, nature-based, community-focused, interdependent, cyclical ways of living, structures, systems & institutions. Restore we & us ... Recover I'm in RECOVERY I'm GETTING BACK & REGAINING my wholeness through regaining my humane, humanitarian, HUMANITY. And to do this I'm in RECOVERY from all the 'addictions' & bypasses I'd adopted to stop feeling the sensations, emotions & feelings which accompany being an interdependent human. And this includes RECOVERY from hyper-individualism, productivity, consumerism, workaholism, and mind dominance ... and the group think of ... social media, celebrity, academia, mainstream western (colonial) therapy, pop psychology, religion & the capitalist new age spiritual & wellness industries. I'm in RECOVERY to GET BACK & REGAIN my animal body - its feelings, emotions & sensations - its vulnerability & depth but most crucially COMPASSION, INTERCONNECTEDNESS & INTER-BEING for & with the earth & every living being on it. And that RECOVERY requires undoing & sacrifice, accountability & responsibility. If you haven't already - check out the work of Helen, Autistic Realms and Ryan, Stimpunks. Honoured that they are both weaving Embodied Education into their writing and ideas: 1. Neuroqueering Learning Spaces https://stimpunks.org/2024/03/23/neuroqueering-learning-spaces-an-exploration/ "Once again, I have started the beginning of this project in the middle of everything else! We dived in deep and realised our project had been underway for many years, but neither of us had the vocabulary of ‘neuroqueer’ and ‘neuroqueering’ (Nick Walker, 2021) to describe our thoughts and help us understand our journey. Now we have that vocabulary; it has opened up another world within a world. It enables us to connect and learn from others who are also interested in the neurodiversity paradigm and postnormal possibilities. It is carving out a pathway for us to expand our community networks and help facilitate a shift in the way education is currently structured. It is helping us move towards what Kay and Dan Aldred (2023) describe as an Embodied Education, which could be seen to be the golden thread that runs through Neuroqueer Learning Spaces. Embodied education is a concept we will return to and weave through our work alongside other emergent ideas about being a ‘space holder’ to allow the freedom of creative learning to take place. Aldred (2023) wrote, ‘There is no learning without the body.’ We will collaborate with different communities to discover what an embodied, neuroqueer education and learning space may mean for those facilitating education and how it could support young people." 2. The Double Empathy Problem is Deep https://medium.com/@helenrealms/the-double-empathy-problem-is-deep-2364b3412c39 "The DEEP (DOUBLE EMPATHY EXTREME PROBLEM) arises from feelings of disconnect; not only from cultural, sexual, political, religious, neurodivergent, or any other cross-section of differences but also through embodiment, or lack thereof. The double empathy gap is non-linear; it is deep, multidimensional, rhizomatic, and holographic (Mirra, 2023). DEEP could be a huge contributing factor that leads to burnout and ill health. The DEEP gap can break people at their core, leaving them fragmented, disconnected, disoriented and disembodied, feeling like they’re in a void space. Bodyminds is a term used to challenge the idea the body and mind are experienced separately (Descartes). There is a gap between those who are intune with their own #bodyminds and the bodyminds of those they are with and people who are dis-embodied, (regardless of any intersectionality and other empathy gap that may be present). As Walker (2021) says; “Mind is inextricably entwined with brain, and brain with body; thus, mind is inextricably entwined with body in a single complex system and in a continuous dance of mutual shaping.We’re not minds riding around in vehicles of flesh and bone; we’re bodyminds, bodies that think and perceive. Experience, awareness, sense of self, psychological development, and capacities for feeling, knowing, cognition, connection, and action are all entwined with — and shape, and are shaped by — habits of bodily usage, including habits of movement, posture, breath, contact, consumption, tension and relaxation, gaze, gesture, and expression.” I am learning to be more embodied through somatic practice and connecting with other people exploring these ideas across various communities. The work of Kay & Dan Aldred (2023) about Embodied Education demonstrates how embodiment is essential for individuals to thrive, we need somatic practice embedded into the ways our education and healthcare systems operate and evolve, we need people to be deeply intune with others, embodied, so they can transform and work more meaningfully." June 28th to July 1st at Alison Palmer's FREE online summit - REPLAYS available. An amazing lineup of speakers with a wide range of specialisms! Click here Magnificent Menopause: Reclaim and Celebrate the Power of Menopause and Post-Menopause I spoke on: Radically Rethinking, Embodying and Meeting our Spiritual Needs throughout our Menopause Journey I was asked to speak at this conference because of my ongoing menopausal journey and my belief that we can radically rethink menopause and reframe it as a passage rich with gifts, that can meet our spiritual needs I'll share with you: how your body is a deeply intelligent and rich source of information ... and how menopause can ignite our 'sacred rage' (as it did for me) ... and more about neurodivergent & neurodiversity plus, the published @girlgodbooks workbooks & online resources I've created to support you with the journey. Click here. Other news ...
Neurodiverse Connection First month of work as Development Lead at NdC has flown by & I've loved every minute of it! So great to be part of a team #strongertogether Therapy and Social Change Mind the Vote Summit Sunday, 30th June, ahead of the UK #generalelection as Development Lead at Neurodiverse Connection (NdC), I was part of the Therapy and Social Change Mind the Vote Summit Lived Experience Panel. We spoke on how we have/or haven't participated in therapy, whether therapy supports social change, and the way we understand how politics influence this experience. I was delighted to be joined by Cassie & Charli @charliclement_ Associates at NdC A fantastic event. Check it out https://therapyandsocialchange.net/ Click here Neurodivergent Wellbeing Approach I completed the month's work recording an intro video to the Neurodivergent Wellbeing Approach training for YouTube. The next round of training starts in Sept. Option 1 : Starting Tuesday 10th September 2024 4 x Half Day Sessions (9.30am-1pm) Option 2: Starting Tuesday 1st October 2024 8 x 1.5 hr Evening Sessions (6-7.30pm) To book https://ndconnection.co.uk/ndwatraining Click here
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AuthorKay Louise Aldred MA, PGCE Archives
February 2025
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