Modeling Relationships At Home Synergy Autism Podcast · Episode #34: (Mini-Podcast) Modeling Relationships At Home I am so glad you are here. It means you are committed to providing the best environment for relationship growth for you, a child, or a companion with autism.  I know you hear it all of the time: it is important to take care of yourself so that you can care for someone else. However, I want to give you even more reason to take care of yourself and introduce you to why couple-care and friendship-care is equally important for modeling a home filled with rich and satisfying relationships. For the sake of simplification, I am going to assume that you are a parent, raising a child of any age who has a diagnosis of autism. You may be a single parent, you might be married, you may be a foster parent.  First: I’ll let you in on something: people with autism are commonly taught to worry about what others think of them, that their stimming behaviors should stop since they look funn

Episode #33: (Mini-Podcast) Avoiding Yes/No Questions Synergy Autism Podcast · Episode #33: (Mini-Podcast) Avoiding Yes/No Questions Avoiding Yes/No Questions Just a quick one today. I’d like to share with you why it is helpful to avoid questions that have a yes or a no answer with people who are autistic.  Not really offering a "no" option? First, if you are not wanting the answer “NO,” simply don’t ask a yes/no question. And if you do ask one on accident, you have to honor their answer.  Your words are important and mean something. Do not confuse the issue by giving a choice then taking it away. For example, if you ask someone “do you want to come with me?” when you really mean “it is time to go,” you may receive the answer of “no.” In which case, you will have to honor their response. Don't back someone into a corner or they will choose the out Second, if you ask a yes or no question to someone who feels backed into a corner, they may simply answer the one that gets

MPS: Spoon/Token Theory Synergy Autism Podcast · Episode #32: Spoon/Token Theory for Autism Hello and welcome to the Synergy Autism Podcast where I bring listeners the inside view of our autism community and how passionately we all work for the same mission - to better understand autism together.  This is one of my Miniature Podcasts where I take just one topic that I commonly discuss with clients and share it with you in a short and hopefully clear manner for you to contemplate and consider how it relates to your personal situation. So today,  I am going to share with you the topic of never seeming to have enough energy which often looks like sleeping all day, for many of my clients (or it can look like simply holing up in one’s room playing video games, reading, listening to music). This issue comes up frequently with my clients who are trying desperately to be independent but struggling to have enough energy to simply get through days. Medical appointments and/or job searches may e

Creating an Emotional Landscape at Home Synergy Autism Podcast · Episode #31 (Mini-Podcast): Emotional Landscapes Hello and welcome to the Synergy Autism Podcast where I bring listeners the inside view of our autism community and how passionately we all work for the same mission - to better understand autism together.  This is one of my Miniature Podcasts where I take just one topic that I commonly discuss with clients and share it with you in a short and hopefully clear manner so that you can contemplate and consider how it relates to your personal situation. Today, I am going to talk about the importance of creating an emotionally rich (and clear) landscape in your home, what that means, and a few simple steps to do it.  Now, you ask… what is an emotional landscape? Well, it’s created by both the said and unsaid emotions within you and each person around you. You have an internal emotional landscape as well as an external emotional landscape. We all experience emotions, autism or no