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THE SJ CHILDS SHOW-Building a Community of Inclusion
🎙️ Welcome to The SJ Childs Show Podcast! 🎉
Join Sara Bradford—better known as SJ Childs—as she bridges understanding and advocacy for the neurodivergent community. This podcast shines a light on autism awareness, empowering stories, expert insights, and practical resources for parents, educators, and individuals alike.
Brought to you by The SJ Childs Global Network, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting autistic individuals and their families worldwide, this show is your weekly dose of inspiration and actionable ideas. Visit sjchilds.org to learn more about our mission, find resources, and connect with our growing community.
Catch us on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Goodpods—or tune in Fridays at 8:30 AM EDT on the Helium Radio Network’s Life Improvement Radio (Channel 1). Together, let’s foster a brighter, more inclusive world! 🌟
Go here to download training materials!
https://sjchilds.myshopify.com/
THE SJ CHILDS SHOW-Building a Community of Inclusion
Episode 325-Your Autism Is Not My Autism: Celebrating Neurological Diversity with Dr. Kristen Williamson
What if autism isn't a modern condition but an ancient, essential thread in human evolution? Dr. Kristen Williamson, a professional counselor diagnosed with autism at 39, takes us on a journey that challenges everything we think we know about neurodiversity.
"I feel like an alien wearing a matching skin suit of a human," Dr. Williamson confesses, describing the exhausting process of studying and mimicking neurotypical behaviors just to fit in. Her late diagnosis mirrors the experience of countless women and girls whose autism goes unrecognized behind masks of anxiety, depression, and learned social behaviors.
We explore how limited media representations—from Rain Man to The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper—have shaped public perception, while recent research suggesting autistic traits in Neanderthals offers a revolutionary perspective: autism isn't a disorder but a natural variation that has contributed to human advancement throughout our evolutionary history. "We do not have to prove to you who we are. We are undeniable."
For parents raising neurodivergent children, Dr. Williamson offers a liberating approach: "Don't try to change the child you have. Try to know and accept the child for who they are." Drawing from her experience parenting two neurodivergent children while navigating her own diagnoses, she shares practical wisdom about honoring sensory needs, setting boundaries, and replacing shame-inducing "shoulds" with self-compassion.
Whether you're autistic, love someone who is, or simply curious about different ways of experiencing the world, this conversation invites you to embrace neurodiversity as the spice of life. Connect with Dr. Williamson on social media or explore her workbooks and resources on Amazon to continue your journey toward understanding and celebrating all kinds of minds.
The SJ Child Show is Bradford's 13th season. Join Sarah Bradford and the SJ Child Show team as they explore the world of autism and share stories of hope and inspiration. This season we're excited to bring you more autism summits featuring experts and advocates from around the world. Go to sjchildsorg to donate and to get more information. Congratulations on 2024's 20,000 downloads and 300 episodes.
Speaker 2:Woo, we are back. Hello, so excited to have you here today with me. Ms Dr Kristen Williamson, how are you?
Speaker 3:today I'm good. Please just call me Kristen. Doctor is really useful when I want to get a cool hotel room, but other than that I love it.
Speaker 2:That's so great. It's so great to have you here today. We've already started out in a wonderful energy. Our conversation is already bubbly and exciting. I'm just thrilled to get into this with you today. Before we get started, please introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you here to me.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, Thank you so much. I love this. I try to have a rehearsed script in my brain because my brain likes scripts, but it's funny because I tend to deviate every time. My name's Kristen Dr Kristen Williamson. I am a professional counselor by trade. I have my doctorate in behavioral health management.
Speaker 3:I did not get diagnosed with autism until I was 39. Same with ADHD. I have tiny humans. I guess they're not so tiny anymore. I have a 13 and a 15 year old. My 13 year old girl ADHD, my 15 year old boy ADHD and autism. Are we matching families? What I tell you, what I tell you what it is? And of course, my, my kiddos, got diagnosed well before I did. Funny enough, my boy not so much my girl. She didn't get diagnosed until 12 because females tend to get missed, and so that's a rabbit hole. I'll go down an entirely different time, but because I got diagnosed, I want to come make everything cool and normalized and see that our brains are kind of superpowers, even if the superpowers don't always make us feel great in the moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, isn't that the truth? Oh, I love that, I love that. Well, you just like clicked our whole family box. We got a hubby and me and my husband got we're late diagnosed in our forties. He was 30. He was in his thirties still, I was I'm a little older, so you know cougar mom. But then he, my, but my son was diagnosed at 16 months. Oh, our daughter at eight years old. So, like you said, there's that huge lap. But there was also a big difference in severity. And you could tell this spinning, flapping, humming child that it, you know, not even two years old, that obviously could not communicate with the world, was very. But then we had this brilliant two year old who, with a gestalt, learning, processing, you know, spoke in these entirely huge phrases to speak with us. And you were like, are you a professor phases to speak with us. And you were like are you a professor?
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, that's exactly. That's exactly right you are. You are totally spot on with the different level of support needs on a day by day basis. Like you know, he didn't my my oldest. He didn't get diagnosed until he was eight, but I had a pediatrician when he was probably around 18 months, say he's autistic, and that just totally kicked my world into a tailspin. But because we were a military family moving bases, things get missed.
Speaker 3:And for the longest time, until we had moved into the Texas area. There wasn't a continuity of care and so he really didn't get seen until preschool, when he was hiding under the desk, when I was on a name by name basis with every one of his teachers and principals and vice principals and the okay, and I always wanted to be that parent. That's like okay, teachers, I'm not saying this is on you, I'm saying this is please tell me what's happening. Because I want to help try to work on this at home to help make life easier for everybody, Because when we're learning, I don't want to say simultaneously that's not the right one. When everything's kind of fluid and flowing together, it makes learning easier.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and it's really when you're at that stage, you know. We have a quote that we say a little bit of knowledge turns fear into understanding. And isn't that the case, like, as soon as you get that little bit of knowledge, that key factor that you can give support to, everything can change and it can make a world of difference.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, With that little bit of knowledge. I love that phrase I try to live my life with is lean in with curiosity. I love that. I love that Curiosity. Easier said than done. Easier said than done. I I'm still as a parent. I've never had a pair, I've never been a parent to a 15, almost 16 year old before. So we are learning together and things that I think, oh well, did that preconceived bias of this is what a 15 year old does is what a boy does. I've never been a boy. I can't tell you and I'm like well, you're just stinky, You're just this, You're just that. Actually it turned out to be sensory issues. It tend to be other things, and so it's the giving myself grace and compassion to make mistakes and knowing that, okay, we're parents. What parent doesn't feel like they're making mistakes on at least a semi basis?
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. If you don't, then you're not trying. I feel like somebody else is raising your kids. But yeah, it's not the truth. But yeah, it's so true. And I think that I love what you said, because same thing I have. Well, I have a 25 year old, so I've raised an adult already. She's my stepdaughter, so I do have that little bit of you know, extra know what's going to happen, but that's for one person. They're also individuals, Everybody's thing happens twice.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, Isn't that the truth?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Um, and but it also was. You know, she was very um, she was she's not diagnosed, um, which is still a problem. It's hard in itself, yeah, and really struggles. But in with her growing up it was always that, oh, she's so far behind like her social group and things, and it was so hard to figure that out. And it was we had bought a book when she was like nine years old, like how to raise a nine year old, and we were going through this book and we were like all of these things are, and it also kind of talked about like when they're seven and when they're eight they'll be going through this and that and we're like we're years behind here. She's not as a nine-year-old yet. It kind of gave us this beautiful template of what normal things to look at which of course didn't fit anyways, but whatever.
Speaker 2:But you know, it gave us a little bit of an outline to see that this is a little bit backwards. So yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 3:You know it's actually really interesting. You say that I'm having a book come out next year and it's about females with autism and it goes from puberty through menopause. Because I couldn't find books for being neurodivergent, for being female, I had just been searching for this information and not finding it all. So I've got like 200 research journals and you're just coming in there and it just it looks like what puberty looks, like what coping skills we had then does not show up later on in life.
Speaker 3:I've had to relearn that one and no, this is not working out and it's just one. Being a female is hard I at least I can say that again. Being female, being female is hard, but then we like with your stepdaughter not being diagnosed, I had a very long time in life feeling I still feel like an alien, an alien who's wearing the matching skin suit of a human, exactly, and it's walking around. And I did this a lot as a kid, not knowing, and as an adult, I study, I study people, I study human actions and TV shows. I remember watching friends growing up and, oh, this character got a laugh. She raised her eyebrow like this, her voice, inflection, did this and trying to mimic that to say this is how I make friends. We don't always talk about our love of cats or dinosaurs. Exactly, do this or this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's. It is so individual and now you know this outpouring. We're in this beautiful era, in this beautiful time where autism has never been more known and more widely spoken about than now. And how good that we have this opportunity to come to the forefront and say, yes, everyone's listening, like, let's hear the right things, let's teach you the right things, let's get on board and buy them together so that we can create this new perception of all of autism, not just that one, you know, that one boy that was Rain man, or that one oh, you are speaking my language.
Speaker 3:You are just so spot on.
Speaker 2:Oh, you listeners you have like. This is my sister from Texas, by the way.
Speaker 3:I'm just feeling this, this online connection, which, for me, I love because eye contact is hard and so we're doing great. I is hard and so we're doing great. I think so, I think we're doing great. Oh, you were just feeding into my hyper fixation of autism. I tell you what I learned that Rain man was really the first view of what autism was, and that came out in the eighties and so that's what a lot of people in in in hollywood was portraying. And then we still see it now and this drives me bananas and just absolutely frustrated. Big bang theory sheldon cooper absolutely autistic, but they didn't write that in there, they wrote him as my mom tested me. I'm not crazy, I'm just weird, or he's just a jerk and he misses social things and it's really funny.
Speaker 3:There is a tv show called bones where the main characters, uh, temperance brennan. She's a forensic anthropologist and she has a hard time with social cues, but she's so incredibly smart but she's flat affect and you know people pick on her for it, but but she's still not autistic. She's just really smart and it's straight. We're taking out, it's getting better and I'm seeing that and just as you said, we are coming out with I'm autistic, I'm ADHD, I'm this, I'm this, and look at how cool my life is. Yeah, I might struggle in these areas, but you know what? I make friends with animals at parties really easily.
Speaker 2:I know every dog that walks by the house. I don't know their owner's name, nope.
Speaker 3:Nope, I have created stories of these animals that walk by, the birds that sit by my window. I have entire, just outlines of what their life looks like Exactly, and it's funny because I can do that. I still have a doctorate, I have a job. I do not cook very well at all and I understand that is a struggle that I will always have. I don't enjoy cooking. I like eating, yeah, and eating. Have you ever had chicken that tastes too much like chicken or you can't have it the next day because the texture is different.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's coming in and learning. That's where my brain is and I didn't have any idea that this was a normal thing, that this was an allowable thing.
Speaker 2:It is a normal thing and it is allowable. You know, my husband came up with this quote. He's my, he's my greatest quote, sage, I'll tell you what he did the other one, the knowledge one. And then he wrote this the other day come on, sarah, get it right. We do not have to prove to you who we are. We are undeniable. I argue about who we are to you. We're undeniable. We, like. You know, just last week I shared a story on my facebook page that there was some research that found and I'm not a scientist, let me just face this, that I'm not a historian. However, I'm a brilliant, brilliant person and in my, in this reading, I saw that it was based on that they had found autistic traits in Neanderthals and that it just took us back down to, you know, hunter, gatherer time, the autistic traits. Yes, thank you, thank you. We are undeniable. We are of evolution. We are. This is who we are.
Speaker 3:Let's add more to that. Oh my gosh, we are just kindred spirits, because I talk about this in the hunter gatherers the ADHD brain versus the autism brain. The hunters were the ADHD brain, they could go hyper fixate for days. They don't have to eat, they don't have to do these things. We are getting to that animal to bring in food and sustenance for our family. We're the autism brain. Let's gather, let's just collect all of these specific things to eat and hoard and harvest and do, and just the rhythmic, repetitive things that make our brain feel tickled and good yeah.
Speaker 2:Isn't that fascinating. I love it and I think that we need to share this and we need to keep talking about this and we need to put it into people's faces. Like autism was not something that was just, you know, made up last week, like this is something in our evolution, of our entire lifetimes, of generations of people. And, yes, it's great that technology and these, this glimpse or this preview, is being done and we're able to see more. But let's also remember that every individual, before we even had this knowledge, was a human and all came with the same human needs, desires, like we want to be loved, we want to be um seen, we want to belong to somewhere to belong.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think. I think there's actually there's. There's such an amount of power in even those who don't come in and get a diagnosis, because, being an American and an adult, it is very expensive to get a diagnosis. And so I think one of the very small, tiny benefits I can say about the COVID era is, when the world shut down, we went online and we shared our stories. Yeah, and in sharing those stories we learned we are not alone. We have that connection.
Speaker 3:And oh my gosh, you have a hard time brushing your teeth. I have a hard time brushing my teeth. Oh, for you it feels like 17 tasks to take a shower that's me too. And just kind of learning. Hey, visual chaos on the counter is a thing that gives you anxiety Me too and they're just learning about their brains and they're coming in and they're able to advocate and maybe not with necessarily a diagnosis, but to say I have a really hard time with noise. I have a lot of anxiety that comes in shopping at a grocery store when the for me, like Costco and Sands, when the ceilings are so high up there, that it gives me. I also have a hard time going into Home Depot and Lowe's because the ceilings are so high, and I never realized that made me feel stressed out until I started paying attention to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you can honor that. So much.
Speaker 2:And how about that? Like, let's talk about self-care and honoring your own self, especially as an autistic female. Oh man, what a big like. You have to actually schedule time for yourself. I have to make myself do the thing. You have to take time for yourself.
Speaker 2:If you know you're in menses, you have got to take. You cannot push through. It is not the time to push through. It's the time to take a step back, time to reflect, time to rest, time to you know, and I love and all totally, totally truly believe in the moon and the moon cycle and the chemicals that we get from the energies and all, and I have my chart that tells me. You know that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Ciclamine is the energy or the chemical that shoots in your brain when it's a new moon, so it's exciting and active and you want to create. And then dopamine you know that shoots in your brain when it's a new moon, so it's exciting and active and you want to create. And then you know, is in your brain on a full moon and you just want to sleep and be lazy and not do the thing. So honor those cycles for yourself, learn about those cycles and honor those and how you can also get so much productivity done in those in. In knowing those things as well, you know you can kind of schedule all your products or you know, projects for the for the new moon era, when you have all this exciting acyclamine, I think that's fantastic.
Speaker 3:She told me her husband calls it her morning zoomies. Oh, and she, like I never realized it, but I do have morning zoomies. I am more productive in these times and, just as you're saying, coming in and honoring that and saying I don't have to schedule nine tasks for the evening when I don't have the energy, let me do these things, take more bandwidth. My phrase is I I eat the ugly frog first and I'm going to do the heavy thing when I have that energy to do it, because doing the fun things later on is a reward for me, where some people want to have that reward first in order to get that dopamine activated to do the harder things, and neither one of those are wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and isn't it nice that we can now kind of find this balance where maybe the word normal and typical might be done away with. Let's just do crazy words right, Because the fact that none of us ever have been the same have been the same. It's kind of a big idea that we don't need to have these cookie cutter normalized ideas that anything really goes that direction.
Speaker 3:It's life living in the shoulds. I should do this. I should do this. Let me tell you about the shame that comes with the shoulds. Don't should on me, thank you very much.
Speaker 2:The shoulds? Yeah, don't should on me. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:Don't should on me, don't should on yourself. Exactly no, there is no time and space for shoulds. I have switched it out, for I can do this. I get to do this. I would like to do this. Ooh, I wish I did do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and there's still so much more. You know people think that there's this kind of they have to do these things, or you know they only have so much time. You can recreate yourself, no matter what your age is what you're doing. Oh my gosh, yes, recreate, like I have lived. It feels like I've lived a hundred lives and I'm only 49. I just turned 49. Bless my heart. So, halfway through my life, here's my halfway point. I don't know if I'm going to make it to a hundred, I'm just saying that, but halfway, you know, and I've lived so many lives, there's so much more to come. There is so much more to come because the better it gets, the better it gets.
Speaker 3:I love that you can start over anytime with ADHD. I heard this on a podcast I could not tell you which one, but I loved it so much. We have a 100% failure rating for habits and hobbies and we'll get into it and it's going to be great. And I'm taking my medicine at this time every day until that one day I forget and then the entire habit's gone. Yep, but that doesn't mean we can't start over. Yeah, and that's the beautiful thing is, even if we misstep, even if we go in a different pathway, okay, we can start over. It's being brave enough to suck at something new. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's being brave enough to suck at something new. Yeah, and bravery is something that you know. I don't know that each individual person has it. I don't know where it comes from, if it's learned, if it's just, you know, innate, if you just have it within you. But I think that resilience, obviously that you know being resilient, got to go through things to sometimes get that resilience. Being resilient got to go through things to sometimes get that resilience. But what about when you are a parent and you are having this struggle with your kiddo at home and you don't know where to look for help? What do you first off? Where do you send people to?
Speaker 3:you know, Such a good question. That's such a good question and I wish I had an easy answer to give you for that Because, just as I said earlier, we are not a one stop shop in human behavior, in parenting, and every kiddo is different. I think in parents one parenting kids in general, think in parents one parenting kids in general. It's a walk through jurassic park. It's not an easy park with a fun slide. It's jurassic park with all the dinosaurs again, dinosaurs, um. But it's for me, with my kiddo, when he, when I learned he was on the spectrum, it opened up a whole bunch of different pathways and then I could research and find support groups and parents who had been the same thing with my daughter with ADHD. Before even ADHD, she got diagnosed with anxiety, with all of these things, because girls get diagnosed with a plethora of things before they ever hit neurodiversity.
Speaker 3:All of the depressions, yes, all of the personality anxiety, panic attack, all of the personality anxiety, panic attack, all of the things. Okay, but it's. It's finding support groups with whatever you look for raising boys, raising girls, raising twins, triplets, being a single kid household yeah, and it's finding these support groups, a lot of them. You can find it in something facebook groups, reddit groups, meetup and parenting groups near you, and it's you try it out and you say, hey, this really fits for me, or that was not anything that I would like to do again, but now you know, now you know, and it's not. There's going to be a one book that gives you all the answers. There's not going to be a one podcast or TV show.
Speaker 3:And with all the research I did for my book, I learned there is an inherent holistic mindset in the parenting blogs and books and things that no spicy parents miss out on, getting that mentality of oh well, this is just an inherent thing that you know. No, I don't have the gut instinct of, oh, I know why my kid's crying. I'm going through my rolodex, which is going to age me, um, my rolodex of all the behaviors I've read in books and learned and to see what was going on and like crossing off my list. Nothing came easy. It wasn't a well, you know you should. You should just love this again with the shoulds. I didn't. I did not love being pregnant. It was awful, it was hard and hot I loved it.
Speaker 3:See, you can have different perspectives and still like, yeah, and it does not make either of us less of a parent.
Speaker 2:No, a hundred percent. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, isn't that so fascinating? And, oh man, my first, I'll tell you, 42 weeks pregnant, tell you 42 weeks pregnant, 65 hours of labor, yeah, finally had a c-section.
Speaker 2:On that, holy mackerel, I know kind of used to joke and tease that I worked, um, I was a massage therapist and I worked at a gym and I, um, so I was always around all the trainers and they were always, you know, training people and so, very quickly in his life he loved math and numbers and I always used to joke that it was because all the people 12345678. Like that's all he has all these people working out all the time and everything. So it's pretty funny, but, yeah, it's. It's so fascinating the, you know, fascinating the world of autism and, like I said earlier, in 2012 or 2011, when our son was diagnosed, there was nothing, there were no blogs, there were hardly any books. Love Temple Grandin Thank God she put out any information about it.
Speaker 3:Love.
Speaker 2:Temple Grandin, all we had, you know. I also love that now we can have a little bit broader perspective than just that as well, because it encapsulates so much more than just one person can help you understand.
Speaker 3:You are so spot on actually with Temple Grandin because I love her so vehemently much, I will do a comparison. Like Temple Grandin and you put her next to me. I look very different. I come across and mask different and even when I'm recovering people they're trying not to mask. It's very hard, but just putting her next to me. We're both autistic. We both have support needs. Her needs look different than mine, my needs look different than my sons, than my daughters, than yours. But that's still nope. I've got a spicy brain and I call it narrow spicy because I fully believe we have the spice of life, whether it's an intense spice or not.
Speaker 2:I love that. I think so too, and you know, and it's great because I love a lot of people and I've heard this a lot. In fact, my last podcast I just put out yesterday. The book the woman wrote is called the Alien Savant.
Speaker 2:So if you haven't read that, here's one for you, yes, yeah, and she talks all about her brother's experience and how he was just like this alien in the world. And not only did he feel like that, but was also during that time period which was like 60s, 70, 70s and 80s, he was very isolated as well from him, you know, and alienated him and just as fascinating, um, really kind of a view of of what it was like, and I think it's important that we look at that, because there are just things that we need to. We cannot have moving forward like, like, we cannot.
Speaker 2:Instead of the shoulds, like the cannot haves, they have to be there, they, you know, we, we need to be able to really access people's um, human dignity levels and I think it's really hard and, and you know, maybe for me coming, my husband had a sister with down syndrome and when I met him and came into his family, he already had this special heart and this beautiful care for someone who was so loving and, you know, just was just a ball of love, like that's all you can describe them. Um, and so it was. It's like this, this ease of of getting into learning how to be with other people, but I think that it gave this edge to him and and he gave to me this ability to just see how delicate and how fragile every human being is. Oh, my goodness, you know, from my two-year-old neighbor to my 85-year-old neighbor who yells at the dog, like everybody, they all have these delicate humanit dignified like. They all have these delicate human dignified like they need support.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, there's people in general, we all have value and worth and for me, it's the leaning in with curiosity and okay, did this person make a mean gesture at me while driving, you know? Are they struggling with something? Am I driving in both lanes? Did I not pay attention? It's kind of a checking with myself versus leaning into. Oh wow, that was a really ugly move on their part. It's that we're responding to some things. Some people have more compassion than others. Yeah, and it's okay. I I'm going to work as as hard as I can to be as compassionate and understanding, but even still understanding that I'm human and fallible. Yeah, and not leaning into the shames of the shoulds.
Speaker 2:Oh, that is so true and no shame. I think that our society is really, I feel like in the last 20, 30 years has moved a lot further away from shame and judgment than ever before in allowing, you know, just people to express themselves in the way that is feels good to them and is pleasing and desirable. And I think it's so nice that we're letting our children do that more and kind of seeing that expression of who they want to be. And I, you know, and I want to impress upon parents like, don't try to change the child. You have tried to know and accept the child for who they are. And that's the kind of playing field of love that they need.
Speaker 3:They need that support on the level that they're at, not where you wish they would be you know and I wholeheartedly agree with you, and let me tell you how hard that is sometimes too For me, having a raising a kid on the spectrum and not knowing he was on the spectrum for a long time. There was a whole lot of what am I doing wrong? Doing wrong what? And just feeling as a failing as a parent and I'm not doing what my kid needs. But it's the whole once you know better do better.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and okay he has. He had a lot of sensory issues with food, but he didn't ever like anything wet. So soups or condiments or yogurts, and it's okay. You can have hamburgers without ketchup on it, you're still eating. Fed is best, yeah, and it doesn't have to be. Oh well, that's not a tasty thing. I don't know how his taste buds are. Yeah. Yeah, you're spot on with meeting them where they're at and then doing what you can help them grow. He thankfully likes condiments somewhat now, like he's willing to try, but it also took many, many years of the. Do you want to try this? No, okay, but still offering it and not what's wrong with you.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, exactly, yeah. I think that we're in a really great era that we can really empower these parents to help see the child for the person they are, even if they have struggles I mean, who doesn't have struggles? And really just offer kind of a plate of dignity, right, and just to show it's okay to struggle. Like I took this last year we homeschooled my daughter's, also 13, and she was experiencing a lot of physical bullying threats at school and she's a really beautiful girl. I think that they're I'm just gonna say it like that sometimes you can have problems when people look at you and think that your life is great because you have an, a nice appearance, like oh my gosh, yes, see, yes, crazy, but it happens to her a lot. Like I literally see this happening and I took her out of school and I'll tell you what and I'm sorry teachers and educators that might get mad at me for this sentence I did not focus on academics as much as I focus on inner knowing, on emotional well-being, on emotional intelligence.
Speaker 2:We talked about how to put boundaries down, how to have your own expression of when you want to say no, how to say no, how to say yes, how to ask for things. I literally spent this whole year teaching her how to be herself, helping her learn how to be herself. I didn't teach her Let me take that back Helping her learn how to be herself, because I just followed and guided, and guided, followed and that was the best, best thing I could have ever done for her.
Speaker 3:My favorite thing I've ever taught my kids, and my daughter uses this against me, which sucks, because the no is a full sentence. And so I'm like, no, I want to take a picture. And she's like no. And I'm like, but, but, but, that's a full sentence. And I'm like, ah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:That's so great, that's powerful.
Speaker 3:It is especially for anyone who grew up in the people pleasingpleasing mentality. Yeah, no is a sentence all by itself. You don't have to explain.
Speaker 2:That is so great. Well, I want to have you back on, because I know that you have things you have to get to today, and I've just been such a pleasure to talk to you. So, please, please, please, tell me you'll come back.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me come back. Thank you so much for having me before we do close up for today. But I want to be able to let everyone go um and visit you on social medias. Come to your website, tell me, tell me all the good stuff so that I can share.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I try to put out videos multiple times a week on social media and Tik and Instagram and YouTube and LinkedIn. If you look up Dr Kristen Williamson, you'll find this blonde haired, multicolored blue or red, whatever dye I have in my hair at that time. If you look me up on Amazon, dr Kristen Williamson, I've got workbooks out there for what life is like being neuro spicy and I've got journals and workbooks and I have a coloring book that's not awesomely put together was my first one, but it's all about being an alien and all of the coloring pages are being alien and autistic.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. That's great and I think a lot of people relate to that. I always used to say that I was the unicorn in the horse pasture. That I was, you know, and I was just like literally unicorn and everybody was just like this gal over here.
Speaker 3:I love that because unicorns are sparkly in my mind and so that makes it better and I think you're going to love this.
Speaker 2:One of the best compliments I've ever received in my life was in the last two or three weeks. And somebody said I don't think I've ever met somebody with such an out there brain. And I went yeah, oh, I love that. Yes, I do too. And you know and when I was a kid or I might have taken that the wrong way at some point in my life, but guess what? It is true Like I can come. Might have taken that the wrong way at some point in my life, but guess what? It is true Like I can come up with ideas that the world has not come up with yet and that's powerful and magical and special and super powery, just like you said.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me. This was amazing.
Speaker 2:It really was. Thank you so much. And everybody, please go follow Dr Kristen Williamson all the social medias TikTok, ig, facebook, linkedin and go to Amazon. Also check out Dr Kristen Williamson, go see her all her writings and, yeah, learn about how you can support all of the autistics in your life, whether you are a parent, an educator, a neighbor, a friend, an aunt, a, you know, a great uncle, whatever you are, please step in and let's help bring this community together, together. So love it. Okay, thank you so much for being here today. Oh, I'm just I'm so excited to keep this connection going with you and I just can't wait to stay in touch.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Y'all have a good day.
Speaker 2:Too.
Speaker 4:In the heart of the city. She's shining bright. Oh yeah, stories of love and courage. All throughout the night, her voice resonating an anthem for all. Through the trials and the trials, she answers the call. A mother and a fighter, breaking barriers and strife. Thank you. In a journey we all belong, followers gather like stars in the night. So bright 44,000 voices sharing in the light. She stands for family, advocates for more Movement of compassion. Ways we'll soar. Podcasts together symphony of support In life changing rapport. Podcast together symphony on support. Life changing rapport changing the world for you. With a heart that's fierce and strong, empathy's a melody, a journey we all belong to. Her eye, a vision clear. Together we ride, shedding fears and every heart she plants to see, to understand and love the dearly need. She changed the world for you, thank you.
