Dear Aspermoms: I have a book for you and your daughters to read! (Honestly, you don’t have to be on the spectrum to benefit from this book. I felt better reading Jennifer’s ideas! Thanks, Jennifer!) Sisterhood of the Spectrum: An Asperger Chick’s Guide to Life by Jennifer Cook O’Toole is your next read. The weather looks […]
Sidestepping the whole “meaning of Thanksgiving” quandary, I do want to take a moment to express gratitude for some professional accomplishments this year. One year ago I was prone, recovering from Salmonella poisoning (poisoning? Infection? Ridiculousness??). In any event, I was pretty sick, plotting out a book, and working on timelines for the office renovation. […]
A few years ago we had a nasty winter. Nobody could seem to scrape their windshields properly, and on this school morning, I was no exception. While stopped at a red light, the woman in front of me popped out of her car, scraped my windshield some more with her awesome scraper, stating, “I have […]
A while back I was reminded that there are two times you don’t need to worry. I worry more than most, so I was very much looking forward to those two special times when I could stop worrying, knocking off about (5%? 10%) of my worry list. Clearly, I believed that if I could cross […]
Anxiety. Even the word makes me cringe a little. Anxiety is that voice in your head that tells you it is as bad as you feared, maybe even worse. “Anxiety” is the set of signals your body sends: the increased heart rate, the difficulty breathing, the tense muscles, the stomachaches (and then your mind adding […]
I frequently hear clients talking about anxiety provoking life events that somehow, by the end of the discussion, have become life and death, make it or break it moments. For example, a student might struggle with a singular exam question (later admitted to perhaps be a poorly worded question), and then the student quickly decides […]
If you know Autism, you know Social Stories by Carol Gray. She has written more social stories than can be counted, helping people with autism understand the world around them, providing reassurance, and educating folks about how to move forward in life. (For a quick primer on Carol, see her website https://carolgraysocialstories.com/) Now Carol has […]
As we transition through fall, we have cooler temps, changing leaves, and shorter days. While we all seem to enjoy the temps and leaves, the shorter days leave many of us out of sorts: lower energy level, low mood, perhaps irritable. What to do when our Colorado sun shines, but for fewer hours a day? […]
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Among the top requests for help in this office include frequent requests to help my clients find jobs. I meet with teens looking for their very first job; weary parents of 20 somethings, trying to get their young adults into a stable jobs; grown adults with graduate degrees, trying to land meaningful […]
I am visualizing you writing goals: hunched over your desk, coffee rings on the stacks of papers that surround you, crumpled up pieces of lined paper litter your floor, your hair disheveled. I see you smiling at a pristine piece of paper with some amazing goals sitting on your desk, illuminated by a beam of […]