Art Therapy for Autism, Dyslexia, ADHD and Other Neurodiversities

07/11/2025

"Healing can’t happen by talking alone. If we ignore the body’s role, we miss where the pain is being held."

Find "Rise of the Conscious Therapist: What the Future of Healing Looks Like." on 🐘⁠👉🏼 https://elejrnl.com?p=4212602

03/11/2025

Some of the pain we carry isn’t ours. It’s older than us, born in someone else’s silence, someone else’s heartbreak, someone else’s war with the world. Yet we feel it as if it began in our own bones.

Galit Atlas’s Emotional Inheritance is a stunning, intimate exploration of how trauma travels across generations, not through DNA alone, but through stories that were never told, feelings that were never processed, and memories that were too heavy to carry openly.

With the steady compassion of a therapist and the courage of someone who has looked grief in the eye, Atlas lifts the veil on the hidden emotional legacies that shape our fears, relationships, and identities. She does not sensationalize trauma, she humanizes it. She makes you pause, reread, and wonder: What am I feeling that doesn’t belong solely to me?

This book doesn’t just inform, it invites you. To look backward with tenderness. To look inward with curiosity. To look forward with a new kind of freedom.

6 Transformative Lessons:

1. Unspoken Trauma Still Speaks
Atlas shows that silence is never empty. When painful stories are buried, children absorb the emotions behind them, the anxiety, shame, or hypervigilance passed down like an invisible heirloom. Understanding this doesn’t assign blame; it reveals context. It allows us to separate our wounds from our ancestors’ wounds, so healing can finally begin.

2. We Repeat What We Don’t Understand
Patterns in families, abandoning, clinging, mistrusting, self-sabotaging, rarely start with us. Atlas gently exposes how the human psyche tries to resolve inherited trauma by reenacting it. But once we become aware of these patterns, we no longer need to live them. Awareness is the first act of liberation.

3. Trauma Lives in the Body
Even when we forget the story, the body remembers: the panic attacks without reason, the fear of intimacy, the unexplained sadness. Atlas highlights the importance of connecting mind and body, listening to the places where history hides, muscles, breath, instincts. Healing isn’t just mental work; it’s embodied release.

4. Telling the Story is Transformational
Secrets isolate. Trauma multiplies in silence. Atlas shows how naming what happened, even when details are incomplete becomes the turning point. Speaking the truth breaks the generational contract of suffering. It turns inherited pain into shared understanding rather than private torment.

5. Compassion Expands the Narrative
Instead of villainizing parents or grandparents, Atlas encourages compassion: they adapted to survive. When we stop viewing their coping mechanisms as failures, we reclaim the ability to see ourselves and them, with softness. Compassion is not excuse-making; it’s context-making.

6. You Can End the Cycle
Atlas offers a hopeful truth: just because trauma is inherited doesn’t mean it’s permanent. Healing in one generation ripples into the next. Boundaries break patterns. Therapy rewrites history. Courage repairs what fear damaged. We become, in her words, “the generation that chooses awareness over silence.”

Emotional Inheritance is a mirror, one that reflects not just who we are, but who we came from, and who we still have the power to become.

It will make you wonder about the tears your mother never cried, the dreams your father buried, the truths your grandparents carried quietly to their graves, and how those stories shaped the way you love, fear, hope, and heal. This book is not about dwelling on the past. It’s about finally understanding it, so the future can be different.

BOOK: https://amzn.to/3J7Nf6j

Enjoy the audio book with FREE trial using the link above. Use the link to register on audible and start enjoying!

02/11/2025

23/10/2025

The ADHD Paradox: Forgetting Meetings, Forseeing Futures ✨

This image beautifully captures the complex, often contradictory reality of living with an ADHD brain. The sign declares: "THE SAME BRAIN THAT FORGETS MEETINGS ALSO IMAGINES FUTURES NO ONE ELSE CAN SEE."

This isn't just a clever phrase; it's the core of the ADHD paradox. Our brains are wired differently, leading to a unique blend of struggles and superpowers:

The Challenges: Yes, the struggle with executive function is real. We forget appointments, misplace keys, and battle with time blindness. These aren't intentional oversights but genuine difficulties with working memory and attention regulation. The "forgotten meetings" are a source of real frustration and often, deep shame.

The Strengths: But this same neurotype also gifts us with an incredible capacity for divergent thinking. We connect seemingly unrelated ideas, see patterns where others see chaos, and envision possibilities that are truly unique. This "imagining futures no one else can see" is our creativity, our innovation, and our ability to think outside the conventional box.

It's crucial to hold both truths simultaneously. Our worth isn't diminished by the things we struggle with; it's enriched by the unique perspectives and brilliant insights we bring to the world. We are not defined by our deficits, but by the full spectrum of our neurodivergent experience.

Let this be a reminder to offer yourself grace for the forgotten meetings, and to celebrate the extraordinary futures your brain tirelessly imagines.

What's one unique idea or perspective your ADHD brain has shown you that others initially struggled to see?

22/10/2025

New ADHD reforms to support WA families

The Cook Labor Government is changing the way ADHD care is delivered in WA.

GPs will soon be able to assess and treat ADHD – easing pressure on specialists and giving families quicker access to the care they need.

We’re also investing $1.2 million in ADHD WA to expand family support services like counselling, peer support, and coaching.

For further information check this article out. There will be a lot of information available in the lead up to this - https://www.racgp.org.au/gp-news/media-releases/2025-media-releases/june-2025/wa-government-releases-details-for-gp-adhd-diagnos?fbclid=IwY2xjawNlHZhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFDdWtwR1Yxc0F6emxWVHdoAR6UoBLY8G-riWomk3ztc_kdpY6r3XSWuK6ZISk6MPycc03JaAfPeOnbGF9nGQ_aem_TF3yG8T58GVUbkyAqPKhFQ

20/10/2025

Powerful

20/10/2025

20/10/2025

Our presentation describes the strengths and abilities commonly experienced by autistic girls* aged 3-16 years, as well as key challenges, including friendships and family relationships, strong emotions such as anxiety, anger and depression, managing meltdowns and shutdowns, navigating school and po...

18/10/2025

MAST CELL CONDITIONS, NEURODIVERGENCE, AND THE CURIOUS CASE OF OZEMPIC

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional and this post is for educational and discussion purposes only. It is not medical advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your medication or treatment plan.

UNDERSTANDING MAST CELL CONDITIONS

Mast cells are a type of immune cell involved in allergic and inflammatory responses. They release substances like histamine, tryptase, and cytokines, which help defend the body—but when mast cells become overactive or unstable, they can cause widespread, confusing symptoms.

Conditions on this spectrum include Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and mastocytosis, both of which can cause:
Flushing, hives, or rashes
Gastrointestinal distress (nausea, cramping, diarrhea)
Rapid heart rate, dizziness, or fatigue
Sensitivity to foods, smells, or temperature changes

Interestingly, these symptoms often overlap with the experiences of autistic and ADHD individuals, who may already live with heightened sensory processing, dysautonomia, or immune reactivity. While the exact connection isn’t fully understood, researchers have begun exploring how mast cell dysfunction might intersect with neurodivergent nervous system patterns—especially in people with chronic inflammation, allergic-type reactions, or POTS-like symptoms.

GLP-1 MEDICATIONS: MORE THAN BLOOD SUGAR CONTROL

GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs)—like Ozempic (semaglutide) and Mounjaro (tirzepatide)—were originally developed to regulate blood sugar and appetite. They mimic the hormone GLP-1, which plays a key role in how the body processes food, releases insulin, and signals fullness to the brain.
But researchers have recently discovered something intriguing:
GLP-1 receptors aren’t just in the pancreas and brain—they’re also found on mast cells.
This means that GLP-1 medications could have effects far beyond blood sugar regulation.

HOW OZEMPIC MIGHT INFLUENCE MAST CELL CONDITIONS

1. MAST CELL STABILIZATION
When GLP-1 agonists bind to mast cell receptors, they appear to stabilize these cells—reducing their likelihood of "degranulation," the process by which they release inflammatory substances like histamine. This stabilization may help calm the overreactive immune signaling seen in MCAS.

2. REDUCED INFLAMMATION
By modulating mast cell activity, GLP-1 medications may reduce systemic inflammation and histamine-related symptoms such as flushing, itching, and gut sensitivity. For some people, this could mean fewer allergic-type reactions, more stable energy levels, and even better tolerance of certain foods.

3. EMERGING CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS
While research is still in early stages, the results so far are striking:
A case report in Bariatric Times described a patient with aggressive systemic mastocytosis who experienced an immediate and dramatic resolution of disabling symptoms after starting semaglutide for weight loss.

A recent case series of 47 patients with treatment-resistant MCAS found that nearly 90% reported meaningful symptom improvement when treated with a GLP-1 receptor agonist.

Although anecdotal, these findings suggest that GLP-1 medications may be doing more than supporting metabolism—they may be quietly regulating immune and inflammatory pathways that have long been resistant to treatment.

WHAT THIS COULD MEAN FOR NEURODIVERGENT INDIVIDUALS

For autistic or ADHD individuals, mast cell dysfunction can add another layer of complexity to an already sensitive nervous system. If GLP-1 receptor agonists indeed help to stabilize mast cells and reduce systemic inflammation, they may offer an unexpected bridge between metabolic health and neuroimmune regulation.
However, this is not yet standard clinical practice, and there’s still much we don’t know—especially about long-term effects, optimal dosing, and how these medications interact with existing mast cell stabilizers or antihistamines.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The link between Ozempic, mast cells, and neurodivergent health is a fascinating and fast-evolving area of research. While some early case reports suggest significant benefits, the evidence is still emerging. If you have MCAS or related symptoms and are curious about GLP-1 therapy, it’s worth discussing with a mast cell–aware specialist or immunologist who understands both the immune and metabolic systems.

Science is slowly catching up to what many neurodivergent people have long known intuitively:
our immune, nervous, and metabolic systems are deeply intertwined—and when one begins to balance, the rest may follow.