Yâel Clark, Developmental Psychologist

22/12/2025

This is a Yael (pronounced Yuh-elle). She is an Ibex. She ascends the heights and I aspire to follow in her hoofsteps. Her name, my name, comes from the Hebrew word for ascend and if there are any Torah scholars reading along, you may remember that her name is integral to the chapter of Beha'alotcha, a chapter that is about the construction of the menorah!

And so, I am connected to Chanuka through my name and through my aspiration to forever ascend, to climb as high as I can in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

On each night of Chanuka we added an another candle, increasing the light. Now Chanuka is over. It is up to us to take the lights and keep shining. Don't lose the clarity that this week brought to so many of us. Even as our natural tribalism and allegiances resume; even as we return to context and analysis, hold on to that moment when we all knew that human rights apply to *everyone*. Stay focused on the fact that safety for many does not mean psychological safety or performative affirmation; it is literally a matter of life and death. Hold on to the deep, unwavering truth that we humans are all climbing this mountain together.

Signed,
Your friendly mountain goat who, while she often stumbles, is intent on tackling life's mountains.

22/12/2025

Today was the last day of Chanukah. I have always posted holiday greetings for Jewish festivals but this year called for more. This year I felt called to harness my social justice efforts and understanding of minority stress (etc.) and focus on my own community.

I still have a lot to say and there is a lot I have written that I have not posted. I think I will pop it all on my non-populated Substack profile.

I still have two posts that I intend to share here and then it will be time for this page to resume normal programming.

What is normal for this page?

* Inconsistent posting! (Thanks, ADHD)
* Monotropic focus (one topic) for a while, then onto the next.
* Self disclosure as a means to connect, empathise, and educate.
* Soap box monologues about social justice issues that intersect
with my lived experience.
Parenting
Anxiety
Autism
ADHD
PDA
Disability
Identity
Diet culture
Youth crime
NDIS
Psychology in Australia
Disability Advocacy
Theory and practice of a human rights approach to
psychology

This past year has been a time of huge learning and growth for me (yes, at the ripe old age of 57!) and my writings and sharings are evolving. I am less worried about what the peanut gallery thinks and confident in my own path. That doesn't mean I think I am always right, but that I am confident enough to own mistakes and to grow from them. As for the peanut gallery, that refers to people who do not treat others with the same respect they demand for themselves or people who pose questions just to undermine or for snark. They can go find other pages to follow and I will have no compunction in blocking them or hiding their comments (there has been quite a bit of that this past week).

So....if you read this much and you want to stick around....them's the rules. My page. My platform. Happy to dialogue with folk who bring goodwill and intention to learn or educate with kindness and affirmation of my neurotype. I extend the same to you.

20/12/2025

Just sitting quietly with my thoughts and emotions. On Saturday night, at the end of the Sabbath, it is a Jewish tradition to wish each other a good week.

Shavua tov.

Last week we had no clue as to what lay ahead. We were eagerly anticipating Chanukkah. What will this week bring?

I know it will bring new difficulties because, as the news cycle rolls on, analysis and blame will resume centre stage.

This is natural but the only way that good will come out of it, is if we keep the clarity of this week alive; the clarity that we are all united just by virtue of being human.

So, I wish us all a shavua tov, a week that makes manifest the Jewish mourning saying, "May their memory be for a blessing."

18/12/2025

It is natural for our thoughts and conversation to turn to analysis after the initial shock settles, but let's keep our focus on lived experience. This will anchor our analysis, stop us from losing sight of our common humanity even as we turn to politics and wider human rights concerns.

(P.S. This is the young man in the photo with my cousin in my earlier post.)

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1210083234386404

18/12/2025

My cousin, a paramedic, was down at the scene. Every day he tends to the emergencies of the people of Sydney. On this day the emergency was mere blocks from his own home and the people he tended to were well known to him.

I cannot imagine this double whammy of vicarious and direct trauma. And yet if you look at the first photo in the comments, there he is in hospital visiting one of the injured and keeping everyone's spirits up.

I'm proud of you cuz.

18/12/2025

The fourth night of Chanukah. Cocooned away in a valley in rural Tasmania with my beautiful friend The ND OT. Cats, birds, sheep, and a rooster that can't tell the time. This is what my nervous system has been craving.

What have you been doing to regulate?

Perhaps you're still in the thick of the crisis and regulation isn't yet possible; I hope you are cared for and held.

17/12/2025

Thank you for your allyship, Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families. Thank you also for your open-hearted reply to my question on another post of yours this week. I personally felt the safety of your trauma-informed response, recognising my personal distress as a Jew.

This post that I am sharing is informed by Jewish voices and shows deep awareness of Jewish experiences, not a sudden claim to speak for us or about us out of the blue.

Many should be learning from your example.

Send a message to learn more

15/12/2025

I am here in Hobart. This is our synagogue (top photo).
The outpouring of support has been comforting and gives me hope.
(The second photo is of the Launceston synagogue Chabad of Tasmania )

15/12/2025

Today I am in a state of shock along with the rest of my community. I am witnessing a lot of posts from compassionate people failing to name the actual intended targets of the attack.

Indeed, this attack affects all Australians and destroys the sense of safety for all Australians but it is entirely inappropriate to omit naming the targets.

If you have expressed horror and grief at the murders but not named the Jewish community, then you are a part of the problem.

I can think of no other minority group that would be subjected to this.

And if you spoke up without seeking guidance from a Jew, if you held yourself as an authority but did not amplify lived experience voices, then you have committed harm. You are patently unsafe in the true meaning of the word, life and death level unsafety in the here and now in Australia.

I have publicly spoken out against the atrocities in Gaza but I shouldn't have had to in order for you to think my safety matters.

14/12/2025

We should be celebrating joyously tonight. Instead we light with grief and fear. Old scars reopened. Fresh wounds uniting us in pain. But we won't hide. This is Australia and we are all free to practise our traditions openly.

None of us, from all the wonderful spectrum of cultures in our country, should let our unique lights be extinguished. We must shine brightly and bravely. Together we can dispel the darkness.
-----
(This is my parents' balcony as I am staying with them this week. I hope my sister and I can bring them comfort )

10/12/2025

Identity management. That's the psychological term for the strategies we adopt in order to feel good about our social selves. We might exaggerate the status of our identity; we might put others down; we might attempt to move identity groups.

I have been studying this since my Honours thesis in 1998. I looked at the dieting behaviours of teenage girls through the lens of Social Identity Theory. What predicted whether the girls would accept/celebrate their bodies, shame others' bodies, or diet in order to gain entrance to the "thin identity"?

Yes, long before I knew I am Autistic, I was desperate to understand the ways in which people could feel better about themselves, especially if they couldn't change.

I nearly always adopted the first strategy, celebrate myself. But before you congratulate me for being so resilient, there is a huge caveat. I was faking it! I masked by pretending I was thrilled with my unmasked self. I even convinced myself I was fine with my socially unacceptable traits and other differences. How's that for complex identity management?

This is why my post-identification self is *sadder* than my pre-assessment self. I am no longer pretending to myself. I am revisiting over 50 years of pretending I am fine, of loudly -performatively - affirming myself. The past five years have been a process of affirming the struggle, the deep sense of shame, and the yearning for a world where affirmation held both my strengths and the struggles. I was the class clown and youth camp leader, the one who made everyone laugh and sing. I am lucky that this was appreicated by my community. They saw my strengths. They surely saw my struggles too, but would not have thought to validate them because I never acknowledged them; it wasn't safe to.

I was forced into an either/or choice.

This is why my approach to neurodiversity affirming practice is not just to be strengths-based and see only the "positive" of neurodevelopmental differences. I make space for difficulty, grief, and disability. It's not a superpower and it's not a tragedy. Being Autistic (or otherwise neurodivergent/disabled) is just human. And we humans are messy, complicated beings!

I wish us all the safety to accept and share our whole selves. xo

------------------------------------------------------------------

Image is of a friendly and jolly clown. I was happy to be a clown. It was (and still is) fun! But not always. Not for survival....