Learn the art of thinking together around the very human phenomenon of masking, in a facilitated group using a simple but powerful conversation model. This workshop is an opportunity to experience generative dialogue, engaging and listening with others about masking, authenticity and the related differences and commonalities between autistic, neurodivergent and neurotypical people.
Masks have ancient, archetypal roots. Aside from face-masks, beards, paint and make-up, masks also give us shape-shifting potential, connecting us to our deeper, ‘truer’ selves, whilst opening doors to the mythic realms of story and theatre, mediating our relationship to the unseen. Persona masks afford us with new identities as we present different aspects of ourselves to different people, affecting the experience of both wearer and viewer.
Crucially, over-identifying with the faces we present to the world, defining ourselves according to fixed and superficial attributes comes with risk. In autism, masking has more profound implications, as the interrelations with typically overwhelming, disruptive environments and communication across neurotypes, becomes a serious and complex web of experiences.
The Autism Dialogue Approach® is based on ‘Bohm Dialogue’. It is not discussion or debate, but a specific method you will be guided in, throughout the session. The workshop aims to be autism-friendly, safe, confidential and thought-provoking.
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event:
- Learn different modes of dialogue and a simple but powerful set of dialogic practices.
- Gain an introduction to a Dialogue approach that will thoroughly prepare you for our full, forthcoming facilitator course.
- Gain a deep insight into your own and others’ experiences and definitions of autistic and non-autistic masking.
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
- Autistic and neurodivergent practitioners and those working with similar clients and colleagues.
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
- Greatly improve engagement, confidence and authenticity with autistic and neurodivergent clients.
Resource Guide:
Autism and the Edges of the Known World: Sensitivities, Language and Constructed Reality – Olga Bogdashina
Theory of Peripheral Minds – Lori Hogenkamp
Seeing and inviting participation in autistic interactions – Hanne de Jaegher
The moral implications of asking “What is Autism?” – Jo Bervoerts
Thinking Systems ‘Mind’ as Relational Activity – Gail Simon
Autism Dialogue – Jonathan Drury (chapter in: The World Needs Dialogue! 2019 ed)
Dialogue – a proposal. – Bohm, Factor, Garrett
Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together – William Isaacs
Wholeness and the Implicate Order – David Bohm
Course Content
Presenter
Jonny is an informal researcher, coach and dialogue facilitator, influenced by a life of Eastern and Western disciplines including in contemporary fine arts, dialogue and spiritual practice. After a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome he trained in Coaching and Autism studies, then formulated the Autism Dialogue Approach® and Mindfulness for Autism (M4A).
Dialogic Action CIC was founded by a team of autistic people, academics, philosophers, coaches and third-sector experts, who believe generative dialogue is a framework for moving beyond individual consciousness into an emergent wholeness, and the key to a more harmonious existence.
Kate Salinsky is co-founder and co-facilitator at Dialogic Action CIC, where she also co-designs and manages training. She has a master’s in Autism, is a trainer at the National Autism Trainer Programme (NHS/Anna Freud Centre/AT-Autism) and parent to a neurodivergent child. Previously, Kate worked as a training manager and counsellor in the voluntary sector for over 20 years, managing a team of trainers to design and deliver accredited training to people working in substance misuse, counselling and mediation.
