Series Title: Adapting Mindfulness for Neurodivergent Minds: A Practical Skills Series
Overview:
This session will focus on using fidgets, objects and textures as the focus of mindfulness. We will look through the lens of neurodivergence at the specific skills of absorption in sensory experience, finding pleasure in everyday experiences, and relishing positive sensations as a powerful way to immerse yourself in the present moment.
Most of the session will be spent on practical exercises, and you may find it helpful to bring with you a selection of objects that you find pleasing to touch, interesting to explore, or satisfying to look at. Some examples might be fidgets (particularly those that move or change shape), beads or stones, a plant or flower, putty, or anything that lights up or reflects or refracts light. It could also be interesting to have some “boring” objects to hand, like a pen or a teaspoon, if you’d like to explore using these techniques with less compelling objects.
This is part of a weekly series on adapting mindfulness to suit neurodivergent people. These sessions will focus on one form of mindfulness each week, exploring different practices in flexible ways. They are suitable for people who are completely new to mindfulness, those who have tried it but not found it a good fit, and those who have more experience and want to expand their repertoire.
Participants can choose to attend all the sessions or just some of them. There will be space for discussion and reflection, though you are welcome to be off camera and with your microphone muted if you feel more comfortable that way, during practices or throughout the session. The other sessions are body and movement (14th January), using the breath (21st January), music (28th January), sounds (4th February), and building your ongoing practice (11th February).
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
- Explore new mindfulness practices and discover what is a good fit for you, and/or your neurodivergent clients.
- Find neurodiversity-affirming ways of practising mindfulness that reconnect neurodivergent people with their bodies and sensory experiences.
- By experimenting with a range of possible practices, build a repertoire of practices for different situations and a rhythm of ongoing practice that works for you.
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
- Neurodivergent people, and therapists, counsellors or psychologists of all neurotypes, working with neurodivergent people.
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
- Broadening the repertoire of mindfulness practices you can draw on, for yourself and for clients, to allow them to be tailored to specific people and purposes.
Course Content
Presenter
Dr Emma Bede is a Clinical Psychologist with over twenty years of experience working with neurodivergent adults and children in clinical, diagnostic and academic contexts. She works therapeutically with adults of all ages, genders and neurotypes, as well as carrying out formal diagnostic assessments for autism and ADHD, and providing supervision to other therapists. She has been practising mindfulness for twenty years, and uses it as part of her therapeutic work.
