Speaker #0Welcome to NeuroDivergent Spot. I'm your host, Sam Marion. My pronouns are he, him, and I am a multiply neurodivergent therapist, speaker, and creator. My work focuses on all things neurodiversity, but my particular interests are in autism, ADHD, learning differences, and learning disabilities. This is a solo episode. where I just want to catch everybody up on a little bit of what I've had going on recently. So as I record this, it's early June 2026 and this is my first episode since fall of 2025. At the time, I didn't know if this was going on hiatus, if I was done. What I did know was I wasn't finding joy in creating the podcast as I was when I started it. And I really wanted to focus in some different places, even though I wasn't totally sure what that might look like as I press pause. I knew I wanted capacity for more, though. That was pretty clear to me. And so that's what I want to update you on. A lot of the year was busy with something that I haven't shared about publicly. But I was coaching Odyssey of the Mind. If you're not familiar with it. Honestly, the mind, it's sort of a creativity competition. And I was coaching a team that was all about engineering and solving an engineering problem. Took a lot of time throughout the school year, but it finished with a trip to world finals. The team I coached, in my mind, did very well. We were all pretty new to it. And so that was that was really exciting. There's also a time where I found myself reflecting as I was in this space. Where first we had a regional and then a state competition and then world finals. And in these settings, it's clear that this is a space where all people are embraced. All brains are embraced. The way that people show up in the world, you know, there's so many ways that people might show up. And that's a space, honest to the mind, is a space for plenty of people to thrive. Maybe it's different. a different kind of competition, but it's still a beautiful thing. And so spending a few days at World Finals, really getting to embrace that with people from across the world, meeting people from other countries, from around the country, phenomenal experience. But also you can see where there's space for all kinds of neurodiversity. 100% shows up in that crowd. That was a lot of fun. So you can add World Finalist Coach to... my random resume that I have. That was a lot of fun. So also through this time, throughout the spring, I spoke at three separate conferences. I also hosted a continuing education event here in Georgia. There was a couple of days, but then I went and spoke at three conferences, some of which I speak at frequently. Early in March, I was at the National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. That's in Savannah every year. I was an invited speaker. This year, honestly, I was busy enough. I wasn't really planning on going to that conference this year. I've been several years in a row. But as an invited speaker, I decided I would still make the trip. I also attended the International Symposium on Child Abuse, which is hosted by the National Child Advocacy Center in Huntsville, Alabama. That's another conference that I've attended several times that I've spoken at every time that I've attended. Then the third one that I spoke at the spring, I traveled to Omaha, Nebraska for Speaking of Children, which is hosted by the state-level Child Advocacy Center of Nebraska, Project Harmony, I believe it's called. And so these are all very different settings. These are settings that I don't talk about quite as much in some of my work. The first one is primarily educators. NYAR, they call it, N-Y-A-R. They use advocacy and resilience conference that sort of all around social, emotional type stuff in the education setting. It feels very mission aligned for me. It's a very interesting space. And I have a lot of fun speaking to audiences that are educators, school social workers, school psychologists. You have some students in there, college students, grad students. And that's always really fulfilling for me. And it does give me a space. You know, I'm a social worker, but I really do like interacting with people from. other disciplines, other backgrounds, other professions, and providing a perspective that maybe is a little bit different, especially around educators who want to talk about neurodiversity. I talk about learning differences. I'll talk about autism, ADHD. Frequently, I'm taking a perspective. I'm taking an angle that is a little bit different than, or in many cases, a lot different than the training people received. I've spoken to people, you know, they've been 20, 30 years in special education, for example, and I've provided information that is different. And that's a lot of fun. A lot of good engagement, a lot of good questions in those settings. And the other two conferences were both child advocacy conferences. That centers all around child trauma and supporting those who've experienced traumatic things, who the My angle that I tend to present on is typically, right, people who are neurodivergent, kids who are neurodivergent may experience the things a little bit differently, but also how services are provided. Perhaps the way a person does a forensic interview needs to be different depending on the child. And forensic interviewers need to be aware of autism and how that might show up. And a person is not being resistant. They may be just overwhelmed and to have these kind of perspectives and how to help a person feel comfortable. So those are settings that are really, really fulfilling for me. Really mission aligned as a social worker. I really like being in those spaces. They are, you know, audiences that really vary. I may have in within one audience for the same presentation, people in law enforcement, people who are therapists or trauma therapists at a CAC. They have nurses, doctors, prosecutors, a wide range. And that makes it a lot of fun for me as well. Like I said, I really love the multidisciplinary approach to support that they provide, but then also in the education that's being provided. I love having multiple disciplines because, honestly, part of it is just the range of questions that I receive is even broader. And it feels really important to me that. Not just the therapists in the setting be aware of autism or ADHD, you know, other elements of neurodiversity, but instead everybody who's supporting, including the officers and the prosecutors, that they all may know more and understand more. And then that also, through the end of spring, that brings us to the end of school. Now, depending on where you live, here in Georgia, kids have been out of school for the most part since before Memorial Day. Other places I know go towards the end of June. So there's the end of school stretch that just gets really busy, right? And that's supporting a lot of families through that while also balancing out my own personal life through that. And it's a really meaningful time, but it's also a time that many neurodivergent students really, really struggle. And neurodivergent parents as well, really, really struggle. Just trying to find the balance. Suddenly routines are thrown off, schedules are different. And what's fun for a lot of people, it's not always fun for all the neurodivergent students. because the lack of predictability can just drive a lot of anxiety. It can be very dysregulating for a lot of people. So that's something I've been navigating a lot with a lot of my clients and just settling into the summertime and trying to find the balance between maintaining routines that can feel comforting while also having rest and recovery that a person might need coming out of the school year. So that's going to be ongoing work in all my clinical work for a little while. Then finally, the other thing that I've had going on, Through this busy spring is writing a book. Back over the holidays. I remember sometime right around Christmas, I had a post on Instagram about, at the time, what I referred to as the Nerdivergent Love Languages. And there's history behind all that of, you know, originally, you know, Gary Chapman had the Love Languages, and then some other people started talking about things like Nerdivergent Love Languages. Ameth Ashaber, Samia Saeed, among others, that started putting some names to some of this. And I had a post that I think within a week had a million views. It took off. And one of the comments said, you should write this book. And I thought, okay, maybe. I played around with it a little bit. And went out to work more than other times. But I made some progress and I really started enjoying the book. And then I started realizing it sounded way too dry and clinical. I did a lot of rewrites. to make it feel like my voice. I wanted it to sound like me speaking to you here, not just as really sterile clinician, because I'm talking about connecting with others. And so I've got a book published that I titled it Neurodivergent Patterns of Care When Love Doesn't Follow the Script. I'm really excited about this book. I talk about the five different ones, info dumping, pebbling, deep pressure, parallel play, and support swapping. These are patterns that I see show up in a lot of relationships. And the more people understand them... then the more they're able to connect with others. I talk a lot when I present about that. I think one of the best things that exists in the DSM is under the autism diagnosis, the language is not high, low functioning, right? It is level of support need. And it is my point of view that all humans have support needs. We all do in every relationship. proves as the two people understand each other's support needs better and then angle towards meeting those support needs. But the trick is we have pretty varied support needs. However, there are these patterns that I see show up that we can understand some of these patterns. And I've done this a lot in my clinical work. I do work with couples and families. These patterns show up in parent-child relationships. I see these patterns over and over, even though there's nuance to it, right? It's not prescriptive. And so, yeah, I wrote the book. Because when I started looking around, I realized there wasn't really books on the topic that I could find. And so I wrote it, and I published it. And that's out now. Self-published. It's on Amazon. I'll have the link in the show notes. But that's what I've been up to. It's been a lot of work. Transparently, as I was writing this work, and I would... go back and read what I had written. I shifted as I was from being clinician who's writing to the reader who's reflecting and I started just sort of thinking about the way some of these patterns have shown up in my life at different times in ways that felt really affirming and also in ways that did not feel affirming. I found myself in a lot of reflection. I found myself challenging. myself just by reading on writing. But like I said, as I was rewriting, I really wanted to put it in my tone of voice as I speak. So I think if you read it, I think you'll find it very personable. I think you'll find it connecting. I think you'll see yourself in it. You'll see loved ones in it. So that's the other thing I've had going on. It's been a lot. As I'm saying all this, I'm reading off notes I've got in front of me. But as I'm saying all of this, it's feeling clear why I've had quiet stretches on social media because I've been pretty burned out. I've had a lot going on and I do prioritize social media last. I'm kind of open about that at times. I sort of have to, but you know, the work continues as a clinician. I love the work that I do. I love that I've helped create a new resource that I think will help others. Um, I had a conversation earlier today with another clinic, with another clinician who I think will find that book relevant for the situation, while, while they'd reached out to me even. So I hope that this is a tool. I hope it's a resource that, um, that is shared around in a meaningful way because it's meaningful for others. So, um, I have other things coming up. I also know that as I finish. some projects that create space for others that I just don't know what they are yet. I may make a few more episodes of the podcast throughout the summer. I don't know when you'll hear from me again. I'm going to try to do at least a few a year. It's kind of a goal offset, probably solo episodes, maybe the occasional episode with a guest on a relevant topic. We'll just have to see as we move along. But this is where I am today. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you showing up again. Thank you for listening to Nerd Average Spot. I am Sam Marion. If you enjoyed this episode, I hope that you'll subscribe just so you know when I do release new ones. So you can be alerted. Share it around with anybody. Share the book. Check it out. That'd mean a lot to me. If you're looking for a speaker or trainer, remember I speak to all kinds of audiences and I'm happy to see how we can work together. You can find my Instagram. at Sam Marion Counseling is the best place to find me. Check me out at my website, sammarion.com. Thank you for being here.
