Case Closure Investigation: Autistic Adults in California

Autistic adults in California: Did you apply to get help from a State/Federal Program or a Non Profit organization that advertises employment supports for DD/ID or Neurodivergent people? 

If you are Neurodivergent and you experienced a case closure, where a generic social worker /case worker/ service coordinator/ nurse… terminated your support, we’d like to hear from you.

Kehinde Wiley, Equestrian Portrait of Prince Tommaso of Savoy-Carignan (detail), 2015. Oil on canvas.

Who we are: 

Our research is conducted in affiliation with the Doogri Institute, a non-profit founded by autistic people in service of autistic people. We specifically investigate consumer data to find patterns of abuse, neglect, and racketeering. If you have been disadvantaged with a case closure, we want to know what the ‘excuse’ was.

Overall, we have currently found that “noncompliance” is the top reason, “inappropriate language” or “grooming” as secondary, and the third most cited excuse in a case closure is a failure of the consumer to submit paperwork in accordance with program rules. 

Yes, I want to participate! 

CLICK TO LAUNCH THE FORM

  1. To participate in this California-based study, we will require an email from you that shares your case closure report. No worries — this form will send us an email with your upload. 
  2. We will extract the ‘excuse’ in our reply to your email. 
  3. Then, you will confirm that this is the data that you are submitting for our study. 
  4. Only then will your data be de-identified, and included in a database that blinds your information from the investigator(s) reviewing the database. 

Please begin by uploading your confidential case closure report, and await a reply from  info@doogri.org. Thank you for your help in cracking down on systemic failures of publicly funded programs. There is no compensation for your participation. 

Privacy Statement

As experienced researchers, we owe you complete privacy of your information submitted through our secure portal. If you have any questions or concerns, please email Dr. Henny Kupferstein at henny@hennyk.com

Free tax prep help for autistic people

Are you autistic? Let’s do the numbers with/for your. We have autistic tax ninjas waiting to help.

We created a free spreadsheet that automates your tax preparation for the previous tax filing year. If you are an autistic person who started a small company, and/or manages a non-profit, we want to help.

Financial stress may up migraine risk | Lifestyle News,The Indian Express

Accountants in California have stopped taking calls, as they are overwhelmed with the Franchise Tax Board having no staff, and therefore nobody in the State is processing our filings. Nevertheless, with this free tool, we can help you get ahead of this by prepping for the accountant, and proving a P&L and other necessary documents for them to complete the filing.

How it works:

Please write to us to express interest in this mentorship, and put “2022 taxes” in your subject line.

  • You will need to download all the transactions from your bank from 01/01/2022 through 12/31/2022 and save it as a CSV or excel format. Once you have all your transactions from all your banks (including credit cards, paypal, etc)
  • we will paste it into our worksheet, and share it with you for your review.
  • We will schedule a zoom call to go through the accounting part so you can learn how to reconcile from this past year, and independently in the future.
  • Captions are provided.
  • (requires a gmail address for google workspace)

Example balance sheet

Executive/Personal Assistant to the CEO

THE ROLE: Executive/Personal Assistant

LOCATION: San Diego, CA

WORKSPACE: This role is focused on support for our CEO, Dr. Henny Kupferstein, who works mostly from her home in San Diego, California. The successful candidate for this role will be comfortable working alongside Dr. Henny in her home environment, and sometimes running errands in the local area. Deaf assistants and/or American Sign Language preferred. 

To Apply: email info@doogri.org with your resume and expertise, and availability for the next 3 weeks.

THE NON-PROFIT:

The Doogri Institute conducts research, provides professional training, and directs services through creative and expressive arts to individuals who are disadvantaged both by disability and inequity. Our research and advocacy team consists of scholars and leading experts in their field. All research, professional training, and direct services are augmented by lived experiences. The program creates a bridge for previously oppressed individuals in their quest to immerse themselves in mainstream culture and higher education. This systemic empowerment may lead to self actualization. The Doogri Method includes proprietary wellbeing markers to assure that our work also addresses self image, identity development, and self determination toward actualization, with a specialized focus on Auxiliary aid or service necessary to ensure effective communication.

We generate job opportunities and provide professional experience that we want our team members to provide for others. We call this our “karma Clause” in our mission statement. Our peer mentorship model is tested and re-tested to validate our core foundation of gainful AND meaningful opportunities within our board meetings. We provide them the experience that we want them to provide for others “karma clause”  Our ethical hiring policy for the opportunities we generate include the teachers we train, the musicians we license, and the autistic adults who are trained to teach our students. 

WORKING AT DOOGRI:

We love weekdays! Some things you should know about what it’s like to be on the Doogri team. 

  • We value ADA and what it means for us as a team entitled to these civil liberties. AAC users, deaf staff, autistic collaborators, and all communication support is welcome and prioritized. 
  • We are a team of collaborative, creative, authentic, and highly effective people. Together we are launching the #AGPmodel and the #banABA initiative!
  • We get big things done at an extraordinary pace, while making space for joy, friendship, and fun.
  • The culture is alive and kicking — we move forward boldly. We believe in making public to people a big opportunity that they love, and empowering them to lead and own the area they’re responsible for.
  • We thrive in a working culture where collaboration is accessible. It’s important to us that each team member’s voice is heard and valued. We solve problems creatively as a team, and celebrate each other’s impact.

ROLE OVERVIEW:

The Executive/Personal Assistant will be responsible for providing seamless professional and personal assistance to our lead researcher, Dr. Henny, as well as general coordination support for the full Executive Team. The successful incumbent in this role will be a seasoned executive assistant who is passionate about proactively smoothing out the edges of a CEO’s day-to-day life, optimizing her productivity and her ability to contribute her best strengths to the company. In addition, the EA will support the operation of Doogri’s Executive Team, by creating and maintaining processes to support our leaders’ meetings, projects, and reporting activities.

The Executive Assistant to the CEO will be supremely organized, excellent at prioritizing tasks and getting things done, while building and maintaining warm professional relationships with internal team members and external partners. This person will thrive in a very fast-paced, dynamic, fun growth environment – they will always be two steps ahead of what needs to get done, and will solve problems and add value at every turn. Our CEO and Founder’s life is a beautiful, seamless blend of private needs and social media personality – her Executive/Personal Assistant will be comfortable jumping right into that environment. This role will involve everything from: preparing polished professional writing, correspondence, and reporting packages; to dropping off samples for shipping; to booking travel; to completing personal/family support tasks; to playing a key role in challenging business projects.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Ensure the smooth flow of the CEO’s activities and be a key liaison to our leaders across the organization
  • Expand the CEO’s strategic capacity, ensuring her time is being spent on the highest priority needs. Understand the organization, its goals, and its teams — ensure that commitments are fulfilled, relationships are strong and healthy, and great work is done with ease
  • Support the operation of Doogri’s Executive Team, coordinating and supporting meetings, tracking project actions, and overseeing internal and external reporting activities.
  • With a high level of confidentiality, manage email correspondence, flagging important and actionable items, and drafting professional correspondence
  • Manage the CEO’s calendar, scheduling events and acting as the key point of contact for internal and external meeting requests. Assumes full ownership and maintenance of the calendar, accounting for both professional and personal commitments.
  • Manage and coordinate key meetings: set up, prepare agenda, briefing notes, reporting packages, and presentations. Take meeting notes, and track the completion of action items.
  • Travel management: arrange domestic and international travel, both business and personal, researching and coordinating all travel related activities.
  • Performing personal errands as required
  • Event and project management: coordinate with other team members to plan internal and external events, and contribute to key operational projects
  • Expenses and finance: file and track expense reports, and provide administrative support to financial activities as required

QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Demonstrated experience providing support to a senior executive or executives, preferably in a high-growth environment
  • Experience combining your business expertise and impeccable communication skills with an egoless willingness to dig in and take on tasks of all shapes and sizes
  • Deadline-driven, with the ability to flexibly adapt to rapidly shifting priorities with grace
  • The ability to thrive while working independently, following through on the completion of tasks without being prompted, leveraging resourcefulness and superior organization skills
  • Extremely keen attention to detail, and highly accurate data management
  • Social media savvy and able to navigate related platforms with ease
  • Highly proficient user of the Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
  • Experience and/or interest in fashion, apparel, retail, or e-commerce preferred
  • Adept at dealing with confidential information requiring the utmost discretion
  • A team player, who loves to build and nurture relationships with internal and external stakeholders

If this role is calling your name, we look forward to meeting you! 

  • PHASE I INTERVIEWS are conducted via Zoom with closed captioning available. Lipreading is required to please be prepared to show your face.
  • PHASE II meet n greet in San Diego’s home office of Doogri to complete your hiring process.

Doogri Institute warmly welcomes applications from people of all backgrounds and groups. We are committed to a culture of creative collaboration that celebrates and uplifts diverse perspectives and voices.

Full transparency is an important topic for us, as ‘Doogri’ is the aramaic word for ‘forthright’. At this time we’re performing a full total compensation review across our organization. We’re prioritizing establishing and communicating a fair and equitable salary structure and review process, so we can speak to all our compensation conversations thoughtfully, both internally and externally. If you are contacted about your application to this role, we commit to having an open and transparent conversation about pay in our first meeting with you. Be prepared to negotiate your salary. 

Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

Yay, I’ll see you on zoom this weekend.

 

Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

Every week on Saturday, Sunday, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM PDT

From Jul 03, 2021 to Jul 10, 2021

Dr. Henny Kupferstein (Host)

https://on.zoom.us/ev/AEk9TFGWBHgKtmrnsXRdVf0LVY2IgdF-9Kr8BYeoW6G4nMUNxgEzUVojtfoowiteUK8UFQM

 

#SDP #SelfDetermination #budget

 

Please Register: $1 per Zoom device. We will have captions enabled and chat for accessibility. We welcome AAC users. Send your feedback on your SDP process until today to info@doogri.org and we will discuss as peers.

Say YES to Self Determination, say NO to misappropriation. 

Did you know that the State Council is in charge of sharing information with the DDS Committee, but if one doesn’t want to share with the other, your Regional Center counselor will not have any actual concrete information to tell you? 

Also, did you know that The Tarjan Center at UCLA, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, is supposedly responsible for reporting about the transition to Self Determination, but their research funding does not cover interviewing consumers directly? 

Take a stand and show the state government that consumers and their families have been forced to research trials by fire, and suffer the consequences of misappropriation. We have a right to the $10-billion+ and today is your day to know how to access this. Until this process is not in compliance with the ADA, the Lanterman Act is not protecting us from labor law violations. We are being asked to do their job, but we are not allowed to collect $2,500 for our INDEPENDENCE!!! Join to discuss. 

Donate to our organization

Links for Navigation

  1. Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

  2. San Diego SDRC Self Determination Orientation with Regional Center, California
  3. The Politics of Self Determination and Regional Centers in California
  4. July 1, 2021 Self Determination started today!!!!
  5. Return to Doogri.org/SD for Self Determination

Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

San Diego SDRC Self Determination Orientation with Regional Center, California

The Politics of Self Determination and Regional Centers in California

July 1, 2021 Self Determination started today!!!!

July 1, 2021
Self Determination started today!!!!
#AssistiveTechnology, #Pianolessons, and #AAC lessons are now a covered cost for disabled students of all ages.
 
Thanks to our tireless legislative activism, we now also offer a college success program.
By the people, for the people, always.
Don’t forget to book us for your budget consultancy — click http://www.doogri.org/SD to read more

Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

Every week on Saturday, Sunday, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM PDT

From Jul 03, 2021 to Jul 10, 2021

Dr. Henny Kupferstein (Host)

https://on.zoom.us/ev/AEk9TFGWBHgKtmrnsXRdVf0LVY2IgdF-9Kr8BYeoW6G4nMUNxgEzUVojtfoowiteUK8UFQM

Please Register: $1 per Zoom device. We will have captions enabled and chat for accessibility. We welcome AAC users. Send your feedback on your SDP process until today to info@doogri.org and we will discuss as peers. Say YES to Self Determination, say NO to misappropriation.

Did you know that the State Council is in charge of sharing information with the DDS Committee, but if one doesn’t want to share with the other, your Regional Center counselor will not have any actual concrete information to tell you?

Also, did you know that The Tarjan Center at UCLA, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, is supposedly responsible for reporting about the transition to Self Determination, but their research funding does not cover interviewing consumers directly?

Take a stand and show the state government that consumers and their families have been forced to research trials by fire, and suffer the consequences of misappropriation. We have a right to the $10-billion+ and today is your day to know how to access this. Until this process is not in compliance with the ADA, the Lanterman Act is not protecting us from labor law violations. We are being asked to do their job, but we are not allowed to collect $2,500 for our INDEPENDENCE!!! Join to discuss.

Share from:

Dr. Henny’s public facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HennyKupferstein/posts/1974213776079030

Self-Determination Families and Friends https://www.facebook.com/groups/2170109546432928 (pending moderation)

California Self-Determination Program Forum

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CA.SDP.Forum/posts/1003451660425849/

Share on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6816531874169528320-IRoM

Share on Twitter 

https://twitter.com/HennyKtweets/status/1410766531382763524

Find all events on Zoom’s onZoom calendar

Donate to our organization

Links for Navigation

  1. Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

  2. San Diego SDRC Self Determination Orientation with Regional Center, California
  3. The Politics of Self Determination and Regional Centers in California
  4. July 1, 2021 Self Determination started today!!!!
  5. Return to Doogri.org/SD for Self Determination

Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

San Diego SDRC Self Determination Orientation with Regional Center, California

The Politics of Self Determination and Regional Centers in California

Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

The Politics of Self Determination and Regional Centers in California

What’s with all the politics and the holdups?

Bookmark this page to stay tuned with our research and advocacy.

Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

 

State and Local Advocacy

  • San Diego only enrolled 43 people, despite a lottery slot of 300.
  • Suzy Requarth is the person tasked with “implementation funds and spending plan.”
  • If the Regional Center does not fulfill this mandate, they will have to relinquish their budget to approved SD plans. <– no wonder they’re avoiding your calls
  • If you would like to advocate for San Diego to implement more efficiently, please write to your Representatives and attend committee hearings.
  • Get involved with the committee who makes decisions for us: Self-Determination Local Advisory Committee Meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of every month. Schedule is here
  • Upcoming: Jun. 15, 2021 5:00-6:30 p.m.
    Register in advance for this meeting

Donate to our organization

Links for Navigation

  1. Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

  2. San Diego SDRC Self Determination Orientation with Regional Center, California
  3. The Politics of Self Determination and Regional Centers in California
  4. July 1, 2021 Self Determination started today!!!!
  5. Return to Doogri.org/SD for Self Determination

Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

San Diego SDRC Self Determination Orientation with Regional Center, California

The Politics of Self Determination and Regional Centers in California

San Diego SDRC Self Determination Orientation with Regional Center, California

“I am a great example as being Independent living adult” ~ Gabriella Ledesma

Congratulations on attending your Self-Determination Orientation. The California governor approved $10.5 billion ($6.5 billion General Fund) for the Department and estimates that approximately 386,753 individuals will receive developmental services by the end of 2021-22.

In October 2013, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 468 into law creating a statewide Self-Determination Program that offers regional center consumers a voluntary alternative to the traditional system and more control over the services they receive and the individuals who support them. Starting July 1, 2021, all consumers can switch to Self Determination.

..but wait… For current regional center consumers, the budget will equal 100% of the amount of the total purchase of service expenditures made by the regional center during the past 12 months.

…um, so…If your case manager or regional center supervisor says that they are still (1) unsure and (2) “waiting to find out funding availability” and (3) not providing clear instructions, please write to us now. info@doogri.org

Here’s what is supposed to happen next for you.

We learned about an IF (Independent Facilitator). We asked if a consumer can get the $2,500 from the budget if they complete the work. According to district managers, you cannot pay yourself, and you have to pay others; there is no mention in the State order (Dec 2018) about this ad hoc prohibition.

We are looking into training our autistic clients to have job opportunities by becoming an IF for their peers! Stay tuned.

IF – Independent Facilitator

An IF is not required for your next step, but recommended. Their role is to sit in meetings with your R.C. team. They are supposed to negotiate rates and service codes for your budget. They can advocate for you to get the best possible budget based on what you know you need. If you expect your service coordinator to be sluggish, non-responsive, or cruel with their service agreement rate disclosures, then an IF is a good idea for you!

FMS – Financial Management Service

Informationfrom: https://www.sdrc.org/sdp

A Financial Management Service (FMS) is the only required service for participants in Self-Determination. You can find a list of the FMS agencies that San Diego Regional Center partners with here.

  • about 10 companies listed, check out the negative yelp reviews.

3 Different Models

There are actually 3 models available for Self Determination, but most agencies will offers 2.

  1. Bill Tier Model – very similar to traditional services with regional centers. They choose the agencies they know and make their own suggestions.
  2. Sole Employer ModelYou choose your own agencies and personnel. The FMS responsibility is to collect the w-2 forms, calculate the tax withholdings, and send the paychecks. Consumer’s responsibility is to enter the GROSS rate, not the NET into the budget, since we pay the tax withholdings from the overall budget. The deduction is 14.8%. If you’d like to calculate that, you would have to say, “If you want $15 per hour, we will have to calculate 15*1.48 = 22.” $22 is then the gross rate entered into the budget.

The FMS will send you forms to complete, and set an appointment for your initial meeting.

  • We recommend that you ask for a zoom call and complete the forms together.
  • They will offer paper mail forms
  • they are amenable to digital processing for efficiency and disability accommodations.

Expand Your Network

  • Please join our email list (email us, list@doogri.org) to receive news, updates, call to action, and interact with other list members via email

Donate to our organization

Links for Navigation

  1. Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

  2. San Diego SDRC Self Determination Orientation with Regional Center, California
  3. The Politics of Self Determination and Regional Centers in California
  4. July 1, 2021 Self Determination started today!!!!
  5. Return to Doogri.org/SD for Self Determination

Dr Henny’s Self Determination Peer Support for Consumers in California

San Diego SDRC Self Determination Orientation with Regional Center, California

The Politics of Self Determination and Regional Centers in California

TED THE UNABOMBER’S UNIVERSE

A comprehensive open-access Kaczynski archives, free initiative by the Doogri Institute

Add a title to our open access library database, google sheets click to request access with your Gmail.

Request access to Ted the Unabomber’s Universe – a comprehensive open-access Kaczynski archives

Contribute to this initiative
  • Join our Zoom calls
  • Find Ted’s Universe on Clubhouse
  • Populate the Google Sheet
  • Add info to

Create Lesson Plans for Gifted Students – Work From Home

Our educational non-profit is seeking staff to generate short lesson plans for students with exceptional giftedness. Lessons are on math, history, science, famous people, and high-school subjects for online students.

  •  You must be a skilled educator who can rearrange lesson content into our template format.
  • You must be able to connect to the internet platform to submit to the office.
  • You must submit a sample lesson plan that meets all of our template requirements to be considered for a full time position.

What is a lesson plan?

A lesson plan consists of a numbered list of facts. Number one will have 3 facts about something educational. Then, there will be an indented question about these facts. The question will contain a choice of 2 answers, (red or green?). Then, you return and start fact 2, and so on.

Our education department requires lesson plans written as though they are being taught to 6th graders and up. Plans should be written as though one is teaching or explaining the content or concept to someone who has no exposure nor a grasp of the cultural reference being made, perhaps a foreigner learning English for the first time. Provide lots of example to describe a new word.

Here is a snippet of our volcano lesson so you can imagine our format.

(1) The eruption of Mount St. Helens was not a surprise. Geologists are people who study the earth, and they knew that the volcano had erupted about 100 years ago. Therefore, they calculated that was going to happen again. The instrument used to record and measure these vibrations is called a seismograph.

A large wave on a seismograph means the instrument measured a large breakage of Rock or Light?

(2) Geologists watch volcanoes for signs of an eruption. They listen for rumbling, the deep groans and moans of the earth that is slowly melting underneath the ground. Mount St. Helens had been rumbling off and on for more than a hundred years.

Is Mt. St. Helens considered a volcano that is Dead or Alive?

Geologists know that these rumblings are warnings. Geologists also measure earthquakes. Before a volcano erupts, there are usually earthquakes happening in the same area, called a region.

After an earthquake in your region, should you worry about a future Volcano or a future Snowstorm?

[ end lesson sample ]

Opportunity for Growth: extraordinary creativity is rewarded!

Our base pay is $1 per Fact+question. Lesson plans must be at minimum 10 questions. You may write longer lessons, and you may submit up to 4 lessons plans per day! (=$40/day)

We look forward to reviewing your sample submissions and expanding our team with your creative skills. Please also check our updated Jobs page, as our mission is to generate employment opportunities for people seeking gainful and meaningful work. We honor neurodiversity, so please reply with your interest and availability so we can expect a timeline. What excites you about this format?

Explanation of our template and milestones:

(A) Content topic should be age appropriate, while the context must be provided to an alien thinker to develop content knowledge with guided imagery. Your 6th grader might know that microwaves are used for food, but the alien might know that humans use electromagnetic waves in their kitchen. Teach to both at the same time.

(B) Think of the Ripley fact, “Can you believe it?” Our students love fun, weird or goofy facts they can repeat to show off their smarts. “Hey, did you know that the world’s tallest person needed 14 yards of fabric to make their suit?”

(C) Critical feedback questions that offer two choices for a response. The choices must reside in the same alphabet cluster, but not the same letter for both questions. (A-I, or J-R, or S-Z). Example: Is today’s lesson about Electricity or History (E and H are both in the alphabet cluster A-I).

letter clusters

(D) Topic sentences must generate imagery so the student can imagine themselves in that content, and can try to guess how it looked, worked, or felt. Every idea should be followed with a critical thinking question to assess the student’s abstract imagery skills. The question doesn’t evaluate if they ‘heard’ or ‘understood,’ but how well they can imagine what would happen next, given the most recent facts. Example: * Is YARDS a Measurement or a Pattern? (J-R)

(E) Tools you can use: Thesaurus https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/pull?s=ts to discover similar words that reside in the same alphabet cluster.

FROM TRIAL PROJECT TO HIRE!

Our Phase I hiring requirements include submitting one Sample Lesson of a topic of your choice; something that you know a lot about. Please use our submission form here

Phase II
Our editors will review your submissions and send you a google doc (please provide a gmail) to act as a working document. We will provide feedback as comments in the doc.

Phase II
The third and last phase of our hiring process is identifying candidacy and remitting an offer and budget.

#THRIVING event – March 6, 2021 12:00 eastern

Post-Group #THRIVING reflections live reflections and resources linked to the FB live

[FB link for sharing this page] [with captions on Youtube] [Follow on Twitter] [on LinkedIn] [on TikTok] [on Instagram]

What does this  #THRIVING actually mean? My Post-Group Reflections Live is just a free flow of consciousness. The most important part for me as a researcher was to document the progression of what happened and how it happened.

How did the conversation start? Where did it go to and why? Evaluating the tangents and celebrating it rather than pathologizing like, “Oh my god they were so disorganized, they were off-topic, there was no agenda, I didn’t know socially what I was supposed to do, supposed to say.” 

So it started off with people coming in one at a time with their camera and mic issues and just to make sure that everybody was engaged. We started saying, “Hey, where are you located? Where are you now? Where are you now?” Oh, and then it all started from:

illustration of characters moving in a colorful zoom call inside a computer screen, that is on a desktop facing a window with a cartoon sun, and a rainbow colored circle wall art.

“Where are you?”

“Kazakhstan”

Somebody else, “Oh, I know about that. I’m in Madison, Wisconsin.”

I said, “Oh I know about that. I have a friend there.” So then we all take a moment to look at the person who’s in Greece right now.

And the overall comments, “Oh my god, is it almost midnight for you?” I’m feeling deeply for people who are here for one reason to thrive together. 

animated gif of a female playing joyously with her hair curls while dancing

We started talking about that I’m here in San Diego on a beautiful Saturday morning, fresh out of the shower. And I’m telling people, as you know, a humorous thing, “Just enjoy watching my hair dry, let that be your entertainment if we can’t even get all our cameras all lined up.”

 

Things we’ve talked about are,

cartoon character admires himself in a bathroom mirror

Why do we dress up & wake up? Why are we resilient people & do what we do?

We do because as I shared, “I dress for the woman who greets me in the mirror every morning.”

 

Internalized Oppression. What do you celebrate for yourself? And it turns out that a lot of the participants are also autistic adults when they joined our group so they were saying that pretty much this whole self-care thing, was knocked out of them because of being disadvantaged by family dynamics, neurodivergence, whatever makes you be the different person, the oddball, the one that stands out the, one who can’t be compliant the, one who can’t organize their behavior.

 

 

stick figure drawing of 1 person lecturing the other person, who is surrounded by 4 dogs and a large black cat
take our Pet Binary Poll in 1 second, below

Asexuality. I asked a friend, who was on the call, “What is your reaction when i first told you I’m asexual?”  The response was, “You know, I can’t understand it because I don’t have that life” and that made everything so much more relatable. We were able to talk about sexuality then we laughed about it, “So, uh, you gotta go because your cat is biting you right now. Are you saying you’re a cat person?” I said. My friend replied, “No, I like dogs, I like everything, I like all the animals.” I said, “Oh no no no no no, in a perfect world you must declare, ‘dog person’ or ‘cat person’.”  So we decided that they were pet fluid, pet non-conforming

 

man is laying on a red couch and eating a head of lettuce with liberty. contains hashtag thriving

And in that spirit, I brought the screen sharing of the 3-minute Isolation Video that I made with my friend Nicky in the UK and we did it in the first week of shelter and place because we wanted to show: autistics are thriving in a pandemic…and now what are you going to do about it?

 

 

Is celebrating one year in covid-19, that we have been thriving in isolation, autistic people and other people who have previously been called maladaptive are thriving but the problem is that they encounter a society. Some kind of shame like you can’t talk about it because the uncle is dying so “Why are you having a zoom party?” Anything that made the world more accessible like a shelter in place masks all of this became a bonus for functioning and when that bonus for functioning, you start being called out for it as the crazy one, the different one, the non-compliant one. My happiness is not a behavior problem. So after I shared the 3-minute video that we made about this joke on society

It’s a three-minute video and I’m gonna paste it in the description so you can watch and enjoy it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9RyDdHoUHk&t=2s

Medical Challenges that People have that Contribute to Isolation. If you have chronic pain, if you have a mental health disorder, if you have something going on in your life but you can’t talk about it right now because people are dying from a pandemic! For christ’s sake–that is the reaction that you get, then what is your support network. 

strobing stripes in background calls attention to pink-haired cartoon character flapping their arms
Autistic and Hallucinating – Autism Psychosis support

We relieved somebody’s first trip in their psychotic break and we talked about all of the things that they experience like being obsessed with alliterations like the word, “fear” f-e-a-r means to be fearful or afraid while the word f-a-i-r means fairness, Is it fair to feel fair, and then they thought about f-a-r-e, the fare, the amount that you pay for a bus. Getting lost in this world, is that an autistic stim party?

Upbringing Difficulty with Empathy, society’s idea of what empathy is and isn’t, ‘Are you psychotic?’ ‘Are you autistic?’ ‘Are you a sociopath?’ That can’t feel but at the same time you know, if there was a truck that ran over my ex-husband and that was the end of my pain or my problems, I wouldn’t feel any pain or suffering for his body at the moment of impact, that’s not sociopathology, that’s quite literally me having a grip of my anger, exactly, being able to get homicidal about it in my mind and still stay regulated.

I love telling people that I do Anti-social Science Research Psychology. The research, scientifically, about society. I love it, society and the abnormality of the mind, society and altered states, society and othering. The indigenous knowledge systems we have are not being adequately and authentically portrayed and putting everything underneath.

 

“Oh I have chronic pain but my grandfather is in the ICU, so now we have to visit even though I’m having a miscarriage right now and I’m wearing four pads. I have to go to the ICU because the family expects it.”

All these expectations being able to find yourself in a pandemic where you find your autonomy, your self-sufficiency that in itself is thriving. We’re not making fun of people who are not functioning we’re just saying who are you calling maladaptive now.

cartoon girl splashing in a river then discovers that her hair is brightly colored patterns and she is enjoying her view
Differently-Stoned Sober Sitters Mental Health Cannabis Safety

Mania and Psychosis. One of the participants shared and relived an entire mania trip from beginning to end like looking at the arms, seeing different things, and imagining the people from the Bronx breaking into the house. How many weeks? How many people did you have to talk about it until you realized that you were in an altered state? Even in the hospital. 

Suicidality. Autistic people have a completely different way than we see ideation, that we see mental illness, we see hallucinations. We’re just peace, we identified in the group, we’re just people who really see this touchy-sticky very differently. We’re just living in a state and if we could all live in that state together in a safe space, the group became a wonderful place for us to share and there was a lot of sharing about different things.  

And what a beautiful thing, one of our members of the group said, “I identify myself as a usual person with unusual experiences.” 

So with that said I’m going to post the isolation video that I made one year ago, the first week of sheltering place, with my dear friend Nikki in Cambridge UK. I’m in California, in lockdown. She’s in the UK in lockdown with an also autistic husband and their life is a party and they don’t apologize. They’re, as a couple, philanthropists often go and do charity gigs where the husband and wife throw pies in each other’s faces to raise money for kids who are sick and cancer.

Watch it again to increase your spirits #THRIVING in isolation pandemic video

logo of the Doogri Institute
doogri.org

Redefining what thriving means giving yourself permission to thrive and in the end, we talked about how this group is in alignment with our organizational mission so I asked people to go to the Doogri Institute website because if you just take your time and scroll through it get lost in a rabbit hole, enjoy the videos, look at the pages.

You’ll be able to follow me on every platform and of course, register for the next event, and as usual part of our karma clause with our organization is that we provide for the greater good because we want to help others-help others. In that spirit we will continue your bring a friend, your plus one is always free, all right? So let’s grow this family after this call you will see all of my links in the description.

Interested in becoming a member of the Doogri Institute? Members get 1 free Zoom event per month. Click for membership options and perks.

Resource shared by a member who is also a mental health clinician:

Excerpt from: Marie Lenormand (2018) Winnicott’s theory of playing: a reconsideration, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 99:1, 82-102, DOI: 10.1080/00207578.2017.1399068

“Playing is itself a therapy,” Winnicott (1971a) asserts, in what has now become a famous turn of phrase from Playing and reality (p. 50). This commendation of play marks a milestone in psychoanalysis. According to him, “to arrange for children to be able to play is itself a psychotherapy that has immediate and universal application, and it includes the establishment of a positive social attitude towards playing” (p. 50). Playing, which cannot be dissociated from creativity and a sense of “enjoyment”, is an “intensely real” experience that has intrinsic therapeutic virtue, that is to say it is capable of promoting “self-healing.”

This extremely powerful idea is the basis of a solid optimism that runs right through Winnicott’s work from the beginning of his practice as a paediatrician with babies and young children, up until one of his last books published in the year he died, Playing and reality (1971a). It could even be said that the extraordinary vitality that he managed to breathe into his work, and which probably constitutes one of his most original contributions to psychoanalysis, stemmed from this foundational view of play. The luminosity, freshness, and hope aroused by this Winnicottian axiom stand in sharp contrast with the tragic dimension in Freud’s work, the unveiling of chthonic powers in Kleinian theory, as well as the Lacanian division of the subject.

Winnicott, D. W. 1971a. Playing and Reality. London: Routledge.