Does your day start with an inward groan as you long for just a few more minutes under the covers? Are you reaching for your phone before you’ve even left your bed, only to stumble out of the house feeling like a zombie in desperate need of coffee?

Mornings are tough, we get it

Mornings can be chaotic. There’s so much to do in so little time. Even though research highlights the benefits of morning and evening routines, only 28-35% of us actually use them.

Maybe we’re unaware of the benefits or perhaps we’re just juggling too many balls in the air. After all, some of us have families to feed, dress and herd out the front door. Others are burning the candle at both ends, with energy levels that only surface after the first shot of caffeine.

So, why bother with routines?

With all these barriers, why would you even bother with routines? Do they really give us much return on our investment of time and energy?

Well the evidence suggests they do. In fact, routines...

Conversation after the Oscars was a tad different this year. Normally, it revolves around the awards and of course, the fabulous fashion choices on display. But all that got rather overshadowed by Will Smith’s actions. Slapping the presenter, Chris Rock, for his insensitive comments, was not exactly what we were expecting!

Public opinion, as you might anticipate, is very divided. Some think it was heroic. Something along the lines of … “it’s about time someone took a stand against humiliating and disparaging remarks, even if delivered under the guise of comedy”. Others, of course, objected on the grounds that violence is hardly the best choice for a grown man.

Personally, I think this goes much deeper than a single incident at the Oscars. Just a few minutes on social media and you’re bound to walk slap bang into the verbal equivalent of a Will Smith lashing.

Now, I’m not here to condemn Mr Smith, who has subsequently apologised describing...

The festivities have all passed and we’re well into the second part of January which means … drum roll please …. Blue Monday is behind us and Spring is somewhere up ahead in the not too distant future.  

Executive Function challenges are not part of the diagnostic criteria for autism but they are strongly correlated and often pose major roadblocks in everyday life.  

So what are Executive Function Skills?

I wish there was a simple answer but unfortunately we have little consensus on the subject. Researchers are still debating which skills should be included under this umbrella term.

I like to think of them as the “office manager of the brain”. They are the complex brain processes we use in the many day-to-day tasks that keep life on track.  

Dawson and Guare’s 2009^* model highlights key Executive Function skills which include the ability to:

• think flexibly and revise plans when there are...

This morning I woke up to an email that brought a smile to my face. News I had been hoping to receive had finally arrived! There was quite literally a spring in my step until …. I discovered that it was a scam.

For some inexplicable reason, someone had put their amazing techy skills to bad use and I became another statistic. Two weeks prior to this, my daughter was caught by a scam which resulted in the entire contents of her bank account being emptied.

Scams, fake news, counterfeit vaccine passports … it seems to be everywhere at the moment. It’s hard to know who to believe and all too easy to distrust. I got so suspicious after my daughter’s scam that I ignored a perfectly valid message from Royal Mail!

Trust once broken is very hard to restore. Did you ever stop to consider why?

Being caught in a scam is one thing but close relationships that have been hurt by broken trust are extremely hard to repair.

When trust is...

Uncertainty has been the theme tune for the past two years.  

So many things exist outside of our control on the world stage … fuel shortages, volcanos, pandemics … I could keep going but you get the gist.

When facing uncertainty, we have a tendency to unravel. By nature, most of us like to know what is around the next corner and often feel fearful when dealing with the unknown. 

The “not knowing” is often far worse than the actual difficulty itself. Once we are in the situation, we have no choice but to deal with it.

Bob Marley said,

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice”.

But in the anticipation stage, the battle with uncertainty rages in our minds … where we are prone to catastrophising.

Although this applies to the majority, it is likely to be more exaggerated for autistic people where there is generally a higher level of need for order, predictability and control.  So in addition to...

Our cat went missing this week. On the global scale of things, not exactly a major issue but for our family, it was huge. This little guy has captured our hearts and it was hard to think of anything else besides whether or not he was OK.

Before you tell me to settle down because let’s face it, cats do roam, let me explain my “why”. He was found by a neighbour as a tiny kitten, injured and on the brink of death. We never discovered what caused his trauma but he survived against the odds and made his home with our family of humans and pets.

As time passed, he grew into a strong and feisty boy but he remained vigilant especially when outdoors. He stayed near and never delivered any birds or mice as presents - thank goodness! At best, he managed to swat a passing fly or spider.

So we were worried. Very worried. We hunted high and low. We put food out. Left the garage door open. Watched the windows incessantly … but nothing.

And then, something interesting...

Did you look at yourself in the mirror this morning? Do you like the person who was looking back at you? Or perhaps, like so many of us, you noticed your flaws rather than your assets.

Some years ago, I visited a funfair which had distortion mirrors as part of the attraction. You know the ones that change your proportions to make you look ridiculous?

Well, if laughter is the best medicine, we certainly got a good dose that day! Elongated heads, enormous stomachs and bulging biceps to name a few altered body parts. Personally, I liked the one that made me look like a top-notch athlete!

I was thinking about those mirrors this week during a conversation with a client. Ben (not his real name) was describing what he thought of himself. He used the words: “worthless, a failure and not good enough.”

I was surprised by what he said since I know that he is a young man with many great qualities and talents. It sounded to me like a very distorted picture of reality.

But just in...

It’s summertime here in the UK –  though you won’t get any clues from the weather! Despite our gloomy skies, it’s the season for outdoor theatre. Across the UK, audiences swap their opulent theatre seats for picnics and deck chairs. And as they say … the show goes on … come rain or shine.

A few years back, I took my children to see a play in a walled garden near our home. When the performance ended, I was surprised to see only a handful of actors on stage. As it turns out, the rest of the cast hadn’t done a runner … there weren’t any others. Each person had cleverly played multiple roles.

I remember thinking how incredibly skilled they were to keep changing characters without lapsing into the wrong role. It seemed like a big ask … even if they were trained to act. And yet, what they were doing, is similar to the mental gymnastics we perform when we catch-up with friends or colleagues around the barbecue or water...

Last week, we saw gymnast and gold medallist, Simone Biles, withdraw from the Olympics in Tokyo. As we now know, she chose to prioritise her mental health over her medal count.

For the most part, there was a wonderful outpouring of support – from the likes of Michael Phelps to Michelle Obama and Justin Bieber, but … not everyone was kind.

Some criticised her actions, painting her as selfish and weak. Piers Morgan, journalist and media figure, tweeted:

“Are “mental health issues” now the go-to excuse for any poor performance in elite sport? What a joke. Just admit you did badly, made mistakes, and will strive to do better next time. Kids need strong role models not this nonsense”.

Now, I must admit that my initial response when she pulled out, was disappointment. It looked like she was giving up. Surely this was just an “off” day?

But far from succumbing to defeat, Biles has given us a beautiful example of ...

Embarrassing moments? Yep. We’ve going there today. We’ve all got a tale to tell and here’s one of mine …

In an effort to make friends when we first arrived in the UK, my husband and I would often invite people to tea over the weekend. There’s nothing like a good carrot cake and I loved having an excuse to eat some!

But it was only when my children started to visit friends of their own that the penny finally dropped. “Tea” has different meanings. English people use “tea” in the way that I would use “dinner”.

I don’t know how many people came to my home expecting a meal, only to be given a piece of cake, but there were quite a few. It was 5 years before my first child was even born so I had plenty of opportunity to offend!

That mini cultural difference is an example of the confusion that often happens in neurotypical / neurodivergent communication exchanges.

Autism is sometimes...