Castieau Consultancy

I’ve been away at some excellent training this week -
I was so grateful for the opportunity to learn from the incredible Dolores Mosquera who travelled over from Spain to teach us The Progressive Approach with EMDR - which is suitable for use with highly dissociative clients.

I had a wonderful time learning and networking, catching up with old friends and colleagues and making new connections also.

I’m away for a few days at training - how lucky am I to be staying at an airbnb with a cat!
Meet Harry, a rare male
Torbie who has very soft fur 🧡

REASONS TO SMILE! 😁🤗

People pleasing can look like these behaviours

Sensory sensitivity can look like…

What a brilliant resource that NeuroWild developed and shared!

Thank you 🫶🏻

YES, YOU!

I’ve handled every day of my life
I can do this

The Latest Kate

🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🩶🤍

EMDR therapy has 8 phases; and this article explains so well how we progress through those phases in sessions.

“Evaluations of thousands of EMDR sessions suggest a physical response to unresolved trauma memories. Information from traumatic events are stored in body memory, rather than narrative memory, and often retain the negative emotions and physical sensations of the original event. When that information is processed, however, it can then move to narrative (or verbalizable) memory and the body sensations and negative feelings associated with it disappear.

Therefore, an EMDR session is not considered successful until the client can bring up the original target without feeling any body tension.”

The Eight (Magical) Phases of EMDR Therapy Demystified How EMDR works, simplified, phase by phase.

Relationship Window of Tolerance

The Secure Relationship

🧡🩵💜💛💚

Change starts with awareness

There’s not only one way

Your uniqueness is important

Follow the path of the heart

Your differences are not defects

Each person’s journey is different

Don’t measure yourself upon others

Sasa Elebea

Body doubling helps so much!

Body doubling
A neurodiverse connection style
Body doubling is the act of sitting in the same space as someone to provide accountability and hold space whilst one or both perform a task that may otherwise not get done.
It is a connection style common amoung many neurodivergent brains, not just autistic ones.
This is a communication and connection seeking style that helps to keep the communication partners in a parasympathetic state, helping them maintain homeostasis. This allows greater capacity to access the area of the brain required for executive functioning .

When we talk about what is restorative and helps us regain energy; it’s the second slide that talks to us.

“We discuss the difference between autistic burnout and ADHD burnout. Many ADHD-affirming clients want to know why they get so overwhelmed and upset or angry when people don't agree with them or challenge them. Perhaps this is rejection sensitivity dysphoria. Many clients have not heard of this and when they learn about the traits associated with RSD, you can actually see the penny dropping.

Some clients blame their emotions, behaviour and failings on why they get angry or upset and then, through exploration. we may discover that it is their nervous system that is letting them down, not their behaviour, and we can explore that fascinating area of neuroscience.

We talk about masking and how exhausting it can be. People pleasing and being the peacemaker is a popular topic of conversation. So many clients are constantly giving and are very compassionate but feel an imbalance with little good attention coming their way.

Trauma is a big area of the work I do. Clients may have had adverse early life experiences or feel traumatised every day, just because they are autistic and live in a world where the environment is painful, people are mean or they are experiencing sensory overloads.

We talk about spoon theory, building emotional scaffolding, the double empathy problem and why their feelings often don't make sense which is called interoception or alexithymia.

Therapy with me is not passive. I will listen and validate and be a pattern-matching visual detective and then we get on with the task of setting goals, looking at specific techniques and I will offer to send a whole range of helpful resources. I am very curious and want to know everything a client is motivated to discuss in order to help make their lives better. I welcome clients who also want to offload too. They may not have anyone else they can do this with.”

Sally Nilsson is a Psychotherapist in the UK

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/memberarticles/the-relief-when-you-find-a-neurodivergent-counsellor?_gl=1%2Aro0u0e%2A_gcl_aw%2AR0NMLjE3MTg0MDM3OTYuQ2p3S0NBancxSy16QmhCSUVpd0FXZUNPRjFycy1qd2lFWjBrVGxhZlBKX1F5NGJPaHpqZ3V0TS10c2l5SklCMUxudmVmVWhTbkctcXF4b0NDRk1RQXZEX0J3RQ..%2A_gcl_au%2ANDY0ODk4MzYzLjE3MTgzOTQ3NjU.%2A_ga%2AMTkxMjU4OTAyNS4xNzE4Mzk0NzY1%2A_ga_BMWGCG64PD%2AMTcxODM5NDc2NS4xLjEuMTcxODQwMzgxMS4zMy4wLjA&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR06A38s3z8PdvdCHazRdRmznltX6fltjfLS4Dkh9AjsCNzO7jPGY4pSEx8_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw

The relief when you find a neurodivergent counsellor What might clients discover in a neurodivergent counselling session?

In 2021 when Archie was born, I found myself in the darkest depression I had felt. Archie’s birth wasn't what we imagined. I found myself spending the first month of his life living in hospital and caring for him fulltime while his mother recovered.

This had a huge impact on our relationship. We had been together for 7 years and shared some amazing moments, but it all changed after the birth. We both struggled with the situation. I wasn’t prepared to care for Archie full-time.

I am naturally a very social being, but I found myself becoming more and more isolated. I stopped going out or connecting with friends. My mental health was deteriorating, and I wasn’t able to see that unfolding before my eyes.

“I FELT SO OVERWHELMED WITH MY SITUATION THAT I WOULD UNCONTROLLABLY CRY. MY INTERNAL MONOLOGUE WAS CONSTANTLY NEGATIVE, AND THE FEELINGS OF FAILURE WERE SOMETHING I COULDN'T SHAKE. THOSE WERE THE KEY SIGNS TO KNOW I WASN’T DOING OKAY.”

(Read the article for more)

Daniel’s story: Showing yourself love during perinatal challenges | PANDA "It was great to know I had support from people that genuinely loved and cared about me, but I needed to give that love to myself."

Anyone else feeling called out?

What happened to you was not your fault

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Incredible artist

Snakes and Roses

Sasa Elebea nuggets of wisdom