Elinor Trier describes herself as a “Sparkly Champion of Neurodivergent and Queer Joy”. She’s a neuroqueer AuDHD artist, writer, podcaster, YouTuber, and founder of Elinor Trier Studio, where she creates artwork that reminds us that we’re not the 'odd one out', we’re 'one of a kind’. Elinor says, “It wasn’t until I became a certified weirdo by getting an official autism diagnosis in my mid-thirties that my life started to actually make sense.” In this conversation we talk about the power of art ...
May 03, 2025•59 min•Ep. 128
Anna has been on a real journey of self discovery, from refusing to entertain the idea that she might have a diagnosable condition, to devouring every book she could get her hands on that might help her understand her autism and OCD. Now in her thirties, Anna talks to me about her experiences of the autism diagnostic process, having OCD and receiving treatment in various forms, and becoming housebound following the Covid pandemic. She also shares her fascinating internal world of synaesthesia, a...
Mar 08, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 127
Hannah Brockway is a violinist in her thirties from Australia; music has been her lifelong special interest. Since discovering her autism Hannah has realised that many of the people she’s gravitated towards in her life are neurodivergent too. In this episode Hannah shares some of her experiences around chronic fatigue, anorexia and panic disorder, needing to take two assessments before finally getting her autism diagnosis, and some of the difficulties she’s faced as an autistic professional musi...
Mar 01, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 126
Malori talks about her experience of spending seven years being given various misdiagnoses and being medicated and treated for conditions that she didn't have. Now, with the knowledge that she is autistic, Malori reflects back on her journey through the mental health system, what she's learned, and what's changed for the better since she first sought help for the difficulties that she was experiencing back in 2015. Content warning: in this episode, Malori shares some of her experience of getting...
Feb 22, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 125
This is the third and final in my miniseries of bonus ‘revisit’ episodes, in which I reconnect with guests from previous seasons. This week, I talk with psychotherapist Cloie Parfitt, who I first talked to a couple of years ago, in the summer of 2022. Cloie is originally from Tennessee in the United States, and now lives in Norwich in the UK, where she has a private practice working with mainly neurodivergent clients. Cloie’s doctoral research in counselling and psychotherapy at the University o...
Sep 21, 2024•58 min•Ep. 124
I first released this episode in July 2022, as part of Season 6. And this week I’ve released a brand new episode with Cloie, as part of a miniseries of revisits, where I reconnect with some of my guests from previous conversations. So here’s Cloie’s original episode, for those of you new to the podcast, or in case you’d like to refresh your memory before listening to the new episode (that’s episode 124). Cloie Parfitt is a psychotherapist, originally from Tennessee in the United States, now livi...
Sep 21, 2024•56 min•Ep. 123
I am thrilled to bring you this conversation with somatic therapist Aisha Edwards, in which we talk about autism and loneliness. This continues a short series of revisits, where I reconnect with some of my guests from previous episodes. I first met Aisha two years ago, in 2022, when we recorded the bonus episode at the end of Season 6. Aisha is a somatic trauma therapist, podcaster and writer from Vancouver, Washington, USA and was diagnosed autistic in 2021. Since we last spoke, she has been fo...
Aug 31, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 122
I first released this episode in the summer of 2022, at the end of Season 6. And this week I’ve released a brand new episode with Aisha, as part of a short series of revisits, where I reconnect with some of my guests from previous conversations. So here’s Aisha’s original episode, for those of you new to the podcast, or in case you’d like to refresh your memory before listening to the new episode (that’s episode 122). Aisha Edwards is a somatic trauma therapist, podcaster and writer from Vancouv...
Aug 31, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 121
I recorded this special episode with former Squarepeg guest Sophie Longley. I last spoke with Sophie at the end of 2020, when she was working as an English teacher in Singapore and was about to start her Masters in Experimental psychology at the University of Sussex. (If you’d like to go back and listen to her original episode again to refresh your memory, that’s episode 15 - Season 2, Episode 3). Since graduating, Sophie has done a lot of things, trying out different career paths while processi...
Aug 10, 2024•58 min•Ep. 120
This episode was recorded in the autumn of 2020 and originally released as part of the second season of Squarepeg. I was delighted to get to speak to Sophie again recently, in 2024, and that new episode is now available for you to listen to. So I’m re-releasing my original conversation with Sophie here, so that anyone who wants to can refresh their memory before listening to my update with Sophie, episode 120. Sophie Longley is an English teacher and reading specialist. She was diagnosed autisti...
Aug 10, 2024•46 min•Ep. 119
In this bonus episode I share more about my own autism journey, and talk about my career-ending burnout and creating authentically autistic lives we don't want to escape from. Squarepeg is a podcast in which neurodivergent women, and trans and nonbinary people, explore navigating a neurotypical world and share their insights, challenges and successes. I hope that these conversations will be inspiring and thought provoking, open you up to new ways of thinking about being neurodivergent, and help ...
May 04, 2024•17 min•Season 9Ep. 118
Rose Matthews is an Autism Researcher, peer reviewer, consultant, presenter, trainer, and writer from Durham in the UK. Now 64, they first realised they might be autistic at 58 - and finally ‘found the answer to a lifetime of confusion’. Their long journey to diagnosis included an extremely varied career, leaving their marriage, living apart from their children, and being arrested and detained in a police cell following a ‘catastrophic’ meltdown. In recent years they have gone from a job as a cr...
Apr 06, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 9Ep. 117
Dani Rodwell is a licensed Clinical Social Worker, therapist, and Co-founder of NeuroSpark Health. She lives in New Jersey, USA. She has worked in the field of autism and neurodevelopmental conditions for over 7 years - including working with neurodivergent youth, a brief period in Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), then internships at The Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health, in mental health programming for neurodivergent adults and a support group for parents of neurodivergent ...
Mar 30, 2024•1 hr•Season 9Ep. 116
Nigel Rising is the Founder and CEO of Autistic Women Emerging, a charity that aims to change the lives of undiagnosed and newly diagnosed autistic women. The charity was born out of her own personal struggle with depression and suicidal ideation, and it is her hope to help prevent autistic women taking their lives because they believe they are bad people, or a burden to others. Nigel says: “My post-diagnosis journey has become a mission to understand and address why it took so long to discover ...
Mar 23, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 9Ep. 10
Anissa Ljanta is a writer, a neurodivergent specialist coach, educator and equity and inclusion advocate living in the remote hills of a wild surf beach in West Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. She grew up in Samoa and South Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand, where she was deemed a gifted child but was unable to deliver results. Her inability to live the expected 9-5 life led her to step out of life as most people know it, spending 18 years going from one adventure to another in various corners of...
Mar 16, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 9Ep. 114
Marisa Hamamoto is a leading voice in disability inclusion, professional dancer and founder of Infinite Flow, an award-winning dance company and nonprofit that employs disabled and nondisabled dancers with a mission to create a more inclusive world, one dance at a time. Marisa is a stroke survivor, and a proud fourth-generation Japanese American. She was diagnosed autistic in 2022, which she describes as bringing a mixture of ‘Relief and confusion’ - being a seasoned leader and ally in the physi...
Mar 09, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 9Ep. 113
Dr Mel Houser is a family physician in Montpelier, Vermont in the United States, with a clinical focus on providing medical care for neurodivergent patients across the lifespan. Now 40, she was diagnosed autistic two years ago, following a burnout - and at the same time was diagnosed as ADHD, dyspraxic, dyslexic, and dyscalculic. She is also the parent of an autistic 6 year old. Dr Houser is the Founder and Executive Director of All Brains Belong, a nonprofit organisation in Montpelier that prov...
Mar 02, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 9Ep. 112
Dana Michel is a live performance artist and choreographer in Montreal, Canada, where she creates experiences based on a mixture of improvisation, choreography, hip-hop, cinematography, techno, poetry and social commentary. Now 47, she self identified as autistic in 2020. She also has a diagnosis of ADHD. Before graduating in Contemporary Dance in her late twenties, Dana was a marketing executive, competitive runner and football player. During her career as a performance artist she has received ...
Jan 27, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 9Ep. 111
Vic Weiner is a youth justice attorney and lifelong social justice activist in the USA. They were brought up by a college professor mother in an unconventional home without a TV, and as a child they always felt like an outsider. However, as they grew up and continued to struggle socially, they realised it wasn’t just their unusual upbringing - there was something else going on. They were diagnosed autistic at 34. Vic attended Warren Wilson College, a unique university where the students work and...
Jan 20, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 9Ep. 110
Gemma Gray is a strategic marketing consultant from Edinburgh in Scotland. She left her long-term role following a burnout two years ago and became self-employed. She is a parent to an autistic daughter, and was diagnosed herself in March this year, aged 46. Still in the early days of her diagnosis, she says she is unravelling being a people-pleasing professional masker with chronic low self esteem and imposter syndrome. Eight years ago, before her own diagnosis, Gemma set up a Facebook group fo...
Jan 13, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 9Ep. 109
Naomi Ghafoor is a mental health activist who has spent over a decade battling the mental healthcare system and dealing with misdiagnoses, negligence and systemic abuse, which recently led to her suing her NHS mental health trust earlier this year. Now 26, she works as a Lived Experience Leadership Officer for a mental health charity in London, UK and is passionate about sharing her experiences and using her voice to uplift and empower others. She was diagnosed autistic at 24. In our conversatio...
Jan 06, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 9Ep. 108
Dr Alexandra Johnston is an academic and social anthropologist from Melbourne, Australia. Now 49, she was diagnosed in March 2023. She lives with her wife, Cherie, who she describes as the first person she ever truly unmasked with. She has several degrees, including a Masters and PhD in Psychology, and her special interests include writing, writing and… writing! So much so, that she self-diagnosed by conducting a literature review of autism, and writing a 45,000 word report on her findings. I fo...
Dec 30, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 9Ep. 107
Dr Megan Anna Neff is a neurodivergent Clinical Psychologist from Portland, Oregon, in the USA. She has a small private practice specialising in neurodivergent-affirming therapy and is the founder of Neurodivergent Insights, where she creates education and wellness resources for neurodivergent adults. She is also co-host of the Divergent Conversations podcast. Dr Neff is dedicated to educating the mental health field on non-stereotypical presentations of autism and ADHD. Now 39, she was diagnose...
Dec 23, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 9Ep. 106
Livia Sara is an eating disorder survivor, mental health coach, autism advocate and author from the Netherlands. ** Listen ad-free by joining my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/squarepegpodcast ** Diagnosed autistic at 20, she now helps other neurodivergent people recover from disordered eating through learning to embrace their unique traits. She takes a holistic approach to health and healing, supporting each individual on their own journey to recovery and living life to their fullest potentia...
Jun 24, 2023•59 min•Ep. 105
Gem Kennedy is a Coach and podcaster from Essex in the UK. They are non-binary and queer, and self identified as autistic and ADHD last year, at 35. ** Listen ad-free by joining my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/squarepegpodcast ** They are a Transformational Coach, facilitator and advocate, supporting neurodivergent and queer folk, present a podcast called Queers & Co., and are also co-parent to two home educated autistic children. They are passionate about body liberation, queering thing...
Jun 17, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 8Ep. 104
Kirstie Pickles is an equine vet, academic, mum and mental health advocate from Derbyshire in the UK. Now 49, she was diagnosed autistic at 47, following her daughter’s diagnosis. She is passionate about sharing her story and raising the awareness of neurodiversity to allow for better self-advocacy and reduce the stigma associated with autism, and is currently researching autism within her profession, and is involved in an autism awareness training programme for medical professionals as an exper...
Jun 10, 2023•58 min•Season 8Ep. 103
Maisie Soetantyo is the founder of a nonprofit with a mission to improve employment prospects for autistic jobseekers and aspiring business owners. Now an openly autistic advocate and inclusivity trainer, she has been working with neurodivergent people since her undergraduate studies in 1991, but it would be many years before some of her clients started suggesting that she might be autistic, too. A former Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) practitioner, she moved away from ABA after realising th...
Jun 03, 2023•58 min•Season 8Ep. 102
Laura Richmond is a writer and researcher from Southampton in the UK. Now 35, she was diagnosed autistic last year. She had an extremely difficult road to diagnosis. Social and emotional struggles in childhood led to her being in and out of the psychiatric system for 15 years, misdiagnosed and spending time in various psychiatric hospitals. The turning point came when her son was born: after a traumatic birth she developed PTSD and spent time in a psychiatric mother and baby unit. Her positive e...
May 27, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 101
Rosie Smith is the owner of a non-profit radical bookshop in Canton in Cardiff, just a couple of miles from where I live. Now 32, she grew up just outside Cardiff with her mum and sister. Leaving school at 16 due to anxiety, eating disorders and mental health issues, she found her people in music, joining bands and doing various different jobs until she decided to open the bookshop in 2019, after quitting her 27th job. Rosie’s wonderful shop, Shelf Life, works with independent publishers to stoc...
May 20, 2023•58 min•Season 8Ep. 100
Kay Louise Aldred is a writer, facilitator, teacher, mentor, and resource creator from North Yorkshire in the UK. Now 49, she was diagnosed autistic quite recently, last November. A former teacher, just like me she suffered burnout, left her career and became self employed before discovering her autism. Now she and her husband are co-authoring a book, Embodied Education: Creating Safe Space for Learning, Facilitating and Sharing, which will be available late autumn 2023. She has worked with chil...
May 13, 2023•56 min•Season 8Ep. 99
