Lottie Jones was diagnosed as a result of her son being identified as autistic PDA in 2018, when he was eight. She is a single parent in her late thirties, and lives in Pembrokeshire in Wales, where she home educates her son, makes macrame and sells vintage items. This conversation came out of a discussion we had on one of my Instagram posts about parenthood and autism, and the particular challenges of being an autistic single parent of an autistic child. In our conversation we talk about ➡ Her ...
Jun 05, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 38
Victoria Evans is a linguist and liberal politician from London. She received her autism diagnosis shortly after graduating university and now regularly takes part in autism and synaesthesia research studies. Victoria believes that diversity of thought brings both social and economic benefits and wants to work to ensure that more autistic people have the opportunity to progress in work. In our conversation we talk about: ➡ Her experience of being at university as an undiagnosed autistic woman ➡ ...
May 29, 2021•57 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Corinne Cariad is self diagnosed autistic and currently waiting for her assessment, but already has a diagnosis of ADHD. She’s 40 and lives in Pembrokeshire in Wales, where she is a consultant with a focus on third sector, food and education. Food has been a special interest for most of her life, and she’s worked in catering, run her own cookery workshops, and been a Food Technology teacher in high schools. In our conversation we talk about: ➡ The overlap of ADHD and autism ➡ Autistic burnout ➡ ...
May 22, 2021•56 min•Season 3Ep. 36
Samantha Grierson Schwartz is a playwright and businesswoman, born in Yorkshire in the UK. She now splits her time between Glasgow, Rugby and London. Since being diagnosed autistic at 42, she has written a series of audio plays which deal with late autism diagnosis and motherhood - the first of which, Crocodile, stars LGBT icon Heather Peace, and tells the story of a bisexual woman dealing with her recent Autism and ADHD diagnosis and the start of a new relationship. In our conversation we talk ...
May 15, 2021•52 min•Season 3Ep. 35
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. My guest today is in her mid twenties and is currently awaiting her autism assessment after seeking help with her mental health following childbirth and the sensory challenges of parenting a small baby. She lives in Baglan, Port Talbot in South Wales where she works in a secure children’s home for youth offenders and ext...
May 08, 2021•52 min•Season 3Ep. 34
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. My guest today was diagnosed autistic very recently. She is originally from the Czech Republic, and now lives in Bristol in the UK. She is a life coach in her 40s, with a background in mathematics and computer science, and describes herself as an extrovert whose special interest is people watching. Today I’m delighted to...
May 01, 2021•58 min•Season 3Ep. 33
My guest today is Scottish comedian Fern Brady. Fern is in her 30s and was diagnosed autistic in January this year, after a series of meltdowns caused her to seek answers. She has been open about her diagnosis from the start, when a throwaway tweet about it went unexpectedly viral! ** Listen ad-free by joining my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/squarepegpodcast ** Fern started out as a journalist before moving into stand-up comedy in 2010. As well as touring, she has appeared on shows such as L...
Apr 24, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 32
This special Squarepeg miniseries celebrates the great things that start to happen in our lives when we discover in adulthood that we’re autistic. In a bit of a change from the usual format, in this episode I share some of the things that have changed for the better in my own life since I was diagnosed autistic, including feeling able to give myself permission to live and work the way I want to and need to, without feeling guilty, reframing my past failures and achievements, and finding a group ...
Apr 04, 2021•21 min•Season 2Ep. 31
This special Squarepeg miniseries celebrates the great things that start to happen in our lives when we discover in adulthood that we’re autistic. Seven of my previous guests have returned to each share the three most important things that have changed for the better in their lives since they were diagnosed, or realised they were autistic. My guest today is Sarah Boon, an MA graduate and autism advocate from Surrey in the UK. I first talked with Sarah about her experiences being autistic at work...
Apr 03, 2021•24 min•Season 2Ep. 30
This special Squarepeg miniseries celebrates the great things that start to happen in our lives when we discover in adulthood that we’re autistic. Seven of my previous guests have returned to each share the three most important things that have changed for the better in their lives since they were diagnosed, or realised they were autistic. My guest today is Alyssa Washington, a coach, speaker and author from Canada, who now lives in South East Asia. I first talked with Alyssa in Series 2, Episod...
Apr 02, 2021•24 min•Season 2Ep. 29
This special Squarepeg miniseries celebrates the great things that start to happen in our lives when we discover in adulthood that we’re autistic. Seven of my previous guests have returned to each share the three most important things that have changed for the better in their lives since they were diagnosed, or realised they were autistic. My guest today is Hannah Smith, a business owner from Hertfordshire in the UK. I first talked with Hannah about homeschooling her autistic daughters in Series...
Apr 01, 2021•26 min•Season 2Ep. 28
This special Squarepeg miniseries celebrates the great things that start to happen in our lives when we discover in adulthood that we’re autistic. Seven of my previous guests have returned to each share the three most important things that have changed for the better in their lives since they were diagnosed, or realised they were autistic. My guest today is Stephanie Silvan, who lives in Finland and is an animal behaviourist, linguist and biologist. I first talked with Stephanie about burnout an...
Mar 31, 2021•25 min•Season 2Ep. 27
This special Squarepeg miniseries celebrates the great things that start to happen in our lives when we discover in adulthood that we’re autistic. Seven of my previous guests have returned to each share the three most important things that have changed for the better in their lives since they were diagnosed, or realised they were autistic. My guest today is Beth Rees, a mental health blogger from Caerphilly in South Wales. I first talked with Beth in Series 2, Episode 9 about her Borderline Pers...
Mar 30, 2021•27 min•Season 2Ep. 26
This special Squarepeg miniseries celebrates the great things that start to happen in our lives when we discover in adulthood that we’re autistic. Seven of my previous guests have returned to each share the three most important things that have changed for the better in their lives since they were diagnosed, or realised they were autistic. My guest today is Audrey Mitchell, a counsellor from Idaho, USA. I first talked with Audrey in Series 1, Episode 9, about raising a daughter when you’re both ...
Mar 29, 2021•25 min•Season 2Ep. 25
My guest today is Jess Hendrickx, owner of Hendrickx Associates, a company in East Sussex, UK that provides non-clinical adult autism assessments and support for autistic young people and adults. Jess was diagnosed herself in 2018, aged 30, and her partner is also autistic. Jess supports autistic adults to build self-awareness, identify their goals and come to terms with their diagnosis. After working in the business as an administrator for several years, and then as an autism coach and mentor, ...
Mar 20, 2021•58 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Deborah Cullinan was diagnosed autistic about 10 years ago. She is a psychotherapist in her early 60s, working in a busy CAMHS clinic (that’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) in Hertfordshire in the UK. She started her career as an artist and art teacher, before retraining and qualifying in Psychoanalytic Child Therapy in 1992, a very different time in terms of mental health. She has gone on to create a role for herself as an autism specialist in CAMHS. In our conversation we talk ab...
Mar 13, 2021•51 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Tara was diagnosed autistic last year, after a conversation with her husband prompted some research into autism. She is 49 and lives in the northern United States, where she works as an visual artist and online education coordinator. Her childhood was unusual, and she now believes that her parents were probably both undiagnosed neurodivergent, and that this impacted on their behaviour and her own upbringing. In our conversation we talk about: ➡ Her childhood, and why she believes her parents wer...
Mar 06, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Beth Rees is currently waiting for her autism assessment after being initially diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. She’s a mental health blogger in her thirties, and lives in Caerphilly in South Wales, where she also works for a local charity. She’s hoping that sharing her story will help other autistic people who have been misdiagnosed with BPD. In my conversation with Beth we talk about: ➡ Being diagnosed with BPD, then realising that the diagnosis doesn’t fit ➡ The journey of disc...
Feb 27, 2021•58 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Hannah Smith is 43 and was diagnosed last year - and her husband and two daughters are also autistic. She lives in Hertfordshire in the UK, where she unschools her children at home, while also running her own face and body art business. She recently trained to be a mindfulness practitioner, and in the future hopes to combine this with therapeutic arts and use her skills and knowledge to serve the autistic community. She wants to share her family’s experiences in order to help other families make...
Feb 20, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Max Marnau is an autistic counsellor in her sixties. She realised she was autistic seven years ago, and was diagnosed in 2019. She was born in London, the daughter of Austro-Hungarian Jews who escaped Nazi persecution just before World War 2. She now lives in the Scottish Borders, where she runs a thriving private practice counselling both neurotypical and autistic people. She also works for Edinburgh University Student Counselling Service. She has degrees from both Cambridge and Oxford universi...
Feb 13, 2021•51 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Noheli Rosas is 28 and was recently diagnosed, after first recognising she might be autistic two years ago. She lives in Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, where she runs her own eco salon specialising in henna body art, ayurvedic hair care and incense making. Her salon allows exposure space for over 30 artists, including many queer and neurodivergent people. Through her business she has found a way to explore her special interests, work to her strengths, meet her needs and make a living - while crea...
Feb 06, 2021•52 min•Season 2Ep. 18
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. My guest today is 30 and was diagnosed autistic about five years ago. She is Indian-American and lives in the US, where she works full time in tech and also as a freelance writer, after spending years moving quickly between different jobs. She has experienced various forms of counselling and other interventions, includin...
Jan 30, 2021•41 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Ella Pitt is 26 and was diagnosed autistic very recently. They’re an English Literature graduate with a first class honours degree and they live and work in Brixton, London, in the UK. They also have a blog and write poetry. They struggled with an eating disorder in their late teens and early twenties, and they were eventually sectioned under the Mental Health Act as their health deteriorated. They spent some time as an inpatient in a specialist hospital, where their then undiagnosed autism impa...
Jan 23, 2021•52 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Sophie Longley is an English teacher and reading specialist. She was diagnosed autistic in 2020, aged 28 and is based in Singapore, where she works with children with reading difficulties. She has spent the last four years living and working in Asia, after suffering from severe burnout from a corporate career in London. Her recent Autism diagnosis and the ongoing struggles she has faced being autistic in the workplace have prompted her to change careers to become a clinical psychologist. She wil...
Jan 16, 2021•45 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Megan is 27 and was diagnosed autistic three years ago. No one ever suspected she might be autistic as a child, and she first realised she might be when she experienced some mental health breakdowns at university. She now lives in West Sussex, UK, where she is the Workflow Team Lead at a GP (family medicine) practice. In our conversation we talk about: ➡ Her time studying at Oxford, one of the top universities in the UK, including its impact on mental health ➡ Coming out as autistic to friends a...
Jan 09, 2021•57 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Alyssa Washington is 31 and was diagnosed autistic in November. Originally from Canada, she now lives in South East Asia, where she runs her own business as a coach, speaker and author. Growing up, she suffered with numerous health conditions, anxiety and depression - that she believes were all linked to her undiagnosed autism. She has spent years learning about health and nutrition in order to improve her own health and wellbeing - something she now helps others to do. In our conversation we ta...
Jan 02, 2021•59 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Hannah Cross is a writer and a student at York St John University, studying Creative Writing and Media. She is 29 and was diagnosed autistic very recently, just last month. Her writing includes novels, short stories, memoir, articles, and poetry. She has resumed her education a little later in life, after experiencing struggles at school and in her early adulthood, including substance misuse and being expelled from school. She says that her life has felt “like a muddle of misunderstandings” and ...
Dec 05, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Artist and writer Charlotte Amelia Poe says they were diagnosed autistic ‘by complete fluke’ when they were 21, after suffering for years with anxiety. In 2018, they won the inaugural Spectrum Art Award with their video piece, How To Be Autistic, and they went on to publish their first book under the same title in 2019. Charlotte is from Suffolk, UK, and says they’ve wanted to be an author their entire life, and believe autistic people have a place in the arts. They are nonbinary and bi/ace. In ...
Nov 28, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Sarah Boon was diagnosed autistic last year, at the age of 24, and was diagnosed with ADHD this year. She initially self diagnosed, after assessments during her childhood failed to diagnose her. She lives in Surrey in the UK, is a former TEFL teacher, and has recently completed an MA in Psychology of Education. She recently started an online survey exploring how autistic psychology students feel about how and what they are taught about autism. In our conversation we talk about: Being misdiagnose...
Nov 21, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Audrey Mitchell discovered she was autistic while in the process of getting a diagnosis for her teenage daughter. She lives in Idaho, USA, where she works in private practice as a counsellor. She’s also a writer. She’s experienced plenty of adversity in life, and struggled to establish herself in adulthood due to her undiagnosed autism. She says that when she was starting her path to diagnosis, she was hungry for information that was relatable and relevant, and in talking to me today she wants t...
Nov 14, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 9
