Gladstone Region Autistic & Neurodivergent Network Inc - GRANN

17/06/2026

New paper: psychotherapy frameworks need to not be based in neuronormative assumptions; neurodiversity-affirming practice requires epistemic humility, collaborative care, and rethinking how we define progress to prevent harm and promote wellbeing.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13623613261457948](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13623613261457948?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExNUcwODNBTVdLejUwNEdIRHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR4YGEiRHsBXgsupENHBlWa7KwKtTNc0hlGFcvOBCbyq9BWsDz4-bku65fgqkQ_aem_3AaGcGV3zDhZVOwfDKX6Sg

Copy can be requested via https://www.researchgate.net/publication/407065896_Towards_Neurodiversity-Affirming_Co-Produced_Competence_Frameworks_in_Psychotherapy_An_Autistic-Led_Call_to_Action

17/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/19BEi6CXJS/?mibextid=wwXIfr

17/06/2026

What if many autistic people don’t struggle with interoception because they "can’t" feel their bodies… but because they were taught not to trust them? 🌻

We often hear that autistic people have “poor interoception”- difficulty noticing hunger, pain, bladder signals, fatigue, emotional states, or internal body sensations.

But what if, for many neurodivergent people, this isn’t an inherent deficit at all?

What if years of being told:
“You’re too sensitive.”
“That doesn’t hurt.”
“Stop overreacting.”
“Ignore it.”
“Get over it.”

…teaches a child that listening to their body is unsafe.

Many autistic, ADHD and AuDHD people grow up experiencing:
• migraines triggered by light, smell, sound, touch
• digestive issues and chronic illness
• pain that others cannot see
• sensory overwhelm dismissed as “behaviour”
• repeated punishment for reacting to genuine physiological distress

Over time, survival sometimes means disconnecting.

Not because the body stopped sending signals.

But because staying connected to constant pain, without support or environmental change, becomes unbearable.

So the nervous system adapts.

And later, what professionals may interpret as “poor interoception” may actually be years of learned dissociation, chronic invalidation, and a brain doing exactly what it needed to do to survive.

This has profound implications for:
🌱 autistic and neurodivergent individuals
🌱 parents and caregivers
🌱 educators
🌱 doctors and allied health professionals
🌱 therapists using somatic or body-based approaches

Sometimes what looks like dysfunction… is adaptation.

Sometimes what looks like deficit… is survival.

We’ve written a deeper piece exploring why this conversation matters and why deficit-based assumptions about autism need far more scrutiny.

Read the full article now at:
https://www.grann.com.au/blog/3229498_when-we-stop-listening-to-our-bodies-because-the-world-taught-us-to

📚 We’re also developing follow-up resources for community, families and professionals around interoception, chronic illness, sensory trauma, nervous system regulation and neuro-affirming practice.

Because at GRANN, lived experience is expertise coupled with autistic-led research.

At GRANN, we spend a great deal of time listening to conversations happening across the autistic, ADHD, AuDHD, disability and neurodivergent communities.

17/06/2026

🌿 THIS IS ME: NEUROKIND CIRCLES 🌿

Check out GRANN's June to August 2026 timetable!

Join us for a series of Neurodivergent-led and supported community sessions designed around authenticity, creativity, and autonomy, where we hope you find a sense of belonging and connection.

Across the next three months, we'll be exploring:
👐 The Squish & Sculpt Clayground: Parallel Play (Air-Dry) Clay Edition
We plan to create, sculpt, fidget, build tiny worlds, explore textures, and enjoy low-pressure creative connection.

🎭 Shadow and Shape: Shadow Play and Puppets
Discover storytelling, shadow theatre, puppet-making, imagination, sensory creativity, and collaborative world-building.

💻 Online Community Connections: A blend of Body Doubling, Parallel Play & Special Interests
Connect from wherever you are. Join us for body doubling, creative co-working, special interest sharing, infodumping, crafting, gaming, studying, organising, or simply existing alongside others.

✨ Neurodivergent-led
✨ Neuro-affirming
✨ Flexible participation
✨ Low-demand facilitation
✨ No forced socialising
✨ Multiple ways to communicate and participate
✨ Designed for authentic connection without pressure

Whether you're looking for creativity, community, quiet companionship, shared interests, or a space where masking isn't required (but we understand that it can be automatic), This Is Me: NeuroKind Circles was created with neurodivergent people at its centre.

Registrations are now open.
📍 View the full June-August timetable, session information, accessibility supports, community values, and registration details via:
🌱 https://www.grann.com.au/events
🌱 humanitix.com

Come as you are. Stay as long as works for you. Participate in ways that feel right for you. 🌻

These gentle, neuro-affirming spaces are here to support motivation, connection, and co-regulation — whether you’re working through a to-do list, starting something creative, or just want company while doing your own thing.

16/06/2026

16/06/2026

🌻 TL;DR: The Elephant Standing in the Room Wearing a Sunflower Lanyard

Something deeply concerning is happening across the disability sector, looking beyond the NDIS reforms that is.

Providers are rapidly rebranding themselves with language like neuroaffirming, trauma-informed, strengths-based, rights-based, person-centred, belonging, and lived experience.

On the surface, it looks like progress.

But many of these same services still operate inside systems built on the very frameworks autistic and disabled communities have spent years critiquing: ABA histories, Positive Behaviour Support models, compliance cultures, behavioural observation, intervention-based practice, and professional authority over autistic lives.

The language has changed.
The structure often has not.

What we are increasingly witnessing is neuro-washing.

Not overt attempts to “fix autism” like the old days.
Something far more sophisticated.

Families are now being sold hope through softer language:
✨ Your child’s future is not defined by today’s challenges
✨ Different does not mean less
✨ The brain can change through neuroplasticity
✨ We don’t want to change who your child is
✨ We are neuroaffirming

But autistic-led scholarship has been warning us:
If systems built on observing, analysing, documenting, managing, and intervening on autistic behaviour suddenly adopt neurodiversity language without fundamentally changing power structures…

That is not transformation.
That is adaptation.

As thinkers like David Gray-Hammond, Nick Walker, Robert Chapman, and Fergus Murray remind us:
Neurodiversity was never about finding gentler ways to modify autistic people.

It was about challenging the assumption that autistic people needed modification in the first place.

So community needs to ask harder questions.

Are providers changing practice?

Or are they simply becoming more fluent in the language of trust?

Because autistic people have learned something history taught us well:
Sometimes systems do not abandon harmful frameworks.

Sometimes they just learn how to hide them better.

The elephant is still in the room.
It is just wearing a sunflower lanyard now.

And community deserves more than prettier coercion. 🌻

Are you seeing neuro-affirming practice… or neurodiversity language being used to sell the same old systems? We want to hear from community.

Read 'The Elephant Standing in the Room Wearing a Sunflower Lanyard' and other blogs available via the GRANN website below:

There is an elephant standing in the disability sector right now.

15/06/2026

A well-meaning corporate autism awareness day has had the unintended effect of triggering an extended bout of self-awareness in an autistic staff member, according to sources.

Graeme Hart, 36, thought he was turning up for a normal workday, only to be bundled into a meeting room like he was being pressganged into the Navy. After getting his bearings and pocketing an unreasonable number of free biscuits, Hart was horrified to see a slide reading “Autism Awareness in the Workplace”, in front of which stood a neurotypical consultant with an unsettlingly well-meaning smile.

Hart said: “From the first slide I knew I was in trouble.” The presenter then reportedly began mercilessly dragging Hart from hell to breakfast, outlining his traits and behaviours like he was a bug pinned to a board by a Victorian naturepervert.

“By the time it was over,” Hart continued, “I was absolutely exhausted. I felt totally naked. All I could think was ‘Oh I really am like that, aren’t I?’ They may as well have called it ‘Isn’t Graeme a Horrid Little Goblin Awareness Day’.”

On returning to his desk, Hart managed to steady himself for just long enough to see a calendar invite for a stress-awareness workshop, which immediately sent him into an anxiety spiral.

Read more on our website: https://thedailytism.com/workplace-autism-awareness-day-triggers-workplace-autism-self-awareness-day/

Support our work and get exclusive content on Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheDailyTism

15/06/2026

Community. Advocacy. Change. Belonging. 🌱

Our latest GRANN newsletter is now live.

This month, we reflect on the recent NDIS Senate hearings and what policy decisions mean for disabled Australians, families, carers, and grassroots communities like ours.
You can read more in-depth musings via the GRANN website:
https://www.grann.com.au/blog

🌿 We also take time to recognise Pride Month, Neurodiversity Pride Day, and Autistic Pride Day, exploring why intersectionality, the neurodiversity paradigm, and creating communities of genuine belonging remain at the heart of everything we do.

Alongside this, we share a gentle reminder of our seasonal wellbeing resource, updates on our This Is Me: NeuroKind Circle Sessions, and reflections on the kind of world we are collectively trying to build.

Because community was never meant to be transactional.
Because advocacy does not stop at policy.
Because belonging should never require changing who you are.

Read the June edition here:
https://www.grann.com.au/newsletter

In solidarity. Always.
The Collaborators @ GRANN 🌻

The Changing the Landscape Statement is our way to fight for all LGBTIQA+2SB people whose lives have ended too soon through su***de. We remember their lives, their struggles and forever their place in our communities.