When I sit down to crochet (one of my favorite sensory-soothing activities), my cat always loves to join. The movement of the yarn riles her up, and she’ll swat at it or pounce at me from different angles to attack her prey — I mean, the yarn. 🧶

It’s actually super unhelpful for me — my process ends up looking like two stitches forward, one stitch back, as the yarn inevitably gets tangled by her ferocious attacks.

But I don’t get mad, because it makes total sense to me why she does this. Hunting instincts are in cats’ DNA. Asking her to not play with yarn is like asking her to not be a cat.
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All of this is a valuable reminder for me about honoring our nervous systems, our neural wiring, and our authentic self-expression. In other words, my cat reminds me how to be a human. 😅

Here’s what that means for us: just as we can accept that cats will do cat-like things, we can also accept the quirks, tendencies, traits that make us human — and learn to work with our humanness, rather than against it.

For example:

🌊 Maybe you experience your energy as a wave, not a line — high at certain times of day, and low at other times — and you learn to work with the ebbs and flows, rather than expecting yourself to be constantly “on.”

🧠 Maybe your brain makes decisions most clearly once you’ve had a few nights to sleep on it — so you learn to tell people, “let me think about it,” instead of rushing to answer.

🥣 Maybe you eat the same food for breakfast every day to reduce decision fatigue (one less thing to plan!), and because the consistency feels safe & comforting for your nervous system.

💃🏽 Maybe you need to stim and move your body in order to feel present & regulated, so instead of expecting yourself to sit still during a conversation, you listen to your body’s needs.

Whatever way you happen to be human, what if you allowed yourself to express yourself as unapologetically as cats chase yarn?

With care,

ON THE PODCAST Neurodiversity-Affirming Care: Differences are Not Deficits The care you receive – whether in therapy, coaching, or other healing spaces – shouldn’t require you to mask. It should allow space for your authentic self, autonomy, and choice in every step of the process. In this episode, I explain what neurodiversity-affirming care is, why it’s helpful for everyone, and how we can work with our strengths & challenges, without sugarcoating or pathologizing. LISTEN HERE 🌻

P.S. Know someone who needs to hear this? Forward it along. New readers can subscribe ​here​.

P.P.S. If you’re interested in working together, I’d love to support you.

🌻 For folks who are overwhelmed & burnt out, but too busy for weekly therapy, I offer Nervous System Healing Intensives​ — three 90-minute sessions, using brain-body modalities (Brainspotting, IFS, EMDR) that go deeper than talk therapy & help you feel better, sooner.

Intensives are a type of short-term, accelerated therapy — for folks who prefer a hyper-focused approach to healing; who need longer than 50-min sessions to warm up & process deeply.

👉🏽 If you want to get an Intensive on the books, click here to book an intro call.

I help highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults heal their nervous systems & connect with their authentic selves.

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