January Session

This month’s prompts:

Communication difference(s): what is your communication style/difference?
Do you feel understood or misunderstood?
What arts communication presumptions are a barrier for you?
Do some expected communication methods exhaust you or give you energy?
Could you offer ideas, tips and and/or workarounds to others which work for you? 

Only three participants at January's session due to bad weather and illness; One of the participants is new to the group - a multi-disciplinary artist researching Hagwitchery and biases in respective ageing. 

Pernille introduced Sanctuary Sessions and shared what has been discussed in previous sessions. Pernille introduced the Neurodivergent Tender Map the group has been working on. Recalled a brief query around Dyspraxia. Pernille mentions artist  Jess Starns who founded ‘Dyspraxic Me’ charity and mentioned her VR exhibition in February at Hove Museum of Creativity. 

One participant responded to the session prompt regarding communication. For them it's more ‘Who you know, than what you know’. The people, the networks (approach).

We discuss how important support is - having someone that can assist with the avalanche of administration expected or forced on arts practises now - support is invaluable. Access to Work is a valuable/vital form of support within a neurodivergent and/ or disabled art practice.
Creating anything new often means dealing with a lot of correspondence/ emails - back and forwards -some people reply with simple emails others with vast amounts of text. It's difficult to deal with when you start to multiply things.
Communication difficulties vary widely from artist to artist, artists needs and project work scope. Correspondence/communication expectations can be exhausting!

We explored the prompt of communication differences- we briefly discuss difficulties, delays, repeating language and have a discussion about situational mutism in stressful circumstances. We looked at different communication styles such as *Monotropism and *Gestalt language processing.

One of our participants shared their experience of neurodivergent communication style:

Their communication style involved utilising a variety of methods, apparent from an early age. They grew up engaging in singing, dancing, acting, and writing poetry, and found it challenging to assert themselves in conversation unless interacting with those who understood them—often others who were neurodivergent.
They have had a longstanding affinity for language and reading, although the advent of the internet introduced easier alternatives. Over time, clearer thinking—partly attributed to ADHD medication—has made it easier to communicate in conversations and daily life.
Their current communication approach is eclectic, drawing on all available resources, and in new situations, listening tends to take precedence over speaking. When feeling uncomfortable or unsafe, communication is intentionally limited, but this is now voluntary rather than stemming from feelings of inferiority. In earlier years, managing social interactions was characterised by a mix of being tongue-tied and experiencing significant Impostor syndrome.
Now they conserve their energy consciously, wanting to save it for meaningful communication, and to avoid burnout, both in real life and online.
It has taken them years to reach this perspective regarding personal communication capabilities and self-understanding (including unmasking). Support from professionals and meditation have helped too. They feel that continuous learning is ongoing to make communication easier.

I feel like there is alot more to explore for ourselves and others in this area. 

We then had a more general discussion about our work, sharing our practices and creative interests.

We discuss possibly doing summer ‘Texture walks’ on the beach. NeuroHikes are mentioned https://www.instagram.com/neurohikes_/ 

References: 

* Definition of Monotropism: (Taken from Helen Edgars ‘Neuro-affirming Glossary of Key Words and Terms’. 2025 Edition) 
    ‘Monotropic people have an interest based nervous system this means they focused more of their attention resources on fewer things at any one time compared to other people who may be polytropic. Things outside an attention tunnel may get missed and moving between attention tunnels can be difficult and take a lot of energy Monotropism can have a positive and negative impact on social and communication needs depending on the environment coma support provided and how a person manages their mind and body.'

*Definition of Gestalt language processing (GLP):
    People learn from clusters and chunks of language, phrases and music and build language from there. Meaning and context linked.  Gestalt approaches also can be gesture or movement based. 

Recommended read on Substack:  Autside: ‘The Speed of Dark Thought beyond Language.' Jaime Hoerricks, PhD  - Decolonising language. 

Neuro affirming language: 

'Neuro-affirming language is grounded in the Neurodiversity Paradigm'
(Walker 2021)   https://neuroqueer.com/essays/ 

'Adopting a neuro-affirming approach means listening to neurodivergent and disabled voices, honouring authentic identity, and supporting people’s needs, not by trying to fix or change them, but by changing environments, expectations and attitudes to meet diverse needs.'
(Beardon, 2017)