Everybody Stims

The other day, while watching Dan interact with a group of schoolmates on a basketball court,  someone said to me: "It's so great how those kids are so good to him." It was said in kindness but I felt like I'd been slapped. Why is it so great? Why should we be thankful for someone being "good" to him? She spoke as if he were a cranky, distant great-uncle that we bring a poundcake to in the nursing home once a year. Like it was a favor to be good to him. I gave a wide, frozen smile and nodded, unable to speak as she beamed at me beatifically. Should I be feeling lucky that he's not treated like an outsider? Stoned in the village square? Just let me know please, because if so, I'm having difficulty with social rules. I will probably need a teensy minute to regroup and maybe a social story for someone to coach me through this if this is the case. It's so great, but wait, those kids don't get props for being great to the other kids on tha...

Over two years ago I went out with a dear friend and got another tattoo. It was a little green unicorn, sketched on my wrist over a tiny "Ohm" symbol. A unicorn, designed together with a wonderful ink artist and yogi friend, inspired by a bucket-list  meeting with my favorite young adult fantasy author. He has been my heart's mentor as a writer since I first discovered his novels and short stories in middle school. Meeting him met all my wildest pre-adolescent writer's dreams;  he embodied his writer's soul in person just as I hoped and always knew he would. So I got a sweet, little unicorn with a green mane on the new, basic-girl trendy spot:the inside of my left wrist. The first client that I saw after it had healed was one of my favorite long term clients who is a young lady with autism.  In my practice I work with kids in different environments and build skills in their real worlds. Sometimes that looks like therapy in a child's home, in a school, ...