If any reader needs to request a disability accommodation for any portion of this blog, please send me a message and let me know.
I am a non-binary Autistic adult and trauma survivor with a rare heritable connective tissue disorder. I identify as disabled, and I seek to embody and communicate a critical advocacy. While I am still an attorney, I am not currently practicing law. For several years, I have been a full-time caregiver to our two autistic children and our neurodivergent child with complex congenital heart defects. While I love research, writing, and advocacy work, I feel strongly that caregiving labor has enormous value and meaning, perhaps especially so in the context of disability and late capitalism.
*
I stand firmly against ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis), other coercive autism “interventions,” all forms of restraint, seclusion, “aversives,” and the continued use of corporal punishment against children.
*
I consider myself a post-behaviorist.
*
I seek to always be learning from, listening to, and paying more marginalized persons. My hope as a white, Appalachian person of mixed European descent is to remain committed to intersectional justice, to unpack my privileges and biases, and to do my part to dismantle white supremacy and colonialism.
*
My perspective has been and continues to be informed by lived experience, trauma studies, the neurodiversity movement, disability rights, human rights and civil liberties, psychological anthropology, mindbody studies, legal and ethical inquiry, textual analysis, and an eclectic blend of non-behaviorist schools of psychology.
For a legion of reasons, I have had to take a long hiatus from this project. In late 2021, I am working on a return to researching and writing for this blog. As I renew this work, I may make some changes while I’m at it (including to this “About the Author” section).
I am also currently doing some continuing education courses and organizing a return to formal course work for another degree and certificate.
As my kids age and their needs shift, I look forward to reconnecting with and expanding my non-caregiving work.
Please feel free to contact me for consultation, collaboration, and co-writing opportunities.
I am not a therapist, counselor, or mental health professional.
I am not a medical doctor or other qualified health services professional.
Nothing I write will be or should be construed to be medical advice, psychotherapeutic advice, or other professional health advice or services.
While I am a member of a state Bar, nothing I write will be or should be construed to be legal advice or legal services.
At this point, I have no awareness of my having any financial or non-financial conflicts of interests that I believe should be disclosed as a matter of ethics.