We really can do things our own way

October is ADHD Awareness Month. So, in many ways our decision to re-release our podcast episode with April Snow came at a particularly good time as both the podcast and ADHD Awareness Month highlight the broader topic of neurodiversity.

And, serendipitously, I also just spent the last 3 days at an ADHD conference - which covered a much broader array of neurodiverse topics than the name implies. Suffice to say, all these things have just naturally turned my thoughts towards the topic of neurodiversity, our profession, and self-care.

One of my favourite stories is about a mother cooking a roast for her family. Her young daughter is helping her in the kitchen and notices her mother cuts off the end of the roast before putting it in the pan and in the oven. Being curious (one of our bonus Cs in our 4C model), the little girl asks her mother “Mom, why did you cut off the end of the roast before cooking it?” Her mother pauses for a moment and says, “That’s the way my mom always did it.”

Not being satisfied with her mother’s response, the little girl decides to ask her grandmother the same question but receives a similar response “That’s the way my mom always did it.”

Well, this little girl’s curiosity wouldn’t allow her to stop there. She decides to speak with her great grandmother and asks her the same question. To which her great grandmother responds, “I had to cut off the end of the roast to fit it into the pan.”

So, what does this story have to do with neurodiversity, our profession, and self-care?

Well, for me it’s a great reminder about how easy it is to accept a certain way of doing things just because that’s how it’s “always” been done. In our profession that might mean things like the length of our sessions, the amount of time between our appointments, how many clients we see in a day, the way we deliver our services, how we write reports, and the list goes on and on.

As April points out in our podcast interview, the way things have historically been done in our profession may not work well for all of us (maybe not for most of us female therapists). April’s examples of her own journey beautifully highlight how we can make creative changes in our work to better align with our own unique qualities and circumstances and still provide effective (maybe even more effective) and ethical care to our clients.

This topic beautifully illustrates the application of our 4 C’s model of self-care, as it really does check off all the C’s: Connection (connecting with who you really are), Compassion (proudly owning your uniqueness), Creativity (thinking about self-care practices at work that align with your unique qualities) and finally Courage (to experiment with different ways of being and doing).

A simple first step in this process: Spend some time thinking about your unique qualities or circumstances and some possible ways of experimenting with self-care practices that truly honour you as an individual. Or, even just have a conversation with a trusted female colleague about the general topic of individual differences and self-care in our profession.