Living Regional, Rural, and Remote as a Neurodivergent Person with Avril Fazel
The Neurodivergent WomanShow Notes
This week Monique chats with Avril Fazel about living in regional, rural, and remote areas as a neurodivergent person. Avril lives on the lands of Kuungkari, Bidjera and Inningai peoples, between the rural towns of Blackall and Tambo in outback Queensland. She identifies as intersectional feminist with lived experiences in mental illness and neurodivergence, and her social discourse is influenced by her backgrounds in education, community work, and being a local grazier.
We hope you enjoy this beautiful chat as much as we did!
Monique and Avril cover: How Avril thinks about neurodivergence and the importance of curiosity. Avril’s path to understanding her own neurodivergence and to diagnosis at 50. Barriers to services when living rural and remote. The proportion of people living regional, rural, and remote experiencing disability, and why neurodivergent folk might gravitate to these areas. Avril’s experience of community in her local area, and balancing solitude with community engagement. Avril’s experience of the nature and sensory-based components of living rurally. How Avril’s deep interest in understanding different ways of learning impacted her teaching. The importance of transparent communication and modelling self-understanding and self-regulation strategies when teaching kids. Avril’s current special interests.
Things we mentioned: Queensland State Government’s Assessment and Referral Team (ART) Fact sheet on disability access to the NDIS in rural Australia. Check-UP Access for All project - an education tool and app to help medical and allied staff better understand disability. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
Got questions for us?? Come along to our LIVE Q&A event! Held online on 27th June (with replay available to all ticket holders). Grab a ticket here and submit your question!
Enjoyed this episode and want more content? Join our Patreon community! Patreon subscribers receive ad-free episodes, basic episode transcripts from Season 4 onwards, 50% off our episode articles, plus access to a huge backlog of bonus content, including bonus episodes, access to online courses, tip sheets and workbooks, and guided meditation practices. Check out our Patreon page to support us, as we aim to make quality mental health care information accessible to everyone: www.patreon.com/ndwomanpod.
Want polished copies of our episodes in beautiful and readable pdf article format? Grab them here.
Contact us at [email protected], or visit our website: www.ndwomanpod.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from The Neurodivergent Woman
For our final episode for Season 7, we’re thrilled to welcome clinical psychologist and lived-experience speaker, Lumen Gorrie (they / them), to speak with us about gender diversity. Lumen is a queer, trans, multiply neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled person based in Naarm. Lumen is passionate about neurodivergence, gender, queerness, disability and accessibility, making systemic change, and (in their words) neuroqueering the heck out of things!
In this week’s episode we’ll be discussing family violence and domestic abuse. These are important conversations, but they can also be distressing or triggering for some listeners. If this episode feels too difficult to listen to right now, please take care of yourself and consider coming back to it when you feel ready—or just skipping it altogether. And if you or someone you know is currently experiencing domestic abuse, please know that you're not alone and that support is available. We’ve included links and resources below if you need help or someone to talk to.
This week Monique welcomes Arnikka de Kort to the podcast, to chat about breastfeeding and infant sleep.
On this week’s episode Monique chats with two amazing guests – Specialist GP Dr Megan Thomas (she / they) and Clinical Psychologist Bianca Comfort (she / her) – about Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and Mast Cell Activation Disorder (MCAS).
Hey everyone, just a heads up that in this episode Jessica mentions times in her life when she was suicidal. If this brings up anything for you, please reach out to someone you trust, or contact one of the support lines we’ve included in the show notes. Take care of yourselves, and feel free to pause or skip this one if you need to.