Best Practices for Interoception-Based Supports - Kelly Mahler

I’ve been following Kelly’s work for a while now and this is the first on demand training of hers I have done. Really clear best practice principles for using interoception based supports with practical examples for how to implement. Gets me thinking about how foundational these skills are for emotion regulation and self-management and how important it is to explore interoception.

Interoception and Monotropism: Paying attention to Autistic and ADHD experiences - Kelly Mahler and Kieran Rose

• Really engaging and informative webinar. Clear definitions of interoception (internal bodily senses), monotropism (deep dives), polytropism (swimming on the surface) and interesting discussion on the links between these and lived experiences of not being able to follow your innate monotropic way of thinking.

• Key learnings: implicit and explicit branches of interoception, learned interoception predictions; autistic attentional styles are different, with deeper dives; monotopism is an intrinsic, interest based model of attention; cumulative multi-level invalidation and pathologisation of autistic experiences and ways of being and how this creates trauma, shifts our trust in the body and impacts sense of self; attention is not just taking notice of something, it is also regarding it as interesting or important; monotropism about more than attention, impacts transitions, sensory processing, interests, interoceptive awareness, movement, behaviour, perception, learning, biological and emotional responses; a dysregulating environment impacts the ability to get into a flow state, need to work on meeting needs and creating safety.

• Strategies: identify and challenge rigid polytropic practices; validate and honour monotropic processing; nurture interoceptive (re)learning; nurture interoceptive attention during a flow state.