Is This A Thing?

You finished the episode and now you've got fifteen more questions. You can see the pattern but you can't quite work out which bit is yours. You want to know what the research actually says, not the Instagram version. You want somewhere to ask the thing you don't want to ask anywhere else. You want people who already get it. Is This A Thing? is the companion show to Am I The Problem?, the podcast for late-diagnosed ADHD and autistic adults working out what got installed wrong when neurodivergent wiring met an emotionally abusive or narcissistic family. Each week, host Helen Villiers takes one specific concept from the main show and goes properly into it. The research, the mechanism, the bit nobody else explains. Helen Villiers is a psychotherapist with ADHD and co-author of You're Not The Problem. She specialises in adults raised by narcissistic and emotionally abusive parents, particularly those also navigating ADHD, autism, and late diagnosis. Topics include alexithymia, masking, the fawn response, executive function, emotional dysregulation, interoception, hypervigilance, people pleasing, learned helplessness, identity rebuilding after toxic parenting, and the behavioural mechanisms underneath the labels that get used in the neurodivergent community. Available on Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, or included with Core tier membership and above inside Liberation Academy at liberationacademy.co.uk/the-hub, where you'll also find the community of people working out the same things you are. Released alongside Am I The Problem?. New episodes weekly while a season is running. To find out more about The Hub click here: https://hub.liberationacademy.co.uk Please note some older episodes are branded The Expert Series - our rebrand means you still get the same content, with a fresh new name!

$3.99/month
  1. May 25 • Subscribers Only

    The Body That Forgot How To Feel - Is This A Thing?

    Companion to Am I The Problem? S2E1: “You Don’t Know What You Actually Feel” Helen solo. Hub exclusive. In the main episode, Helen mentioned interoception, your brain’s ability to read signals from inside your body, but didn’t have time to go deep. This episode goes deep. Interoception underpins emotional identification: you can’t name a feeling if you can’t detect the physical signal it’s built on. And if you’re neurodivergent, there’s a good chance your interoceptive system works differently from the standard model, in ways that are specific and separable depending on whether you’re autistic, ADHD, or both. Helen covers Garfinkel and Critchley’s three-dimensional model of interoception (accuracy, sensibility, and awareness), why these dimensions can be mismatched in neurodivergent populations, and what that mismatch actually feels like from the inside. She explains why “notice what’s coming up in your body” is useless advice for a significant proportion of her audience, and what to try instead. This episode includes practical strategies for building interoceptive awareness that don’t rely on visualisation, meditation, or neurotypical assumptions about how bodies communicate with brains. This episode is available subscribers only or is included in your Hub membership. Courses, live calls, community, and the full Is This A Thing? archive. liberationacademy.co.uk/the-hub

    23 min

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IS THIS A THING?

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About

You finished the episode and now you've got fifteen more questions. You can see the pattern but you can't quite work out which bit is yours. You want to know what the research actually says, not the Instagram version. You want somewhere to ask the thing you don't want to ask anywhere else. You want people who already get it. Is This A Thing? is the companion show to Am I The Problem?, the podcast for late-diagnosed ADHD and autistic adults working out what got installed wrong when neurodivergent wiring met an emotionally abusive or narcissistic family. Each week, host Helen Villiers takes one specific concept from the main show and goes properly into it. The research, the mechanism, the bit nobody else explains. Helen Villiers is a psychotherapist with ADHD and co-author of You're Not The Problem. She specialises in adults raised by narcissistic and emotionally abusive parents, particularly those also navigating ADHD, autism, and late diagnosis. Topics include alexithymia, masking, the fawn response, executive function, emotional dysregulation, interoception, hypervigilance, people pleasing, learned helplessness, identity rebuilding after toxic parenting, and the behavioural mechanisms underneath the labels that get used in the neurodivergent community. Available on Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, or included with Core tier membership and above inside Liberation Academy at liberationacademy.co.uk/the-hub, where you'll also find the community of people working out the same things you are. Released alongside Am I The Problem?. New episodes weekly while a season is running. To find out more about The Hub click here: https://hub.liberationacademy.co.uk Please note some older episodes are branded The Expert Series - our rebrand means you still get the same content, with a fresh new name!

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