Neurodivergent Faith

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In this episode of Neurodivergent Faith, I sit down with author, speaker, ministry leader, and grandmother Kim Botto for a deeply compassionate conversation about creating church spaces where every child truly belongs.

Together, we explore what it means for churches to move beyond behavior management and toward curiosity, compassion, and connection—especially when supporting neurodivergent children, children impacted by trauma, and families who often feel unseen or misunderstood in church spaces.

Drawing from her book Boundless Hope for Every Child: Help for the Hurting, Compassion for the Misunderstood, Belonging for the Lonely, Kim shares practical wisdom for churches and children’s ministries, as well as personal reflections from her own experience as part of a neurodiverse family.

We talk about belonging, disability ministry, trauma-informed care, the spiritual harm many families experience when they don’t feel welcomed, and the hope of building communities that reflect the heart of Jesus more fully.

Learn more about Kim, her book, trainings, and ministry resources at: https://kimbotto.com

#NeurodivergentFaith #KimBotto #EveryChildBelongs #Neurodiversity #DisabilityMinistry #TraumaInformedMinistry #ChildrensMinistry #BoundlessHope #Neurodivergent #ParentingNeurodivergentKids #Belonging

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

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In this episode of Neurodivergent Faith, I sit down with spiritual director and author Deb Gregory to explore the sacred connection between spirituality, embodiment, and neurodivergence.

As members of neurodiverse families ourselves, Deb and I talk about the importance of curiosity—especially the kind of curiosity that helps us listen more deeply to what neurodivergent children and adults may truly need. Together, we reflect on how emotions, movement, sensory awareness, and our physical bodies can become companions in discernment and connection with God.

We also explore walking as a spiritual practice, and how togetherness, conversation, and movement can open doors into contemplative life alongside more traditional practices like silence, solitude, and stillness.

Learn more about Deb Gregory and her book Spiritual Wayfinding at: https://www.flourishspiritualdirection.com/

#NeurodivergentFaith #SpiritualWayfinding #DebGregory #SpiritualDirection #Neurodiversity #EmbodiedFaith #ContemplativeLife #SensoryProcessingDisorder #EmbodiedPrayer #WalkingPrayer #Neurodivergent #FaithAndMentalHealth

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

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In this episode of Neurodivergent Faith, I reflect on what’s working—and what’s not—in this current season of life and faith. From singing together as a family and discovering the quiet gift of object-focused connection, to the unexpected grace of a few steady days of routine after months of disruption, I trace the small rhythms that are helping me settle again.

I also name what hasn’t been working—forced conversations, shifting schedules, and the disorientation that comes when familiar anchors are pulled away.

Along the way, I share glimpses of personal practices that are grounding me: our monthly Neurodivergent Faith gatherings, the gift of listener stories, moments of musical flow, and simple rhythms like keeping laundry on Thursdays.

This is an invitation to notice your own life with curiosity and compassion—and how God might be meeting you in the middle of it all.

#NeurodivergentFaith #FaithAndNeurodivergence #NeurodivergentChristian #SpiritualRhythms #WhatsWorking #ParentingAndFaith #NeurodivergentLife #FaithAndMentalHealth

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

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What if one of the most important things you bring to your neurodivergent child (or your loved one)… isn’t your words, your strategies, or your plans—but your regulated presence?

In this episode, we explore the sacred, often overlooked work of parents learning to regulate themselves—especially when raising neurodivergent kids. We’ll name the honest truth: parenting can be overstimulating. And being overwhelmed doesn’t mean you’re failing—it means you’re human.

Through story, reflection, and the quiet example of Jesus slowing the moment down, this episode invites you into a different kind of response—one rooted in awareness, presence, and repair. You’ll also be guided through simple, accessible practices you can use in real time—with your children, and for yourself.

#NeurodivergentParenting #RegulateYourself #CoRegulation #ParentingSupport #Neurodiversity #AutismParenting #ADHDParenting #NervousSystem #EmotionalRegulation #FaithAndParenting #SpiritualFormation #EmbodiedFaith #ParentingJourney

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

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In this episode of Neurodivergent Faith, I sit down with Amanda Diekman—known to many as “Low Demand Amanda”—to explore the tender intersection of parenting, trauma, and connection.

We name the reality so many parents carry quietly:
that some of our pain is happening inside the parenting journey itself.
And we ask the honest question—how do we begin to heal while we are actively parenting?

Amanda brings wisdom shaped by lived experience as a neurodivergent parent raising neurodivergent kids. We talk about PDA, the limits of control-based parenting, and the quiet, powerful shift of dropping demands to build trusting connection.

We also turn inward—toward the sacred work of reparenting ourselves.
Learning, slowly, to offer our own hearts the compassion, regulation, and grace we may have never received.

To connect with Amanda:

https://www.instagram.com/lowdemandamanda/

https://www.amandadiekman.com/podcast

#NeurodivergentFaith #ParentingTrauma #PDAParenting #LowDemandParenting #AmandaDiekman #NeurodivergentParenting #TraumaInformed #ConnectionOverControl #Reparenting #FaithAndMentalHealth #GentleParenting #NervousSystem #ParentingJourney

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

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In this episode, “Child Sacrifice for the Sake of the Community,” we explore what happens when belonging, harmony, and reputation are prioritized over a child’s nervous system. Through personal reflection, we name the ways many of us learned to override our bodies—whether in overwhelming environments, unspoken expectations to “push through,” or even being required to give affection we didn’t feel safe offering.

We gently unpack the difference between tantrums and meltdowns, and why that distinction matters for compassion, safety, and understanding. Along the way, we begin to notice how these early patterns can shape our relationship with our bodies, our boundaries, and even our faith.

This is an invitation to move from self-abandonment towards finding new ways of honoring God, ourselves, and our communities at the same time. 

#NeurodivergentFaith #TraumaInformed #NervousSystemAwareness #AutismAcceptance #BodyAutonomy #SpiritualFormation #FaithAndMentalHealth #HealingJourney #ParentingWithCompassion #EmbodiedFaith

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

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In this episode of Neurodivergent Faith, I sit down with Marissa Franks Burt and Kelsey Kramer McGinnis to explore some often unexamined assumptions that have shaped Christian parenting culture. Together, we name the pressure to produce “obedient and compliant” children—and how those expectations can harm families, especially those with neurodivergent kids. We talk about the danger of calling something “biblical” when it’s deeply shaped by culture, and the connection between behaviorism, masking, belonging, and connection. This episode offers both honesty and hope for those processing their own childhoods as well as those currently parenting neurodivergent kids. (And, of course some of us who are doing both!)

To find the book "The Myth of Good Christian Parenting": https://bakerpublishinggroup.com/products/9781587436642_the-myth-of-good-christian-parenting

To connect with Marissa: https://www.instagram.com/mburtwrites/

To connect with Kelsey: https://www.instagram.com/kelseykmcginnis/

#NeurodivergentFaith #ChristianParenting #NeurodivergentKids #SpiritualFormation #ReligiousTrauma #FaithDeconstruction #ParentingNeurodivergentKids #LateDiagnosedNeurodivergent

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

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In Part 2 of my conversation with Alyssa Barringer, we explore what led to her AuDHD diagnosis and how that understanding began to bring clarity to years of lived experience. We talk about neurodivergence in the family, the connection between message and messenger, and some of the realities of high control religious spaces.

Alyssa also shares glimpses of healing in her current church—what it looks like to be welcomed as you are, and simple, practical ways communities can cue safety and belonging. She also shares a story from a deregulating Easter service that somehow still became a place of grace and good news.

Part 2 of 2.

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

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In this first part of my conversation with Alyssa Barringer, she shares stories that you may find very relatable—especially if you grew up in the rhythms of church and Christian school, trying to follow God with all sincerity, while simultaneously not fitting the mold. 

Alyssa shares what it was like to navigate those spaces as an undiagnosed AuDHD girl—and the various approaches she tried to make sense of everything. We talk about the impact of Scripture being used in ways that lacked care or context—and how, for a black-and-white, literal thinker, that can create deep internal confusion about who God is… and how to relate to God as yourself.

Alyssa's thoughtful reflections may help you make more sense of your own story. And, I am sure they will also benefit anyone who is a church leader or school teacher in a Christian context. 

Part 1 of 2.

#NeurodivergentFaith #AuDHD #AutisticChristian #ADHDChristian
#LateDiagnosed #ChurchHurt #FaithAndNeurodivergence #ChristianSchool
#NeurodivergentWomen

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

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In this opening episode of Season 4, we begin exploring the question:
What do you wish your caregivers had known… or done differently?

In this episode, Josh shares his answer to this question and together we explore:

• how invalidation shapes our relationship with our body and self
• the internalization of messages like “too sensitive” or “too much”
• and the slow, sacred work of learning to trust ourselves again

Josh shares a personal poem, “A Forgotten Language All My Own,” and we turn to Scripture to encounter God as One who understands, receives, and holds our inner world with compassion.

#IWishIHadBeenBelieved #TraumaticInvalidation #LateDiagnosed
#NeurodivergentFaith #ParentingReflection #Reparenting #NotTooSensitive
#NotTooMuch #YourExperienceMatters

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: [email protected]. You can also join the conversation in our Neurodivergent Faith Community Group on Facebook. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.