Today’s episode fundamentally argues that emotional regulation is a relational and environmental process, not merely an individual act of willpower. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, an AuDHD GLP and alexithymic educator, reimagines the classroom as a “living nervous system“ where factors like sensory ecology, architectural design, and the teacher’s own regulated presence (”co-regulation“) dictate student behaviour and feeling. Dr. Hoerricks critiques traditional behavioural systems (like token economies and compliance-focused models) for prioritising external control and performance over genuine psychological safety and internal regulation. Instead, she advocates for a pedagogy of resonance and attunement, citing supporting research by Delisio et al. (2022) on trauma-informed instruction and Johnson et al. (2023) on educator self-efficacy in co-regulation. Ultimately, she calls for a shift from enforcing compliance to fostering communion, where the physical space itself becomes the primary source of care and regulation.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/alexithymia-in-the-classroom-the

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Today’s episode fundamentally challenges the standard verbal and chart-based approaches to emotional literacy, particularly for autistic and gestalt-processing learners. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, argues that emotion originates in the body as sensory experience—rhythm, texture, and movement—and that language and naming only follow as an “afterglow” of this felt experience. Dr. Hoerricks critiques conventional tools like “feelings charts” and “zones of regulation” for mistaking labeling for understanding and enforcing compliance over genuine sensory fluency. Instead, she advocates for shifting educational and therapeutic practices to prioritise creative modalities such as art, music, play, and gesture as the direct, authentic language of affect, supported by citations from various research articles on sensory processing and creative therapy in autism.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/alexithymia-beyond-feeling-charts

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Today’s episode provides a profound first-person reflection, authored by Jaime Hoerricks, PhD, on the experience of alexithymia and emotional dysregulation from an autistic GLP perspective. Dr. Hoerricks challenges the traditional diagnostic imagination, arguing that alexithymia is not the absence of feeling but rather an undivided, holistic experience of emotion (described as a “chord” or “symphony”) that resists fragmentation into simple linguistic labels. She reclaims what is often labeled as dysregulation as the body’s fidelity to sensory truth and a refusal to betray the coherence of feeling by forcing it into inadequate language, likening this pressure to a form of linguistic colonialism. She integrates several scientific citations to frame this discussion, ultimately advocating for a language of wholeness that honors silence, art, and rhythm over mandated verbal articulation of emotional states.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/the-shape-of-feeling-alexithymia

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Today’s episode challenges conventional, deficit-focused views of alexithymia, which is often characterised as the absence of words for feelings, by reframing it as a fidelity to wholeness. The author of the source article, Jaime Hoerricks, PhD, argues that for individuals, particularly those on the autism spectrum, who engage in gestalt language processing (GLP), emotion is experienced as a continuous, indivisible chord or landscape rather than discrete, analysable notes. Dr. Hoerricks critiques the “violence of translation” imposed by clinical frameworks that demand emotional experiences be segmented and named, suggesting this process destroys the original, resonant meaning. Ultimately, she proposes that alexithymia is not a lack of feeling but an “abundance” and “refusal to fragment” the integral connection between the attuned body and the surrounding world.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/the-whole-before-the-word-glp-and

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Today’s episode critiques the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) industry, particularly in autism treatment, framing its current struggles as an inevitable collapse of a “control economy.” The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, argues that ABA transformed into a profit-driven market focused on billable hours and compliance metrics, exemplified by the layoffs at Arizona Autism and the reclassification of workers as contractors, which is described as the “Uberisation of autism.” A key fault line highlighted is the use of ABA-Verbal Behaviour (ABA-VB) to bill for communication services without proper Speech-Language Pathologist credentials, a practice now under intense scrutiny by auditors, leading to funding cuts and corporate retrenchment. Ultimately, she suggests that this systemic failure is epistemic and moral, not just financial, clearing the way for relational, meaning-based forms of care that operate outside the market-driven “empire of metrics.”

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/when-compliance-becomes-unsustainable

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a aid subscriber.

Today’s episode critiques how dominant culture polices marginalised creation, specifically focusing on the intersection of queerness, autism, and disability. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, uses the example of designing a dress with the AI tool Sora to discuss the backlash against non-traditional methods of creation, arguing that the criticism is rooted in fear of unfettered access and autonomy for those designated as “Other.” Dr. Hoerricks contrasts the analytic, compliance-driven structure of traditional design software with the gestalt, asynchronous temporality of the autistic mind, suggesting that AI tools like Sora can offer a more conversational and accessible creative process. Ultimately, she argues that gatekeeping and the deficit model of disability are mechanisms of control, insisting that the value of imagination is not determined by its adherence to established, sequential norms.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/when-machines-become-mirrors-on-autistic

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Today’s episode provides excerpts from an essay by Jaime Hoerricks, PhD, titled “The Curriculum of Touch,” which serves as a lyrical introduction to the author’s “Afterglow” project, intended as a sensual archive of queer, trans, and autistic memory. Dr. Hoerricks critiques established clinical and academic views of autism, particularly the focus on “deficit” and “lack of empathy,” by arguing that autistic perception is instead a form of “sensory literacy” and precise attunement. Drawing heavily on experiences in the San Francisco Tenderloin during the late 1980s, she frames the marginalised queer community as a “pedagogy of proximity,” where non-verbal communication and touch became a necessary, highly precise language of survival and intimacy. She seeks to provide a “counter-canon” to pathologising research, using erotic writing as a form of “counter-education” to restore and preserve the true history of connection among neurodivergent and queer individuals.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/the-curriculum-of-touch-autism-attunement

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Today’s episode argues against the persistence of the diametric cognition model in autism and psychosis research, which positions the two conditions as cognitive opposites. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, traces how this “Cambridge axis” originated with papers like Crespi and Badcock (2008), noting that it continues to permeate contemporary studies, often through subtle citation and unexamined repetition, even in new analyses like Ganai’s 2025 network study. Dr. Hoerricks asserts that this binary framework, which prioritises “elegance over truth,” fundamentally misrepresents the rich and complex interior lives of autistic people, often reducing their experience to metaphors of “alien minds”. Furthermore, she warns that Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems perpetuate this flawed canon by simply reflecting the citation density and historical authority of these older frameworks, mistaking reputation for truth. Ultimately, she calls for a shift toward autistic-led and community-governed research that refuses the deficit baseline and prioritises lived experience over symmetrical, but damaging, theoretical models.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/axis-worship-and-alien-minds-how

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Today’s episode critiques the modern “scientific study” of autism, asserting that it has transformed autistic individuals into a mere dataset subject to extraction rather than being treated as people. The author of the critique, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, argues that contemporary research, exemplified by a specific study using a large federal cohort, prioritises algorithmic modeling and statistical throughput over genuine autistic-led scholarship and lived experience. The core concern is the violence of convenience, where historical consent allows researchers to study children’s data in absentia, converting complex relational lives into measurable coefficients and perpetuating a pathology-centered view of autistic existence. Ultimately, Dr. Hoerricks calls for a fundamental shift toward relational research built with the autistic community, where sovereignty and ongoing relationship replace mere technical access and abstraction.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/the-second-lexicographer-when-autism

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Today’s episode explores the journey of self-discovery and embodiment as an Autistic trans woman. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, describes her creative process, which is Gestalt-based—beginning with atmosphere and feeling (”vision first”) before language or conventional design (”language after”). Dr. Hoerricks details the process of using an AI rendering tool, Sora, as a gentle scaffolding to accurately visualise a graduation dress that aligns with her emerging femme identity and her tall, strong body, which is unrepresented in mainstream fashion. This rendering process is presented as an act of autonomy and precision, a method for building a self without asking permission, ultimately leading to a sense of quiet arrival and congruence as she prepares to wear the dress for a significant event. She emphasises that the dress represents access and embodiment, not performance or costume, and reflects a life finally lived with intention and clarity.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/vision-first-language-after-rendering where you can see the dress.

Let me know what you think.

The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.