The Middletown Centre for Autism Podcast

Trauma is a serious but important topic. In this episode, we’re joined by Specialist Teacher, Deirdre O’Shea who explains what trauma is, how it may impact autistic people and how we can support someone through trauma.  

For more information on the topics discussed, please visit: 

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/ptsd-autism 

https://mental-health-wellbeing.middletownautism.com/information-strategies/ptsd-and-trauma/ 

 https://neurodivergentinsights.com/autism-infographics/autismandtrauma 

It looks like there was a glitch in our podcast with Dr Mary Doherty. For anyone who couldn't access it, here is the full version-

In this episode, we chat to autistic health professional and researcher, Dr Mary Doherty. Mary has driven research to support autistic patients and healthcare workers.  We find out about her work and her experience as an autistic autism researcher.  

You can find some of Mary’s research work here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mary-Doherty-9

Animals & Nature with Becca Lory Hector
Many autistic people feel particularly comfortable around animals and nature. In this podcast we speak to autistic author, researcher and advocate, Becca Lory Hector about her relationship with animals and how they have improved her life.  

Trigger warning: this episode includes mention of mental health challenges and grief.  

To learn more about Becca visit: https://beccalory.com/  

The theory of Monotropism focuses on how autistic people allocate their attention. Autistic theorist, Fergus Murray joins us on the latest podcast episode to discuss how the theory, which was developed by autistic people, may explain much of autistic experience. 

To read some of Fergus’ writing visit: https://oolong.co.uk/ 

In this episode, we chat to autistic health professional and researcher, Dr Mary Doherty. Mary has driven research to support autistic patients and healthcare workers.  We find out about her work and her experience as an autistic autism researcher.  

You can find some of Mary’s research work here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mary-Doherty-9

In this episode, we’re learning more about the link between autism and physical health conditions. Dr Jessica Eccles, joins the podcast to discuss hypermobility: when someone has very flexible joints that can often cause pain. 

You can find out more about Jessica’s work here: https://www.bsms.ac.uk/about/contact-us/staff/dr-jessica-eccles.aspx 

In this episode, we’re joined by Bethany Donaghy, an autistic researcher focused on understanding the experience of pain in autistic young people. She talks about the importance of challenging assumptions so we can better understand autistic children’s experience and expression of pain. She also chats about how being autistic has shaped how she conducts her research.  

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Alison Doyle - an educational psychologist, researcher and practitioner who has spent years supporting neurodivergent people. We discuss Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), why people may relate to it, how they can find support and why the topic may be controversial for some.  

As the Leaving cert approaches, lots of young people might also be thinking about university life. In this podcast we chat to Fiona Earley about Dublin City University’s autism-friendly initiative to find out about the steps that they’ve taken to support autistic students and staff.   

We’ve been delighted to partner with the IRFU to develop training for coaches who are supporting autistic players. To create our training, we talked to players, family members and coaches from across the country. In this podcast, Cat chats to James and Wendy Vahey, who are both players in Leinster. They chat about the benefits of ruby and the strengths that autistic people can bring to the game.