Episode 2
Neurodiversity and Knocking Down the Walls with Jessica Sunier and Torrie O’neil
In this episode, Dr. Laci C. Robbins of Robbins’ Nest Consulting, Jessica Sunier, of FitPOWER LLC, and her guest Torie O’neil dive deeper into neurodiversity. Neurodiversity refers to variation in the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention, mood, and other mental functions in a non-pathological sense. It is a term coined in 1998 by sociologist Judy Singer. Now we are starting to hear more about it, and some people consider it a movement. Part of this movement is wanting people to see individuals with anxiety disorder, general depression, compulsive thoughts, people with autism, spectrum disorder, any other cognitive or neurological impairment, simply as people.
In this episode, Jess talks about what she has learned about neurodiversity and what she is doing to create safe places for neurodiverse people. Torrie shares about her journey in discovering she is a neurodiverse person. She talks about her struggles with anxiety and compulsive thoughts during the covid lockdown. Jess gives some recommendations to business owners to get them going to create a more welcoming space for a neurodivergent employee or a participant.
Episode Highlights
05:34 – I am very interested in how I am creating spaces where these people feel safe, where they do not have to mask, to put on a show, use that mental energy to just try to get to the world as a neurotypical person would. I have reached out to people who are more neurodiverse to come in and speak to my coaches and train them.
06:45 – It works on two layers: you can be masking from yourself, and masking from other people. I masked myself for years. Because mental health is something we do not talk about in the black community.
20:00 – I’m working on something with Torrie. It’s called the Everybody Collective. It’s a new adventure we’re going down.
30:19 – People are looking for something to blame or something they can pinpoint – it is very easy to point the flaws on another person to make yourself better.
34:22 – The fitness industry, trainers, is an abusive kind of industry. With coaching, you are using a lot of mental space to work with other people. So, imagine having to work an eight-hour day. I am giving every coach six health days for a year.
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