reflection
neurodiverse community
Affirming neurodiversity is recognizing that, in a musical space, one person is tuned into the soprano register, even though their voice presents in the bass register; another person hears long melodic phrases when everyone else is creating short rhythmic phrases; and someone else’s brain is turning the patterns of sound into physical shapes, and they … Read more
instruments are tools
Originally posted to the EBCMP blog on September 10, 2018. We’ll post occasionally about why we are committed to making space for community music-making. Children don’t like keys, wallets and phones because there is something inherently interesting about them. They like these objects because they see them being used by the adults around them. Humans … Read more
A note to homeschool families:
My name is Ryk Groetchen, and I’ve been cultivating creative musical spaces for over 20 years. Neurodiverse families have made a point over the years of reminding me how they have felt included in these spaces. I just want to emphasize that now that i have secured space 6 mornings and 2 afternoons per week, … Read more
❤️🔥
To be an autistic person is to be a person with something valuable inside you but to rarely find the right environment where your value is recognized as valuable by people around you.
This is me, speaking from the heart of an autistic person.
i, advocate
If you’ve been following my neurodiversity journey–as I articulate the experience of a person with autism, ADHD, aphantasia, and proprioception hyposensitivity from the inside, along with the other ways i share myself–and you’ve found that the insights I’ve shared connect with your experience, or contextualize something you suspected, realize that sharing these insights is one … Read more
Emotional processing
A recent conversation about emotional processing with my neurodiverse community got me thinking about putting language to my experience of my emotional ecosystem. I have realized for a long time that my emotions work differently from many people that I interact with, and it’s only recently that I have had language to describe what’s going … Read more
same difference
In a society where differences are recognized and celebrated, our experience of community is an experience of collective difference. In a society where samenesses are recognized and celebrated, our experience of community is an experience of collective sameness. In a society that celebrates differences, everyone being different is a given. No one pops out. All … Read more
framing is everything
Neurodiversity is the new (different! better!) cognitive frame. Astrology, Enneagram, Meyers-Briggs, Chinese medicine, naturopathy, homeopathy: having passed through these modalities, none of them made me feel seen in the ways that they were implemented by the particular practitioners who applied them to me. To be fair, I may have met with unskilled practitioners. Your mileage … Read more
♾️
My autistic traits are nothing to be afraid of. They are highly effective strategies in the environments for which they are adapted. If you spend time with me in these environments, a little of these traits may rub off on you, and your movement through these environments may be eased. I have come to never … Read more