Episode Details

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (01:19)
Hey folks, welcome back to the podcast. Hey, today I’m talking about autism again. I’ve been doing a lot of episodes on autism recently just because there are so many questions that are coming up around autism assessment and research is continuing to develop and new research is emerging. And so today we continue that theme with Dr. Wen Lawson. Dr. Wen is Audi HD, dyslexic and dyspraxic. He’s passionate about all things autism.

He’s a British psychologist, a qualified social worker, well-known autistic researcher, author, speaker, and poet. Wen is a key theorist of the monotropism theory of autism, and he’s an adjunct associate professor with Curtin University in Western Australia. We talk about many different things that fall under Wen’s umbrella. And the title of episode, which is beyond the DSM,

what we’re missing in the diagnostic criteria, I think is pretty accurate. So we dive pretty deep into Wynn’s theory on monotropism and how that drives a lot of the characteristics of autism. We talk about sensory concerns. We talk about object permanence. We talk about how monotropism shows up in different ways. We of course talk about camouflaging and different

different aspects of autism in different populations and many other things. This was a fascinating episode. We of course also touch on the clinical aspects of Wynn’s ideas and how we can shift our practice to accommodate and integrate some of these ideas. So as always plenty to latch onto here and there are many things that you could put into play pretty immediately if you would like to in your practice.

Speaking of practices, Crafted Practice is quickly coming up. It’s late July. We’re getting really getting down to it. I think at the time this episode goes out, there should be another week or two left in registration. I don’t know if at this point, because I’m recording so far in advance, whether there will be spots available or not, but I’m really looking forward to it. If there are spots available, go check it out. You know, we’re talking about the theme this year is the sustainable CEO.

We’re great at the clinical work, but I think we built practices that in large part depend entirely on our presence for many of us. And this year at the retreat, we’re going to focus on how to maintain your clinical reputation, but let go of a lot of that grunt work through workflow autonomy. So we have a few, I mean, I hope we have a few spots left, but you’ll have to go double check to make sure. The registration deadline is June 14th at midnight.

So go check it out. It’s the testingpsychologist.com slash crafted practice. If you’re ready to make that shift. Love to have you. All right. Let’s jump to my conversation with Dr. Wann Lawson.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (04:29)
When Hey, welcome to the podcast.

Wenn Lawson (04:32)
Thank you. It’s really good to be here.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (04:34)
Yeah, likewise. Good to have you, especially, I know we’re working with a bit of a time difference here and with you being over in Europe. So I appreciate you taking some time out of your evening to chat with me for a little bit.

Wenn Lawson (04:47)
Yeah, no,

I feel privileged. Thanks, Jeremy.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (04:50)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I’ll start with a question that I always start with, which is, you know, of all the things that you could care about and spend your time on, what is it about this topic that is compelling for you?

Wenn Lawson (05:04)
I’m an autistic adult and ADHD, dyslexic, dyspraxic and a other things. So for me, it’s really important that the world that I’m part of and that my kids and their kids are part of understand what it’s like living as an autistic person and plus other issues. So I’m incredibly passionate about this topic. It’s where I work in and teach and study.

research and ride about.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp (05:32)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I