Self-advocacy is not as simple as just learning one skill or one isolated thing. In the neurodiversity affirming world and in the therapy world, we love talking about self-advocacy, but what is it and how do you get there?
I like to think of the components of self-advocacy is being broken up into four main sub parts:
- Supportive Environment & Community - Safe people and spaces that encourage, believe you, facilitate and offer support
- Self-awareness of Needs & Preferences - You need to be aware of what you like, need, and don't like or don't want
- Self-worth & Confidence - You need to believe you're worthy of support, and feel confident and secure enough to ask for what you want/need
- Ability to Communicate - You need to be capable of communicating your preferences, choices and protests in a way that others around you understand
In this episode, I outline what each of those parts are, why they're so important. And some ideas and examples for how this can look in practice.
