Ep31. AuDHD, Trauma & Dissociation with Jemma Mathers

CONTENT NOTE: This episode talks about trauma, sexual violence (including statistics), consent, dissociation, grief and death, bullying, and family and domestic violence. Please check in with yourself before and while you listen, and pause whenever you need to. This is general information, not therapy.

Season 2 is here! And what better way to kick it off than going all in, AuDHD style, with the wonderful Jemma Mathers.

Jemma is an AuDHD, twice exceptional, queer accredited mental health social worker and EMDR consultant, and a proud mum of two oodles (semi-retired therapy dogs). She owns Bloom Wellbeing, a neuroaffirming trauma therapy practice, plus Wilde Consulting and the brand new Bloom & Co Virtual Assistance. She also has a deep love of wedge-tailedeagles, which I fully support.

We talk about what actually counts as trauma, why “big T” and “little T” are really about what society thinks we’re allowed to grieve, and how a change of office pen can genuinely tip a neurodivergent nervous system over the edge. Jemma gives one of the clearest explanations of dissociation and plural systems I’ve ever heard, and the difference between dissociation and neurodivergent shutdown.

Then we go to the big stuff: sexual violence, delayed processing, losing our words when we’re overwhelmed, and why so many autistic women carry shame that was never theirs to carry.

In this episode:

Why trauma is as diverse as the humans whoexperience it
The problem with “match your reaction to thesize of the problem”
Dissociation as a clever, adaptive survivalstrategy
PTSD vs complex PTSD, and the role ofattachment wounds
The core beliefs we soak in from a world notbuilt for us, and whether they still help us now
Adapting trauma therapy (including EMDR andparts work) for AuDHD folk
Consent, delayed processing and loss of verbalcommunication
A “Jemma special”: could our hyperconnectedbrains explain why dissociation is so common for us?
If trauma therapy hasn’t worked for youbefore, please hear this: maybe it wasn’t the right therapist at the right time. Try again.

Stick around for our first-ever “this or that” rapid round. Polyvagal theory or Polly Pocket theory? You’ll have to listen.

Find Jemma

Professionals: ⁠@wilde.consulting⁠or ⁠www.wildeconsulting.com.au⁠

Everyone else: ⁠@bloom.well.being⁠

Support: 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 | Lifeline 13 11 14

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