TPP 295: Dr. Gwen Palafox on Supporting and Empowering Neurodivergent Young Adults in the Transitions to Adulthood
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
45 min
1 speaker
3 chapters
transcribed 13 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is Dr. Gwen Palafox’s underlying philosophy for supporting neurodivergent young adults?
The biggest blind spot is that all the wonderful supports and accommodations that have been put into place and are now on autopilot are left in autopilot. And so all the ways in which we've supported this person are the skills that they need to learn or we should be saying, can they learn these skills? The responsibility of that support needs to be slowly shifted to the individual so that when they do eventually go on to living a more independent life, whatever that looks like for them, they have the skills to do so.
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Reber, and my guest for this conversation is Dr. Gwen Palafox, a psychologist who has been supporting disabled and neurodivergent young adults for more than 20 years. I brought Gwen onto the show to talk about helping our teens and young adults launch into adulthood, specifically how to prepare for and help them acquire the skills and support that would help them move into the version of independent living that's right for them. In our conversation, we looked at some of the common challenges neurodivergent young adults face when transitioning into adulthood, how we can navigate systems and conversations with our kids to help them feel empowered and capable and have agency, and how to respond to our own concerns and fears about what comes next.
And before we jump in, here's a little more background about my guest. Gwen Palafox is known to be laser focused on promoting the happiness and well-being of disabled teens and adults and considers herself lucky to support the families who love them. She is a fierce ally of disabled individuals and their families, and she's shared her expertise in local and global workshops, at a TEDx event, as an expert witness, and in collaboration with other engaged and radically awesome professionals. Gwen feels honored to be a part of the lives of her wonderfully complex, unique, and awesome clients and their families. And you truly hear this in the way she speaks about her work in this interview. Oh, and one last thing.
Near the end of the episode, you'll hear Gwen talk about the Bright Life System. That's a tool Gwen designed to empower parents and their autistic and disabled adolescents, teens and young adults prepare for adulthood. Gwen is offering Tilt listeners a 15% discount on that Bright Life system. So you can learn more about that program at Gwen's website, which is meaningfulgrowth.com and enter the code TILT15 when you check out to get that discount. Alrighty. So without further ado, let's get to my conversation with Gwen.
Hey, Gwen, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Debbie. Thanks for having me. I'm so happy to be here.
Well, I'm excited because we had such a good conversation on your podcast earlier. I was preparing for this and there's so many things I want to talk about, but let's start by just formally introducing you. I read your bio already, but if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do in the world, and then I always love when guests can share their personal why with us.
Okay, so, gosh, on paper, I'm a clinical psychologist here in California. Really, I kind of stumbled, I will say, into the neurodiverse community about 25 years ago, where my roommate, my college roommate said, hey, you know, Gwen, I'm working with this little boy, and I think you'd be great, and he's autistic. And I said, Liz, I am not autistic at all. And she's like, not artistic autistic. It was my first introduction. And I started working with this little boy. And really, it actually kind of shaped my college life. I was already a liberal studies and psych child development major, double major. And it just really shaped me. And I really didn't look back. And then I hit grad school. And I said, you know what, I'm going to try something else.
And in psychology, you have to do this match. And, you know, I interviewed at seven different places.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
What is Dr. Gwen Palafox’s underlying philosophy for supporting neurodivergent young adults?
0:00–17:17
2
How did Gwen’s personal journey lead her to focus on transition planning for teens?
17:17–34:38
3
Why does Gwen emphasize “longer runways and softer landings” for neurodivergent teens?
34:38–45:14
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
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