Autism Awareness Empathy Experiential Workshop Series
Imagine waking up in a world or an environment where you are the odd one out and are in desperate need of understanding and support.
How would you feel?
How would you act?
How would the others respond to you?
How would that impact your feelings and behaviours?
In this interactive experiential workshop, you will be immersed deeply in an alternative reality that will help you imagine what it is like to be an autistic person living in a world where they are so misunderstood.
This workshop is a springboard that will thrust you out of your comfort zone and into the inner world of an autistic individual. Based on this foundation, we will begin to understand why an openness towards alternative communication strategies, even when they stray away from the mainstream norms, is a pivotal part of creating authentic relationships with individuals.
Over the past eight years, A Mother’s Wish has sought to highlight the need for us to sensitise ourselves to the inner lives of autistic individuals and open ourselves to their distinctive ways of communication. However, we invariably encounter barriers reflecting the limits of our empathy for autistic individuals living in our world for several reasons:
We cannot relate to the overwhelming nature of the sensory environment — the assault of sights, sounds, smells, and movement on the senses.
We cannot understand their struggles with language and/or social norms accompanying social interactions, which many of us enjoy.
We often misunderstand their expression of their needs and distress, as well as miss out on opportunities for connection.
In any relationship, there is mutual understanding and give and take. What is it going to take for us to learn how we can forge a respectful relationship with autistic individuals in our lives and society? How can we genuinely include them in mainstream society instead of just imposing our norms on them?
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