In this powerful and deeply personal episode, we sit down with Tania Rose—a psychotherapist, art therapist, and clinical supervisor based in Australia with over 30 years of experience in disability and mental health spaces. Tania shares her journey as a late-diagnosed autistic woman with ADHD, and how her lived experience fuels her passion for supporting neurodivergent individuals, especially those who have gone undiagnosed for decades.

We explore:

• The rise in late diagnoses among women, especially around menopause
• Why so many women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s were misdiagnosed or dismissed
• The legacy of outdated diagnostic criteria that focused almost exclusively on boys
• How Tania blends clinical expertise with creativity and personal insight to empower others
• What it means to practice therapy from both sides of the neurodivergent lens

Tania’s voice is not just clinical—it's human, compassionate, and fiercely honest. Whether you are neurodivergent, love someone who is, or are simply curious about how identity intersects with gender, age, and culture, this conversation is for you.

Tania Rose is a neurodivergent arts psychotherapist, educator, clinical supervisor, and creative practitioner dedicated to inclusive, ethical, and person-centered approaches in therapy and professional development. With extensive experience supporting neurodivergent individuals, her work draws on evidence-based research and alternative models of disability, emphasizing the value of neurodiversity and the principle of "nothing about us without us." She delivers accessible education through workshops, webinars, and audio resources, focusing on supervision, ethical practice, and professional sustainability. Tania also creates content that blends theory with creative expression, including research, mindfulness, and music, to support wellbeing and accessibility. Her practice extends to relationship dynamics and workplace support for neurodivergent individuals, reflecting a deep commitment to empowerment, inclusivity, and innovation across therapeutic and creative fields.

Want to know how you can begin your journey to hope and healing? Visit Elevated Life Academy for classes and free resources for personal development and healing. 

Resources:

CherieLindberg.com

ElevatedLifeAcademy.com

Guest Links:

www.taniarose.net

00;00;07;25 - 00;00;39;09

Narrator

Hello and welcome to Cherie Lindberg's Elevated Life Academy. Stories of hope and healing. Through raw and heartfelt conversations, we uncover the powerful tools and strategies these individuals use to not only heal themselves, but also inspire those around them. Join us on this incredible journey as we discover the human spirit's remarkable capacity to heal, find hope in the darkest of moments, and ultimately live an elevated life.

00;00;39;11 - 00;01;04;21

Cherie Lindberg

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of Elevated Life Academy. I am your host, Cherie Lindberg. Stories of Hope and healing. We're so excited that you're here. And today we have Tania Rose with us, who is going to talk about stories of hope and healing and her perspective on neuro divergence. So we were just talking. I met her through a mutual friend, and I'm just so happy that you're here.

00;01;04;24 - 00;01;08;18

Cherie Lindberg

And I'm gonna let you introduce yourself. And then we're going to go from there.

00;01;08;20 - 00;01;32;18

Tania Rose

Well, it's lovely to be here. Cherie thank you so much for inviting me to be here. So I am, as you can probably hear from my accent, I am based in Australia, in Sydney, and I work in a number of different ways, so I'm a psychotherapist. I'm also an arts therapist as part of that. On the clinical supervisor as well supporting other other practitioners.

00;01;32;21 - 00;01;58;24

Tania Rose

And I'm also a creative as well too. So I've been supporting neurodivergent practitioners and and people who may or may not work in the therapeutic fields or creative fields. And I've been doing work in disability spaces for about 30 years. So it's been really my whole career that I've been involved in this arena, which I sort of conceptualize as quite broad.

00;01;58;24 - 00;02;28;04

Tania Rose

It's a it's a broad arena, but it's really all about people and people having a human experience. And neurodivergent is is an area that I do the majority of my work in at the moment. And it's something I feel very passionate about. And I'm also a late diagnosed autistic and ADHD person myself. So that brings that lived experience and things to.

00;02;28;07 - 00;02;31;15

Tania Rose

So that's that. That's me, I guess, in a bit of a nutshell.

00;02;31;18 - 00;02;58;28

Cherie Lindberg

Wonderful. And I haven't been officially diagnosed. I haven't gone through all the testing. But when menopause hit, it was very clear. And I was reading about how during menopause that there is many women that end up getting diagnosed because they weren't diagnosed. So very, very interesting. Thank you for for sharing that. I would love to hear with all that experience.

00;02;59;00 - 00;03;20;10

Cherie Lindberg

I mean, I'm sure you have seen the journey that the world has gone through. I really love where it's going now that it's honoring of neuro divergence, but that wasn't always the case. So I'm just wondering how you navigated that and over the 30 years of experience that you've been doing?

00;03;20;12 - 00;03;45;19

Tania Rose

Yeah, sure. Well, bringing it back to my own lived experience. You know, I'm in my 50s now, so I totally, totally get the, the menopause issues that that come up there, and they're very significant and, and really need to be taken seriously. The challenge that many people have in, in, in our sort of age group is being autistic was considered a boys disorder.

00;03;45;21 - 00;04;13;19

Tania Rose

So I have heard many stories of women in their 30s, 40s and 50s who have suspected that there's something different about them and even have had other people diagnosed with neurodivergent in their in their family and gone to their doctors or their specialists and said, could I be autistic or could I be ADHD? And the stories I've heard of people saying, you can't because you're you're female.

00;04;13;21 - 00;04;40;16

Tania Rose

It's not possible. Oh, wow. So and I'm one of the, one of the reasons I think that that has come about is because research up until fairly recently, has really been skewed towards how long was going to say it, what male privilege participants in research, because that's how research is gathered, right? We have people who who get involved in research.

00;04;40;16 - 00;05;18;27

Tania Rose

So and a lot of people who are researchers or who are going to university and colleges, they may volunteer to be research participants. And so for a lot of people, that kind of cut them out of the discovery of what neurodivergent is and how it presents and what people's experiences were. So I think it's only fairly recently that now neurodivergent researchers, people who are neurodivergent themselves, getting involved and researching this arena and able to provide actual data on the population and the different experiences that that people can have.

00;05;19;01 - 00;05;23;13

Tania Rose

You know, women have often have a very different experience of being neurodivergent.

00;05;23;15 - 00;05;44;08

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah, I think was it the and I apologize, I can't remember the name of the author, but I believe it was divergent mind that just recently came out in the last couple of years, and that was what she was talking about as well. And I can't remember the name of the author off the top of my head, but exactly what you were saying is that the research was skewed.

00;05;44;10 - 00;06;00;03

Cherie Lindberg

And so now what we're finding is women later in life are becoming, you know, diagnosed later. And it's like putting the puzzle pieces together. It's like, oh, now I understand why it was like that. Going through school and so forth.

00;06;00;05 - 00;06;25;18

Tania Rose

Yes. And and the retrospective lens, the neurodivergent lens that people can put on their experience retrospectively can answer a lot of questions for people as a psychotherapist working with neurodivergent clients. This is a really common experience for people to go, wow, you know, my life didn't make sense. And now I now I know that I'm a different neuro type.

00;06;25;20 - 00;06;54;04

Tania Rose

Oh, everything starts to make sense now. And I understand that it's it's not a fault of me as a person, but rather it's a biological difference. Yes, it's not. It's not that I need to get my shit together. If, you know, neurodivergent people work very hard to live in the neurotypical world, the cognitive load is huge, much more than neurotypicals.

00;06;54;04 - 00;07;19;27

Tania Rose

The sensory load is huge. And then on top of that, a psychological load of I need to work harder. So I can have or maintain friendships or understand what people are saying when they're talking. Because although we use the same words, neurodivergent people often use language in a very different way and hear it in a very different way, same words.

00;07;19;27 - 00;07;54;00

Tania Rose

But it's it's we are actually speaking different languages. So things start to make sense once people put that lens on. And often there is a radical change in the way they perceive themselves and the accommodations they can give themselves to live a more calm and peaceful existence, which of course, you know, manifests as better health outcomes and better psychological well-being, just better wellbeing overall.

00;07;54;03 - 00;08;13;04

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah. So what I'm hearing you say is that it's taking it out of the personal, like they're starting to understand, oh, this is a biological difference. Can you talk about neuro types? Because that's another area that I think is very confusing out there.

00;08;13;06 - 00;08;39;03

Tania Rose

Well firstly, I'm not a neurobiology. Just so I, I just want to put that out there. When we talk about neuro types, what we're talking about is the way the brain is wired. So for example, my understanding of the neuroscience around your divergences, people who are autistic and ADHD in particular, because that's where the lot of the research sits, even though there's still not enough research.

00;08;39;08 - 00;09;03;27

Tania Rose

But people who have those type of neuro types and sometimes they have both. In fact, I think the latest studies it's suggesting 80% of people who have been diagnosed autistic are also ADHD, which is quite significant. But the difference in neuro types is that the brain works differently. So the communication between different parts of the brain works differently.

00;09;03;29 - 00;09;31;13

Tania Rose

And also that neurodivergent brains in ADHD and autism, from what we understand, don't prune like neurotypical brains do during sleep time. So sleep time, the typical brain will prune out the connections that it has made during the course of the day that it deems not necessary. Now, I know we kind of described that as if the brain is thinking its way through this process, but it's not.

00;09;31;13 - 00;09;54;09

Tania Rose

It's it's just a case of if we using if we're using pathways and we're using them and we're using them and we're using them, the brain will be better, more efficient at creating that pathway. Just like if you're walking through a field of grass, you walk to a tree at the other end of the the paddock, and you look back and you can see that the flattened the grass because you've walked there.

00;09;54;11 - 00;10;20;17

Tania Rose

If you kept doing that, you know, every day like cattle do, they have the little pathways. They actually create a groove and it becomes a permanent groove. So in in the way the brain works is it doesn't create a groove, but it creates insulation around that pathway. So generally speaking, when we sleep and we've got a neurotypical brain, our brain gets really active in pruning, getting rid of things.

00;10;20;17 - 00;10;49;02

Tania Rose

You know, real estate is is scarce in the brain. So, you know, wants to use it as it's it feels the the importance is where it's important. But so ADHD is and or tests that doesn't happen is still pruning that takes place. But the connections a lot of connections remain. So that actually means that the brain is not only operates differently through neurotransmitters and things like that, like dopamine.

00;10;49;02 - 00;11;26;04

Tania Rose

I'm sure everyone's, you know, heard of ADHD and jokingly, but also it is structurally different. It operates differently. It is more connected parts of the brain that aren't usually connected very strongly may be very connected in neurodivergent individuals. So we thinking about these developmental neuro types, I'm using ADHD and autism as too. There's others is there's all kinds of different neuro types strengths and that OCD and all these other things which often cluster into these, these different neuro types of several different types together.

00;11;26;08 - 00;11;54;04

Tania Rose

But these pathways and things, these, these experiences people have are not just psychological in previously neurotypical practitioners, when they've researched people who are different in this way have often looked at behavior, that the behavior is different. But what we're starting under to understand now is what's behind the the outward presentation, which is what I think is a much more person centered thing.

00;11;54;04 - 00;12;21;28

Tania Rose

You can't help how a person's presenting or what their experience is, what is behind that. Or we know biology is behind that and that in itself. Then the different experiences that people have in life then bring about their different experiences in their wellbeing, their psychology that their social differences, their experience of the world, the phenomenology of living.

00;12;22;01 - 00;12;35;18

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah, I really love how you're articulating this. I, I had no idea that the brain did not prune Lumi sleep. That's very that's a very interesting fact.

00;12;35;22 - 00;12;41;21

Tania Rose

It still does some some pruning. But yes, it doesn't pray in the same way as in your eyes. You pick your brain does. Yeah.

00;12;41;23 - 00;12;48;28

Cherie Lindberg

But I find that very fascinating because now my brain starts to go. Is that why there's a higher incidence of sleep disorders?

00;12;49;01 - 00;13;16;18

Tania Rose

00;13;16;18 - 00;13;56;18

Tania Rose

We were just starting to understand that the brain does isn't just this static thing that stays the same all the time. It can change pathways and we can we can train the brain in certain ways, and people who've had brain injuries can recover and restore or re learn different things. So where we are in such an early state of understanding the brain and then the mind, I'm because, you know, we experience the mind in all its different ways, which is not just the brain, it's also our sense of self and our sense of core values and and those kind of things.

00;13;56;18 - 00;13;59;16

Tania Rose

You know, we we experience ourselves.

00;13;59;18 - 00;14;21;07

Cherie Lindberg

When you're talking right now, my brain is going into the different levels of consciousness. When you start talking like, I'm starting to go out out there now, I'm like, well, we could go really deep here very quickly. Yeah, I find that I find that very, very fascinating. And I really love to hear how you're articulating things and about the person centered.

00;14;21;11 - 00;14;42;13

Cherie Lindberg

And I'm also aware what's coming to my mind is, you know, like trauma informed care as well. Like, like inner in what I mean by that is that we're looking more of what is your lived experience versus judging it from the outside, like you said, from a neurotypical it's got to be this way, like putting everybody in a box.

00;14;42;18 - 00;15;24;17

Tania Rose

Yes. And you raised some really interesting things there in all of my practices, whether I'm working with someone creatively or or psychotherapeutic person, being person centered is really important. And literally that is the person is at the center and their experience are at the center, and they are the expert on their experiences. And I think being truly person centered, whether it's just as a person in the world or whether you're working in a particular way, the in person centered is about knowing that that person is actually an expert in their own experience, and that you are the learner you are learning about.

00;15;24;17 - 00;15;55;28

Tania Rose

What can I learn and how can I support you in your experience? If a person wants to change their experiences, that is their right as a human, as an individual, I come very much from a human rights model and that may include the dignity of risk. You know, where a person may go, I'm just going to just get rid of everything, leave my job and go and build a cabin in the woods and things and being person centered, we we we can support a person by going, tell me more about that.

00;15;56;05 - 00;16;01;06

Tania Rose

Help me understand and how can I support your chosen journey?

00;16;01;08 - 00;16;23;13

Cherie Lindberg

I love that, I love that a lot. I don't think we've done enough of that in our world, and I think that's why we have a lot of suffering and trauma in our world, because we've told people how they have to be or you got to do it this way. I really like that a lot. I'm very relational as well, and I'm a very curious person in sitting with somebody.

00;16;23;16 - 00;16;39;06

Cherie Lindberg

And I agree with you 100%. They're the expert of their lives, not me, and that the answers that they seek are inside of them. It's just a matter of giving time and space for them to go in and discover what that is for them. So I hear you loud and clear there.

00;16;39;09 - 00;17;05;24

Tania Rose

Oh yeah, I was just it made me think about creativity, which of course is a really big part of, of of my experience. Now I see that creativity is, is very much an expression of a person's experience of their selves, regardless of what modality, whether it's music or movement or dance or painting or theater or just creating something out of nothing.

00;17;05;26 - 00;17;29;26

Tania Rose

And one of the things that I've been working on is, is this model of providing that space and that opportunity in a person centered way to enable the right environment for a person to experience, you know, the the big bang of creativity, where they suddenly arrive there and, and they, they have an opportunity to go in a state of flow.

00;17;29;26 - 00;18;02;06

Tania Rose

And that that is a really important thing and a really an honor to be part of someone's experience when they when they go through that process. Because we know that creativity and going in a state of flow is an important state for people, for their wellbeing. Positive psychology suggests that flow states can be in some cases, for some people who may be creative, and we see a lot of neurodivergent people who are creative, that that can be a really important part of their wellbeing.

00;18;02;12 - 00;18;29;24

Tania Rose

And certainly that's been my experience, you know, anecdotally in the work that I've done with people and also myself, I'm a music composer in a creative in, in different fields of the arts. And it is so good for my soul, for my sense of just being to touch with that immersion and find that moment of the creative big bang, which is something, you know, that's that's really important to me.

00;18;29;24 - 00;18;31;15

Tania Rose

And I know to other creatives as well.

00;18;31;21 - 00;18;47;05

Cherie Lindberg

I mean, again, I'm just sharing where my brains go and when I'm seeing you that the big bang and I'm watching you right now, I just to me it just sounds like social work, like they're experiencing their soul. Like it goes that that deep of who they truly are and the essence of who they really are.

00;18;47;07 - 00;19;19;00

Tania Rose

Yeah, absolutely. It can certainly feel like that. And people talk about it in that way. And also people say, I can't put this into words. I can't talk about it in this way. I just have to share with you the result of this experience. And, you know, I call the creative Big Bang and the work around at the Genesis Praxis because, you know, praxis mean practice or the, the, the doing, the doing of the thing and Genesis, which is the moment of creation, that arrival, that sudden arrival, that burst.

00;19;19;00 - 00;19;24;28

Tania Rose

And then a person is off on that creative thing and it can be inexpressible.

00;19;25;03 - 00;19;44;12

Cherie Lindberg

So interestingly, if I if I may and, you know, if you don't want to answer this, this is absolutely okay. But I'm curious person. So I'm going to ask them if you don't want to. Well, you go ahead. What was it like for you to be doing this work and then to discover your own diagnosis? What was that like for you?

00;19;44;15 - 00;20;06;10

Tania Rose

It's a really interesting thing because when I started working in this way, which was an evolution, and it really came from being person centered, this is before I became a psychotherapist, so it's already my therapy work. I was a creative and I did a lot of work in the disability in the arts space, working with a lot of different people who were teaching me.

00;20;06;12 - 00;20;32;19

Tania Rose

They were teaching me about their creative experiences, and I became a kind of a space holder for that, you know, a facilitator, but really providing that space in the same way that we think of, you know, therapy, providing that person's input space. So my work was was very much through that part of, of my journey. Right? Knowing I was neurodivergent, I always knew I was different.

00;20;32;21 - 00;20;51;18

Tania Rose

But being a creative, I framed it as, oh, well, I'm creative, I'm an artist. And so there, there are these this notion that artists can be a little bit different. They can be a little bit weird or a little bit different from the norm, a little bit eccentric, have their ways because they need to have their ways in order to have this creativity.

00;20;51;20 - 00;21;25;21

Tania Rose

I now recognize that a lot of my differences are actually neurodivergent, and I have questions now about creativity in neurodivergent, because many of the people I've worked with in the past in this creative way were neurodivergent. Some also had intellectual disabilities, some didn't. Some had physical disabilities, some didn't. And I really would like to see research done in this arena around creativity, which is often researched from an education base rather than a neuroscientific way.

00;21;25;24 - 00;21;52;17

Tania Rose

So it's usually a lot of research around creativity, around outcome or productivity or those kind of that kind of realm. But I really would like to see what's going on. Yeah. People who are creative, like what's going on in their bodies and in their brains and things when they are entering into these creative states of flow, what's going on specifically for neurodivergent individuals?

00;21;52;19 - 00;22;05;29

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah. Very fascinating. I teach a class on flow and spirituality and intuition. There's lots of research, how they all overlap. I'm very fascinated with it, too. What is going on in there?

00;22;06;02 - 00;22;12;00

Tania Rose

Maybe this could be a research project if anyone's listening, who's keen on doing research, this would be a great thing to do.

00;22;12;00 - 00;22;43;02

Cherie Lindberg

Research on her, sir. I mean, I I'm just fascinated by experiences like that and what what's happening with our brain and trying to understand that more. And and interestingly too, I agree with you. You know, I, I don't have a lot of clients, but I've worked with a fair amount of clients that have disabilities and are also neurodivergent, and they all have deep differences, but deep creative, different things that they do like it's it's just part of who they are.

00;22;43;04 - 00;22;55;01

Cherie Lindberg

There's lots of creativity there. And it's different per person, of course, because like you said, person centered. What might speak to me could be completely different than what look speaks to you.

00;22;55;03 - 00;23;37;03

Tania Rose

It's interesting, isn't it, the notion of how, you know, the evolution of neurodivergent individuals in society and how how because we can we can trace back neurodivergent for, you know, thousands of years. There are cultural references in in a lot of cultures around particularly what appears to be autism and ADHD. And, you know, I remember having a conversation with a colleague and we we were thinking about this hypothesis around, you know, you think about a tribe of people and, you know, you've got ADHD as which would be perfect for looking out and running around and, you know, checking out if there are any dangers because they, you know, as near as ADHD is, can attest

00;23;37;03 - 00;24;05;25

Tania Rose

to, they often feel really on edge. They really feel like they're. And when it comes to people, they feel like they're, you know, hyper vigilant about people's intentions and what they are actually saying. And then trying to kind of stay really curious about what's what's going on there. And, you know, so they could be considered to be the meerkats of a tribe, you know, people who that high energy looking out, making sure, you know, not sleeping or sleeping in fits and starts, you know, they could be warning people something's coming.

00;24;05;25 - 00;24;27;15

Tania Rose

You know, the mammoths coming, the saber tooth tigers coming. We've got to take cover. And then, you know, you have autistic individuals who often want to spend time alone and are curious about their environment and the world and how things work, creating ways to get that stream to bring water to the to the village and things like that.

00;24;27;15 - 00;25;02;21

Tania Rose

You know, the inventors, the people who have that creative thinking. So we see creativity in both of these, these different experiences, regardless of of what hypothesis that people may have, is that the creativity, the creating the thing out of nothing, which is what creativity is, which has for decades psychologists have been suggesting that that's a bad thing. You know, if we're if we're creating scenarios and hypotheses about situations that are not real, that that's a bad thing and we need to quash that.

00;25;02;24 - 00;25;27;00

Tania Rose

How helpful is that to the neurodivergent individual, when in fact they may be wired for a certain skill set that is actually evolved out of a protection of a group of people. Where does their skill set set now lie in society? Because society has placed us all, and our education system educates us all to be followers of the leaders, you know.

00;25;27;00 - 00;25;44;10

Tania Rose

And that's great if you're in your typical because that could be quite a comfortable position to be in. But if you're neurodivergent, that is not a comfortable position because it's pretty much impossible to live that way. Even highly masking neurodivergent people. It's not sustainable.

00;25;44;12 - 00;26;04;28

Cherie Lindberg

Absolutely true. And I have a son that's on the spectrum. I have another son that that's ADHD. And then my husband, you know, like the two of us, we grew up in the generation where you just didn't get tested. And I just think of how far we've come where, like you said, this is a problem, right? Your child can't sit still.

00;26;05;02 - 00;26;47;28

Cherie Lindberg

And now I think and I'm hopeful, that understanding neuro divergence and understanding all the neuro types that we are starting to become more person centered, more empathic and compassionate to difference. That's my hope. Anyway. I know we could say differently. There are some aspects of our society either like know the difference, but I also think there's an equal push towards respect of difference and blossoming and seeing it just like you're saying with curiosity and how might like we're seeing more and more folks that are being said are neurodivergent.

00;26;48;00 - 00;26;59;00

Cherie Lindberg

Is this an evolution of our society? Like, these skill sets are needed because of how our world, you know, is evolving. Like, what are your thoughts on that?

00;26;59;02 - 00;27;24;16

Tania Rose

Yeah, I think that I, I totally agree that I see my, my own experience of the world is that I'm seeing more of a shift towards acceptance, which is law, long overdue apology. And it's disappointing those parts that are dismissive of that, I think so I think it's that acceptance and being person centered isn't isn't enough for neurodivergent people.

00;27;24;24 - 00;28;06;08

Tania Rose

Our world is built on the neurotypical model, right post industrialized society, which is where we're at, is based on a neurotypical model. You know, we have hierarchy, and we have people who follow the majority of people or follow the leaders. So I don't have I know I've already mentioned to the challenges there, but I think the world that we've created is not made, or even it's not a place that is safe for neurodivergent people, not necessarily because of not being accepted, but it's noisy, it's smelly, it's doesn't have a lot of nature in a lot of places, which is really important.

00;28;06;08 - 00;28;35;07

Tania Rose

And see how I senior divergence is it's really a biological difference in the nervous system. And what is the what is the nervous system need? Well, we know it needs nature. It needs downregulation. And how do we downregulated when we go when we have quiet time. Neurodivergent people need to rest and recover. They are disabled in our world because the world as we have it at the moment is creating their disability.

00;28;35;09 - 00;29;03;00

Tania Rose

If they were in a natural environment, they would not experience the disabling factors that they do in the current society that we have. You know, where you can only if you're lucky, if you're lucky and you live in a, in an, in an area that actually is providing for neurodivergent people, you might be able to go shopping one hour a week where that shopping center decides that they're for that one hour, they're not going to play any radio.

00;29;03;04 - 00;29;31;11

Tania Rose

Or you may be lucky to live in an area where you can have home delivery. Not everyone has these experiences, you know. Right. And these are also first world problems as well. Right? So this is something that we experience because of the privilege that we have in our society. So there's a long way to go. And we some of these changes are going to benefit everybody who wants to live in a smelly, overstimulated, sensory, you know, city.

00;29;31;14 - 00;29;38;07

Tania Rose

But I really don't think anyone does. So maybe we can learn from from our neurodivergent friends.

00;29;38;10 - 00;30;00;05

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah. So, you know, the podcast is about stories of hope and healing. Just wondering, is there any stories that are popping up in all of your years of experiences where you've worked with, you know, creatives or folks that are neurodivergent, that there was a story of of hope and healing?

00;30;00;08 - 00;30;26;13

Tania Rose

I think it's probably more my own story, to be honest. I don't feel like I could truly give another person's story the validating that it would require, because it's not my experience and not my story. And I also on the side of caution when discussing other people's stories, because that is part of my own core values around respecting that.

00;30;26;13 - 00;30;53;12

Tania Rose

It's their story. That's their story. But my own story, I think I came from a challenging situation in my, in my birth but family of origin, my birth family and I always felt like, you know, the black sheep and it felt like my, my core values didn't align with, with the values that, that were being modeled to me.

00;30;53;12 - 00;31;22;05

Tania Rose

And so for me, I immersed myself in creativity. And I found my groove. Even though I didn't know I was neurodivergent, I found my groove. And I made a conscious decision as a young person who felt very alone. I was in my early 20s. I was really struggling with everything about what it was to be alive in the world as an adult, and I made a decision one day.

00;31;22;05 - 00;31;46;13

Tania Rose

It was an epiphany of I'd rather be poor and happy than be secure and miserable, because I saw so much misery in the world, including my own, and I really leaned heavily into my cup half full, natural, personal, I guess, that I'd always had. I really had to lean. Really. Like, gotta find that. Is it half full?

00;31;46;13 - 00;31;47;23

Cherie Lindberg

It's really awful.

00;31;47;23 - 00;32;14;05

Tania Rose

I really gotta find that. And fortunately for me, I. I made that decision. I knew I was different, it was framed as creativity, as my difference. And I decided to walk through the world really honoring my core values, regardless of what society was telling me or the messages that I was getting. And fortunately, that I had creativity to lean on.

00;32;14;05 - 00;32;56;11

Tania Rose

But people don't have that or unaware of that, that they can do that. And I had enough messages from people. I knew that this was actually good to be true to myself, and that even though I wasn't religious, I had a sense of spirituality, a sense of being a soulful person in the world, and that I believed that the world was inherently good, even though it was giving me all these mixed messages, I was able to bolster myself enough to get out of that really dark period and into a sense of myself and who who I was.

00;32;56;13 - 00;33;30;23

Tania Rose

Then. Fast forward to when I had my own diagnosis. I suspected for about ten years that I may be autistic. But I tell you what, when I actually had my diagnosis, my life changed. Completely changed, and it was really about like I said before, looking back and seeing like my life suddenly makes sense. All the parts just suddenly went into their different areas and it was like, oh, I really am not the problem, I really am not the problem.

00;33;30;29 - 00;33;49;01

Tania Rose

And I felt this weight lift from me. It was the weight that was carried by my younger self. I didn't feel I was carrying that light as an older person. I really found myself and was doing my things, but it was like I could tell my younger self, it's okay.

00;33;49;04 - 00;34;13;12

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah, it was like a big validation. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, Tania, thank you so much for for coming and speaking and sharing your journey and sharing it in such an articulate, lovely way. And I don't know, I've just got so many thoughts, you know, running through my head about I just hope that this is inspiring to other folks.

00;34;13;12 - 00;34;36;12

Cherie Lindberg

I mean, I just think it's so amazing that you were able, on some level, somehow to be able, even though you were getting so many mixed messages that it was like you, you followed your Northstar, like you were you just went that way. And then I really liked about this down, like your Northstar was your groove and and you didn't apologize for that.

00;34;36;15 - 00;34;53;16

Cherie Lindberg

And then it was years later that you got validated and said, you know, it's like, okay. It was not it wasn't about me. It was about the brain. Right? So, so thank you so much for your story and your time today and sharing about this beautiful topic.

00;34;53;18 - 00;34;59;03

Tania Rose

You're welcome. And it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for inviting me to speak today.

00;34;59;05 - 00;35;30;13

Cherie Lindberg

You're so welcome. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed this talk on neurodivergent and the beauty of person centered and lived experience variants that Tania spoke about and her beautiful, inspiring story. I really liked how she talked about finding her groove. I wish that for all folks that are neurodivergent, living in this neurotypical world, and how that can be so challenging.

00;35;30;15 - 00;36;02;26

Cherie Lindberg

And I just want to say, we live in a world that needs diversity, and we need people to be their full, authentic selves. And that includes all the different ways that everyone is creative. And I really hope we all get to live in that world where we are embracing it and seeing all of these different ways that people show up as as gifts to our world and that we see it that way instead of problems.

00;36;02;28 - 00;36;23;13

Cherie Lindberg

So if this talk spoke to you or a loved one that you know might be inspired, please share it. We are trying to spread hope and healing around the world and teach people how to live in elevated life. So thank you again for listening. Until next time.

00;36;23;16 - 00;36;42;12

Narrator

Thank you for joining us on another uplifting journey on Cherie Lindberg's Elevated Life Academy. Stories of Hope and healing. If you found resonance or connection with what you've heard today, we encourage you to share this episode and consider becoming a subscriber. Please spread the word so others can live an elevated life.