Past Community Sessions

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July 2022

July 6

ADHD Adventures! Overcoming Task Initiation & Planning Overwhelm
Does this sound familiar? “I want to go on a vacation! But where should I go? When can I even schedule a vacation?! I’m so busy I rarely even give myself a break! Planning a vacation seems overwhelming!”

Taking time away from our daily work and chaos is important, but making it happen can be an adventure on its own. ADHD makes starting tasks, making decisions, problem solving, and planning difficult and exhausting. But…what if it could be fun? What adventures would you have if you followed your impulsivity or daydreams? In this session, we’ll break down the executive functions standing between us and our vacations, and design strategies to overcome those obstacles.

Speaker: Dylan Marie Alter
Host: Noor Alyateem

July 13

Adventuring with Communication and Boundaries
Can I tell you a secret? I (Lou) am afraid of heights. I’m telling you because it’s summer and if we happen to go hiking together, I will not hike along that cliff-hugging trail with you.

Communication and boundaries are tough for the ADHD brain. Even if we’ve built up some skills in those areas (pom poms!), it’s easy to neglect our own needs when we travel with a group or with our partner(s). This week we will learn how to have bigger (or smaller, if that’s what you need) and nicer adventures — by setting and communicating boundaries, and balancing the needs of a group.

Speaker: Lou Szody
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

July 20

Staycation with Partner(s)
Life in the pandemic era comes with a lot of stuff. Maybe you’re feeling stuck in never-ending tedium, or overcommitted, stressed, and almost ready to implode. Either way, a break might be just what you need! Travel can be inaccessible for a lot of reasons, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a vacation right at home. In this workshop, we’ll walk through steps to start planning a staycation that honors you, your partnership, and your ADHD.

Speaker: Noor Wise
Host: Noor Alyateem

June 2022

June 1

Community Check-In
Sometimes it’s more important to get support for where we are than learning something new. Unstructured and open space is crucial for ADHD brains! It’s where we get to rest, follow where our minds lead us, and process. We’re holding a space for you to bring whatever is up for you to talk about, share your queer ADHD experience, get and offer support, and build community.

Hosts: Dylan Marie Alter, Noor Alyateem

June 8

P.U.G: Personal User Guide To Your ADHD Brain
How often does your ADHD make you feel frustrated or anxious? Are you exhausted from trying to remember everything? Do you collect tools and strategies but never use them? ADHDers have “omni potential minds” — we can do anything we can get and stay interested in. So why do we struggle with so many things? It turns out that we’ve been using the wrong user’s manual.

Enter the P.U.G. The P.U.G. (aka Personal User Guide) is a tool to help us identify the strategies we need, fetch them when we need them, and even remind us how to use those tools. Best of all, it’s customized for you, is a companion on our journey of ADHD self-awareness, and doesn’t mind doing the heavy lifting to carry all the strategies in our heads. This session will cover research-based guideposts, clues, and experiments you can use to start making your own Personal User Guide. *Impulsively adopted puppy not included.

*NOTE: Please bring:

your PUG if you began it already,
OR a few – different – fresh – notebooks/scrap books you may like to use for it*

Speaker: Dylan Marie Alter
Host: Noor Alyateem

June 15

Workshop: Morning and Bedtime Routines
Having an ADHD brain means our day doesn’t always go the way we planned. Sometimes it can feel like the day just happens around us — wake up, squirrels 🐿, work, explosions, bedtime (just kidding! Hulu 📺). Where did the time go? If you struggle with structure, adding morning and bedtime routines can be helpful bookends to your day. In this workshop, we’ll start small and make a routine of your choice—morning or night time—that suits your life and sensory needs. Bring a pen and paper or your favorite note-taking app.

Speaker: Lou Szody
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

June 22

Movement & Mindfulness: Em-body-ful-ness
How often have you wanted to death-stare a person who says “Just try mindfulness”…and wanted to scream “My mind is full enough!” or “You want me to sit still for how long?”

Together we will explore movement and body-based options to practice cultivating access to a more balanced and present nervous system, ADHD-style, via em-body-ful-ness: a practical approach to tuning and toning our nervous systems for ease, connection, rest, and resonance.

This session will offer some vital building block info on ADHD-specific, body-based insights on how we can practice moving and cultivating balance, with our nervous system’s natural wiring.

Part info download ~ Part live practice ~ Part draft your own em-body-ful-ness practice

Special Guest Speaker: Morgan Vanderpool, LICSW
Host: Noor Alyateem

About Morgan Vanderpool
Morgan Lee Vanderpool, LICSW (they/them) is a white, non-binary, queer, neurodivergent, bilingual (Spanish/English) complex trauma specialist, trauma sensitive movement and breath facilitator, professional trainer, choreographer and community organizer. They are deeply committed to neuroscientifically, mycelially, and ecologically-grounded embodiment practices that support our collective disengagement from white-body-supremacy, which fosters opportunity for liberatory and trauma sensitive connection with every breath, movement, choice, thought, and word.

June 29

Setting Goals
Struggling with setting and progressing in your goals? Yep, us too. Our ADHD can bring fun and flavor to life, but it can also make things like long-term planning and tedious tasks reaaaally difficult. In this workshop, we’ll walk through strategies to develop purposeful goals that excite your ADHD brain — and build in safeguards to block its mischievous side from derailing you.

Speaker: Noor Wise
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

May 2022

May 4

ADHD & Identity Integration: What’s Your ADHD Coming Out Story?
How long did it take to embrace being queer? Often, it’s a lifelong process, and embracing neurodiversity is similar. Identity integration involves reconciling and balancing multiple identities into a harmonious, whole self. Having ADHD is a big deal. ADHD impacts our daily functions, our relationships, our history, and how we view the future. Neurodiversity is increasingly becoming a cultural identity, with cultural norms and stereotypes that influence us. Whether you’ve been diagnosed for years, are recently diagnosed (formally or self), or are questioning, integrating this part of ourselves is a big part of self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-love.

Speaker: Dylan Marie Alter

May 11

Working with Internalized Guilt and Shame — GUEST SPEAKER
Do you work hard to accept yourself and all of the ADHD quirks you offer the world? It’s hard to accept such a nuanced, deep, and unpredictable state of being in a world that thrives based on definitions, predictability, and societal norms that may not be reasonable or inclusive of neurodivergent beings. Together, we will deep dive into exploring the textures and impacts of internalized guilt and shame that are so often projected onto beings with ADHD. We will work with paintings, poems, and discussion prompts to be witnessed in our own journey navigating the woulds, shoulds, and coulds that we have been carrying with us unconsciously. This is a space to remind you that—no—it is not just your RSD — it is also all of the comments, bouts of isolation, judgments, projections, and reactions that came from others — all while you were simply trying to exist as your most authentic self.

Special Guest Speaker: Tianna Renee Arredondo
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

About Tianna Renee Arredondo
Tianna Renee Arredondo (they/them) is a writer and guide that is devoted to cultivating practices of curiosity. They pull from their life experiences of: death, grief, addiction, interfaith ministry, institutions, earth, and neurodivergence. They share insights, prompts, reflection sessions and truth tools at their corner of the web, genuinelycurious.blog. They currently serve as a regenerative initiatives researcher, partnership manager, and curriculum designer when they’re not making art or holding reflection sessions with clients.

May 18

Interoception: Oops, I Have a Body
Interoception is how we feel and interpret what is going on inside our body. Or is it how we misinterpret what’s going on in there? We make decisions all day long—including sensory seeking and sensory avoidance—based on what we think our body is doing. Having a neurodivergent brain means we might be missing, or getting overloaded by, our body’s cues and missing key opportunities for self-regulation and self-care. Join us to learn why the hanger is real and why your body might feel so blah after a long stretch of hyperfocus.

Speaker: Lou Szody
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

May 25

Often Overlooked: The ADHD-Emotion Connection
When mainstream society thinks of ADHD, a specific image tends to come to mind: a person (often a child) bouncing off the walls, unable to hold their attention. As we know, this is only a small slice of our collective experience, especially as adults. One core aspect of our ADHD that is regularly unacknowledged (even in the DSM!) is the emotional side. Join us to learn about, discuss, and normalize the unique emotional experiences and processes ADHDers tend to share.

Speaker: Noor Wise
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

April 2022

April 6

Community Check-In
Unstructured and open space is important for ADHD brains! It’s where we get to rest, play, and process. We’re holding a space for you to bring whatever is up for you to talk about, share your queer ADHD experience, get and offer support, and build community.

Hosts: Sarah Dopp & Dylan Marie Alter

April 13

Tackling the To Do List Problem
Are you constantly “herding cats” or overwhelmed by a never ending list of things to do? Or are you annoyed by how ineffective To Do lists seem to be? We’ll explore how to use the Getting Things Done method to tackle your To Do list woes. (And for Queer ADHD Members, in the weeks following this Community Session, please join us in the Members Hub for a weekly review & support on implementing these new skills, to help you keep your To Do list manageable!)

Special Guest Speaker: Katherine Edmonds
Host: Sarah Dopp

About Katherine Edmonds
Katherine Edmonds is a queer artist and designer based in Corvallis, Oregon. Katherine has degrees in Biology, Ecology, and Mechanical Engineering. She trained as a ski and snowboard instructor, whitewater kayak instructor, and wilderness expedition leader. She also completed an intensive furniture making course at the Center For Furniture Craftsmanship. She worked in both commercial and residential construction. She apprenticed with two master furniture makers, and ran a small custom furniture business of her own. She is currently working as a freelance designer and artist. https://www.katherine-edmonds.com/

Katherine found the Getting Things Done book two years ago and has been practicing techniques like the weekly review ever since. She is by no means an expert on the GTD method but has found incredible benefits from practicing the weekly review. “Having ADHD, I just thought I was terrible at remembering things and that I was doomed to have to do lists half done all over the house. Having a million interests, I figured I just wouldn’t be able to do everything I wanted each week. While some of that is still true, using these methods, I now have a centralized place where I keep my lists that I visit at least once each week, usually multiple times. GTD has also helped me organize the myriad of interests I want to partake in each week in a way I never thought possible.”

April 20

Making Routines Less Routine
Feel like you’re not “adulting” well enough? We’ve been hearing the laundry list of expected tasks along with the right way to do them our whole lives, and it can leave us feeling exhausted and full of shame when we just can’t keep up. But what if we were never supposed to? Many of these autopilot standards are made by and for neurotypical brains, and the cost often outweighs the benefit to ours. Let’s start breaking down assumptions for how to “people” properly and rebuild routines that honor our unique brain’s strengths, needs, and wants.

Speaker: Noor Wise
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

March 2022

March 2

Hosts: Dylan Marie Alter, Sarah Dopp

March 9

The Embodied Experience of ADHD
Together we will explore the embodied layers of the spectrum of challenges and joys of having ADHD, via some questions around: How does it feel in our bodies to choose to mask or unmask? And when we don’t get to choose? How do we choose to take care of the embodied manifestations of our neurodivergence? What is required to effectively co-imagine, collectively and viscerally, celebrating our nervous systems? During the gathering we’ll explore these choice points through a liberatory lens, and co-create some in-the-moment opportunities for authentic breath, expression, and movement.

Special Guest Speaker: Morgan Vanderpool, LICSW
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

March 16

Understanding and Harnessing Dopamine
You know that ADHD has to do with a shortage of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, but do you know what dopamine is or why your brain craves more of it? Why is that thing over there more interesting than what you are working on right now? And, like, it’s a cliche, but why are squirrels so cute and distracting? Why do we hyperfocus? Let’s learn more about how our ADHD brains use dopamine and some ways we can leverage it to increase productivity and decrease frustration.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

March 23

Developing An Owner’s Manual for Your ADHD Mind
It’s said ADHD’ers have “Omni Potential minds”, we can do anything we can get and stay interested in. So why do we struggle with so many things? What if we’ve been using the wrong user’s manual? The good news: You can throw out all the bad neurotypical advice you’ve gotten about planners and focusing and organization — YEET! The better news: You’re at the start of your own detective story to figure out the real way, the easy, effective way to do things. No one but you can figure it out, but you don’t have to go on this adventure alone. This session will cover research-based guideposts, clues, and experiments you can use to start making your own User Guides.

Speaker: Dylan Marie Alter
Host: Sarah Dopp

March 30

Flipping the Creativity Switch
“What is creativity after all, but impulsivity gone right?” says Dr. Ned Hallowell. Our ADHD traits can facilitate innovative thinking and bursts of intense creativity. Unfortunately, though, many of us were deeply conditioned to suppress these gifts from early on, and specific conditions may not be allowing them to flourish today. In this workshop, we’ll start shifting aspects of our lives from dull and drab to vivid and vibrant by unleashing the untapped powers of our divergent minds.

Speaker: Noor Wise
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

February 2022

February 2

Riding the Tide: Flooding, Relationships, & ADHD
We’ve all been there. We’re in the middle of a conversation when someone says something that hits us—hard. Suddenly our bodies and brains are in a state of overwhelm and we lose access to the logical, decision-making, problem-solving sides. The deepest, darkest parts of our emotional core take control of us and read the worst about the situation or our loved one. Later, when we come back into ourselves, we’re left with regret and shame. While this response system can protect us in times of need, it is common for our ADHD brains to experience flooding when we’re not in danger and we end up hurting ourselves and our relationships. Join us to learn more about flooding, explore how to manage it, and enhance your health and relationships!

Speaker: Noor Wise
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

February 9

Hosts: Dylan Marie Alter, Noor Wise

February 16

Rest and ADHD: Hitting the Refresh Button
Rest? I haven’t done all the things yet, why would I rest? Rest can be a loaded concept for those of us with ADHD. Maybe we don’t feel deserving (ouch!), maybe it seems boring, or maybe we rest and still feel tired. Let’s see if we can throw out what we’ve been taught about how and when we’re supposed to rest, and learn how to hit the refresh button.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

February 23

FrameStorm: Cognitive Reframing for Creative & Effective Solutions
When we’re stuck, it’s tempting to think, “Maybe if I just try harder…” But often the key is making the task easier; why keep trying to go through a brick wall when we can go over or around it? Cognitive reframing is a powerful tool that can be used to transform seemingly insurmountable problems into opportunities, and frustrations into play. FrameStorm is a reframing workshop and brainstorm space to practice reframing, discuss why queer people with ADHD have some unique reframing skillsets, and learn how to avoid harmful pitfalls like bypassing or gaslighting. We’ll bring some cognitive reframing tools, you bring your amazing queer ADHD self, and let’s unleash a whirlwind of creativity to find new solutions to our most perplexing ADHD life puzzles.

Speaker: Dylan Marie Alter
Host: Noor Wise

January 2022

January 5

Task Initiation: Jump-Start the Start-Up!
Staring at an ever-growing laundry or dish pile? Mounting dread with each day you didn’t respond to that should-be-simple text or email? Deadline approaching for that work or school project you just can’t seem to start? Yeah, us too… Unfortunately, task initiation is one super-common struggle for people with ADHD. Good news: by learning more about what’s actually going on behind the scenes, we can develop personalized strategies to help get things rolling by working WITH our ADHD, not against it, and giving ourselves compassion along the way.

Speaker: Noor Wise
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

January 12

Hosts: Dylan Marie Alter, Noor Wise

January 19 – SPECIAL GUEST

ADHD, Sex, and Relationships
While most of us have learned about how ADHD affects other areas of our lives, many of us are left in the dark about how it impacts our sex lives and relationships. A lot of therapists shy away from even discussing how they intersect, and frankly, there is not a wealth of clinical research either, so clients are left wondering why things like “why is it hard to have sex when the air conditioning is making that sound?” or “why do people get upset when all I did was text them non-stop for a day and then forget their existence?” In this chat, we will discuss how ADHD can potentially impact how we interact with others in sexual, romantic, and platonic relationships, as well as how we interact with our own sexual desire.

Special Guest Speaker: Pam Shaffer, LMFT
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

About Pam Shaffer
Pam Shaffer is a licensed MFT in Los Angeles who runs the group practice Best Self Psych, where she and her clinicians specialize in seeing members of the ENM, kink, and neurodiverse communities. As a musician, podcast host of “Why Not Both?”, clinician, and recovered manic pixie dream girl, Pam brings a creative and multi-faceted collaborative approach to all that she does. Recently, Pam launched Galaxy Brains, an online learning portal, resource center, and Discord server for those of us with a little extra brain spice. She found that the best way to help people with neurodiversity was to bring them together with other people who were neurodiverse so everyone could support one another. She deeply values creativity, novelty, and community and brings these aspects into all of the spheres in which she travels.

January 26

Boundaries Workshop: Personal Policies for Socializing
Do you love hanging out with friends but always feel worn out the next day? Do you get tired of being the driver or the host? Bring a pen and paper or your bullet journal and leave with 3 personal policies you can use to set boundaries around socializing with friends and family.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

December 2021

December 1

Identifying and Dismantling Internalized Oppression
As queer ADHDers, we’re living in a world not designed for and even actively opposed to us. Expectations and criticisms from the outside are near-constant, and that’s tough enough to navigate! But what happens when the most insidious messages are calling from inside the house? The voices we vehemently disagree with on a conscious level find ways to ooze their way in, subtly possessing our inner voice and controlling our movements by almost-invisible strings. Get ready to break out the scissors, turn on the lights, and shun the shaming puppeteer – good riddance!

Speaker: Noor Wise
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

December 8

Hosts: Dylan Marie Alter, Noor Wise

December 15

Get It Done!
What annoying thing in your physical environment are you avoiding? Is there a pile of clutter in the corner you keep walking past? Is there a dead car battery in your office, or a random piece of plywood in your bedroom? Perhaps there are coffee cups that have gone feral and are refusing to rejoin society. Join us as we help the rubber meet the road, unhook the caboose, and use some of the strategies we’ve learned at Queer ADHD to overcome those little things we’ve been avoiding for months so we can stop feeling guilty about them.

Speaker: Dylan Marie Alter
Host: Noor Wise

December 22

Communicating On Your Own Terms
Ever had one of those conversations that didn’t go badly but you felt angry, uncomfortable, or violated afterwards? Have you ever answered an intrusive question and later thought, “Actually, none of your business”? Let’s talk about defining and holding our communication boundaries.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Noor Wise

December 29

Yours, Mine and…Don’t Touch That
What is it like when one or more people in a household has ADHD? Probably not boring, but also maybe a lot. This week we will learn some strategies for accommodating conflicting needs (including sensory needs), communication, boundaries, and not impulsively spending the rent money.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

November 2021

November 3

Everything is a lot! (Overwhelm)
Do you have places to go, people to see, projects to finish, dinner to cook, that other thing you forgot, and not enough time to sleep? What would it be like to experience less overwhelm? This week we’ll learn about the different types of overwhelm and dig into some strategies that can help us take a mental, emotional, and physical load off.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

November 10

Hosts: Dylan Marie Alter, Noor Wise

November 17

Setting Authentic Goals
Sometimes the goals we set for ourselves are things we are “supposed” to want because of societal or family expectations. There is nothing wrong with going into the family business or buying a house in the suburbs if you genuinely want to, but too many of us queer neurodivergents find ourselves pursuing goals that ultimately feel hollow. Let’s talk about how to set authentic goals based on what we really want.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Noor Wise

November 24

Self Advocacy
Navigating a world built for neurotypicals means we sometimes (often) have to advocate for ourselves to get what we need. How do we identify our own needs and navigate systems not built by or for us? How do we start the conversation? This week we’ll talk about what it means to advocate for ourselves and how we can do it.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

October 2021

October 6

Relationships — Focus on Friendships
It’s not easy to make new friends as an adult, and keeping them can be a challenge for those of us with ADHD. Why do we sometimes feel friendless despite having nice humans in our contact list? How can we cope with anxiety around communication or guilt around falling out of touch? Let’s talk about how we can grow and maintain fun, fulfilling, platonic relationships, and how to be a good friend to others.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

October 13

Hosts: Dylan Marie Alter, Lou Rogers

October 20

Self-Compassion
We may have endless kindness, patience, and support for friends, but do we also offer that compassion to ourselves? Berating ourselves into self-acceptance does not work. Let’s talk about why self-compassion is important and how to update our inner voice.

Speaker: Sarah Dopp
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

October 27

Cognitive Reframing — A Multi-Tool for Solutions
Cognitive reframing is a powerful tool that can be used to shift seemingly insurmountable problems into opportunities, and frustrations into play. We’ll discuss and practice how to use reframing, why queer people with ADHD have some unique reframing skillsets, and how to avoid harmful pitfalls like bypassing or gaslighting.

Speaker: Dylan Marie Alter
Host: Sarah Dopp

September 2021

September 1

Boundaries – Beyond the Basics
Let’s delve deeper into boundaries with a focus on the hard topics: how to have tough conversations, how to enforce our BIG boundaries, and how to navigate situations where we might want to (or have to) flex or adapt our boundaries.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

September 8

Hosts: Dylan Marie Alter, Sarah Dopp

September 15

Envisioning Your Future and Future Self
The future can be a little fuzzy, especially for those of us who struggle with time perception and object permanence. Let’s talk about how to envision our future and our future self in a way that is realistic, honors our core self, and doesn’t sell us short. This work can provide a strong foundation for long-term satisfaction and goals.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

September 22

Organizing Our Digital Lives
Technology is for supporting our lives, not derailing it! Let’s look at ADHD-friendly ways to wrangle our inboxes, browser tabs, passwords, social media, and mobile apps.

Speaker: Sarah Dopp
Host: Dylan Marie Alter

September 29

Situational Awareness
What is happening and what am I supposed to be doing? Why is everyone else wearing shoes? This week we’ll learn some strategies to prepare ourselves for the expected and the unexpected, talk about awkward social situations, and take a look at personal safety.

Speaker: Lou Rogers
Host: Dylan Marie Alter