Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children TPP 372a: Dr. Megan Anna Neff on Self-Care for Autistic People
Feb 27, 2026
Dr. Megan Anna Neff, a neurodivergent clinical psychologist and author, offers concise guidance grounded in lived experience and clinical work. She explores self-care as collective, addresses internalized ableism, sensory and interoception differences, PDA-specific strategies, co-regulation, and how workplace advocacy can be a form of self-care. Practical, community-centered approaches are highlighted.
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Self-Care Beyond Spa Moments
- Self-care often gets framed as consumeristic or individualistic and therefore misses systemic roots.
- Megan Anna reframes self-care as creating a life you don't need to escape from and as interdependent care of community and environment.
Selfhood Shapes Self-Care
- Interdependent cultures view selfhood relationally so self-care naturally includes care for others and place.
- Megan Anna contrasts Western 'I think therefore I am' with relational 'we are therefore I am' to explain different self-care models.
Begin With Self-Attunement
- Start self-care with self-attunement: notice bodily sensations, emotions, and first responses.
- Megan Anna emphasizes addressing interoception, alexithymia, masking, or dissociation first so you can identify what care is needed.
