We Are Pack Animals Too

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late | Raymond Lavine

What happens to the people we love when we can't be there for them anymore?  For parents of children with Level 2 autism, PDD-NOS, and similar diagnoses, that question lives somewhere close to the surface. You're caregiving today, right now, doing something that requires everything you have. And somewhere in the back of your mind is the harder question: what is the plan for when I can't do this anymore?   In Part 1 of this conversation, Tonya sits down with Raymond Lavine, Principal at Lavine LTC Benefits and co-author of the Amazon bestselling book Empathy and Understanding in Business. Raymond has helped thousands of families prepare for long-term care, and his path to this work began with his own remarkable story.  Raymond grew up the son of immigrants who fled persecution, enlisted in the Army and served in Vietnam, and watched his mother, an estate planning attorney, rely on her own long-term care plan for eighteen years.  In Part 1, he shares that story and explains why so many families are one crisis away from a situation they never planned for.  In this episode:  - Raymond's childhood in the Hollywood Hills as the son of immigrant lawyers - How military service in Vietnam expanded his worldview and deepened his empathy  - His family's personal connection to the autism community through United by Music North America  - The US vs. Europe gap in neurodiversity infrastructure and support  - Why 'hope is not a plan' and what happens to ND families when no plan exists  - The difference between independence and genuine self-sufficiency  - Estate planning essentials: wills, trusts, guardianships, and powers of attorney  - Why planning is not just for the wealthy and what caregiving actually costs  - His mother's words that stopped him cold: 'Nobody has that much money to pay for their care and for their lifestyle'   Part 2 coming soon where Raymond breaks down the five baby steps to getting started, what to do when resources are stretched thin, and how to find the right people to guide you.   📞 Connect with Raymond:  Website: lavineltcins.com  Phone: (253) 275-6091  Social: Search Raymond Lavine   📖 Mentioned in this episode:  Empathy and Understanding in Business by Raymond Lavine  United by Music North America   Inside the Pickle Jar is a podcast and community for neurodivergent adults and everyone who loves and supports them.   🌐 insidethepicklejar.com 📺  YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach long-term care planning, neurodivergent families, autism parents, Level 2 autism, caregiving, estate planning, PDD-NOS, disability planning, Raymond Lavine, United by Music, ND community, Inside the Pickle Jar, future planning, special needs planning  Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2378499/support]

Linda Sibio: Turning Schizophrenia Into a Creative Methodology (Part 2)

Part 2 of my conversation with Linda Carmella Sibio picks up right where we left off and goes somewhere I didn't expect.  In this half, Linda talks about what happened after she left Los Angeles: a seven-year nervous breakdown in a desert house with no heat, no water, and one enormous room she turned into a studio. She talks about the drawings that came out of that period. Hundreds of miniature hallucinated images filling every piece and how those drawings became the foundation of the original Cracked Eggs workshop. She describes starting the program with a single student, doing their first show at a local cafe, and slowly building a community from nothing.  We also talk about what resistance actually looks like in the classroom and why movement and voice are harder to teach than painting. About the $1.5 million county grant, the COVID year they all worked without pay, and what got cut from the curriculum as a result. About the mental health coloring book See, See, See, More! Listen with Your Eyes, which grew out of a class idea and became a grant-funded community project. About the neuroscience study she wants to do on Cracked Eggs to understand whether it's her teaching or something inherent in the exercises themselves that is helping people.  And at the end, I asked Linda the question I'd been saving: you've been doing this for fifty years. What did the eighteen-year-old not yet know about what her mind was capable of?  Her answer is quiet and real and worth the wait. She also tells us she just finished an oil painting, her first in years, after her sister accidentally lost her entire New York body of work. And right before we close, she remembers one more thing: there's a documentary film coming.  Her closing words to the pickle friends: never give up.  Note: This episode is unedited — an intentional choice. Linda's tangents, pauses, and mid-sentence redirects are the methodology. What you're hearing is the real Linda Sibio. Find me:  YouTube ~ www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach  Instagram ~ www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach  LinkedIn ~ www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver/  TikTok ~ www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606  Website ~ www.insidethepicklejar.com | www.risingtidecoaching.org Find Linda:  https://www.bezerkpro.org neurodivergent podcast, schizophrenia and creativity, mental health and art, Linda Sibio, Bezerk Productions, Cracked Eggs, cracked eggs documentary, mental health coloring book, Joshua Tree artist, neurodivergent community, Inside the Pickle Jar, Tonya Weaver, creative methodology, never give up, mental health recovery through art Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2378499/support]

Linda Sibio: Turning Schizophrenia Into a Creative Methodology (Part 1)

What if the thinking patterns your diagnosis named... the fragmentation, the loops, the leaps your mind makes... were actually the most generative creative tools you have? Not a metaphor. Not a coping strategy. A methodology.  This week on Inside the Pickle Jar, I sit down with Linda Carmella Sibio...an interdisciplinary artist, performer, educator, and founder of Bezerk Productions for a conversation that I think a lot of pickle friends have been waiting for without knowing it.  Linda was diagnosed with schizophrenia at eighteen while earning her BFA in painting at Ohio University. She grew up in West Virginia, spent time in a children's home where the staff gave her a basement studio to paint in, turned down a law school scholarship to follow art, and landed in Los Angeles with twenty dollars in her pocket and nowhere to stay. What followed was fifty years of building — a performance practice, a pedagogy, a nonprofit, and a methodology that takes so-called psychotic thinking and treats it not as a pathology to be managed, but as a lens through which to make art, build community, and reclaim a life.  In Part 1, we cover Linda's childhood in West Virginia and Florida, the moment of her diagnosis and what it meant knowing her mother had the same condition, her journey to Los Angeles, studying with acting coach Eric Morris and interdisciplinary performance artist Rachel Rosenthal, her early work teaching on Skid Row through the Los Angeles Poverty Department and her own collective Operation Hammer, and the moment a woman named Molly Lowry asked her to come out publicly as schizophrenic — and why Linda said yes.  A note: this episode is unedited. You'll hear the sounds of the room, the pauses, the conversation finding its shape. That was an intentional choice. Linda's way of moving through a story — the fragments, the loops, the interrupters — is itself a demonstration of the methodology she's spent fifty years developing. I didn't want to clean it up. What you're hearing is the real and authentic Linda Sibio.  Part 2 is coming. This one will stay with you. Find me:  YouTube ~ www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach  Instagram ~ www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach  LinkedIn ~ www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver/  TikTok ~ www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606  Website ~ www.insidethepicklejar.com | www.risingtidecoaching.org Find Linda:  https://www.bezerkpro.org neurodivergent podcast, schizophrenia and creativity, mental health and art, psychotic thinking, Linda Sibio, Bezerk Productions, Cracked Eggs, interdisciplinary art, neurodivergent community, Inside the Pickle Jar, Tonya Weaver, creative methodology, mental health stigma, Los Angeles Poverty Department, Rachel Rosenthal Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2378499/support]

Why Your Brain Loves ASMR: The Neuroscience of Tingles, Crinkles, and ND Nervous Systems

Late at night, when the day is done and my brain finally gets quiet — I put on crinkle paper videos.  Not music. Not a show. Not a podcast. Crinkle paper.  For years I thought this was a little weird. A little embarrassing. The kind of thing you don't bring up in professional settings. And then I learned what was actually happening in my brain when I watched those videos and it changed everything about how I understood my own nervous system.  In this episode of Inside the Pickle Jar, Tonya breaks down the neuroscience of ASMR and why neurodivergent brains are disproportionately drawn to it. This isn't just an explainer...it's a full reframe of something a lot of ND people do quietly and a little guiltily, and what that behavior is actually telling you about your brain.  Topics covered:  * What ASMR actually is and how the physical sensation works   * The default mode network and why ASMR creates the neurological sweet spot between stimulation and calm  * Dopamine, oxytocin, and why ASMR feels intimate even with a stranger on screen * The parasympathetic nervous system and what's measurably happening in your body during ASMR  * Interoception and why ASMR is especially regulating for ND brains  * The masking tax...why ASMR is the perfect recovery tool after a day of performing neurotypicality  * Misophonia...the flip side of sensory sensitivity and why some ND people find ASMR unbearable  * The shame we put on neurodivergent self-soothing and why a weighted blanket and crinkle paper video beats a glass of wine every time  * How to use ASMR intentionally as a nervous system regulation tool  * Tonya's personal ASMR journey including why it's become her off-ramp from wine  ASMR creator mentioned in this episode:  🎧 Poisebloom on YouTube...crinkle paper ASMR and Tonya's personal favorite: https://www.youtube.com/@poisebloom   This episode is for everyone who has ever watched a crinkle paper video at 11pm and wondered what was happening to them. The answer is: something smart. Something your nervous system knew before your brain had the language for it.  No shame. Just science. And some crinkle paper. 🫙   Inside the Pickle Jar is a podcast and community for neurodivergent adults built for the brains that never quite fit anywhere else. New episodes every week.   YouTube ~ www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach  Instagram ~ www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach  LinkedIn ~ www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver/  TikTok ~ www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606  Website ~ www.insidethepicklejar.com | www.risingtidecoaching.org Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2378499/support]

Beyond the Individual: Widening the Circle of Care for Neurodivergent Children Pt2

In part 2 of this insightful interview, I continue my conversation with Dr. Katrina Ostmeyer, founder of Beyond the Individual, shares her journey into psychology, her clinical expertise in neurodivergence, and practical strategies for supporting children and families. Discover how systemic change, personalized interventions, and advocacy can transform the lives of neurodivergent children. Dr Katrina Ostmeyer, is a licensed psychologist, behavior analyst, and founder of Beyond the Individual. Her work focuses on autism, ADHD, anxiety, OCD, and complex behavior in children, with an emphasis on helping families find strategies that are not just evidence-based, but actually workable in everyday life. Across her career, she has worked as a clinician, leader, trainer, and program developer, with a strong commitment to expanding access to thoughtful, high-quality behavioral health care. Dr. Ostmeyer/Katrina also brings the perspective of being a mom of two neurodivergent children, which gives her both professional and deeply personal insight into the realities families face. She is passionate about bridging the gap between clinical expertise and real-world support. Find Katrina:  www.beyondtheindividual.com  https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrina-ostmeyer-90b39b15/ Find me:  YouTube ~ www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach  Instagram ~ www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach  LinkedIn ~ www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver/  TikTok ~ www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606  Website ~ www.insidethepicklejar.com | www.risingtidecoaching.org Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2378499/support]