Sonny Hallett

A tiny square concertina-style sketchbook, opened out next to the ink pen I used. The long strip of paper is covered in pen line drawings of animals, plants, mushrooms, etc.

A tiny square concertina-style sketchbook, opened out next to the ink pen I used. This is the reverse side to the previous image. The paper strip on this side is shown vertically, with pen and ink drawings of outer space with planets, stars, a satellite and a space while, fading down into clouds and sky with birds, waves, the sea and fish, a hammerhead shark, and deep ocean with a whale, a gulper eel and an angler fish.

A conference lanyard and badge. The badge has my name Sonny Hallett on it and my pronouns, they/them. Surrounding that is loads of ink doodles of animals and plants, including a tapir, a bat, a dolphin, butterfly, lemur, owl…

Reverse side of conference badge showing the conference logo and theme: growing in difficult and challenging places. Around it one doodled mostly plants, mushrooms, and abstract shapes

Finally home from Glasgow after four long days of conferencing at the PCE Europe Symposium. So tired no more words. It’s been a lot.

I did these doodles while listening to talks:

I think it went well! It’s been great talking with so many people after & hearing their reflections. Looking forward to more of that over the weekend ❤️

Because of the way I put together this talk I don’t have a coherent written version now, but I’m aiming to have one to share in the next few weeks

Me - selfie of a brown haired human with mixed Asian and European features and glasses, smiling at the camera as the sun shines through a coach window. They are wearing a hand knitted rainbow jumper and rainbow coloured shirt.

A sunny day to be travelling through to Glasgow!
Feeling nervously excited for my keynote at the PCE Europe symposium this afternoon.
My talk is titled: Be yourself. No, not like that - Normativity in therapy training and its impact on all of us.

More info: www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/p...

A small black and white schnauzer and westie cross terrier, lying on a white faux wool blanket, partly rolling over to expose her chest for rubbing. She’s looking up at a human out of frame (apart from a hand), and her tongue is sticking out in a tiny blep.

A morning blep to all who celebrate

Kifl the small terrier sitting with the book Applying the Person-Centred Approach to Global, Social and Personal Crises in front of her

First page of my chapter: 6. Neurodiversity and the Person-Centred Approach: Am I doing this right? Sonny Hallett “My counsellor and I meet out in the woods every week; we walk and sit on mats on the ground, notice the changing seasons in the plants, fungi and wildlife, talk or walk in silence. This time I’ve asked him to show me how to make a fire without a lighter. He shows me how to use the striker against the kindling, bundling twigs and strips of cloth along with a piece of King Alfred’s cake, a fungus that burns very slowly. He passes the pieces over to me. ‘Just have a play with it’. I feel a familiar anxious turning-over in my stomach as I fumble the handful. I’m used to being uncoordinated, misunderstanding instructions. I often try to study how to do something on my own and practice obsessively before I let anyone watch me. It feels newly bold of me to ask someone to show me something when I haven't prepared by trying to study on my own. By practicing a skill alone, I can get a feel for it, make mistakes, and try things out. I find that there is something very soothing and satisfying about this, but the process of being observed in learning and exploring can feel very vulnerable. I realised I am autistic almost ten years ago, when in my late twenties, though I always felt that something was different. Academically I did okay because I could go away and study alone, carefully and intensively, making the most of my tendency and ability to be sucked monotropically1 into intense interests and passions. I also did okay with art because I spent a lot of time drawing on my own, when I was anxious or to express and process my feelings. Over time I got a lot of positive encouragement so I mostly felt confident to be seen making art. But with sports, music, learning another language or anything that required practice with other people, I felt dread. Everyone got things wrong, but I seemed to get things wrong in weird ways - somehow I felt I was even getting it…”

I have a chapter in a book!

I feel really excited and honoured to be alongside a whole bunch of great chapters and authors writing on the Person Centred Approach.

Ebook also available.
You can get a 20% discount until the end of December using code 25ESA3

www.routledge.com/Applying-the...

YouTube video by Thriving Autistic Lightbulb Moments: Being Autistic

Lightbulb Moments: Being Autistic is an animation about those things that people tend to think are just individual quirks, until they realise they're common Autistic experiences.

It's so important to feel seen!

Many of these are very commonly misunderstood.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O6h...

YouTube video by Thriving Autistic Discovering You're Autistic

Two of our founders worked on a pair of affirming animations for @thrivingautistic.bsky.social, introducing key ideas.

The first is Discovering You're Autistic, basically giving people the messages we most needed to hear when we were first realising we're Autistic...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDv...

The poster for Wayward, with Toni Colette's Evelyn looming like the creepy psychologist she is, and Mae Martin and various other actors, around a door. It's a Netflix show. The tagline is 'We think you'll be very happy here'.

Wow. So. Wayward.

...huh.

Damn.

Here’s the other one bsky.app/profile/ferg...

Excited to finally be able to share these animations I’ve been working on with @fergus.oolong.co.uk , @iara-abigalil.bsky.social , @autisticrealms.bsky.social and other team members not on here. Particularly pleased to get my favourite image that I use of “thinking in constellations” in there ✨

YouTube video by Thriving Autistic Discovering You're Autistic

First up is Discovering You're Autistic, about the experience of realising you're autistic, and the things we've found most valuable for anyone starting out on that journay.

Realising that there are many other people out there with similar experiences is so powerful.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDv...

YouTube video by Thriving Autistic Discovering You're Autistic

Hurrah!
We can finally share the animations I have been working on with @thrivingautistic.bsky.social
First short film is: Discovering You're Autistic
Please do let us know what you think and share if you find valuable!

youtu.be/-eDv2omDMko?...

One or more onions are sending shoots out of a wooden vegetable box, through cracks in the side and out of the open top.

A break for freedom.

Created by animator Iara Abigalil, @autisticrealms.bsky.social , @fergus.oolong.co.uk , @scrappapertiger.bsky.social , @jessicakdoyle.bsky.social , Laura Buckland Mason and music by @somebodysomeone.bsky.social
Join us for our launch:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/discovery-...

If anyone has a clue WHY Dagny Holm (who would later design the models for the original Legoland) caricatured Thorvald Stauning (the first Digital Democratic Prime Minister of Denmark) as a bird, I'd love to hear about it!

I made a sculpture for @scrappapertiger.bsky.social's birthday based on it…

Wasp clinging to outside of train window as greenery rushes past

Another photo because the video quality was terrible

On a trip to Denmark, saw this wasp outside the train window as the train picked up speed. It held on for an impressively long time before being flung off. Those little antenna 🥺 I hope it’s ok

A large wooden toy - body shaped like a black bird, wearing brown boots, head shaped like a bald man with glasses, moustache and a reddish nose

Visited the Lego House recently and can’t stop thinking about this early Lego product

How I love this dog

BBC news currently has no article on this. According to organisers, it broke their own records by far and was the biggest trans rights events in the world.

Otoh the BBC does have coverage of far right anti-refugee protests which were much, much, smaller.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Kifl hides part of her face behind her folded paws, and looks out of the corner of her eye in a way that is extremely cute but make her look kind of anxious.

I hope Kifl is okay

That’s so great to hear!

Same! I read it the first time trying to parse it that way then I was like, ‘Ohh, maybe this is monster fiction?’ and tried to parse it again before I realised it was an actual kitchen incident (and presumably not metaphor for anything) 🙃

*forgotten 🤦

Neurodiversity Is About Everyone — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM Understanding the difference between neurodiverse and neurodivergent is much more important than just splitting hairs over linguistics.

In my hurry to repost this I’d gotten that there is a version with image descriptions. Sorry about that!

Version with image descriptions:
thinkingautismguide.com/2024/07/neur...

Neurodiversity Is About Everyone — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM Understanding the difference between neurodiverse and neurodivergent is much more important than just splitting hairs over linguistics.

Update: version with image descriptions thanks to @thinkingautism.bsky.social

thinkingautismguide.com/2024/07/neur...

Time to re-share this piece I made a year ago today about neurodiversity and neurodivergence, and why the important distinctions between them is not about grammar/linguistics.

Small dog pawing at my leg insistently on the sofa as I try to rest

Came home exhausted, flopped on sofa, but:

Small dog pawing at my leg insistently on the sofa as I try to rest

Came home exhausted, flopped on sofa, but:

Neurodiversity is about Everyone A comic about why the difference between neurodiverse and neurodivergent is important.

...and the importance of understanding that neurodiversity is about everyone:
medium.com/@sonnyhallet...