02: Nourishing Neurodiversity with Naureen Hunani

This week I’m talking to a wonderful teacher and colleague - Naureen Hunani. I’ve known Naureen in a professional capacity for a while now, so it was cool to get to sit down with her and talk about some more personal stuff. Naureen and I talk about finding out that you’re neurodivergent later-in-life, the invalidation and gaslighting of being called ‘highly functioning’. Naureen tells us how she nourishes a family who have different needs when it comes to food and feeding, and how she is rejecting expectations that feeding has to look a certain way. And then we get into what it’s like to be a highly sensitive person who feels things others are feeling. And how being a highly feeling person under capitalism inevitably leads to burnout. Oh and of course, how she’s nourishing herself. This is such a special conversation - it just feels really restorative.Can I Have Another Snack? is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Find out more about Naureen hereFollow her work on Instagram hereFollow Laura on Instagram hereHere’s the transcript in full.Naureen Hunani  I think a lot of that, for me, comes from the fact that I had to really truly embrace and accept other parts of their development, right? When it comes to language or motor differences. And so we can't really pick and choose right, like, to me, you know, if I say I'm going to fully accept and embrace who my children are like, I cannot be selective in terms of which parts I'm going to embrace and which parts I'm not going to embrace, right?Laura Thomas  Hey, and welcome to the Can I Have Another Snack? podcast, where I'm asking my guests who or what they're nourishing right now and who or what is nourishing them. I'm Laura Thomas, an anti-diet Registered Nutritionist and author of the Can I Have Another Snack? newsletter. Today I'm talking to one of my colleagues and teachers, Naureen Hunani. Naureen is someone I've known for a little while now in a professional capacity and whom I've had the privilege of learning a lot from, so it was really cool to sit down with her and learn more about her on a more personal level. Naureen is very well known and loved in the world of responsive feeding. But for anyone who doesn't hang out in that space, Naureen is a multiply neurodivergent, registered dietitian with over 17 years of experience. She is the founder of RDs for neurodiversity, and neurodiversity informed online continuing educational platform for dieticians, and helping professionals. She has a private practice in Montreal, Canada, where she treats children, adults and families struggling with various feeding and eating challenges through a trauma informed way, inclusive and anti oppressive approach. This is such a special conversation, it just feels really restorative. Naureen and I talk about finding out that you're neurodivergent later in life, the invalidation and gaslighting of being called highly functioning. Naureen tells us about how she nourishes a family who have different needs when it comes to food and feeding, and how she is rejecting expectations that feeding has to look a certain way. And then we get into what it's like to be a highly sensitive person who feels things that others are feeling and how being a highly feeling person under capitalism inevitably leads to burnout. This is a really rich and meaningful conversation. I really hope you get a lot from it. But just before we get to Naureen, I wanted to let you know that you are listening to the long edit of this episode. From October, I'll be publishing a shorter edit here in your podcast player feed, and a special longer edit for paid subscribers of the Can I Have Another Snack podcast, just as a little bonus for supporting my work. You'll also get weekly discussion threads, my dear Laura column, and lots of other fun perks. You can head to laurathomas.substack.com to subscribe. It's just five pounds a month or 50 pounds for the year. And if that is inaccessible to you please email [email protected] for a comp subscription. I'm keeping all the content on Can I Have Another Snack free for the month of September, and turning on the paid community features and paid subscriber-only columns from October. If you value this work you can help keep it sustainable by becoming a paid subscriber. And last thing, if you enjoyed this episode, I would really really appreciate it if you could support me by rating and reviewing in your podcast player, and maybe even sharing it with a friend. It makes such a huge difference to a new podcast. You can also find a full transcript of this episode over on substack again at laurathomas.substack.com. And I would really love it if you wanted to leave a comment over there to let us know what you thought of this episode and to keep the conversation going. All right, team. Here's Naureen. Laura Thomas  I wanted to start out by asking you who or what are you nourishing right no...