New Beginnings
A lot of new things start with bacon, eggs, and coffee. Most of the time, they launch a new day. Other times, they launch exciting partnerships and new business endeavors. This was the case for Asli and me—two parents sitting down to plan parent education events for our sons' school. By the third cup of coffee, we knew we had to bring our ideas to life with Peopling.me.
Asli and I come from two different worlds, personally and professionally. Asli is a corporate coach with an international background (Turkey, Dubai, etc.) and over 25 years of experience. In contrast, I am a Midwest transplant to Seattle with a background in teaching, educational psychology, and educational technology research and development. Despite our different paths, our conversation turned to a common, overarching question that puzzled us both in our personal and professional lives: How can we strengthen our relationships with our children, spouses, parents, friends, lovers, colleagues, co-workers, bosses, and ourselves through communication and understanding?
Each of us had our own entry point to tackling this question, but our ideas overlapped, fed the others, and grew until we determined that Peopling.me was meant to help us all become more empathetic and understanding. Our goal is to guide people from a behaviorist/transactional mindset to a neural/relational one. In simpler terms, we all need support in letting go of the beliefs, ideas, and narratives about ourselves and others that shape the relationships in our lives. These become well-worn neural pathways that dictate how we react and respond to others and ourselves, often leading to stress, anxiety, depression, and strained relationships. These responses and reactions then perpetuate the stress and strain we're trying to avoid.
Peopling.me focuses on communication and relationships in context, which is a central principle of our platform and approach. As educators and coaches, we know that learning about something isn't enough, even if the topic is you. Real change in behavior requires a change in mindset, which takes learning new things, practicing new approaches, meditating on beliefs, and using tools to prepare and reflect on our communication.
To launch our app in beta, Asli and I decided to start with a topic dear to our hearts: parenting. We wanted to understand and communicate better with our own families and explore the role neurodiversity plays in our relationships. Neurodiversity refers to the natural variations in the human brain, including conditions like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and more. It's estimated that around 15-20% of the global population is neurodivergent, highlighting the importance of understanding and embracing these differences in our personal and professional lives. Many people are neurodivergent but don’t even know it because their brand and degree of neurodivergency is socially acceptable - allowing to fit in.
Despite my PhD in educational psychology, I realized I knew little about ADHD, autism, or other manifestations of neurodiversity. This lack of knowledge affected my empathy and my relationships with neurodivergent individuals. I relied on old communication patterns and traditional expectations that often fell flat with the people I loved. I felt guilt but also knew that I could improve and provide loving support.
Wanting to share this journey with others, we designed and developed our first set of content with neurodiversity experts Mike Haykin, Tabitha Ellison, and Joanne Brodziak, who have all worked with neurodiverse students in their roles as educators and coaches.
We hope you enjoy our fledgling app and the experiences we've designed to help you better communicate and thrive in your relationships with your neurodiverse teens! So let’s make a toast with our coffee mugs: “Here’s to new beginnings!”
