Guest speaker, Helen Fleming from Dyslexia Scotland, talks us through the emotional journey needed to become a thriving dyslexic.
Each month the Hive hosts a master class for our community where we cover anything from dyslexia at work to how our brains work. This past week we had the pleasure of hearing from Helen Fleming, the Volunteers manager at Dyslexia Scotland, about the emotional side effects of dyslexia.
One of our favorite quotes from Helen:
"Unsupported dyslexia leads to negative feelings."
While some people with dyslexia are diagnosed at a young age, not everyone is. Having a late in life diagnosis can lead to many negative and stressful emotions.
Helen walked us through SARAH Model when it comes to learning you have dyslexia and the emotions people have along the journey.
The SARAH model is an emotional journey that individuals move through. There are five stages, shock, anger, resistance, acceptance, and healing. Helen provided this helpful graphic to walk through what a supported dyslexics journey should look like emotionally.
Helen also walked us through the steps to becoming a thriving dyslexic. We learned how to reframe our thoughts. An example would be if we typically avoid challenges because we get anxious that we reframe the challenge and accept it positively. Changing your perspective does not happen all at once, but slowly over time, we can become thriving dyslexics who don't shy away from things because of bad feelings. Creating coping strategies is the critical way we can grow.
We learned so much from Helen that it is hard to fit it all into a single blog! If you happen to be a HIVE member, you can check out a replay of the master class in the resources tab; if you aren't a HIVE member but want to learn more, click HERE.
Thank you so much to Helen for leading such an incredible master class! We also wanted to share this little video that Helen shared with us!