Davika Mattox PMHNP Recovery and Wellness Behavioral Health

04/04/2025

Here is a link to our co-op intake form. We are enrolling for Spring and Summer. This form can also be used if you’re interested in summer group only for your public school kids

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAAAAAAANAAostFolUOVBIR0tXTlpSQ1M5M0I5TE1XMDhUQkk5VC4u&route=shorturl

03/26/2025

Now enrolling!! Spring and Summer programs for ND/ADHD/AuDHD/Autistic kids and families. You don’t have to have a formal diagnosis. Offering therapeutic groups focused on ND social/emotional skills AND Atypical Education Homeschool Coop! Spread the word and message if interested!! It’s almost April - we’re starting just in time for Autistic Acceptance month!!! Located in Kentucky :)

03/10/2023

This is fantastic ❤️

When I was a teenager and young adult, I hated my birth name so much that I cut it in half. It felt like a scratchy, too-tight dress, and something I’d been shoved in to go to a service I did not want to attend. Upon my entry onto social media, I used a masculine mispronunciation of it for so long that people assumed it was my name.

In 2018 I was given the language to describe my experience, and I came out as non-binary. I changed my name and began healing, growing and embodying myself in ways that I chose rather than those that felt imposed on me. Slowly I came to unpack my experiences up until that point. Realizing I was non-binary wasn’t just *not relating to a concept of gender*.

My body did not do the things that I was told bodies of my assigned gender at birth should do. I never grew a chest. From the age of 13 onwards I had an ever-increasing degree of masculinized physical traits. I HID THIS. I was misdiagnosed as having PCOS, and told I would likely never be able to have children (lol). I was given birth control that made me feel physically unwell, and shrugged off by doctors when I sought care. I thought I was defective at best, and secretly horrible at worst. I wanted the safety of belonging, and I had no example of other people like me, who did not match *biological* concepts of the gender binary. This made me vulnerable. It’s easy to accept less when you feel worthless and defective.

Last year, after seeking ongoing trauma therapy and counselling, I sought gender and endocrine care. I learned that I have an intersex condition. Who I feel like I am internally was something with an explanation I could now see on paper. This answered a lot of questions for me, and allowed me to better manage my health.

I was who I am this entire time. I did not become anything other than more comfortable in my own skin and existence.

I still identify as non-binary because I AM NOT BINARY, and it’s FINE.

Trans people should not have to prove a single thing to exist and express who they are, from an internal understanding of self. Intersex people should not have to feel like a broken version of normal. We are variation. We have always existed and we will continue to exist no matter what laws or societal values impose on us.

The bizarre obsession with telling people who they are or how they should be needs to stop. Seek therapy, get a better hobby. Shutting down access to care, infringing on people’s expression, is not just harming those people. It’s taking away positive examples of the multitude of ways someone can be whole and human. These examples have the power to spare people like me years of pain and misunderstanding. Representation is not prescriptive. I’ve never seen another q***r person and thought *I must become like them*. Countless times I HAVE thought *wow, they’re exactly who they are, and that’s beautiful*. Sometimes I do see someone and think *woah, they’re a lot like me*, but being *like me* is not the value in representing and valuing human diversity.

I am exactly who I’ve always been, but I am actually happy now, and value myself for who I am rather than deprecate myself for who I can’t be. People who’ve never experienced that struggle, or the strength it takes to pull yourself through it, have no right to tell others how to be human, but that is exactly what’s happening right now.

As a non-binary intersex person I’m talking about my experience in solidarity with the trans community.

🏳️‍⚧️

💛🔥

03/08/2023

Learning can’t happen without safety

❤All learning is emotional.❤

When we are in a positive emotional state, we are more likely to be engaged, attentive, and motivated to learn. Positive emotions such as joy, interest, and curiosity can help us approach new tasks with enthusiasm and open-mindedness, which can lead to better learning outcomes.

On the other hand, negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, and frustration can hinder our ability to learn. These emotions can make us feel overwhelmed, distracted, and resistant to new information, which can lead to poor learning outcomes.

One way that emotions impact learning is through our physiological response. When we are in a heightened emotional state, our bodies become more aware, and this can affect our ability to process information. For example, if we are feeling anxious or stressed, our bodies may produce stress hormones, which can make it difficult for us to concentrate and remember new information.

Emotions can also impact learning through our cognitive processes. For example, if we are feeling happy and interested, we are more likely to engage in deep processing, which involves thinking critically about new information and making connections to our prior knowledge. On the other hand, if we are feeling negative emotions, we may engage in surface processing, which involves simply memorizing new information without fully understanding it.

Emotions can impact learning through our social interactions. When we are in a positive emotional state, we are more likely to be open to feedback and willing to collaborate with others, which can enhance our learning experiences. On the other hand, if we are feeling negative emotions, we may be more resistant to feedback and less likely to collaborate, which can hinder our learning.

Many classroom teachers have started to use ‘morning meetings’ or ‘restorative circles’ in which they help students understand their emotions. In this way, they can help students’ well-being and their learning. This routine can also create a sense of belonging and connectedness within a community, which can lead to a more positive and supportive learning environment.

www.behaviorflip.com
https://www.marcbrackett.com/about/book-permission-to-feel/
https://www.edutopia.org/article/building-community-restorative-circles/

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[ID: an older adolescent on a bench is seen with his hand to his forehead, with books beside him on the bench. The words “The three most important aspects of learning–attention, focus, and memory-are all controlled by our emotions, not cognition.” –Marc Brackett, Ph.D. is written on top of the image.]

03/01/2023

Super helpful explanation to better understand Autistic Burnout.

I post it because I could have died in 2021 from Autistic Burnout that led to being in and out of Autistic Shutdown. There were days where I was unable to care for myself… unable to work… needed encouragement to get out of bed and go to the bathroom… days of not eating. I had to make changes in my life because my life had become unmanageable. I had to unmask… I had to create an Autistic friendly life. My life literally depended on it.

Today I worked from home in a sensory friendly environment, I wore sweat pants, my 5 month old slept in my arms while I did telehealth, I moved and fidgeted, I used my chewelry, I paused when I needed to, I apologized for being behind schedule, I took time to breath, I walked outside a few times.
Because I was able to have these accommodations I was able to complete a very full day of work.
If I didn’t have these accommodations my productivity would need to decrease bc a larger portion of my brain dimes would have been needed to process environmental factors. I’m autistic, we don’t have the same brain processes to filter out stimuli from our internal and external environment.

Before knowing these things- I spent years pushing myself way past my limits. People would OFTEN say to me- How do you do so much? And I would think- I don’t know how I could possibly do LESS! Then I reached Burnout and couldn’t do anything.

I think I just realized why autistic burnout is so bad. When autistic people reach their limits, they continue because they know they have to continue to be considered valuable.

10/26/2022

If you wanna hear me sing silly songs and talk about Autistic life

10/24/2022

This!!!!! I don’t really care about your, you’re, or there, their, or to, too… it’s a privilege that I was educated and able to learn in a way that I understood these concepts, but it’s just that- privilege. Grammar policing doesn’t make a person smarter or more capable… I would argue the more capable person is the one who is striving towards relatable and kind communication… instead of dismissing another person based on lack of privilege

10/23/2022

CPTSD vs Autistic trauma vs Autistic traits

Replying to .l3s CPTSD vs autistic experience

10/23/2022

Why does no one understands me????Autistic cheat code: pragmatic vs linear communication

Pragmatic vs Linear communication… but did you see that fly bzz by the camera 😹

10/23/2022

To the newly identified Autistic… Congratulations and I’m sorry

Get ready to reexperience your entire life…

08/31/2022

**Tips for the Neurodivergent/Autistic person looking for a therapist**

Things to know-

Most people, typical people, do not spend every waking moment thinking about what they are doing, why they are doing it, what is influencing their behavior, how their behavior affects other people, how their past actions have led them to their current circumstances, playing out multiple contingency plans, and/or pondering on the vast alternate realities that could result from every possible action they could take.

Most people, typical people, presenting for therapy services need help learning to be more introspective, more insightful, to question their thoughts, ideas, opinions, outlooks, and need extensive help learning to challenge their own perspective.

This is not the ND/Autistic experience. If the answer were in our own minds we would have found it already. By the time a ND/Autistic person seeks therapy they have likely spent hours, weeks, years even… examining the issues, deep diving into research, and turning it over internally until their brain feels like mush and nothing seems real… except the continued problems of burn out, melt downs, shut downs, social isolation, and overall bewilderment at trying to figure out how to stay alive and why they just aren’t very good at being a human.

Tip 1. Ask potential therapists if they have experience working with ND/Autistic folx. If a therapist approaches you the same way they would a typical
person- then they will start the painful process of trying to teach you introspection. You probably don’t need this. This will likely be a waste of your time and leave you more confused than when you started. You may feel good having someone who will listen… but progress will be slow and painful and you’ll likely spent the 1-2 weeks between therapy sessions trying to figure out why you aren’t ‘good’ at therapy and wondering why you didn’t talk about what you actually meant to talk about and making notes about what to do differently. Or if you’re lucky you’ll feel so disconnected that therapy seems like a waste of time and you’ll quickly stop going.

Tip 2. You probably need someone who is willing to give you their clinically informed expert advise and opinions. As ND/Autistic folx we need someone who is comfortable giving us new information. Bc if the answer were in our own minds or experience… we would have already found it and we wouldn’t be paying for expert advice.

Tip 3. Find someone who knows how to engage in PRAGMATIC conversation style. Typical people speak in a linear fashion. ND/Autistic people have pragmatic language and communication skills. We speak in stories, examples, and shared experiences. If the flow of the conversation feels odd or off, or you feel like you are needing to translate during the conversation then progress will be slow bc you will be using significant energy to establish basic understanding rather than actually address the issues that brought you to therapy.

Tip 4. Find someone who is comfortable establishing a treatment plan and can jump right in when the session starts. If a therapist starts by saying- so what’s been going on since we spoke last? There is a good chance you will spend the hour giving them a chronological timeline of events and reach the end of the session never having talked about the actual reasons you are there. We are literal and we almost can’t not answer a question we’ve been asked, and we may not realize until two days after the session that we didn’t actually make any progress. It can feel nice to unload the timeline and it’s nice to be heard… but when it comes to therapy it makes for very slow progress.

Tip 5. Make sure that treatment plan includes PRACTICAL interventions. Most ND/Autistic people do not have ‘thinking’ problems… it isn’t that we suffer from say- ‘black and white thinking’- it’s that during neurological crisis we lose the ability to connect to safety and that can cause a person to make BIG RULES or behave in ways they wouldn’t during times of non crisis. Find a therapist that knows how to help you make lists, safety plans, etc. Personally I keep lots of safety lists in my phone- safe people, safe places, safe foods, healthy coping skills, etc. When I am in crisis I lose connection to what I know and so future me needs current me to lay out easy to access safety plans for times of crisis.

Tip 6. Ask them what they know about ABA… if they say ANYTHING positive about ABA- run away, hang up the phone, lose their email… ABA IS ABUSE