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Adulting with AutismAuthor: April Ratchford MS OT/L
ADULTING WITH AUTISM A movement for neurodivergent adults, created by autistic occupational therapist April Ratchford, OTR/L. Adulting with Autism is a global community for autistic and ADHD adults navigating independence, relationships, college life, careers, emotional regulation, and real-world executive-function challenges. With over 2.7 million downloads, April blends lived experience, clinical insight, and honest conversation to guide neurodivergent adults into their next chapter of growth. Each episode brings practical tools, mental-health strategies, autistic storytelling, and real talk about boundaries, burnout, sensory needs, finances, friendships, and the messy parts of becoming an independent adult. Featuring leading experts in autism, mental health, neuroscience, accessibility, and creative industries along with deeply human stories from autistic adults around the world. If you're a late-diagnosed autistic adult, a college student trying to survive executive-function chaos, or a neurodivergent person trying to build a life that actually fits you are in the right place. Hosted by: April Ratchford, OTR/L autistic occupational therapist, autism advocate, author, and executive contributor to Brainz Magazine. Language: en Genres: Education, Health & Fitness Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Bottom-Up Brain Work: Neurozone's Erin Badour on Sensory, Attention & Emotional Regulation
Episode 333
Wednesday, 5 August, 2026
What if your "behavior," "attention," and "mental health" struggles were all just different ways the same brain was trying—and failing—to regulate itself? In this episode of Adulting with Autism, I talk with Erin Badour, a speech pathologist turned neurotherapist who now runs Neurozone clinics in the Los Angeles area. She started in medical speech pathology (stroke, brain injury, brain cancer) and moved into neurofeedback, working with brains from age three through geriatric years. We explore her bottom-up approach to the brain, how QEEG maps reveal lifelong patterns, and why regulation in a 30-year-old autistic or ADHD adult is both similar to—and very different from—regulation in a child. Erin explains sensory integration, the downstairs/upstairs brain, and why she sees ADHD traits as potential superpowers rather than defects, while still offering concrete tools for people whose systems have been rattled for decades. In This Episode, We Cover Who Erin is: speech pathologist, neurotherapist, and neurofeedback clinician with multiple clinics in California. Her path from speech to neurofeedback: choosing hospital-based training, working with stroke and brain injuries, and becoming deeply familiar with neuroanatomy and neurophysiology before discovering neurofeedback. The "same brain, different ages" idea: behavior, attention, and mental health as different expressions of the same underlying circuitry across development. Attention deficit across the lifespan: how ADHD-like patterns look at 10, 19, 28, and 45—and how untreated learning issues often morph into anxiety and depression. Overlabeling and what she sees instead: describing brain physiology, connecting it to behavior, and working from the inside out instead of only doing external behavior mod. ADHD traits as superpowers: skills punished in childhood but often linked to entrepreneurial, creative, high-impact adult lives. Regulation and the downstairs/upstairs brain: Downstairs (regulation, fight/flight, panic) Upstairs (thinking, planning, organizing, inhibiting impulses) Why dysregulated adults may show aggression, poor choices, addiction, and emotional swings. Tracing problems back to regulation: how anxiety, depression, trauma responses, and "bad decisions" often start as low-brain dysregulation. Bottom-up practice: starting with QEEG brain maps to see patterns in frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital regions and linking them to real-life functions (attention, organization, auditory processing, etc.). Frontal cortex issues: how problems in the "brain CEO" show up as poor motivation, weak organization, impulsivity, and executive dysfunction. What neurofeedback actually is: Non-invasive brain training using operant conditioning, Hebbian learning, and neuroplasticity Brainwaves as electrical patterns, rewarded millisecond by millisecond when they move toward healthier targets Clients sitting with sensors while games or videos respond to their brain's performance, creating tens of thousands of learning opportunities over ~25 sessions. Common misconception: neurofeedback as "something going into the brain" versus training the brain to do what it naturally wants to do but hasn't been able to. Working with 30-year-old autistic/ADHD adults: validating "I should have figured this out by now," offering brain-based explanations, and giving them active control over change. Why she doesn't reject other therapies: using neurofeedback to "open Pandora's box" so trauma work, EMDR, and talk therapy can move again; seeing herself as ground-level support rather than a silo. Integrated interventions: attention work, sensory integration, visual-motor tools, executive function exercises, plus calming inputs like weighted blankets, vibroacoustics, sound therapy, and entrainment. Adult-onset sensory awareness: recent waves of adults recognizing sensory integration issues, feeling relief at having language for lifelong stress patterns. Everyday regulation practices: Short, daily breath work with eyes closed and phone away Body scanning from feet to head to learn what the system feels like Weighted blankets or low-sensory spaces for sensory seekers vs avoiders. Her core hope: almost any brain that walks into her clinic can change, with the person in the driver's seat and her role as facilitator. About the Guest Erin Badour is a speech pathologist turned neurotherapist and neurofeedback clinician. With a background in hospital-based medical speech pathology, she spent years working with stroke, traumatic brain injury, and brain cancer before founding Neurozone, a network of clinics in Culver City, Manhattan Beach, and Irvine, California. She focuses on brain-based assessments and interventions (QEEG, neurofeedback) for attention, regulation, sensory integration, and cognitive issues, working with clients from early childhood to older adulthood, including Alzheimer's and dementia prevention. Her work blends neuroscience with practical regulation tools and a strong belief in clients' ability to direct their own brain changes. You can find her at neurozonewave.com and on Instagram at @neurozone, where she shares "brain hacks" and quick education for neurodivergent and neurotypical brains alike. Key Takeaways ADHD, anxiety, and depression often share the same underlying regulatory issues; they're different chapters of the same brain story. The "downstairs brain" (regulation) must be stable before the "upstairs brain" (planning, inhibition, organization) can do its job. Neurofeedback uses learning principles and neuroplasticity to help the brain discover more efficient patterns, not force it with external stimulation. Adult sensory integration issues are real and increasingly recognized; they can explain decades of feeling rattled and exhausted by everyday input. Simple daily practices—brief breath work, body scanning, weighted blankets, and dedicated low-sensory spaces—can support regulation between sessions. After decades of struggle, brains can still change; the most powerful shift is putting the person in control of that change instead of only managing symptoms.
