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ally pax arcari mair

@goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social
51 followers 193 following 16 posts

Advocate, Researcher & Educator 👩‍🔬 PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology at Edinburgh Uni 🎓 Researching neurodivergent experiences of grief and loss 🧠 Championing compassion and neuroinclusivity in grief support and palliative care 🌻 all views are my own

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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
very excited to be giving a workshop tomorrow at the european grief conference about neurodivergent experiences of grief and loss 😮🙌♾️🧠 if you see me there or see me wheeling about the conference, please feel free to say hi 🖖
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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
An image of vials and a needle. On the vial, text reads: "vaccines cause adults"
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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
3 of my favourite/most used philosophy books at the moment are: 1. Homo Sacer by Giorgio Agamben 🤔 2. Madness & Civilisation by Michel Foucault 🧠 3. Totality & Infinity by Emmanuel Levinas 😮 #AcademicSky 📚💙 #philosophy
An image of a book titled Homo Sacer by Giorgio AgambenImage of a book titled Madness & Civilisation by Michel FoucaultImage of a book titled Totality & Infinity by Emmanuel Levinas
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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Tonkin's understanding of grief: grief is not something we just get over, that it doesn't have this specific end point where we achieve ✨️closure✨️, rather grief is something which stays with us, yet we grow around it 🌻 #AcadmicSky #PsycSci #EduSky 🧠🩺
Three pots of sunflowers representing your life with a circle representing grief, the flowers progressively get bigger but the grief stays the same size.

The text reads: Tonkin's model of growing around grief. Grief is not something to "get over", it is something we grow around (Tonkin, 1996)Test reads: we often think our grief gets smaller with time, but, Tonkin suggests that grief stays the same size and it's our life that grows around it.

Pictures of two sequences of circles representing life and inner circles representing grief. In the first set of circles the grief gets progressively smaller. In the second set, life gets bigger around the grief.What do you think about these models?

Image of a tree.

References: Tonkin (1996), Growing Around Grief.
What's Your Grief (2021), Growing Around Grief.
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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
i draw from and work within the field of thanatology a lot, but, as lots of people ask me when i start infodumping about it... what actually is thanatology‽ 🤔🎓 #AcademicSky #PsycSci #EduSky 🧠🩺
Drawing of a skull with flowers on top of a stack of books. Text reads: "what is thanatology?"Drawing of a dancing skeleton dressed in academic librarian. Text reads: "Thanatology is, "the study of life with death left in" (Kastenbaum, 1993). The scientific study of death and loss.A drawing of a silhouette of a tree.

Text reads: it's a broad interdisciplinary field which explores: death, dying, bereavement, non-death loss, grief, suicide, and euthanasia.
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Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre (SMRC) @salvesenresearch.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Article showcase: Oliver, Poysden, Crowe, @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social, Hendry, Macey and @karri-g-smith.bsky.social. This study explored experiences of gender dysphoria in autistic adolescents who were assigned female at birth. Link to full article: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
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Thriving Autistic @thrivingautistic.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Grief, Relief, and Belief: A Social Media Study on Late Identification of Neurodivergence (Mair et al 2026) Research Reshare - validating why the work we do at Thriving Autistic is so valuable for Autistic adults. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
A graphic titled “Research Reshare” from Thriving Autistic, featuring an infinity symbol logo. The main text reads: “Grief, Relief, and Belief: A Social Media Study on Late Identification of Neurodivergence (Mair et al., 2026).” Below is a quote: “Late identification of neurodivergence is associated with many different challenges, including navigating diagnostic pathways, stigma, and the role of masking.” A citation appears at the bottom crediting Mair, Gonzalez-Figueroa, McConachie, Goodall, and Gillespie-Smith (2026) in the journal Autism.
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Blue Charm Quark ▼ @bluecharmquark.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
This might be interesting as well. doi.org/10.1177/0959...
doi.org
Between essence and diversity: Challenges for phenomenological Autism research - Emily Hughes, David Ekdahl, Sofie Boldsen, 2025
Written from the perspective of phenomenological philosophy, this article evaluates recent claims that phenomenology has an important contribution to make in re...
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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
some interesting things i read this week as a PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology researching neurodivergent experiences of grief and loss 📚📖👓 #phd #AcademicSky #research #neurodivergence #grief #reading #AutRes
“You Become Yourself, Your Full Self, the True Self”: A Systematic Review of Neurodivergent Adults’ Experiences of Identity by Meldrum et al.Using interpretative phenomenological analysis in autism research by Howard et al.Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a tool for participatory research within Critical Autism Studies: A systematic review by MacLeod“The best way we can stop suicides is by making lives worth living”: a mixed-methods survey in the UK of perspectives on suicide prevention from the autism community by Moseley et al.
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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
so proud of this paper from my phd work on grief and neurodivergence🙌 this study is in @journalautism.bsky.social and is about experiences of grief, relief, and (self-)belief followin late identification of neurodivergence. #AutRes
A graphical representation of the Grief, Relief, and Belief Cycle of late identification of neurodivergence.
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AC Vasquez - 安娜 @criskotsu.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
journals.sagepub.com
Grief, Relief, and Belief: A Social Media Study on Late Identification of Neurodivergence - Ally Pax Arcari Mair, Marina Gonzalez-Figueroa, Doug McConachie, Karen Goodall, Karri Gillespie-Smith, 2026
Little is known as to what drives feelings of grief and relief observed following the late identification of neurodivergence, and its significance as it relates...
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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
1) A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle 2) Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Ch'eng 3) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 4) Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Ch'eng (this is just so fantastic; it's silly yet wholeheartedly sincere). #booksky
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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
I am so pleased to share this study from my PhD, just published in @journalautism.bsky.social 🙌 with the wonderful Marina Gonzalez-Figueroa, Doug McConachie, @drkarengoodall.bsky.social & @karri-g-smith.bsky.social 😊 share.google/vG9IeXKWBNUQ...
share.google
Grief, Relief, and Belief: A Social Media Study on Late Identification of Neurodivergence - Ally Pax Arcari Mair, Marina Gonzalez-Figueroa, Doug McConachie, Karen Goodall, Karri Gillespie-Smith, 2026
Little is known as to what drives feelings of grief and relief observed following the late identification of neurodivergence, and its significance as it relates...
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Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre (SMRC) @salvesenresearch.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Rounding up #NeurodiversityCelebrationWeek, we are showcasing an article by @karri-g-smith.bsky.social, Ally Pax Arcari Mair, Aljawharah Alabtullatif, Helen Pain and Doug McConachie. This study explored inclusive accounts of friendship and autistic perceptions and experiences of friendship.
The title of the article is 'A Spectrum of Understanding: A Qualitative Exploration of Autistic Adults' Understandings and Perceptions of Friendship(s)". This article was written by authors Gillespie-Smith, Mair, Alabtullatif, Pain and McConachie. Underneath the authors names, there is a graphic of two hands holding each other with a red thread around them, creating an infinity symbol. Background for the study and the aim of the study is explained above a picture of two hands making a pinky-promise. The study's participants and how their experiences were collected in the study are described. Underneath the description, there is a graphic of two speech bubbles (one pink, one blue) next to a graphic of a person typing on a laptop.
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ally pax arcari mair @goodgriefgoodlife.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
some interesting things i read this week as a PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology researching neurodivergent experiences of grief and loss 📚📖👓 #phd #academia #research #neurodivergence #grief #reading
Positive Responses to Loss by Nolen-Hoeksema & DavisPost-Traumatic Growth Following Bereavement: A systematic review of the literature by Michael & Cooper TBI 13 Years On: Factors associated with post-traumatic growth by Powell, Gibson & Collin Dear Mr Neo-Nazi, Can You Please Give Me Your Informed Consent So That I Can Quote Your Fascist Tweet? Questions of Social Media Research Ethics in Online Ideology Critique by Fuchs
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