Sonny Hallett
LightNews LightNews
banner
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
Sonny Hallett
@scrappapertiger.bsky.social
2.3K followers 370 following 270 posts
Therapist, trainer & consultant. Autistic, trans, mixed race. Woodland creature. They/them

https://linktr.ee/scrappapertiger
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
Sonny Hallett @scrappapertiger.bsky.social · Nov 27
Hello folks, I’m Sonny Hallett. I’m a person-centred therapist and trainer based in Edinburgh UK. I’m autistic, trans, mixed race, bendy and sore of joints, weird woodland creature.

Here’s my therapy website which I’m hoping to overhaul before too long:

autisticmentalhealth.uk/sonny/
Sonny Hallett Training and Support – Autistic Mental Health
autisticmentalhealth.uk
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
A morning blep to all who celebrate
A small black and white schnauzer and westie cross terrier, lying on a white faux wool blanket, partly rolling over to expose her chest for rubbing. She’s looking up at a human out of frame (apart from a hand), and her tongue is sticking out in a tiny blep.
November 13, 2025 at 8:53 AM
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
I have a chapter in a book!

I feel really excited and honoured to be alongside a whole bunch of great chapters and authors writing on the Person Centred Approach.

Ebook also available.
You can get a 20% discount until the end of December using code 25ESA3

www.routledge.com/Applying-the...
Kifl the small terrier sitting with the book Applying the Person-Centred Approach to Global, Social and Personal Crises in front of her First page of my chapter: 6. Neurodiversity and the Person-Centred Approach: Am I doing this right? Sonny Hallett “My counsellor and I meet out in the woods every week; we walk and sit on mats on the ground, notice the changing seasons in the plants, fungi and wildlife, talk or walk in silence. This time I’ve asked him to show me how to make a fire without a lighter. He shows me how to use the striker against the kindling, bundling twigs and strips of cloth along with a piece of King Alfred’s cake, a fungus that burns very slowly. He passes the pieces over to me. ‘Just have a play with it’. I feel a familiar anxious turning-over in my stomach as I fumble the handful. I’m used to being uncoordinated, misunderstanding instructions. I often try to study how to do something on my own and practice obsessively before I let anyone watch me. It feels newly bold of me to ask someone to show me something when I haven't prepared by trying to study on my own. By practicing a skill alone, I can get a feel for it, make mistakes, and try things out. I find that there is something very soothing and satisfying about this, but the process of being observed in learning and exploring can feel very vulnerable. I realised I am autistic almost ten years ago, when in my late twenties, though I always felt that something was different. Academically I did okay because I could go away and study alone, carefully and intensively, making the most of my tendency and ability to be sucked monotropically1 into intense interests and passions. I also did okay with art because I spent a lot of time drawing on my own, when I was anxious or to express and process my feelings. Over time I got a lot of positive encouragement so I mostly felt confident to be seen making art. But with sports, music, learning another language or anything that required practice with other people, I felt dread. Everyone got things wrong, but I seemed to get things wrong in weird ways - somehow I felt I was even getting it…”
November 6, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
amase.org.uk
Lightbulb Moments: Being Autistic is an animation about those things that people tend to think are just individual quirks, until they realise they're common Autistic experiences.

It's so important to feel seen!

Many of these are very commonly misunderstood.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O6h...
Lightbulb Moments: Being Autistic
YouTube video by Thriving Autistic
www.youtube.com
October 23, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
amase.org.uk
Two of our founders worked on a pair of affirming animations for @thrivingautistic.bsky.social, introducing key ideas.

The first is Discovering You're Autistic, basically giving people the messages we most needed to hear when we were first realising we're Autistic...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDv...
Discovering You're Autistic
YouTube video by Thriving Autistic
www.youtube.com
October 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
Wow. So. Wayward.

...huh.

Damn.
The poster for Wayward, with Toni Colette's Evelyn looming like the creepy psychologist she is, and Mae Martin and various other actors, around a door. It's a Netflix show. The tagline is 'We think you'll be very happy here'.
October 1, 2025 at 8:55 PM
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
Excited to finally be able to share these animations I’ve been working on with @fergus.oolong.co.uk , @iara-abigalil.bsky.social , @autisticrealms.bsky.social and other team members not on here. Particularly pleased to get my favourite image that I use of “thinking in constellations” in there ✨
fergus.oolong.co.uk Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · Sep 18
The other animation is Lightbulb Moments: Being Autistic.

So much about Autistic experience is still missing from most professional accounts, which have been formulated from the outside.

Many people talk about all these little epiphanies: 'I thought it was just me!'
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O6h...
Lightbulb Moments: Being Autistic
YouTube video by Thriving Autistic
www.youtube.com
September 19, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
First up is Discovering You're Autistic, about the experience of realising you're autistic, and the things we've found most valuable for anyone starting out on that journay.

Realising that there are many other people out there with similar experiences is so powerful.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDv...
Discovering You're Autistic
YouTube video by Thriving Autistic
www.youtube.com
September 18, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
autisticrealms.bsky.social
Hurrah!
We can finally share the animations I have been working on with @thrivingautistic.bsky.social
First short film is: Discovering You're Autistic
Please do let us know what you think and share if you find valuable!

youtu.be/-eDv2omDMko?...
Discovering You're Autistic
YouTube video by Thriving Autistic
youtu.be
September 19, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
A break for freedom.
One or more onions are sending shoots out of a wooden vegetable box, through cracks in the side and out of the open top.
September 18, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
thrivingautistic.bsky.social
Created by animator Iara Abigalil, @autisticrealms.bsky.social , @fergus.oolong.co.uk , @scrappapertiger.bsky.social , @jessicakdoyle.bsky.social , Laura Buckland Mason and music by @somebodysomeone.bsky.social
Join us for our launch:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/discovery-...
Discovery Celebration: Autistic Community Shaping Neuro-Affirmative Support
Join Thriving Autistic for a special online celebration of Autistic experiences and reflections from our Discovery Programme.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
September 14, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
If anyone has a clue WHY Dagny Holm (who would later design the models for the original Legoland) caricatured Thorvald Stauning (the first Digital Democratic Prime Minister of Denmark) as a bird, I'd love to hear about it!

I made a sculpture for @scrappapertiger.bsky.social's birthday based on it…
Thorvald Stauning as a weird bird, rendered in polymer clay, with googly eyes.
September 7, 2025 at 10:49 AM
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
On a trip to Denmark, saw this wasp outside the train window as the train picked up speed. It held on for an impressively long time before being flung off. Those little antenna 🥺 I hope it’s ok
August 16, 2025 at 7:47 PM
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
Visited the Lego House recently and can’t stop thinking about this early Lego product
A large wooden toy - body shaped like a black bird, wearing brown boots, head shaped like a bald man with glasses, moustache and a reddish nose
August 11, 2025 at 7:04 PM
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
How I love this dog
fergus.oolong.co.uk Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · Aug 5
@scrappapertiger.bsky.social responds to Kifl's demands for attention.
Sonny, a human with dark hair, gazes lovingly at Kifl, a dog who also has dark hair. Kifl gazes back, but it's hard to tell what her expression is. She's stretched out with her feet on the sofa and her back curved around Sonny's chest, powerless to resist their attentions.
August 6, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
valoisdubins.bsky.social
BBC news currently has no article on this. According to organisers, it broke their own records by far and was the biggest trans rights events in the world.

Otoh the BBC does have coverage of far right anti-refugee protests which were much, much, smaller.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
July 27, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
I hope Kifl is okay
Kifl hides part of her face behind her folded paws, and looks out of the corner of her eye in a way that is extremely cute but make her look kind of anxious.
July 22, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
Update: version with image descriptions thanks to @thinkingautism.bsky.social

thinkingautismguide.com/2024/07/neur...
Neurodiversity Is About Everyone — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM
Understanding the difference between neurodiverse and neurodivergent is much more important than just splitting hairs over linguistics.
thinkingautismguide.com
August 15, 2024 at 8:04 AM
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
Time to re-share this piece I made a year ago today about neurodiversity and neurodivergence, and why the important distinctions between them is not about grammar/linguistics.
scrappapertiger.bsky.social Sonny Hallett @scrappapertiger.bsky.social · Jul 14
#Neurodiversity is a vital concept, and understanding the difference between neurodiverse and neurodivergent is much more important than just splitting hairs over linguistics. I made a comic explainer.

Higher quality images & questions for reflection here:
medium.com/@sonnyhallet...
July 14, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
Came home exhausted, flopped on sofa, but:
Small dog pawing at my leg insistently on the sofa as I try to rest
July 9, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
...and the importance of understanding that neurodiversity is about everyone:
medium.com/@sonnyhallet...
Neurodiversity is about Everyone
A comic about why the difference between neurodiverse and neurodivergent is important.
medium.com
July 9, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
...and getting comfortable in your body, in a society that militates against that:
medium.com/@sonnyhallet...
Being comfortable in my body
There’s been a lot of talk about gender and being non-binary lately, and what that means, and I wanted to share a quick post about my…
medium.com
July 9, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
Going to share some of @scrappapertiger.bsky.social's relevant thoughts here about normativity, gender, neurodiversity and all that:
medium.com/@sonnyhallet...
Gender *gestures vaguely*
I recently watched Man for a Day (2012; currently available on Netflix), a documentary following artist Diane Torr running her…
medium.com
July 9, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
There's an analogy here with gender normativity. Expecting people to conform with gender norms is pretty much universally bad.

Maybe for some, the convenience of putting people in boxes, in a hierarchy, outweighs the cost; it certainly doesn't for most people.

For some, it's relentlessly harmful.
July 9, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Sonny Hallett
fergus.oolong.co.uk
This is right.

Society is neurodiverse: people vary a lot in how we experience and process the world, and having things set up as if there was just one 'normal' type of brain is harmful in general, because there just isn't.
urchohi.bsky.social Urchohi | comms open @urchohi.bsky.social · Jul 9
Neuronormativity hurts everyone, "NT"s included. ND folks are like a canary in the mine
July 9, 2025 at 11:56 AM
scrappapertiger.bsky.social
🥰🥰🥰
fergus.oolong.co.uk Fergus Murray @fergus.oolong.co.uk · Jul 4
Ten years ago I got handfasted with @scrappapertiger.bsky.social in an 'uncivil ceremony' in Holyrood Park, next to the lake with the swans, unofficiated by @voxossa.bsky.social.

We've been renewing our vows every year since, and amazingly that still seems like a good idea!
Sonny, a smiley and ridiculously handsome half-Asian person with the beginnings of a beard, and a nice shirt. Those vows in full: - Let's keep loving each other - Let's help each other to be creative - Let's help keep each other productive - Let's try to keep each other hopeful - Let's help each other see the best in people - Let's help each other to be the best we can be for the world - Let's help each other to appreciate the beauty of everything, and to get how it all fits together - Let's keep each other laughing - Let's try to be good for each other - Let's look after each other.
July 4, 2025 at 7:59 PM