Relationships

Dear Kasia,

St. Catherine of Sweden was a faithful disciple of Christ and the daughter of St. Brigid of Sweden. Born around 1331 into the noble household, St. Catherine was raised in an atmosphere of deep faith and charitable service. From an early age, she showed a strong inclination toward prayer and a desire to dedicate her life entirely to God.
As was customary at the time, St. Catherine was married while still young. However, she and her husband shared a mutual commitment to a celibate life, choosing a relationship of spiritual companionship. After her husband’s death, St. Catherine fully embraced a religious life and accompanied her mother to Rome.
In Rome, St. Catherine lived a life of prayer, penance, and service to the poor while assisting St. Brigid in her mission. She supported her mother’s efforts to encourage moral reform among clergy. St. Catherine also took pilgrimages to holy sites, including the Holy Land, deepening her spiritual life through sacrifice and devotion.
Visit our special page dedicated to St. Catherine of Sweden, created to help you connect with this saint’s story and powerful example of faith.

EWTN is where you’ll find daily inspiration to live your faith more deeply—through daily Mass, live Eucharistic Adoration, the Rosary, and much more faith-filled programming and content. See daily Mass, live at 8 AM (ET) or watch online anytime.

Traumatic Invalidation
Repeated dismissal or denial of one’s experiences, needs or identity that erodes self-trust and becomes traumatic over time.
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Traumatic invalidation refers to repeated or chronic experiences of having one’s feelings, perceptions, needs, or identity dismissed, denied, or treated as unreliable. Over time, this kind of invalidation can become traumatic, especially when it occurs in relationships or systems where care, safety, or understanding are expected.
For many neurodivergent people, traumatic invalidation shows up in subtle but persistent ways: being told you’re overreacting, too sensitive, imagining things, not trying hard enough, or that your needs are unreasonable. These messages can come from caregivers, educators, healthcare providers, workplaces, peers, or other authority figures, especially when neurodivergence is unknown or misunderstood.
The harm of traumatic invalidation isn’t just emotional. It can erode self-trust, disrupt nervous system regulation, and make it harder to recognize or advocate for one’s needs. Over time, people may learn to doubt their own experiences, mask distress, or push past their limits to avoid further dismissal.
Healing from traumatic invalidation often involves re-learning how to trust one’s internal signals, finding validating relationships and communities, and reframing past experiences through a neurodivergent-affirming lens.

Takiwātanga
The Māori (from New Zealand) term used to describe autism, meaning “in one’s own time and space.”
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Takiwātanga is a Māori term used in Aotearoa (New Zealand) to describe autism. It is translated as “in one’s own time and space,” offering a relational, non-deficit way of understanding Autistic experience.
Takiwātanga emphasizes difference in pacing, attention, and how someone moves through the world. It captures the sense of being oriented to one’s own rhythms, interests, and ways of processing.
In this way, takiwātanga aligns closely with concepts like monotropism and monotropic attention, honoring depth, continuity, and focus rather than speed, urgency, or multitasking. It reflects a worldview that values respect, relationship, and attunement over normalization.

Self-Advocacy
The ability to name your needs and boundaries and communicate them in ways that protect your well-being and capacity.
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Self-advocacy refers to the practice of recognizing, naming, and communicating your needs, limits, and access needs. For neurodivergent people, this often includes advocating for accommodations, flexibility, clarity, or alternative ways of working and relating.
Self-advocacy is not just about speaking up. It also involves self-understanding, timing, and choosing when and how to disclose needs based on safety and context. Many people struggle with self-advocacy after years of being misunderstood, dismissed, or taught to minimize their needs in order to belong.
Learning to self-advocate usually happens over time. It often starts by believing your own needs make sense, before putting them into words or action. Self-advocacy may involve self-disclosure, but it doesn’t have to. Disclosure can be partial or full, and choosing how much to share is part of the process. With practice and enough support, self-advocacy can help reduce burnout, strengthen boundaries, and make relationships and systems of care more sustainable.

Sensory Shutdown
A protective nervous-system response when sensory or emotional input becomes too overwhelming to process.
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A sensory shutdown is the body’s protective response when sensory or emotional input becomes too much to process. Rather than mobilizing into fight-or-flight (as in a sensory meltdown), the nervous system downshifts into a state of hypoarousal — a defensive, low-energy response sometimes called shutdown or collapse, distinct from fight-or-flight.

During a shutdown, the world can feel distant or foggy. Energy drops, speech can become hard to access, and thinking slows. From the outside, a person may appear withdrawn, flat, or unresponsive, but internally the nervous system is working to preserve safety and reduce further demand.

Shutdowns are often misread as avoidance, disengagement, or lack of motivation. The driver, however, is sensory or emotional overload, not willful withdrawal. What helps most is quiet, predictable space and permission to slow down without pressure to respond or perform.

After a shutdown, it’s common to feel heavy, foggy, or disconnected. The nervous system is still recalibrating and releasing accumulated stress. Gentle grounding can support recovery — slow stretching, soft rhythmic stims, familiar music, or low-demand sensory comfort. The goal isn’t to snap out of it, but to allow the body to release what it’s absorbed and find its way back to groundedness, slowly and gently.
Sensory Meltdown
A full-body nervous system stress response that occurs when sensory input overwhelms the system’s ability to cope.
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A sensory meltdown is a physiological stress response that occurs when sensory input exceeds the brain and body’s capacity to regulate. The autonomic nervous system shifts into fight-or-flight activation —adrenaline rises, heart rate increases, and executive functions go offline. The body may release this overload through intense crying, yelling, movement, or collapse.
In children, meltdowns are often mistaken for tantrums; in adults, for emotional outbursts. The driver, though, is sensory overload rather than behavior, defiance, or intent. Support involves sensory soothing: reducing stimuli, increasing predictable sensory input, offering calming pressure, or providing a quiet, safe space. This allows the nervous system to slowly return toward baseline.
After a meltdown, many people experience exhaustion, shame, or emotional numbness. This post-meltdown phase reflects recovery, when energy reserves are low and care matters most. Rest, hydration, and gentle sensory regulation can help rebuild a sense of sensory safety.