20: Brave Together Podcast - Jessica Patay, Susanna Peace Lovell and Dr. Zoe Shaw - Episode 2020: Brave Together Podcast - Jessica Patay, Susanna Peace Lovell and Dr. Zoe Shaw - Episode 20
UK Health Radio Podcast
Artist and advocate Alexis Brygider shares experiences of growing up autistic and nonverbal, finding a voice through art and being deeply supported by a determined mother and long-term ally. The conversation offers parents a candid, often funny look at behaviour, sensory overload and how valuing a child’s natural strengths can help them thrive as neurodivergent adults.
47:41•10 Jun 2026
Art, Autism and Being Truly Seen: Alexis Brygider’s Story of Thriving Neurodivergent Adulthood
Episode Overview
- Art can act as a primary language for autistic children, offering a powerful way to communicate long before speech is fluent.
- Treating neurodivergent children as full people from the start — with dignity, patience and real conversation — can change their life trajectory.
- Behaviours that look aggressive or cruel may stem from constant sensory pain and frustration, not a desire to hurt loved ones.
- Leaning into a child’s “topic-limited interests” and using them to teach other skills can open doors to learning and confidence.
- Every person has something they do with ease; the crucial difference is whether that ability is recognised, supported and valued.
“In my experience, when people talk about somebody being great at something, it's not so much that everybody doesn't have something they're great at, they do. We don't always value what those people are great at, and it's not always supported.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of what it means to grow up autistic, nonverbal and wildly creative. This conversation centres on artist and advocate Alexis Brygider, who shares how art became their first language and the bridge between an inner world and a confusing outside one. Parents of neurodivergent and disabled children will hear a rare, candid view from the child-turned-adult side of the story.
Alexis talks about early memories of feeling “trapped in a body”, the relief of finding Picasso’s *Guernica*, and how studying silent comedians like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin helped them learn facial expression, gesture and speech. Art, they explain, has been the “key linchpin” of their whole life. A big thread through the conversation is the power of being treated with dignity from the start.
Alexis honours their mum, Barbara, who spoke to them “like a person” even when they were nonverbal, and calls her “my Batman” and a “stubborn rhinoceros, but in a good way”. That steady respect, plus patience with behaviours others wanted to shut down, gave Alexis space to build a life as a thriving neurodivergent adult.
Anthony, board president of We Are Brave Together, joins to share his decade-long working relationship with Alexis, from chaotic early twenties in Brooklyn to building independence, friendship and creative opportunities, including disability justice art spaces and a sensory stim room installation. Parents will relate deeply to the honest chat about “demon child” phases, dark humour, lashing out and apologising later, and that constant question: is this about me, or about my child’s invisible pain?
Alexis offers a vivid image of lifelong sensory overload “like something stuck under your fingernail” that you can never remove, and practical encouragement to follow each child’s “topic-limited interests” as the doorway to growth. If you’re raising or loving someone who’s differently wired, this gentle, funny and emotionally honest conversation might be the reminder you need that things can get better, brick by brick. What could happen if you backed what your child already does with the most ease?
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