Send us Fan Mail

In Part 2 of my conversation with Alyssa Barringer, we explore what led to her AuDHD diagnosis and how that understanding began to bring clarity to years of lived experience. We talk about neurodivergence in the family, the connection between message and messenger, and some of the realities of high control religious spaces.

Alyssa also shares glimpses of healing in her current church—what it looks like to be welcomed as you are, and simple, practical ways communities can cue safety and belonging. She also shares a story from a deregulating Easter service that somehow still became a place of grace and good news.

Part 2 of 2.

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: justjosuedavis@gmail.com. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

In this first part of my conversation with Alyssa Barringer, she shares stories that you may find very relatable—especially if you grew up in the rhythms of church and Christian school, trying to follow God with all sincerity, while simultaneously not fitting the mold.

Alyssa shares what it was like to navigate those spaces as an undiagnosed AuDHD girl—and the various approaches she tried to make sense of everything. We talk about the impact of Scripture being used in ways that lacked care or context—and how, for a black-and-white, literal thinker, that can create deep internal confusion about who God is… and how to relate to God as yourself.

Alyssa's thoughtful reflections may help you make more sense of your own story. And, I am sure they will also benefit anyone who is a church leader or school teacher in a Christian context.

Part 1 of 2.

#NeurodivergentFaith #AuDHD #AutisticChristian #ADHDChristian
#LateDiagnosed #ChurchHurt #FaithAndNeurodivergence #ChristianSchool
#NeurodivergentWomen

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: justjosuedavis@gmail.com. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

In this opening episode of Season 4, we begin exploring the question:
What do you wish your caregivers had known… or done differently?

In this episode, Josh shares his answer to this question and together we explore:

• how invalidation shapes our relationship with our body and self
• the internalization of messages like “too sensitive” or “too much”
• and the slow, sacred work of learning to trust ourselves again

Josh shares a personal poem, “A Forgotten Language All My Own,” and we turn to Scripture to encounter God as One who understands, receives, and holds our inner world with compassion.

#IWishIHadBeenBelieved #TraumaticInvalidation #LateDiagnosed
#NeurodivergentFaith #ParentingReflection #Reparenting #NotTooSensitive
#NotTooMuch #YourExperienceMatters

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: justjosuedavis@gmail.com. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

In this final episode of Season 3, we celebrate one year of the Neurodivergent Faith podcast—34 episodes of stories, courage, and connecting with God and with each other. I reflect on the themes and wisdom listeners have shared over the year, highlighting their vulnerability, bravery, and generosity in walking this journey of neurodivergence and faith.

We hear from listener voices that have encouraged, challenged, and inspired me, and explore the threads of hope, persistence, and belonging that emerge from their experiences. I also share a vision for an online space where neurodivergent adults can gather monthly to pray, engage scripture, and encourage one another—and invite you to join if God leads.

This episode is a moment to pause, give thanks, and honor the tears, courage, and openness that have made this journey meaningful.

#NeurodivergentFaith #FaithAndNeurodivergence #ChristianPodcast
#PodcastAnniversary #ListenerVoices #NeurodivergentVoices

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: justjosuedavis@gmail.com. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

In this final episode of the Masking and Spiritual Formation series, Josh is joined by Sunita Theiss for a thoughtful and deeply honest conversation about masking as performing belonging—especially within faith and community spaces.

Together, they explore masking as a survival strategy shaped by culture, neurodivergence, and the longing to be safe and included. Sunita reflects on her own experience of masking as constant internal recalibration in environments not designed for her, and how this effort—often mistaken for extroversion—came at the cost of exhaustion and diminished authenticity. They also name how cultural context can complicate the recognition of neurodivergence and normalize over-functioning.

The conversation turns toward faith spaces, where masking can take the form of performing spirituality: suppressing bodily needs, hiding stims, or conforming to unspoken expectations of how devotion, participation, or “maturity” should look. When belonging is tied to performance, faith can quietly become conditional—experienced as something we must earn rather than receive.

Josh and Sunita reflect on the spiritual costs of this dynamic: compartmentalization, shame, and the erosion of grace. They invite listeners to consider the difference between fitting in and truly belonging, and to imagine communities shaped not by productivity or sameness, but by enoughness, care, and ordinary faithfulness.

To connect with Sunita: https://www.instagram.com/sunitatheiss/ https://sunitatheiss.substack.com/ https://sunitatheiss.com/

#MaskingAndSpiritualFormation #NeurodivergentFaith #Neurodivergent #AutisticAdults #ADHDFaith #ActuallyAutistic #NeurodiversityAffirming #EnoughAsYouAre #DisabilityAndFaith #ChurchBelonging

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: justjosuedavis@gmail.com. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

In this second episode of the Masking and Spiritual Formation series, Josh is joined by Harrison Litzell for a thoughtful and honest conversation about masking and belonging in faith communities. Together, they explore how masking shows up in churches and spiritual spaces—and how unexamined expectations might unintentionally require performance, conformity, or self-erasure. And, how does masking in a faith community translate to our own individual connection with God?

Rather than framing masking as something to eliminate, this conversation makes space for nuance. When and why do people mask in faith communities? How can churches become places where masking is not demanded, yet is also respected as a survival strategy? And what does it look like to create spiritual spaces where people are free to show up as they are?

Whether you are neurodivergent, a faith leader, or someone longing for more honest community, this conversation offers language, compassion, and hope for communities where no one has to hide themselves in order to belong.

#MaskingAndSpiritualFormation #NeurodivergentFaith #AutisticMasking #NeurodiversityAffirming #Belonging #SacredCommunity #FaithCommunities #ChurchAndNeurodiversity #ActuallyAutistic #AutisticAdult #AutisticVoices #NeurodivergentCommunity

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: justjosuedavis@gmail.com. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

What if we don't have to pretend to be something we aren't in order to be loved?

In this opening episode of a short series on Masking and Spiritual Formation, Josh explores the practice of masking—what it is, why neurodivergent people develop it, and how it quietly shapes our inner lives. Drawing from lived experience, research on autistic masking, original music, and poetry, this episode names masking as a survival strategy rooted in safety and belonging—while also acknowledging the spiritual toll it can take over time.

You’ll hear reflections on autistic masking, including compensation, repression, and assimilation; a personal story of discovering just how much effort masking requires; and an invitation to consider what authenticity, integrity, connection, and grace might look like when we no longer have to perform our way into belonging.

Whether you are neurodivergent yourself, love someone who is, or are curious about the spiritual lives of masked selves everywhere, this episode offers a spacious beginning.

#Masking #NeurodivergentFaith #SpiritualFormation #AutisticVoices #Neurodivergent #ActuallyAutistic #SacredBelonging #AutisticMasking #Unmasking #Authenticity #BelovedAsYouAre

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: justjosuedavis@gmail.com. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, my friend Kristina Coombes joins me for an exploration of stimming across all our senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, interoception, proprioception, and the quiet wisdom of the vestibular system. Together we name stimming not as something to suppress, but as a faithful way of tending our nervous systems, a practice of stewarding our energy with compassion and clarity. We wonder aloud about the movements that help us stay present, the rhythms that regulate us, and the possibility that these small, honest motions might even become prayer.

And as we talk, a gentle shift begins: an invitation to see our own stimming—and the stimming of those we love—with new eyes. Not as distraction or disorder, but as communication, as care, as expression, and as an embodied path toward wholeness.

To connect with Kristina, visit:

https://www.meetup.com/neurodivergent-women-of-faith/

https://www.meetup.com/coffs-harbour-faith-based-support-group-meetup-group/

#StimmingAndStewardship #NeurodivergentFaith #EmbodiedSpirituality
#NeurodiversityAffirming #SacredEmbodiment
#FaithAndNeurodiversity #AutismAcceptance #ADHDAwareness #NeurodivergentCommunity #PodcastEpisode #ChristianPodcast #Stimming

To connect further, find Josh on Facebook, Instagram or email at: justjosuedavis@gmail.com. Or, for personal encouragement on your own journey of neurodivergence, consider booking a spiritual direction session with Josh through Patreon.