Description:
In this powerful conversation, Kate Loree and Sunny Megatron sit down with educator and former psychotherapist Dr. Kristina Kyser, a late-diagnosed AuDHD scholar whose work bridges trauma healing, neurodivergence, spirituality, and systems-level critique.
Together they explore how our understanding of autism, ADHD, and nervous-system sensitivity cannot be separated from the larger cultural forces that shape them. Dr. Kyser challenges dominant ideas about “normality,” unpacking why the concept of normal may be one of the most harmful assumptions in modern psychology—and what becomes possible when we stop trying to fit ourselves inside it.
The conversation moves through wide-ranging territory: the relationship between neurodivergence and colonial systems of power, what animist and Indigenous cosmologies can teach us about human difference, and why meaningful healing must weave together spirituality, social awareness, and nervous-system repair.
Dr. Kyser also shares insights from her own journey of unmasking and slowing down, discussing how stepping outside roles of compliance, pleasing, and patriarchal conditioning can reconnect us with our deeper nature.
Along the way, Kate and Sunny explore big questions about identity, rage, gaslighting, power structures, and the cultural “spells” that shape how we understand ourselves.
This is a conversation about breaking inherited frameworks, reclaiming embodied truth, and imagining forms of healing that are relational, political, and deeply human.
Dr. Kristina Kyser:
Somatic-Spiritual Educator & Neurodivergent Guide
Kristina (she/her) is a late-diagnosed AuDHD educator, former psychotherapist, and course creator with a PhD in English Literature and over 13 years of clinical experience. Her work bridges trauma healing, Buddhist and animist practice, and systems-level critique. She creates initiatory spaces that blend science, soul, and lived neurodivergence in service of collective remembering and repair.
How to find Dr. Kristina Kyser:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristina.kyser.phd/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristina.kyser
Book mentioned in this episode: Columbus and Other Cannibals by Jack D. Forbes
About the Hosts:
Kate Loree, LMFT, is a sex-positive licensed marriage and family therapist with a specialty in non-monogamous, kink, LGBTQ, and sex worker communities and the author of Open Deeply: A Guide to Building Conscious, Compassionate Open Relationships.
In addition to her master’s in marriage and family therapy, she also has an MBA and is a registered art therapist (ATR). She is an EDSE certified sex educator and an EMDR certified therapist with additional training in the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) for the treatment of trauma. She has been practicing psychotherapy since 2003.
She cohosts her own sex-positive podcast, Open Deeply, with Sunny Megatron, has been featured in Buzzfeed videos, and has been a guest on Playboy Radio and many podcasts, including Sex with Dr. Jess, American Sex, Sluts and Scholars, and Multiamory. She has written for Authority Magazine and Good Vibrations, been featured in Vice and Ms. Magazine, and is a frequent public speaker.
Website: https://kateloree.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/opendeeplywithkateloree
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@opendeeplywithkateloree
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KateLoreeLMFT/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/kateloreelmft
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSTFAqGYKW3sIUa0tKivbqQ
Sunny Megatron is an award-winning sexuality educator and media personality. She’s the host and executive producer of the Showtime original television series, SEX with Sunny Megatron, plus co-hosts American Sex Podcast and Open Deeply Podcast.
Voted XBIZ 2021 Sexpert of the Year, Kinkly’s Sex Blogging Superhero of 2017, and named one of the 6 most savvy sexologists in North America, Sunny has been featured in Cosmo, Playboy, Buzzfeed, CNN, and more. She is also a contributing editor of XBIZ Premiere Magazine and a regular columnist for Sexual Health Magazine.
In her sell-out sex and kink workshops, Sunny’s unique brand of “edutainment” seamlessly combines her humorous lecturing style, interactive exercises, and the latest sexuality research. Sunny’s passion is helping people become their authentic, sexual selves by learning to overcome shame and shed inhibitions. As a lifestyle BDSM enthusiast, much of her work centers around normalizing alternative sexual practices and ending sexual stigma.
Website: http://sunnymegatron.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sunnymegatron
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/sunnymegatron
Instagram: https://instagram.com/sunnymegatron
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sunnymegatron
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sunnymegatron
American Sex Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HroMhWJnyZbMSsOBKwBnk
TV Show, Sex with Sunny Megatron: https://www.sho.com/sex-with-sunny-megatron/season/1
Open Deeply podcast is not a replacement for therapy or therapy. Please know this episode has themes of sexual and emotional abuse and neglect. If you catch yourself becoming emotionally overwhelmed by this episode’s content, please get support. Call a friend, therapist, or an emotional support hotline, such as, 800-273-talk (8255).