From Awkward Openers to Engaging Conversations

## Practising Extroversion the Neurodivergent Way

## 🌟 From Small Talk → Real Talk

Do you want to be more social but without forcing yourself to be loud, performative, or overwhelmed?

Do you want to feel confident starting conversations in groups or crowds… and know how to gently take them somewhere meaningful when the moment is right?

This session is a practice lab for exactly that.

***

## 💬 What This Session Is About

Many neurodivergent people actually enjoy connection, but struggle with the starting, the spontaneity, and the surface-level phase of conversations.
This workshop helps you practise:

• starting light, surface-level conversations
• building courage to speak to new people
• rotating through conversations with ease
• and learning how (and when) to guide a chat from small talk into something more engaging and meaningful

All while honouring your nervous system, your need for processing time, and your personal boundaries.
You don’t need to become a “social butterfly”
…but you can become socially confident, relaxed, and deeply appreciated for who you are.

***

## 🧠 Why Surface Talk Matters (Yes, Really)

Small talk isn’t the enemy, it’s the bridge.
Weather, study, work, hobbies… these are entry points.
When you know how to use them skillfully, they become doorways into richer conversation.
We’ll practise how to:

• respond with curiosity instead of pressure
• notice which threads are worth pulling
• ask follow-up questions that invite meaning
• and sense when someone is open to going deeper

The right people will appreciate this often more than you expect. ✨

***

## 🔄 How the Session Runs

The session is structured, flexible, and supportive:

• Short teaching segments (clear, simple, practical)
• 20-minute practice blocks with different drills
• Quick rotations so you experience variety and spontaneity
• Optional participation, nothing is compulsory
• Live feedback and adaptation based on how the group is feeling
• Space for pauses, grounding, and regulation as needed

You’ll practise both:

• starting conversations, and
• deepening them gently and appropriately

***

## 🌱 What You’ll Practise

• Initiating conversations without overthinking
• Being socially present without masking
• Bridging from surface topics into meaning
• Sharing a little more of yourself, safely and wisely
• Reading social energy and pacing yourself
• Honouring when you need space, silence, or rest

***

## 👋 A Note From the Facilitator

I’m an autistic, neurodivergent coach and this was once extremely hard for me.

Through years of lived experience, recruitment work, interviewing, dating, friendship-building, and formal coaching training, I’ve learned how to make social connection a skill and habit, not a vague personality quirk that people can't replicate.

This session is about practising that skill together, so it becomes something your body knows how to do — not something you have to force.

***

## 📝 Before & After

You’ll be invited (optionally) to share:

• what feels hardest about socialising in groups
• where surface-level conversations tend to stall
• what you want more confidence with

And at the end, you’ll be invited to give feedback so future sessions can be shaped around what you actually need.