Meet Layla Messner, an autistic artist, speaker, and advocate who is redefining the conversation around well-being and mental health. Layla offers a unique perspective through her insights on creativity, community building, and self-acceptance. She holds a Master’s Degree in trauma healing from Goddard College and studied psychology at the doctoral level. Through her vulnerable storytelling and art, Layla empowers others to live in harmony with their bodies and instincts.
In this guest post, Layla shares her experience and advice on reducing stigma, finding your authentic voice, and fostering a community that supports mental health.
I am at a point in my life where I don’t feel compelled to “overcome my autism” or prove that “disabled people can do anything non-disabled people can do.” I don’t accept the neurotypical standard as the benchmark or believe that my value as a human being is derived from my ability to work.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t start here. Living with multiple disabilities, I have never been able to support myself and it used to be my constant preoccupation to somehow get to the point where I could hold a full-time job. It has been a journey of working to deconstruct internalized ableism and stigma.
I’m 42 now and in the best way possible, I’ve surrendered. I’m at peace with being disabled. I love myself the way I am. Getting my autism diagnosis helped with that because I understand my struggles so much better now. I don’t want to change myself and I think that’s contagious.
There are a lot of high-masking and late-diagnosed autistic people, as well as others with invisible disabilities who are struggling but no one knows – because our struggles are invisible. I speak to that experience through my Instagram content.
Your upbringing in the wilderness and focus on wilderness preservation are unique aspects of your work. How do you believe nature can benefit mental wellness and foster healing and growth?
This is a hard question for me to answer because I don’t have the typical view, which is usually something like, “Spending time in nature is beneficial for mental health.” Surely it is, but the way I see it is that humans are animals. We’re as much a part of nature as wildlife is. A felt sense of connection and unity with nature is normal, whereas feeling disconnected from the rest of the natural world is not and has negative consequences for our mental health. A subtle distinction, but it matters.
That said, it sometimes seems to me that those of us who feel more connected to nature actually suffer more, from a mental health perspective. This is because of the disconnect with nature that is embedded into modern society. That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with our mental health though. In my opinion, it’s a sign that something is right with our mental health – and wrong with society.
Your work emphasizes the importance of authenticity and living in harmony with one’s body and instincts. What advice would you give to those who may be struggling to find their authentic voice?
From birth, we are socialized to deny our bodies and to reject and control our instinctual impulses. The result of this is the loss of our authentic voice.
I found my authentic voice through healing childhood trauma and by embracing my own story. Not the story I tell about the story; this is another subtle but important distinction. It’s a common misconception that healing comes from changing how we interpret our story, from putting a positive spin on things. When I say that I embraced my own story, I mean the literal events of my life and the way my body experienced them.
Finding your authentic voice starts with being a good listener. What do we listen to? We listen to our own bodies.
The body cannot lie. It speaks in sensations, emotions, impulses, and knowings. When we get in touch with what the body feels and knows and we express that, whether through words, art, movement, or life – that’s authentic voice.
Authentic voice is how we live.
How do you believe we can better support individuals who are coping with mental health challenges or living with invisible disabilities?
Bluntly, I believe the number one thing we need to do collectively is provide better disability funding. Disability funding needs to meet standards for Minimum Basic Income and we need to make that funding available to all disabled people. This includes those with invisible and dynamic disabilities, which frequently include mental health challenges. Disabled people all over the world are living in poverty and this is unacceptable.
I believe the first step towards achieving this is working to remove ableism, stigma, and discrimination from our social support systems. This starts with fighting false beliefs in ourselves, our homes, and our communities. A lot of the work I do on Instagram is to raise awareness and humanize these issues by sharing my personal story.
Disabled people are not only capable of thriving – in fact we have as much right to thrive as anyone else and we are entitled to social supports for equity and inclusion. This is a problem that needs to be solved on a socio-political level. It’s not a “you” problem or a “me” problem. It’s a “we” problem.
Your work highlights the importance of community. How do you believe we can foster a sense of community and support in our society, particularly in the context of mental health? What role does art, storytelling, and public speaking play in building these connections? 
If I had to identify one single point of highest leverage for fostering community that supports mental health, I would say: “we need to uncouple social esteem from doing and producing”. In other words, we need to create social spaces where people’s worth is seen as intrinsic and not judged by external factors such as income, employability, or other status markers.
We need to humanize our conversations, which requires creating spaces where vulnerability is welcome. We all suffer; we all struggle; we all grieve. We all need a safe space where it’s okay to be fully human. Without that, community remains shallow and can leave us feeling empty.
Art, storytelling, and public speaking are all opportunities to share vulnerably and invite others into safe spaces. I’m working to create a community that celebrates neurodiversity, autistic identity, and culture on my Instagram, @laylamessner
Author: Layla Messner
