Audience: Adult community members (ages 18+)
Description: Join us for a festive and relaxed virtual gathering to kick off the holiday season! This will be a place to connect, reflect, and celebrate with fellow community members. Participants are invited to bring their favorite holiday beverage, share stories, play holiday games, and enjoy lighthearted conversation in a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
As a fun bonus, we invite you to wear your favorite holiday sweater – whether ugly or festive! During the event, we’ll vote as a group to crown the Ultimate Festive Holiday Dresser with a special prize for the winner.
Whether you’re looking to make new connections, share a laugh, or simply soak in the holiday spirit, this event is the perfect way to celebrate together.
Key Takeaways:
- Connect with others and build community during the holiday season
- Engage in festive games to unwind
- Show off your holiday spirit and compete for the ultimate holiday sweater title
Darin M. Bush
Darin M. Bush
Darin M. Bush, has worked with the TS community in various roles for 30 years. He has tutored, lectured, taught classes, run workshops, led panels, and facilitated support groups. He has worked with the Tourette Associations in both the U.S. and Canada. Darin has also written short stories and jokes, invented words, designed t-shirts, created theories, and blogged about TS and it’s co-occurring conditions. He has several neurological disorders himself, including TS, ADHD, and OCD. He also has sensory handwriting and reading difficulties, as well as a learning disability that he loves to discuss. Some of these conditions were passed on to his daughter.
Darin worked full-time at Parkaire Consultants, a clinic with expertise in treating learning disabilities and neurological disorders. He worked as an academic tutor, specializing in teaching math and science to children with learning disabilities, ADHD, and OCD. He developed and taught a class for educators on teaching math to special education children and he contributed to the textbook Teaching the Tiger and its sequel, Tigers, Too. During this time, he served on the board at the Tourette Syndrome Association of Georgia and he has led several peer support groups for adults with or parents of individuals with neurological disorders.
In 2009, Darin published Tiger Trails: An Unconventional Introduction to Tourette Syndrome, in attempt to organize the vocabulary used with TS. He currently co-leads an ADHD adult peer support group through Parkaire Consultants and participates in a Tourette peer support group. Darin is also a published genre fiction author and speaks at sci-fi and fantasy conventions, including DragonCon. He lives close to Atlanta, GA, with his wife and two very yappy dogs.
Dr. Charles Galyon
Dr. Charles Galyon
In addition to being diagnosed with TS at the age of five, Charles E. Galyon has worked professionally with TS and Tic Disorders for approximately nine years as a psychologist. Along with his therapeutic work, he also trains other professionals on how to work effectively with individuals who have TS and Tic Disorders. Dr. Galyon consults with professionals and the community to promote public knowledge and understanding of these conditions. He facilitates an online support group for the TAA and is an active participant in national and state professional consultation groups focused on TS and Tic Disorders. Currently, Dr. Galyon is involved in a research project aimed at improving professional knowledge and understanding of the unique experiences of women with TS.
