HeyJaredDating, Relationships, and Disability
We offer strategies, encouragement, and mindset tips on dating with a disability. We talk about how to navigate sexual ableism, focus on your power to attract, and develop happy and healthy relationships.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 22, 2026
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- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 7, 2026
Latest episodes
261 - Your Playbook for Dating is Here (opens the original)
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The Playbook Is Here The Five Stages of Dating Success Playbook launched today. Today's episode covers the two stages we hadn't unpacked yet: active dating and mastery — the payoff for everything built so far. Stage Four: Active Dating This is where earlier prep meets real people, and it's not a victory lap — it's its own demanding phase. Disclosure conversations now happen with unpredictable reactions; researched venues meet real-world logistics. That friction isn't failure, it's just what prep
260 - From Confidence to Strategy: Building Your Dating Toolkit (opens the original)
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Internal self-worth work and external dating skill are different muscles. Believing you deserve a good relationship doesn't automatically teach you how to handle logistics or anxiety-inducing moments in real time — that gap is where this stage of the work lives. The DESC Method A self-advocacy script for moments when anxiety causes shutting down or over-explaining: Describe the situation objectively Express feelings using "I" statements Specify what you'd like to happen instead Consequences — na
259 - Why Dating Doesn't Have to Feel So Hard (opens the original)
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Dating Confidence Is a Skill, Not a Trait Dating and relationship success is skill-based — not a personality trait, not luck. It's a set of capacities (self-awareness, resilience, strategy, consistent action) that can be built and strengthened like any other skill. The Real Question Underneath Most clients ask, in one form or another: "Will someone accept me, and accept my disability?" Ableism teaches that disability must be overlooked or tolerated for love to happen. That's false, but it takes
258 - The Real Work of Dating with a Disability (opens the original)
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Dating requires skills — and disability adds complexity. But disability services are built around health, safety, and independence, not romantic fulfillment. Sexuality remains taboo, no structured framework exists for disability-specific dating barriers, and success gets measured by employment or housing, never relationship quality. Kathy's Story Kathy O'Connell, a certified rehab counselor with 36 years in the disability field (nearly 30 as a counselor), was born with cerebral palsy. She spent
257 - Relationships Decoded: Teaching Consent, Connection, and Self-Advocacy (opens the original)
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We're talking with researcher Dr. Kathryn Pedgrift , focused on relationship and sexuality education for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The conversation covers Pedgrift's academic article, her "Relationships Decoded" curriculum, and broader systemic barriers to this kind of education. Relationships Decoded Curriculum Kathryn describes co-developing a curriculum called "Relationships Decoded," used in schools, middle and high schools, and transition programs. The m
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