250 Milestone - Confidence, Connection, and Confronting Sexual Ableism

Episode 250: Celebrating 250 Episodes of Dating, Relationships, and Disability

Marking episode 250 with a look back at why this show exists and what it's covered since October 2021. Kathy founded the show to be a comprehensive resource helping people with disabilities navigate dating with confidence. Her approach blends her professional background as a mental health counselor with her own experience dating for years with a visible disability before finding a long-term partner of nearly 20 years.

Core Belief

Dating is a learnable skill set, not luck or magic — built on communication, problem-solving, and self-knowledge, for disabled and non-disabled daters alike.

Major Themes Covered

Mindset & self-worth — how beliefs about yourself shape who you attract

Five Stages of Dating Success — her signature framework: Foundation, Confidence, Strategy, Active Dating, Mastery

Sexual ableism — debunking the myth that disability makes someone a lesser romantic partner, including a conversation with Tiffany Yu

Online dating — app strategies, boundaries, AI tools, and a nod to Dateability's founders

Disability-specific dating experiences — neurodivergence, invisible disabilities, Apert syndrome, dyslexia, brain injury

LGBTQ+ and disability intersections — citing data that ~37% of LGBTQ+ adults and 52% of trans adults report a disability, with guests from Rainbow Support Group

Use the podcast page to search for episodes on these topics.