NeuroDiversity Affirming Training and Supervision

01/08/2025

My most popular workshop is returning again in October, this time with a midweek evening time. As you can see, I keep my prices super low, because I'm really passionate about this content being accessible. Despite the low price, this is a high quality and in-depth workshop where everyone will have useful things to takeaway to use in their practice with their clients.
Book now: www.trybooking.com/DCPKG

This training introduces the concept of neurodiversity affirming therapy with Autistic adults to move from a deficit model to an affirming model. It will cover some of the leading neurodiversity affirming theories of Autism, including a monotropism, bottom up processing and neural connectivity. It has a strong emphasis on in depth theory and translating theory into practice.
Book now: www.trybooking.com/DCPKG

It is part of a 3 part series on counselling Autistic adults, which will run 4 weeks apart. You can find the other workshops here:

Part 2: Understanding the complexity of the Autistic experience: https://www.trybooking.com/DCPMH

Part 3: The diagnostic journey: Supporting clients through grief, identity work, and burnout: https://www.trybooking.com/DCPQH

They all use the same EARLYBIRD2025 code - so you could register for 3 workshops for only $300
- worth 9 ACA OPD points in total
- worth 6 hrs of PACFA CPD in total

31/07/2025

How do Autistic adults feel before diagnosis?
How might this help us in our clinical practice?

By identifying the common themes that undiagnosed Autistics adults feel before diagnosis, we can individualise our therapeutic approach.

One key theme is that undiagnosed Autistic adults may acutely feel how different they are to everyone else.

They may feel. like they are on the outside looking in (Lilley et al., 2024). The whole world seems confusing. Everyone seems to have worked it out, except for them(Rubinstein, 2019).

They feel different to others and have attempted to endure fitting in until this was no longer possible for them (Stagg & Belcher, 2019) or they have experienced exclusion
(Rubinstein, 2019).

No matter how much effort they put in, they clearly struggle.

This feeling of being different is felt intensely, to the point of feeling like an alien (Stagg & Belcher, 2019; Superson et al., 2025).

This knowledge of being different can drive their search for answers, - because they feel wrong or like there something is missing. Not understanding what is causing their differences or why they struggle can perpetuate the cycle of confusion and self-judgement.

But an autism diagnosis can help give them a rationale - a reasonable explanation - as to why they are different.

This can lead to greater self-understanding and self-acceptance - and this can lead to them making different choices.

There is a significant lack of understanding and support for Autistic adults at all stages of the diagnostic process. And there is an urgent need to fill this knowledge gap in clinical practice (Superson et al., 2025).

If you find this interest, I would encourage you to come along to my workshop on the diagnostic process.

Come along on Saturday 9th August to find out more how you as an allied health professional could be supporting Autistic adults in every stage of the diagnosis process.

Book directly at:
https://www.trybooking.com/CXAOM

You will walk away with hands on practical strategies. My workshop draws on academic research, including by Autistic researchers as well as the lived experience of Autistic adults.

I also run this workshop on other days/times throughout the year, and you can find other dates here: www.ndats.com.au/caa3

In this workshop, you will get answers to the following questions:
- How do undiagnosed Autistic people present?
- Why is an autism diagnosis even important?
- What are internal barriers people might have to getting an autism diagnosis?
- Is there a male and female type of autism?
- How do people react to being diagnosed with autism?
- What are the different post-diagnosis phases after an autism diagnosis?
- How can Autistic people break their burn-out cycle?
- How do I support Autistic adults with all of these things?

29/07/2025

My most popular workshop is returning again in October, this time with a midweek evening time. As you can see, I keep my prices super low, because I'm really passionate about this content being accessible. Despite the low price, this is a high quality and in-depth workshop where everyone will have useful things to takeaway to use in their practice with their clients.
Book now: www.trybooking.com/DCPKG

This training introduces the concept of neurodiversity affirming therapy with Autistic adults to move from a deficit model to an affirming model. It will cover some of the leading neurodiversity affirming theories of Autism, including a monotropism, bottom up processing and neural connectivity. It has a strong emphasis on in depth theory and translating theory into practice.
Book now: www.trybooking.com/DCPKG

It is part of a 3 part series on counselling Autistic adults, which will run 4 weeks apart. You can find the other workshops here:

Part 2: Understanding the complexity of the Autistic experience: https://www.trybooking.com/DCPMH

Part 3: The diagnostic journey: Supporting clients through grief, identity work, and burnout: https://www.trybooking.com/DCPQH

They all use the same EARLYBIRD2025 code - so you could register for 3 workshops for only $300
- worth 9 ACA OPD points in total
- worth 6 hrs of PACFA CPD in total

Many counsellors do not feel confident adapting their counselling practices to suit the need of Autistic adults.  This is an underserviced...

18/07/2025

The next two dates for the sensory workshop have been released. It will run on:
- Saturday 20th September 2025 - 12:00-13:30 (AEST)
- Sunday 10th May 2026 - 12:00-13:30 (AEDT)

𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗲𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀: 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀
- Provide sensory accommodations in your services
- When to use sensory strategies
- Different ways to support sensory differences
- Identify & address barriers to making changes.

Book now: https://www.trybooking.com/DDNWE

15/07/2025

How do you know if a resource is neurodiversity affirming?
And why does it even matter?

I looked at a resource that's doing the rounds at the moment and analysed this for you.

05/07/2025

How many of you are hard on yourself?

Perfectionism runs high in our community. In part because this is a way we attempt to create safety for ourselves, by trying to control everything we can control. It's nearly kind of counter intuitive to let go and embrace what will be.

Part of learning about our neurodivergence means embracing our autism and our differences - and looking at ourselves with self-compassion.

If you would like a tool to guide you in building self-acceptance, you can use this - it's evidence based and it's free!

Would you like to learn how to be kinder toward yourself? We’ve developed the first online self-guided self-compassion program for Autistic adults.

03/07/2025

You'll be so proud of me, I got around to planning ahead my workshops for the next year.

Thank you to everyone who got in touch to say that you need other days/times so that you can attend, I heard you and I've added in some alternate days and times for you to attend (that are also a bit more West Coast friendly!)

Check out each of the images for more details.

16/06/2025

The worst thing about having worked in juvenile detention (I was a "youth detention officer") is nothing to do with my actual work in juvenile detention. It's recognising the kids's names in the newspapers, being convicted as adults, and knowing that whilst I got out, they are still on that treadmill.

Spending a life behind bars because you're unable to breakfree of your childhood trauma is an unspeakable injustice. And every single one of those kids has unimaginably complex childhood trauma.

(Although, very happily, I have run into some of the kids I used to look after in the community and they are doing well, but they are exceptions, rather than the rule).

Working with those kids changed my life forever. It's part of what set me on the path that I am on now.

16/06/2025

TW *harmful and dehumanising treatments of Autistics*

*

**

We know Asperger's aided and supported the Nazi's.

You know who else did. Ivaar Lovaas. He pioneered ABA - which is considered the "gold standard" for Autistics kids to this day. Do you know what other projects he worked on? The Feminine Boy Project - he used the same techniques in ABA on "gender confused" boys. i.e. conversion therapy.

Make no mistake, ABA = Autistic conversion therapy.
Just like gay conversion therapy is slowly being made illegal (thank you QLD & ACT: 2020, VIC: 2022; SA & NSW 2024), my hope is that the same will occur for ABA - especially when at least half of adult Autistic survivors of ABA have PTSD from receiving ABA (Feinstein, 2010; Kupferstein, 2018), and the US Department of Defence found in 2020 that for 87% of ABA participants, ABA had NO effect or it made things WORSE.

Alternatives for ABA for kids include Ross Greene's model of Collaborative Proactive Solutions

**Did you know all of this**

If you didn't, don't stress. I have done sooo much research am writing this all down into a glossary which will get beautifully and professionally printed into a book and you can buy that book, full of research and counselling strategies to go with the glossary.

More details coming soon about the glossary, including the release date!

The image is the first entry of my glossary.

References:
Department of Defense. (2020). Report to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives: The Department of Defense comprehensive autism care demonstration annual report 2020. Author.
Feinstein, A. (2010). A history of autism: conversations with the pioneers. Wiley-Blackwell.
Kupferstein, H. (2018),“Evidence of increased PTSD symptoms in autistics exposed to applied behavior
analysis”, Advances in Autism, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 19-29.

13/06/2025

**edited to say**
It came up with a great title, but no actual content except to say "I'm sorry, I can't assist with that request.".

:|

**original post**
I don't know that AI prompts are for me. I just wrote my second AI prompt and it's nearly 1000 words lol.

(Don't worry, I would never actually publish AI content, I've already written my content, but I want to see what AI would write because like a lot of Autistics, I like a good example and to check that I'm right. I did the same when I was at university, I would find old examples of the assignments online so I could actually understand what the lecturers wanted. I never actually used them though. I like my own writing style way too much).

Thinking now, I probably should time myself, because I'll have to fact check any bits that I do use from AI and rewrite them in my own voice. Not sure this will be saving me any time at all!!!

11/06/2025

Us Autistics are an extreme bunch. We often feel intensely (or not much at all). We’re super expressive (or not much at all). And often we’re all in or all out.

For example: I’m often told that I’m super expressive and transparent and that people can read me really well – but then other times these same people read me completely wrong.
(I know why, I just haven't updated my face with the feeling I'm having... and if the feeling isn't showing up automatically, me making the feeling show on my face is a type of masking if you think about it, because it's for the benefit of the people around me so that they don't freak out at the discrepancy between my face and my feeling.)

For example, I am currently working on a MASSIVE SURPRISE for the next workshop that’s running in July – and am totally in my element. But I had some awareness that if someone was looking at me right now they might not have any idea of my total Autistic joy that I’m feeling. (And because I’m more and more shameless each day, I took a quick picture so you can see what I mean!!).

So let’s normalise letting people define how they are feeling and trust their words and let’s all get really good at telling the people that we want to know what we’re feeling so no one has to guess. I love making invisible things visible because it is such an equaliser!

Ps: you’re allowed to not know what you’re feeling – that is a type of feeling
Ps2: you’re allowed to change your mind or update what you’ve expressed as your feelings
Ps3: you don't have to tell anyone how you are feeling - this is more intended for those you are in a relationship with as a way to connect with them

Let’s take people as they are, where they are at

10/06/2025

Did you know that parts work utilises a bottom approach to therapy? That's because it's not cognitively based - it works from what you are feeling, noticing inside of yourself. We also know that Autistics and ADHDers tend to have predominantly bottom up processing, making it really suitable for a lot of Autistic and ADHD clients.

I love parts work, because it honours and validates the fact that all of us have more than one part to us - and how well those parts are working and communicating together make such a difference. (BTW if you're curious about bottom up approaches, come do my training!).

It really makes even individual couples work like couples work or family therapy. How many of us are overly critical of parts of ourselves?? If we can't be on our side, who will be?

I'll be away this week doing a PD in resource therapy. It's a type of parts therapy, not unlike IFS, but like way more flexible in it's approach.

I also want to model and normalise that we should take time out to do things for us. I could try and stick this training in on my time off, but like so many Autistics & ADHDers, burnout is an ever-present danger! So I took time off to go and dedicate it to doing my PD. I also recognise the privilege this takes, but it's also sacrificing my [paid] time.