Diversity & Neurodiversity

I am a diversity-affirmative practitioner, and am neurodivergent myself. Like many of my clients, I’ve experienced the normative forces within institutions, organizations and families, with their often ill-adapted structures and attitudes. Most of what I have learned, though, comes directly from the people I've worked with and what they have experienced regarding various aspects of who they are, including their sexuality, gender, ethnicity, neurodivergence, disability ...

My engagement with neurodiversity began when I worked in university counselling services and found myself building and enjoying rich and collaborative counselling relationships with students who were trying to find their ways through the obstacle course of university life. How they could ‘tick the boxes’ and pass the course without losing their sense of self was often a big part of the work.

It would be dishonest and idiotic for me to say that difference and neurodiversity, my own included, doesn't present real challenges and difficulties in living and working in a world of inequality and prejudice. As with other forms of 'difference' though neurodivergence can be experienced as part of my or your identity and there are aspects to this, often overlooked, that are the opposite of deficits or difficulties. Being able to acknowledge, value and engage with this is also often a core part of the work of counselling and coaching.

I aim to work with all of my clients in a respectful and empowering way, helping people to find their own way forward.