Living & Working with Neurodivergence: Mental Health & Wellbeing 2024 Conference

Cathy Magee is Chief Executive of Dyslexia Scotland, the national voluntary organisation which aims to enable people with dyslexia to reach their potential in education, employment and life. Cathy has been in post since October 2007.

Her background prior to this includes 4 years on secondment to the then Scottish Executive Health Department, managing the National Health Demonstration Projects programme; over 20 years voluntary sector experience working at local, national and international levels (including Save the Children, Wester Hailes Adventure Group, Voluntary Service Overseas in Nepal, Volunteer Development Scotland and the Stirling Health and Well-being Alliance); as well as teaching English as a Foreign Language for 2 years in France. Her roles have included managing volunteers, staff, community development projects and after school clubs involved in addressing inequalities, improving health and well being and informal adult education and basic literacy, as well as national policy development, implementation and dissemination.

Her interest in dyslexia first began while working at Save the Children with children with learning difficulties in an After-school Club in Muirhouse, Edinburgh.

Francesca Bernardi is a writer, advocate, artist and creative coach. She trained in Arts Therapies and Art and Design education and has worked as a teacher and artist-in-residence in schools, Alternative Provision and Further Education. She most consistently engages in multi-disciplinary research, setting up creative environments for critical participatory work with marginalised communities.

Francesca volunteers as an international board member of the Disability Without Abuse Project (Los Angeles), is founding chair of the Antonio Gramsci Society UK, an elected Global Councillor of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and Associate Member of CATA (Canadian Art Therapy Association).

Francesca is a Visiting Lecturer in Childhood Studies at Leeds Beckett University and Arts Therapies at the University of Roehampton.

In her early 40s, Dr Wheatcraft has an impressive portfolio with dual expertise in autism & ADHD specifically, as a full Member of Royal College of Psychiatrists AND an adult diagnosed with autism & ADHD in her 4th decade.

Dr Emma Taylor is a Clinical Psychologist with over twenty years of experience working with neurodivergent adults and children in clinical, diagnostic and academic contexts. She works therapeutically with adults of all ages, genders and neurotypes, as well as carrying out formal diagnostic assessments for autism and ADHD, and providing supervision to other therapists.

Erin (she/they) is an integrative therapist and supervisor working in private practice in West Yorkshire. Her practice is focussed on working with clients who have previous experience of harmful therapy, in short and long term work. She is increasingly working with therapists who work with harmed clients, as well as therapists who are concerned about, or otherwise interested in harm in therapy, both in open-ended supervision, and short term consultancy.

As well as therapy and supervision, Erin is a writer, trainer and activist, with a focus on harm in therapy, neurodivergence and social justice.

Hayley Barker-Smith is a Person-centred, Accredited ADHD Practitioner, Psychotherapist & Breathwork Facilitator. As a woman with ADHD, she weaves her own first-hand experience with years of study and training to offer her trauma-informed, compassionate approach to repairing the chaos, unravelling the limiting beliefs, and healing the loss and grief that ADHD can bring.

Dr Jeremy Law, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Glasgow

Jeremy’s research and teaching interests focus on developmental disabilities and literacy with a specific interest and expertise relating to developmental dyslexia. Recently his research has been focused on examining specific cognitive factors related to reading and spelling compensation of children and adults with dyslexia. In the course of his research, he has conducted a range of longitudinal and concurrent studies examining prereading indicators of dyslexia such as early phonological and auditory processing impairments. Furthermore, his work with high achieving individuals with dyslexia has focused on identifying specific factors (such as morphological awareness) related to the reading success and resilience of these individuals.

I have been facilitating in Counselling & Psychotherapy programmes in the UK for more than 10 years.

I am currently the director at Temenos Education and have a private practice where I offer online Psychotherapy and Supervision using video and chat communication platforms along with virtual environments. I am also the co-founder of onlinevents which has grown to be the world’s largest library of online video and audio content with instant certification and a learning log.

I am also a past chair of the Association for Counselling & Therapy Online (ACTO) and have served for 6 years on the board of the World Association for Person Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counselling. My passion to bring online learning into the field of Counselling & Psychotherapy has also led to the development of online experiential learning within the Temenos programme, facilitating the exposure of Temenos students to external tutors who are located in different parts of the world. Along with the inclusion of experiential learning of online Counselling & Psychotherapy for Temenos students so that they qualify with knowledge and practice in online communication and relationship.

Jonny is an informal researcher, coach and dialogue facilitator, influenced by a life of Eastern and Western disciplines including in contemporary fine arts, dialogue and spiritual practice. After a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome he trained in Coaching and Autism studies, then formulated the Autism Dialogue Approach® and Mindfulness for Autism (M4A).

Dialogic Action CIC was founded by a team of autistic people, academics, philosophers, coaches and third-sector experts, who believe generative dialogue is a framework for moving beyond individual consciousness into an emergent wholeness, and the key to a more harmonious existence.

Karin Brauner is a twice published author, a bilingual coach/counsellor/psychotherapist, as well as a supervisor in private practice. She trained in Guatemala and in Brighton, England. Karin has always been interested in many areas, which focus on her training as a therapist, but also her passion for writing and IT. These have led her to have a variety of services and product offerings, which she keeps adding to. These include social media marketing and content creation, as well as website support, tutoring, academic support, and other areas.

Karin is passionate about everything she does, and she enjoys seeing her colleagues and clients thrive in their work and lives. This is why she’s offering these workshops (and other courses to come in the near future). She enjoys supporting people be the best they can be, meeting them right where they are, and together figuring out what the best way forward is.

Marketing on social media became a focus of Karin’s back in 2017, when she started blogging. This propelled her practice into moving from 2-4 clients, to a full client list, followed by supervisees and now coaching clients as well. This means she can now offer the learning she’s done in the past few years, to practitioners starting their practices or thinking of growing their practices but needing the practical support to do so.

That’s what Karin offers – practical support to get you on the right track to building a successful business (whatever that means to each one of us individually).

Kate Salinsky is co-founder and co-facilitator at Dialogic Action CIC, where she also co-designs and manages training. She has a master’s in Autism, is a trainer at the National Autism Trainer Programme (NHS/Anna Freud Centre/AT-Autism) and parent to a neurodivergent child. Previously, Kate worked as a training manager and counsellor in the voluntary sector for over 20 years, managing a team of trainers to design and deliver accredited training to people working in substance misuse, counselling and mediation.

As a queer and autistic therapist and supervisor in private practice, I have always been fascinated by themes of creativity, identity, and otherness, and how we find our place in the world. I specialise in working with neurodivergent and/or LGBTQIA+ clients who are exploring similar issues, and I also supervise a range of professionals.

My interest in neurodiversity developed during my ten years working in a university disability support service. Despite coming from a multiple neurodivergent family and suspecting dyslexia and dyspraxia were part of my profile, my autistic identity remained unknown to me until 2019. I was experiencing autistic burnout at the time, and my therapist asked if I had ever considered being autistic.

Since then, I have gone through a process of grief, unlearning, compassion, understanding, reconnection, and acceptance, which has allowed me to rebuild a life that is tailored to meet my needs and support all aspects of my identity. This process has been tough and continues to be ongoing, but it has been the single most healing thing I have done for myself. Knowing my queer, autistic self has opened new spaces and possibilities. I am passionate about the importance of making space for our intersectional identities and the context in which we exist with them, both for ourselves and our clients.

Sarah is the founder of The Weller Way, a family relationship coaching practice which specialises in supporting families with neuro divergent children.

The Weller Way delivers coaching throughout the UK, face to face and online, on a one to one basis, as well as Group workshops and Talks for Corporate Wellbeing programmes and Schools.

Sarah has many years of experience and training for her roles in supporting young people and families in the Mental Health and Homelessness sectors prior to founding The Weller Way, and is familiar with working alongside Social Services, Schools, CAMHS, community mental health teams and specialist providers.

Tanya Spiers is an autistic trainer currently delivering the National Autism Training programme to Mental Health professionals within the NHS. She is also a Specialist Family Support worker who works with families that have autistic young people up to the age of 25 from a diverse population. Tanya has been delivering (and managing staff to deliver) autism training and coaching for over ten years to a wide range of different professionals and settings. She also has three autistic teenage boys of her own with very different strengths and needs; one of whom has a PDA profile.

As a private practioner of many years, I have had the privilge of working and supporting the neurodiverse community, mainly autism, aspergers and dyslexia. My clients range from indivduals, couples and young people, I am PCT trained however I have used various modalities and creative ways within my clinical practice to meet the client’s needs when required.

I have been assessed over the years for an intellectual learning disability, called Dyslexia. My personal experience of being dyslexic has been very mixed over the years, however I find that as a visual learner I can incorporate my expereince of dyslexia into my clinical pratice.

Doodling is part of my self care routine and I believe that anyone can doodle. So please grab some paper a pencil and come along and have some downtime. I’m telling you this workshop is the quietest, most calming one you might attend, plus you get to have some fun with others.

Tris is an NCPS senior accredited psychotherapist and a Pink Therapy advanced accredited GSRD Therapist as well as a Pink Therapy endorsed GSRD aware trainer. They have lived experience as a queer, disabled, AuDHD, non-binary person whose pronouns are they/them. Tris works both in private practice and in a university student counselling service with a special interest in working with clients at the intersection of GSRD and Neurodivergence. Within the university, they are one of 2 Trans specialist counsellors who co-run therapeutic groups for Trans, Non-Binary, Gender non-conforming and questioning students. They are also the neurodivergent specialist counsellor and have been working with the service to make it more accessible for neurodivergent students. Before being employed by the university, they worked in social care completing care assessments and mental capacity assessments for a learning disability and autism team. It was in this role that Tris first started to understand themselves as autistic, seeing themselves reflected in the service users they were working with. They also realised there was a lack of understanding by many staff members both in social care and within the care agencies when it came to issues of sexuality and gender. At this time Tris was already in private practice and decided to focus on the cross-over of GSRD and Neurodivergence as well as provide training and consulting to people, businesses and organisations who wanted to develop knowledge. Outside of work, they are currently the head of inclusion access for the national charity Bi Pride UK, having previously been the Vice-chair for almost 4 years before needing to take a break from activism work. They are a long-standing volunteer for the Human Library, founded Colchester Pride and held the position of Chair for 2 years. When not volunteering, they can be found playing board and video games, parlour larping, at the theatre, or snuggled up on the sofa with loved ones and their cat Tia (who often makes appearances whilst working online).

MSc Psychotherapy, Certified Transactional Analyst, Certified Cybertherapist, PGCDip Counselling. UKCP registered Psychotherapist.

Vauna is a Psychotherapist, Coach, Trainer, and Clinical Supervisor. She has been seeing clients for over 20 years in private practice, and for 4 years in NHS primary care, and now works solely online. Discovering herself, at over 40 years old, that she is Autistic with ADHD, she turned her interest toward understanding neurodiversity and working well with neurodivergent clients. As well as drawing on lived experience, and the insights from some small courses, she is embarking on a postgraduate study of Autism from Autumn 2022.

A creative counsellor with a late diagnosis of Dyslexia, ADHD, and Dyspraxia, I assist individuals, families and teens with ADHD in developing self-advocacy and emotional regulation skills using my Polyvagal Teen® resources and programs.

With the exponential increase in ADHD diagnosis I often ponder, – is society’s neoliberalism capitalistic expectations a contributor to this “disorder”? I dont have the answers but through these conversations I have created space for discussions. My diagnosis has given me the confidence to speak out against societal norms that do not cater to my brain’s functionality and embrace my creativity.

Through my lived experience, especially with education and research on trauma’s impact on gene expression and epigenetics, I will share with you why I believe my childhood and intergenerational trauma has contributed to my differences, and how my labels validate my experience.