Welcome to Episode 131 - Neurodiversity and Autism with Caitlin Hughes and Teena Mogler

Neurodiversity is becoming increasingly recognised in our community, and I’m hearing more and more stories of adults getting late diagnosed Autism and ADHD (often after our children have been diagnosed). What I didn’t realise is that other conditions fall under the neurodiversity umbrella – including OCD!

So this week we’re exploring neurodiversity and what it means to have a neurodiversity affirming therapy practice – with a specific focus on Autism. And helping me unpack this huge topic is Accredited Mental Health Social Workers Caitlin Hughes and Teena Mogler. Caitlin and Teena are lived experience therapists, and provide a great insight into how we as practitioners can position ourselves to provide neurodiversity affirming practices to our clients.

But if you’re not a therapist, but live with Autism (or even ADHD as we talk about this), make sure you tune in. You’ll hear about some great therapeutic approaches that may be helpful to you!

Key points

In this episode Caitlin and Teena share:

What is neurodiversity and neurodiversity affirming practice?
Understanding the Autism diagnosis
The differences in Autism presentations between boys and girls
Therapeutic models that support neurodiversity
Masking and how this impacts the individual
Lived experience therapists

Key quotes

"Neurodiversity is about approaching different brains and understanding them through our diversity lens."

"Neurodiversity affirming practice is about working with the neurodivergent person and not causing harm."

“The issue with saying someone's high functioning is that it's kind of invalidating the fact that they have a disability and they do have support needs."