I am a therapist, supervisor and educator working from Canberra. I run Canberra Mobile Counselling where I offer online and in-person counselling. The focus of my counselling work is working with adult Autistics and/or ADHDers, as well as working with people who are recovering from trauma.

I am late diagnosed AuDHDer (Autistic & ADHD) myself -plus a few other neurodivergences. I am very passionate about the “nothing for us, without us space”, which is why I set up NDATS, so that I could provide support to Autistic people and their partners as well as providing training and supervision about autism & ADHD for professionals.

Figuring out my Autistic identity when I was first diagnosed was complicated by autism ‘experts’ telling me things that I now know are blatantly untrue things about autism. Things that I now know that are autism myths, like that Autistics have no empathy. Or professionals questioning my autism diagnosis because I am not a savant (another myth). These myths cause incredible damage to Autistic identities and the relationships we have with other people. The story that we tell ourselves cannot be that we are broken or less than, not only because it is not true, but because that kind of belief will lead us to accept things that we should never accept.

What also shocked me is how much it was up to me to self-advocate and teach professionals about autism. Imagine going to a doctor and having to teach them about diabetes. The burden of education of Autism cannot fall to Autistics as health consumers - it is the professional responsibility of those that work with Autistic adults to do this. However, I would urge anyone looking to do training in this to strong consider doing Autistic and ADHD led training. There are many amazing, strong, Autistics who work in this space and I urge you to spend you time (and money) with them.

For anyone who has ever done any training or in this area, you will notice the HUGE difference between training that takes a Neurodiversity Affirming approach, and training that comes from the deficit approach. After doing many trainings from the deficit approach - mostly run by people who are neither Autistic nor ADHD - I felt that the voices of people who actually understand these neurodivergences from deep inside of themselves should be louder than those who feel that we are less than them.

My training and supervision is not about fixing Autistics or ADHDers. It is about reframing their experiences and being in the world from an affirming perspective, creating deep understanding and helping Autistics/ADHDers from a non-pathologising perspective.

I do not think we are broken, but it is hard to live in this world that is not made for us, and that is what we need support for. And also for all the other issues that neurotypicals also face and seek counselling for.