Neurodiversity Mental Health Support
What Is Neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity is a term that refers to the different ways the brain works, interprets and processes information, commonly affecting thinking, learning and behaviour. The term was coined in the late 1990’s by the sociologist Judy Singer, with the intention of highlighting the positive traits of a group of mental health conditions, including ADHD, OCD, ASC, dyslexia & dyspraxia. Singer’s view was rather than see these diagnosed conditions as being an impairment, or ‘wrong’ because they are different, how about we take a different view on mental health support by celebrating the unique talents and gifts that a differently wired brain has to offer us?
I myself identify as a neurodivergent person; I have a collection of varied traits that span across ADHD, OCD & ASC. Like so many people of my generation, my neurodivergent traits were not made sense of as a child due to society as a whole not having the greater awareness of neurodiversity (ND) that we have today. This resulted in late adult identification, understanding of, and coming to terms with, my own neurodivergent self. Looking back on my life now, it makes sense of so many things!
Over the years I have worked with many neurodivergent clients who have been through the medical model of support for their condition, having been given a label and limited information on how to understand or relate to this label as an individual human being. Many clients also report that the medication they were prescribed either didn’t help at all or had such severe side effects that they had to stop taking it. This can often result in ND people feeling unsupported, misunderstood and searching for answers to questions that inform their personal understanding of self-identity.
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a client-centred approach to Counselling for Neurodiversity
For many people, self-identity is one of the biggest mental health issues we face in modern society. If you’re an ND person, there’s a good chance you’ve always felt ‘different’ to most other people around you. Maybe you’ve struggled to fit in, or even been bullied because others see your differences as ‘weird’ or ‘strange’. This can lead to feeling isolated, deeply questioning self-identity, low self-esteem and have a negative impact on our mental health.
There is no one-size-fits-all ‘answer’ to managing and supporting mental health for ND people. Just like every other human being on the planet, we are all unique; many of us (like me!) experience ND traits from several different medical labels.
My approach (as with all clients) is to work with the person in front of me, to understand your personal experience with, and world of, neurodiversity. My intent is to support you along your journey of understanding and managing yourself in ways that work best for you and also, where necessary, to heal from the past. You can find out more about my approach to counselling and how I work by clicking here.
What My Clients Say:
Rich is fantastic at holding space, I felt supported to find my own way with helpful signposting & reassurance
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The way Rich understands the problems and helps you see past them is brilliant!
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Working with Rich has helped me to feel like me again!
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This counselling experience has been truly life changing!
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Rich is extremely open minded & I feel like I have been accepted for who I am
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Rich has a great approach, I was nervous before the 1st session but felt so comfortable that I was excited to come back each week!
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It was an extremely valuable experience that improved my mental health & the quality of my relationships with others
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Rich is fantastic at holding space, I felt supported to find my own way with helpful signposting & reassurance ••• The way Rich understands the problems and helps you see past them is brilliant! ••• Working with Rich has helped me to feel like me again! ••• This counselling experience has been truly life changing! ••• Rich is extremely open minded & I feel like I have been accepted for who I am ••• Rich has a great approach, I was nervous before the 1st session but felt so comfortable that I was excited to come back each week! ••• It was an extremely valuable experience that improved my mental health & the quality of my relationships with others •••
All comments are client’s genuine words and reproduced with kind permission
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I am not qualified to diagnose mental health conditions. However, I have years of experience in working with ND people who have been diagnosed with:
ADHD
ADD
ASD
OCD
Dyslexia
Dyspraxia
Dysgraphia
As much as I prefer to work with the person and not the diagnosis (label), sometimes a diagnosis can be useful. For example, extra time/help in exam or test situations, to inform our employer of any extra understanding or support we may need, or simply just to give us a direction to aim our own self-understanding towards. If you are seeking a diagnosis please contact your local GP to start with.