Understanding Neurodiversity in Counselling and Psychotherapy

Neurodiversity is a relatively new term, describing a wide spectrum of people whose brains function differently to what is considered “typical”. This includes people with autism spectrum conditions, including high functioning autism or ADHD, but also conditions such as dyslexia and dyscalculia. There is increased recognition within the counselling and therapeutic communities that neurodivergent individuals may experience higher levels of common mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression and, further, may experience additional challenges that might bring them to therapy, for example relationship distress.

Workshop Content and Aims

• Understanding of neurodiversity: different conditions (autism, ADHD etc.), appropriate language (e.g. “has autism” vs. “is autistic”), and diagnostic processes (e.g. specialist referral vs self- identification and peer confirmation). 
• Understanding of how neurodiversity presents in individual, couple and family therapy – what to look for in the room. Strategies to make the therapeutic encounter more tolerable for neurodivergent individuals.
• Understanding how unconscious phantasies might be playing out in partner choice and couple functioning where one or other partner is neurodivergent.
• Understanding of the impact of a child being diagnosed with a neurological condition upon the couple and wider family. 
• Ability to think critically about the ethics of therapist self- disclosure (of lived experience of neurodiversity).

A CPD Certificate of attendance will be awarded following the completion of this workshop

Date TBC

Meet the Trainer

Ann Hardy trained at Tavistock Relationships and has a master’s degree in individual and couple psychodynamic psychotherapy. She has worked in the TR clinical service since 2019 and in private practice.

Ann trains and supervises NHS therapists as part of TR’s Couple Therapy for Depression intervention and was one of the original therapists involved in TR’s Behavioural Couple for Alcohol Dependency pilot.

She has a particular interest in autism spectrum conditions; she was previously a trustee of the autism research charity, Autistica and is one of the authors of its ‘One in a Hundred’ report. Her work with neurodivergent individuals and families has given her a deep respect for the strengths, as well as the challenges, neurodiverse couples and families bring to relationship challenges.

Her paper “You don’t need to be fixed: working with a neurodiverse family” will be published in the Autumn 2024 issue of the Journal of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis.
She is registered with the BACP.