Working with Neurodivergence: A six-part CPD series for qualified counsellors and trainees

Six modules. Two hours each. Twelve hours of CPD.

Most counsellors will work with neurodivergent clients throughout their careers, and most received little or no training in it. This series covers what you need in order to work competently: what the conditions actually involve, how they are often mis-formulated, how to adapt your practice, and how referral works in each in the UK.

It is designed for beginners and assumes no prior knowledge. It is equally suitable for trainees and for experienced practitioners who have not covered this material before. Anti-oppressive practice runs throughout each module. 

Join the full series or individual modules. Module 1 is recommended before the others, as later modules build on the terminology and scope material it covers.

Module 1 — Foundations (September 22nd)
Terminology used accurately, and why it matters clinically. The medical, social and relational models. Neurodiversity-affirming practice. Your duties under the Equality Act 2010. How to raise a suspected condition with a client without asserting a diagnosis.

Module 2 — ADHD (September 29th)
Diagnostic framing and its limits. Executive function, emotional dysregulation and difficulty with time. Who gets missed, and why. How unmanaged ADHD is repeatedly formulated as anxiety, depression, personality difficulty or trauma. Adapting your modality, contracting and session structure. Risk, co-occurrence and referral, including Right to Choose and its limits.

Module 3 — Autism (October 6th)
Monotropism and the double empathy problem as working models. Masking, autistic burnout and minority stress. Adults identified late, and the diagnoses they were given first. The sensory environment, processing time and alexithymia in the room. Suicide risk, and why standard assessment misses it. Referral pathways.

Module 4 — Tourette's and tic disorders (October 13th)
Rarely covered in counselling training. Tics, premonitory urge and the cost of suppression. Functional tic-like behaviours and why the distinction is not yours to make. Co-occurring ADHD and OCD. What counselling can and cannot address, managing your own reaction, and contracting without requiring a client to suppress.

Module 5 — Dyslexia and specific learning differences (October 20th)
Dyslexia, dyscalculia and DCD, and why these are mostly not a health referral. The adult clinical picture. Who was assessed at school and who was excluded instead. A practical audit of your own contracts, forms and between-session materials. Assessment routes, cost, and what a diagnosis does and does not provide.

Module 6 — The neurodivergent counsellor (October 27th)
For neurodivergent practitioners and trainees, diagnosed or self-identified. How the therapeutic relationship works when you are the one processing differently. Attention, time, endings and memory in session. Working when felt sense and countertransference are not reliably available. Disclosure to clients, worked through as a decision rather than a position. Supervision, caseload and sustaining a practice.


Your Facilitator: 

Natasha Rae-Dean is a BACP accredited counsellor, clinical supervisor and lecturer with fourteen years' experience working across the NHS, charitable organisations, healthcare, schools and private practice. She has supported both adults and children and young people throughout her career, bringing a breadth of clinical, supervisory and educational experience to her teaching.

As a neurodivergent practitioner, Natasha has a particular interest in creating neuro-affirming therapeutic spaces that move beyond assumptions and honour individual ways of experiencing the world. Alongside her own clinical work, she supervises neurodivergent counsellors who are working with clients with a range of neurodivergent presentations, including autism and ADHD.

Natasha is passionate about anti-oppressive practice, intersectionality and relational approaches to therapy. She believes effective practice begins with curiosity rather than assumptions and aims to create learning experiences that are collaborative, reflective and practical, helping participants develop greater confidence, reflexivity and compassion in their therapeutic work.

She also teaches on the Headstrong Academy CPCAB Diploma in Level 5 Psychotherapeutic Counselling and Level 6 Certificate in Counselling Supervision.