ACT4£10 - Neurodiversity-affirming Pre-con

“What we risk doing with support & interventions is just filling people's jugs up further with more things to remember, more demands, more stressors” - @heasutherland

Given that no two brains are alike and there's no "right" way of being, the neurodiversity movement calls for embracing and celebrating diversity. The neurodiversity movement further challenges professionals to set aside outdated conceptualizations and assumptions of neurodivergent people's experiences (e.g., based on the medical model of disability) and to instead include the environment in their analyses. Despite its compatibility with contextual behavioral science (CBS), many professionals have yet to explore neurodiversity-affirming research and practice. In part, this may be due to its novel terminology (e.g., neuronormalized, neurominoritized, etc.) and misuses of this terminology (e.g., neurodiverse is intended to describe a group of people, not an individual). Another reason the neurodiversity movement may be overlooked is that it tends to be misunderstood. More specifically, people sometimes frame the movement as incompatible with ACT because it describes "diagnostic labels" as key components of people's identities or can be presented as "anti-ABA". And yet, the neurodiversity movement has so much to offer ACT (and CBS more broadly!).

This workshop defines key terms related to the neurodiversity movement, introduces attendees to core principles of neurodiversity-affirming practice, and outlines minority stress theory as it applies to neurominorities. This workshop will also signpost how attendees may augment their existing ways of working to better meet the needs of their neurodivergent clients/participants with reference to healthy selfing, attuned unmasking, and outcome measures.

ABOUT THE TRAINER:
Dr Alison Stapleton is a Chartered Psychologist of the Psychological Society of Ireland, Postdoctoral Fellow at Smithsfield Clinic and University College Dublin, and a Lecturer in Psychology at Dublin Business School. Alison coordinates the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) Neurodiversity-Affirming Research and Practice Special Interest Group (SIG), served on the Steering Committee for the ACBS Relational Frame Theory SIG, and currently works at ACT Now Purposeful Living, a leading provider of ACT training in Ireland. Alison regularly delivers national and international level trainings, and has experience working in psychological services to identify, accommodate, and support a range of neurotypes. Alison has published two book chapters and 13 scientific articles, most recently contributing to The Oxford Handbook of ACT and a systematic review of adults’ experiences of being identified as autistic in adulthood (manuscript submitted for publication).