BEYOND THE LABEL: Understanding and Working with AuDHD

Many clients live with both autistic and ADHD traits — a profile known as AuDHD.
Yet most training separates these experiences into tidy categories, leaving counsellors unsure how to work with the dynamic overlap that defines AuDHD life: sensory overwhelm and impulsivity, shutdown and restlessness, deep empathy and chronic exhaustion.

Facilitated by Saffron Townsend, a counsellor, writer, and trainer who is AuDHD herself, this workshop blends professional insight with lived experience. Through gentle storytelling, clinical reflection, and interactive discussion, Saffron brings AuDHD to life — not as a checklist, but as a richly human way of being.

You’ll leave with greater confidence, compassion, and practical tools for supporting AuDHD clients — and a deeper appreciation for the intelligence of their survival strategies.

We’ll explore:
- What AuDHD really is — a braided profile, not two labels side-by-side.
- Emotional regulation, alexithymia, and the “shutdown vs impulsivity” paradox.
- Masking, double empathy, and the relational cost of misattunement.
- Sensory and nervous system regulation — practical adaptations for your room and online work.
- Shame, trauma, and survival: working with fawning, perfectionism, and burnout.
- Gendered and racialised invisibility — how systems shape who gets seen, believed, and supported.
- Therapeutic approaches that help: relational safety, body-based grounding, creative flexibility, and reflective practice.

You’ll gain:
- A clear conceptual framework for understanding AuDHD presentations.
- Language and tools to move from pathologising to honouring survival strategies.
- Practical adaptations to make your work more accessible and less exhausting for ND clients (and you).
- A deeper awareness of how systemic factors (gender, race, class, capitalism) interact with neurodivergent distress.

Format:
4-hour live online CPD (includes breaks, reflective exercises, and downloadable resources).
Certificate of attendance provided.

Who it’s for:
Counsellors, psychotherapists, trainees, and mental health professionals wanting to build confidence and nuance in supporting neurodivergent clients.

Facilitated by:
Saffron Townsend — counsellor, writer, and trainer specialising in trauma-informed, neurodivergent-affirming practice.