The research study itself is an in-depth case studies of two organisations who are 'best practice' employers in many ways (one small public sector, one large private sector) plus testimony from a number of specialist practitioners in the field.

This report was supported by ACAS who supplied up to date guidance throughout the process. The report discusses the employment practices and adaptations made for Neurodivergent (ND) staff in the workplace, and much more. It goes on to identify what has enabled ND staff to increase their productivity and describes how this was achieved simply by ensuring their different needs were being accounted for.
 
As a member of the ND community I am actively involved in campaigns aimed at tackling the difficulties in employment for ND adults as the focus of studies tend to be on ‘children’. Very few studies look at the impact being ND has on the individuals who have left the education system. For this reason alone I was excited to receive the advance copy of this report.
 
The document itself is quite long so I will try to highlight the main findings, and as I have never known how to keep opinions to myself I will also add, why in my view the recommendations in this report are vital for those who want to have the most productive, effective, innovative employment structures.

I would like to firstly talk about the language used throughout the report as many in the ND community can be easily offended by the inappropriate and/or clumsy language often used by professionals. The main thing I was instantly impressed with  was that they actually use the correct terms to describe our differences. The definition of Neurodiversity and Neurodivergent (terms commonly misused) are correct. They are exactly how the ND campaigners tend to view them. The report goes on to acknowledge the value of the Neurodiversity paradigm where all neurologies are considered natural variations and of equal value.
 
Getting the language right is hugely important and I was impressed to see that this report is the closest thing I have ever seen to an accurate understanding of our differences. Although person first language is used in the report (something many autistics find insulting and harmful to people’s understanding of our fundamental differences). It was good to see that identity first language was also used throughout the report which made it more bearable to read. I have been known to stop reading books and reports which  continuously refer to autism as an thing we ‘have’ because it unnecessarily medicalises us and encourages people to believe we are ‘ill’, ‘damaged’ or have something ‘wrong’ with us called autism which needs fixing. Obviously to many in the community the use of person first language is harmful to the community and we become disconnected with the authors. This report did not do this, it was actually a pleasure to read.

The next issue I would like to discuss is the Neurodivergent ‘conditions’ included in this report. Amongst the Neurodivergent community themselves there is a huge debate about which ‘conditions’ should be classed as neurodivergent. For the purpose of this research project only four conditions were researched. These were:
 
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Dyslexia and Dyspraxia/Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). I accept that looking at all the other related conditions would have made the study too large for what it was aiming to do and accept that the line had to be drawn somewhere, I personally feel there are more developmental conditions which should be considered in further, larger scale studies. The report is still relevant to all ND groups as the recommendations and conclusions seem to apply to all of us.
 

For me it is exceptionally exciting to finally see reports produced which do not just talk about one aspect of our neurodivergence rather than the overall differences we encounter. I use the terms neurodivergent and neurodiverse because I find them a more holistic way of viewing our neurological differences. For too long the focus has been on just one set of diagnostic criteria as opposed to each individual’s particular differences. I was therefore overjoyed to see that this matter was also discussed within the report.
 
In one case one of the respondents is noted as saying that to her it was important:
 
“… to support that person as an individual, you know, rather than needing a label for it’ because ‘even if you've not got a disability, people work in different ways so just understanding your individual people, your workforce, and how they work best surely is just what you should do anyway?’ [E]. (Page 15)
 
As a coach and advocate I have come across this many times myself and often wonder how it is that with the knowledge we have in today’s society about ND differences, people still feel the need to try to pigeonhole us into neat little boxes. I myself am diagnosed as autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic and much more, when employers try to account for me they can not achieve it by accounting for my conditions, they have to know how my Neurodivergent nature impacts me; in both negative and positive ways or they will not get the best out of me. I was pleased to see that throughout this report a holistic view of Neurodivergent differences was prioritised over that of each diagnostic label.
 

The study sought to answer the following questions:
 

• How can neurodivergent employees best be recruited, trained, supported and retained?
  
• What makes for the most effective management of a neurologically diverse workforce?
• Are neurodivergent employees vulnerable to disciplinary action/dismissal by their employers owing to their condition? Why? Can anything be done to reduce this?
• How can the risk of disciplinary action/dismissal be minimised?
• Does the issue of disclosure of neurological conditions raise any problems?
• How can staff awareness of neurodiversity be improved and how can employers become ‘disability confident’ with regard to neurological conditions?

 
In my experience as an advocate and supporter within the Internet based neurodivergent communities these are all valuable questions which are worthy of research, I personally would like to add one more question which would require a much larger scale study to be conducted. That question would be; what effect have disciplinary procedures/dismissal had on the neurodivergent individual’s ability to qualify for out of work benefits and gain adequate state support to enable them to re-enter the job market?
 
When we are excluded from the workplace we become burdens on the state because if our differences are not accounted for and we cannot maintain paid employment we then encounter issues with claiming benefits, this has a knock on effect with housing and could possibly be a factor as to why neurodivergent people are overrepresented amongst the prison population as one assumes they have to survive somehow.
 

It is my personal view that the one thing every member of society needs is the ability to live life working to their strengths in order to unleash their true potential. This report is a must read for all employers as it challenges misconceptions and stereotypes, replaces them with actual findings of how beneficial having a neurodivergent workforce is in practice whilst being realistic about the kind of support that needs to be put in place for us to be able to do this.
 

The report also raised other issues which we in the neurodivergent community have been shouting about for years; The benefits of having a neurodivergent workforce. We have long argued that by having a more inclusive staff companies could provide a more ND friendly atmosphere for their clients and thus gain more business. As consumers we are often an excluded minority. Although we are meant  to be legally catered for in employment, its often not the case when viewing us as service users. The simple fact is that we are consumers who want to be able to spend our money with you. So I was thrilled to see points like this made within the report:
 
“… some clients would also have dyslexia and having an understanding of this was important to ensure that the firm met their needs. Clients may not disclose their condition, but having someone within the firm who identified the need to communicate with them in an appropriate way could help to build a good relationship with the client.” (Page 35)
 
As the report also highlights that a common feature amongst the ND working age population is that of loyalty. What retail business, organisation, or agency  wouldn’t want to make it easier for us to spend money with them? When people take our needs into account we can be the most loyal customers they could ever get. It is a false economy to not employ a  neurodivergent workforce.
 

No two ND individuals are ever going to be the same, we are all so thoroughly different to each other but we do have some common overlapping and co-occurring difficulties which the majority of us seem to share. I remember how hard I found doing any kind of secretarial duties, I cannot alphabetise things because I still do not know my alphabet properly, I cannot spell consistently well, due to my poor working memory I forget to put things in diaries and miss appointments. I am dreadful at entry level work, add to this my sensory difficulties being around other people, being in overstimulating environments and my dyspraxic tendency to drop/break things, well it’s not hard to see why I wasn’t a desirable member of staff. The jobs I was applying for were two a penny and the companies only focused on my failings. In contrast to this, when I was working as an elected borough Councillor it was possible for me to delegate many of these tasks and allow me to work more to my strengths, so again it was good to see comments like this being discussed in the report:
 
“The requirement to carry out some of the low-level tasks that he found difficult reduced as he reached a higher level in the organisation and he was instead able to demonstrate his strengths in areas that he excelled at. He noted that there was a difference between being expected to fit into a role and being able to define the role. Being able to define a role made it possible for an employee to use their skills to make a positive contribution to the organisation, rather than their contribution being constrained by whether they were able to fulfil low-level tasks. He recognised that it was important for junior staff to gain experience of all tasks and to be organised, but also felt that it was important to recognise that employees would vary in their ability to carry out certain tasks if they had a neurological condition”. (Page 36)

“Some aspects of what works are just good practice generally, for example ensuring that staff are clear on what is expected of them, making employees feel supported in raising any problems that they encounter, and offering training to help them to carry out their job and fulfil their potential. Additionally, having some flexibility in job roles to allow individuals to play to their strengths, rather than a rigid approach which takes no account of comparative advantage is beneficial for all staff, but more so for those who are neurodivergent.
However, certain actions do need to be taken to improve employment for those with a neurological condition. Greater awareness and understanding of neurodiversity through training of all employees as well as increased visibility through employee networks, mentoring and role-models can greatly aid the employment experience of neurodivergent individuals. Furthermore, employers will need to put adjustments in place, adapt roles and organise things differently in order to successfully employ neurodivergent staff. When employers are aware of their employees’ neurological conditions, the onus to implement support should be on the employer rather than the individual, as would be the case for non- hidden disabilities.
Employers need more information on the adaptations that might be required. This would enable them to make more informed employment decisions and might break down some of the barriers, at least for some. Adaptations do not necessarily have to be complex or costly and combined with fostering greater tolerance and acceptance of diversity will bring advantages to the employer as well as for their staff. Moreover, diagnosis of a condition is not the necessary starting point for support; if employers have sufficiently high awareness they can put measures into place to support their employees without the need for formal identification of a condition.
It is also crucial for employers to be aware that these neurological conditions are spectrum conditions. Characteristics will vary across individuals and how they cope with the associated characteristics of their condition will differ at points in time. Ultimately, the employer needs to gain awareness and a good understanding of the person separate to the label of their condition.” (Page 51)

I started off by saying the report is quite long but that is a good thing as it covers a lot. It is vital that it gets the circulation and publicity  it needs. It cannot just be the neurodivergent community talking to themselves, we are preaching to the converted. We already know what the findings are because we have lived those lives, in some cases we have been shouting about it for years and still not being heard. Now we have an official report which backs up our experiences and speaks our language. It is essential this be acknowledged within the business environment and political arena if attitudes are to start changing. I will be presenting these findings myself to the Labour Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto steering group as one of the areas we are aiming to tackle through the manifesto is that of employment amongst the Neurodivergent community. The steering group can also be found here on Facebook and I will be sharing the report there too.
 

Almost every page of this report raises issues that are themselves worthy of further study, not because we don’t already know the answers within the ND community but because no official studies have been conducted to back up our anecdotal evidence, our experiences are too easily dismissed. This report covers everything from the benefits and disadvantages of disclosing neurological conditions to employers -  to how self esteem is impacted when working in environments which do not account for our fundamental differences. This is an absolute MUST READ but as we all know, you can take a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.
 
On the positive side, those of us who frequent the social media platforms know full well that we can argue till we are blue in the face but having an official study to add as a link to your ‘opinion’ really does help to enable people see that it is not just you shouting about your own personal, subjective, experience. It is mass scale discrimination which desperately needs to be tackled if we are ever to enter, and make a success of, the employment market.
 

Use this report to help you unleash your potential in employment!

The Neurodivergent Mind is the
Greatest Untapped Resource on Earth.

Lets help more employers realise this so that they can
open up more opportunities to the ND community and gain all the benefits of having a truly diverse workforce themselves.

for further information on Neurodiversity at Work you can also go direct to ACAS: www.acas.org.uk/neurodiversity

I hope that reading this will help you realise how much language matters. Every single person who is Neurodiverse is a unique and able person first and foremost, just like you are.

The ND community are neurologically DIFFERENT to the majority and these differences are as much part of them as are their skin colour, nationality, ethnicity, and so on. When we have these kind of socially acceptable differences we do not need medical diagnoses to confirm them. We don't need a doctor to confirm we are British or homosexual, we are allowed to embrace these kinds of differences. Perhaps that is why People are not told that they have negroism, or are suffering with Britishness. That would sound ridiculous, and insulting; yet we (the ND community), are being told that a fundamental difference in the way our brains work means we have medical conditions, disorders and deficits.

This medical language implies that we need to be cured or treated for the conditions. As a therapist I can tell you outright, I do not treat Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, or any other form of ND difference, I accept they are part of who we are, I do however treat plenty of Autistics, dyslexics and dyspraxics because there are plenty of areas where they can benefit from gaining additional support.
 
We do have a difference in our neurology, and this ND neurology has been misunderstood for years. Turned into a condition that has been identified only by its shortcomings and weaknesses, never by its strengths. Always talked about using medical language to describe naturally occurring forms of neurodiversity creates barriers to acceptance. So long as people associate these differences as medical conditions they will be waiting for the pharmaceutical companies to create cures or treatments to help eradicate these conditions from future generations.
 
The truth is that our ways are not wrong, our brains are not broken or in need of a cure, not any more than the NeuroTypical majority are. We are just wired differently to each other and each of us have value!
 
If you thought the above example would be an utterly stupid way to refer to the majority of people who are neurotypical thinkers then please join us on the 'Identity First' campaign which is being supported by many autistic led organisations.
 
I joined the campaign because it is important to me that people realise I do not have a medical issue called autism, dyspraxia and dyslexia. There is no biochemical marker a medical expert can point to and say there it is, that's your autism right there. It is not like having cancer or a broken foot, in fact after 70+ years of research scientists still have no idea how to scientifically assess autism or any of the other ND developmental differences. That is why all assessments involve taking detailed histories and identifying certain observable behaviours and deficits. These medical assessments can not be done by a brain scan or blood test. So there is no 'thing' called autism for me to have.
 
My differences are not contagious or degenerative and they were not brought on by sudden trauma. The differences do not cause me ill-health in any way, living in a Neuro Typical world is a different issue.
 
I do not believe that I have this medical thing called Autism (or any other diagnostic ND label), but I am; autistic, dyspraxic and dyslexic, with more than just a little ADD thrown into the mix. My mind does not work like everyone else's. That is a good thing! It is how I was born, it will still be my type of neurology when I die. I am Neurodiverse and I have strengths as well as weaknesses.
 
My biggest barrier is society not valuing our differences enough to want to understand them. We are easily dismissed as a 'difficult' to cater for minority. Given excuses for failure and many of us grow up in a world where little is expected of us. In fact, many in society talk about us as if we are no more than a burden on the State. The reality is that when trying to access education and employment (which is not geared to our strengths) we often fail to achieve as we encounter too many barriers.

Not enough focus is given to our strengths once we are deemed to have something medically 'wrong' with us. It is an unfortunate reality that once diagnosed we are often seen as being in the wrong as our perspective is put into doubt due to our 'neurological' diagnosis. In my topsy-turvy world I wonder if Neuro Typical individuals would start to feel less capable just because they were being identified by their lack of achievement and deficits too.
 
I would like to think that even in this topsy-turvy world, no one would tolerate adverts from charities using language like this:

 
I would like to think we (the Neurodiverse community), would not tolerate this kind of dehumanising approach to the NeuroTypical neurology.

Perhaps if you were to suddenly find the way your brain works being defined by medical language you would get it. Yet we live in a society where we encounter this kind of negative language about our ND differences on a daily basis and far from shunning organisations that use this kind of hate speech against us, they do well as they gain donations to help eliminate autism, as an example.
 
Being neurologically different enough to warrant these ND developmental diagnoses like autism, dyspraxia and other similar differences, means we need to be taught differently, allowed access to learn in appropriate environments and yes, we need to be given continuous support until we have achieved a satisfying lifestyle. With support we can achieve our true potential even in this massively NT dominant society.
 
 
Being Neurodiverse does not mean we have any kind of disease or illness affecting our brains. We should not be subjected to negative medical language about the way we are, any more than we should for our skin colour, ethnicity or any other protected characteristic. We cannot help the way our brains work, and we did not choose to be the way we are so we should not have to grow up being told we are broken or need fixing over our developmental differences. We think and interact with the world differently to the typical majority but that does not make our ways wrong.
 
Some of us would love to tell you about the positives we have discovered about being the way we are, to describe how our strengths benefit us but in order to do this without prejudicial views about these perceived 'medical' issues we need to be able to describe these differences to you in non-medical terms.
 
In order to effectively self-advocate we have to move away from medical language and towards the more inclusive language of diversity. Then it will become easier for all of us to explain how our differences impact us and how we need to account for them. Everyone is different to some extent, and everyone could benefit from better understanding of how they work.
 
Unfortunately as long as we continue to use person first language and say we are people with autism (or any other ND diagnostic label), we are effectively saying we 'have' something which we could conceivably theoretically live without and possibly even have taken off us. 'To have' is not the right word, if it were being used correctly then you would be able to conjugate it like all other verbs, you can have something one minute but not the next so the past tense of have is had. As all Neurodiverse differences are life long we can never for example, say 'I had dyslexia but it is gone now'.

By using language that implies we only have something for the time being it also gives the impression that something like autism is being kept by choice in our possession. Person first language also gives the impression that neurodiversity is a bad thing, that like an illness or disease, you should never identify someone by the medical label and should instead always place the condition secondary to the person.

Problem is that our brain types are NOT conditions brought on by illness or disease, they are simply a part of the way we function. So it is as wrong to want us to change our neurology as it would be to expect black people to be expected to undergo treatments to eradicate them of the black skin. A sick notion, which I for one am relieved that the medical practices never explored back in the days when the black population were actively treated like second class citizens. In racial matters we have come a long way but any one who looks into the race issue knows there is still so much inequality and we have a long way to go before we have a really inclusive and equal society.
 
Over the last 50 or so years we have come a long way in the way we treat and value people with visible differences but we seem to have gone nowhere on accepting different neurologies.

In order to accept our neurology and adapt for it so that we can achieve our potential you first have to stop trying to cure or prevent our differences from affecting future generations. You have to accept that neurodiverse individuals have just as much right to exist and flourish as everyone else. Neurodiversity is a natural and valid brain type. Please stop discrimination against Neurodiverse neurologies.
 
Please share this blog if you want more people to see for themselves how ridiculous it is having our neurology described by the behaviours and deficits other neurologies don't like.

NB. Needless to say, all the above information about Neurotypicality Disorder is totally fictitious and is just a product of my made-up topsy-turvy world ;-)

...but imagine if this was the way society looked at all neurologies!

This is a matter very close to my heart and equally an area of great concern to me. I am a qualified and accredited hypnotherapist, with additional diplomas in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), dyslexia and Life Coaching. I am also currently taking further diplomas in mindfulness and autism. These qualifications make me sound qualified to 'treat' people for things like dyslexia, autism and mental health problems... but I am not.

I cannot claim to 'treat', 'cure' or provide 'treatments' for ANY medical or neurological conditions, and as an ethical practitioner I would not make these kinds of claims.

I can claim that hypnotherapy for example, might bring some benefits to a client’s overall health and well-being, and that it might be a useful tool for helping them achieve their personal goals... but it cannot 'cure' medical conditions.
 
I initially studied these subjects to gain skills and strategies to manage my own difficulties and life-long issues with anxiety. I never viewed any of these subjects as a form of therapy. Instead, I saw them as a way to provide me with new techniques and strategies to help me manage my differences and start to move my life forward positively.
 
I now use the knowledge and tools I gained from studying these subjects to write self-help blogs for the Neuro-Divergent (ND) community. I attend events and workshops where I offer talks about my own ND differences and the kinds of strategies that have helped me and I also take on occasional clients on a one-to-one basis - so I am myself a complementary therapist.
 
This blog is not about promoting my own services or about harming the reputations of any 'complementary' practices.
 
I am writing this blog to give the reader an understanding of what different therapies can and cannot claim to do. Of the kinds of standards all therapists should aspire to. I am exposing the unethical practices that some employ in order to make sales in the hope that everyone who reads this blog can go on to find properly qualified, insured, accredited and ethical therapists or practitioners in the therapies/practices of their choosing.

I prefer to say that I offer a 'complementary' therapy because the word 'Alternative' is in itself problematic. Complementary or additional therapies are NEVER a substitute (or 'alternative'), for medical care. The name 'alternative' implies that these treatments can work in the place of primary medical care when that is NOT the case.
 
Anyone using the word 'Alternative' to describe their type of therapy would be well advised to consider changing the description to 'complementary' so that they do not give the misleading impression that their therapy is an alternative for medical care.
 
Here in the UK we are lucky, we have a free at the point of contact National Health Service (NHS) where everyone can see a fully qualified medically trained General Practitioner (GP) or nurse, at their local Doctors Surgery, Health Centre or Hospital. From there they can be referred on, when necessary, to 'specialist' NHS APPROVED services such as; counsellors, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, rheumatologists, paediatricians, and many more specialists. When you see your own doctor you can be well advised on which therapies, treatments or activities would be considered potentially beneficial for you after paying due consideration to any pre-existing medical conditions. This is something your doctor is capable of doing. A complementary therapist can never be a replacement or alternative for qualified medical advice and support.
 
* You should therefore always see your GP about any complementary therapy you might want to explore to first ensure there are no contra-indications.

Everyone is entitled to medical treatment, however, waiting lists are long, doctors are overworked and appointments with doctors are reported as becoming increasingly hard to get. I have heard many people say they are disheartened with the system. I have encountered increasing numbers of people who seem to try to self-diagnose and treat their chronic conditions, illnesses and injuries themselves. Many people only want to go to the doctor or hospital when they are no longer able to function. This is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.

There are many people who believe that 'medical' intervention is not always necessary, that pharmaceutical companies are becoming too big and too ready to prescribe chemical remedies for things that do not require chemical 'treatments'. There are also those who believe that 'natural' remedies are just as effective as pharmaceutical ones and who prefer to use natural/non-medical interventions. Then there are those who seek medical advice first and foremost, but who will try anything that might help alleviate their symptoms.
 
Whereas there can be huge waiting lists for NHS appointments - complementary therapists and practitioners tend to offer private practice. This means they can often fit clients in before the NHS can.

An individual holding views that would make them more likely to seek 'alternative' treatments is perfectly acceptable as it is each person's right to choose methods that suit their personal ideals or religious beliefs; however, no ethical complementary therapist or practitioner would imply that with their medication, therapy or treatment a client would no longer need to rely on medical treatments deemed necessary for their wellbeing by qualified doctors.

If a therapist suggests that you can stop using your prescribed medication without checking with your doctor then you should walk away, and walk away fast. You might also want to inform your GP of what was said so that they are made aware of this practitioner.

Every day there seem to be more complementary therapies entering the market. Therefore the following is by no means an exhaustive list:
 
Acupressure/Acupuncture, Aromatherapy, Ayurveda, Chi-Kung, Chrystal Healing, Coaching, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Colour Therapy, Counselling, Herbalism, Homeopathy, Hot Stone Massage, Hypnotherapy, Indian Head Massage, Japanese Holistic Healing, Medicinal Herbs,  Mindfulness, Naturopathy,  Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Reiki, Shiatsu, Yoga... and many more!
 
Someone who was new to all these types of 'therapy' might not understand that some of these are simply NOT what they seem to be. In fact, most of these types of therapy are not therapies at all and cannot make 'medical' claims. Some of these therapies or practices are seen as effective 'talking therapies' so the NHS refer clients to some complementary services. Even if the NHS support a 'therapy' it does not at the moment mean it is an evidence based from of 'therapy' or 'treatment'. I will explain more about this later when I look at the case of homeopathy.

Each type of therapist or practitioner will claim different results. Some therapies are more in or out of favour than others. Some of the above list are considered effective talking 'therapies' but there are others included which are NOT therapies at all. For example; 'Life Coaching' is not a form of 'therapy', it does not look to help people overcome any medical or neurological conditions or emotional states. Life coaches effectively provide the tools and techniques to help their clients Identify realistic goals for themselves and put strategies in place to help them stay on track to achieving these desired goals. Most people who seek the support of life coaches want to improve their productivity; be it in their studies, work, or another aspect of their life. Life Coaching can be very useful to many who find themselves stuck in a rut, but it is NOT a therapy. Fortunately, I have never seen a Life Coach claiming to 'cure' or 'treat' any medical or neurological conditions.
 
Many life coaches lack training in medical conditions and few undertake compulsory modules on mental health. The reason for this is that coaches do not deal in 'long term' issues. If you have any form of depression, anxiety disorders, or any other conditions which are regarded as 'mental health' issues a life coach is NOT qualified to advise you, (unless they have gained additional qualifications in these areas). Unfortunately, not all practitioners are ethical in their practice so there are non-accredited coaches out there who will overstep their boundaries and areas of expertise, by working with people who are not medically fit for coaching.
 
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), is pretty much discredited as a 'therapy' by the establishment. It is based on the belief that to achieve good results we simply need to model the behaviour and language of those who have achieved greatness in the past. This 'belief' has lead to many using NLP to offer quick phobia 'cures' and similar 'treatments' based on modelling the behaviour of experts in the fields of hypnotherapy, psychology, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and others, as opposed to there being any 'evidence' that NLP works. The name 'Fast Phobia Cure' (which some NLP practitioners still use), implies there is medical benefit to 'patients' but there is no scientific evidence at all that NLP works like this.
 
There are some really sound principles in NLP which can be used by life coaches, and others; however NLP is NOT a therapy. Therefore anyone claiming to 'cure' any conditions with NLP is only offering you a belief system to buy into - NOT a medically approved course of treatment. NLP practitioners are not qualified to offer medical opinions. Those who work ethically have many satisfied clients. In short NLP can cure/treat NOTHING but it can provide techniques, strategies and belief systems which can help some individuals to better manage some of their difficulties.
 
Counselling has always been a trusted form of 'talking therapy' amongst medical professionals. Many people who have encountered mental health problems will have been referred to counsellors. Qualified counsellors can take up employment in health sector 'therapy' departments and as such there are minimum standards and regulations those calling themselves counsellors need to follow. It is common practice for only accredited counsellors to be offered work within established health sectors. Not all counsellors will necessarily understand how a client's condition affects them but all should have received enough basic training to know where their boundaries are, when necessary they will refer clients on to more suitably qualified therapists.
 
CBT practitioners have also been busy over the years as another 'trusted' form of 'talking therapy'. More recently 'mindfulness' has also started taking over as the therapy of the moment (pun intended).
 
Medical Professionals within the NHS will often refer patients who they believe could benefit from these kinds of treatment to classes or sessions where their client could be provided with this kind of support, sometimes courtesy of the NHS, other times at the patients own expense.

Unfortunately, NHS prescribing and referral system is not in itself a guarantee to effective therapies. There is a large amount of money still being spent by the NHS on prescribing 'treatments' which have no medical evidence of effectiveness at present.

In the last few years many questions have been asked as to why the NHS allows money to be spent on homeopathic treatments when there is no evidence of medicinal effects of the treatments. Homeopathy is available for medical conditions like Asthma, Hay-fever. rashes, and much more. Some NHS doctors will prescribe homeopathic treatments; yet study after study has shown that they are no more effective than a placebo. 
 
There is now a study being undertaken to establish whether the NHS should blacklist homeopathy. More information on this can be found here: http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/england-wales-could-blacklist-homeopathy
 
So if some therapies are discredited as therapies, others weren't therapies to begin with and we can't even judge a therapy by NHS current prescribing standards, how is a newcomer meant to understand who can claim what?

No complementary therapy or practice can claim to 'cure' or 'treat' certain medical or neurological conditions for which there is no substantial proof of established 'curative' results. If someone does claim their therapy can 'cure' or 'treat' condition they must have a body of evidence that shows this to be the case.
 
So as an example; any therapist or practitioner who claims to be able to cure or treat Autism, should be challenged about their assertions and where possible reported to the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading potential clients by claiming to 'cure' or 'treat' something for which there is no 'cure'.
 
*As a ‘therapist’ I abide by the advertising standards authorities rules and rely on the really useful information provided by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) to ensure my adverts are not misleading in any way. For those of you who would like to see more about the CAP rules in regards to ‘health claims’ you can follow this link: https://www.cap.org.uk/Advice-Training-on-the-rules/Help-Notes/Health-Therapies-and-Evidence-QA.aspx#.Vm6car9PZ2l

The Advertising Standards Authority have strict guidelines about what therapists and practitioners can and cannot claim. In order to claim that they can 'cure' or 'treat' any A listed medical condition they MUST have overwhelming evidence to back up the claim. It is my understanding that If the therapist/practitioner cannot back up their claims with  'independently researched findings' then the Advertising Standards Authority can take action against them. If they are found to be breaching the CAP rules then they will look into whether an investigation is warranted.

• If you would like to see more information on the Advertising Standards Agency then you can find their website here: https://www.asa.org.uk/

• If you are interested in seeing other opinions regarding therapies currently available for autistic children you might find the following article written by Shannon Des Roches Rosa to be of interest: http://m.blogher.com/what-kinds-therapies-actually-help-autistic-kids

 

All therapies and practitioners claim different things and achieve different results from their individual clients; but the rules are simple. No therapist can claim to 'cure' or 'treat' medical conditions if they do not have overwhelming independent 'evidence' that their practice/medication works. Therefore each therapist words things differently, many try to express that their practice/medication can help 'some' to alleviate or reduce certain symptoms but they do not claim to 'cure' medical conditions.

Wording matters because it is unethical to mislead potential clients about the 'benefits' of any treatment. It could in some cases be considered dangerous if the clients are put off getting real medical advice over issues that could affect their health and well-being.

Different therapies offer very different results and are designed to help with different aspects of health and well-being. If you need someone to help you get moving positively forward in your job or achieving more in sports then learning techniques like those provided in Coaching, NLP (and similar results based strategy systems), can provide great results.
 
If you have any medical concerns regarding mental health difficulties, like stress, anxiety, depression, or any other types of neurological conditions, and you struggle to manage your day-to-day chores, these types of results driven strategy systems will NOT do. You must have someone to work with who understands your underlying mental health difficulties and who can always keep your health and well-being at the forefront of their mind. If there are any underlying mental health issues of any kind then the first call is to ask your own GP for advice as to any complementary treatments or practices they could recommend.
 
Counsellors, CBT practitioners, mindfulness classes and many other complementary therapies, practices and activities can be recommended to you by a medically trained professional who understands your underlying differences. They will be best placed to know if the type of treatment could have any negative impacts on your health.
 

How to check that the complementary therapist you are considering  using is a qualified and ethical practitioner
 
1. Do they claim to be able to 'cure' something that cannot be cured by modern medicine? If they say yes then my advice is to walk away and look for a more realistic practitioner. Possibly also report them to the Advertising Standards Authority if necessary.

2. Do they claim their therapy can be used as an 'ALTERNATIVE' to seeking medical treatment? Walk away. The only people who can advise you on medical matters are those trained in medical issues.

3. Is the practitioner qualified and insured to practice? Find out more (look at the detailed approach questions to ask therapists).

4. Is The Therapist Accredited By An Awarding Body? Ask to see their ethical code of practice and check whether they are members of the Acreddited Voluntary Register.

1. Do they claim to be able to 'cure' something that cannot be cured by modern medicine?

If the answer is 'yes' then they are most likely preying on vulnerable people and profiting from their misery. *These people should not only be avoided but should be reported to the advertising standards authorities in order to have the misleading message removed from their site/adverts unless they can provide the evidence that their treatment can in fact be shown to medically 'cure' what they are claiming to cure.
 
2. Do they claim their therapy can be used as an 'ALTERNATIVE' to seeking medical treatment?

If they do this I strongly advise you to walk away. There are practitioners in ALL fields who are more than happy to work with clients in partnership with their medical practitioners in order to provide a multi agency approach. When this is done, the client is assured to continue to receive the medical treatment they require. Anyone selling wares and telling clients that with their treatment they will no longer need to see the doctor is potentially endangering the client's health.
 
Although there are many people who choose not to use medical/pharmaceutical services that is their choice. No one claiming to be a therapist has the right to try to convince anyone NOT to use medical or pharmaceutical services that are deemed to be necessary to the individual. That could be dangerous to their health and wellbeing. Anyone who tries to convince you that their 'Alternative' medicine/treatment can be used without the knowledge/support of their doctor or as an alternative to medical treatments should be avoided. It is completely unethical to encourage people to not seek medical treatment first and foremost for any conditions.
 
3. Is the practitioner qualified to practice?
 
Do they hold ANY qualifications or are they self-taught? Many complementary therapies are not regulated, whereas others have set up their own voluntary accrediting registers so that ethical standards are being practiced (more on this later), but not all practitioners belong to these Voluntary Accredited Registers.  In short, anyone can claim to be a therapist. Not being qualified does not prevent many from setting up practice.
 
Here in the UK there are no government regulations in place for many complimentary therapies and practices, the quality of practitioner courses vary greatly from provider to provider. Someone can do a short, distance course on hypnosis and then claim to be a hypnotherapist. There is no law stopping anyone from doing this. Equally, many life coaches for example, hold no qualifications whatsoever in coaching despite there being some very intensive courses available in the subject, Mindfulness practitioners could have learned about the subject on distance courses where they have never experienced face-to-face work with clients. The qualifications vary so much in quality and depth that consistency across these fields is going to be difficult to measure or monitor. Many courses cannot possibly prepare practitioners for the complex nature of clients difficulties; yet all of these people will claim to be qualified because they have achieved a qualification in the subject.
 
Qualifications cannot guarantee the professionalism or effectiveness of these therapists but if they claim to be qualified then here are a few questions you can ask them:
 
* What type of course did you undertake to gain knowledge in the field?
* Was any of your course supervised?
* Do you have ongoing supervision?
* How many contact hours have you logged with clients?
* Do you have an ethical code of practice I can see?
* Are you insured to practice?
 
Even this cannot guarantee quality, but it does allow honest rapport to develop between client and practitioner. If practitioners/therapists cannot answer these simple questions then it is worth looking elsewhere as they should be able to tell you exactly how they have become qualified and how successful their practice has become.
 
 
4. Is The Therapist Accredited By Voluntary Awarding Body?
 
Take a look at this YouTube link to see what The Professional Standards Authority have to say about Accredited Registers: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9GZN-OL-5CI&feature=youtu.be
 
Although some level of research is necessary to establish which Accrediting Bodies conform to the Professional Standards Authorities Accreddited Register. There is an easy search tool which allows you to quickly search for the Accrediting Membership Organisations here: https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/accredited-registers/find-a-register
 
 When someone is accredited, it means they have met the criteria to become a member of an awarding body, so they will have proved their qualifications/adequate experience, their professional insurance and agreed to abide by an ethical code of practice (which you should be allowed to view on request). However, the awarding body may not have met the standards for the PSA Accredited Register so by using the above tool it will be easy to establish whether the awarding body meets the high standards demanded of any practitioners or therapists who deal in people's health and well-being.
 
If the therapist is not accredited it  does NOT mean that they are charlatans, they might be fantastic therapists who have simply never bothered to pay for membership of an accrediting body or their organisation may be on-track to getting on the register; however it does mean that if you are not satisfied with the service offered you will probably have no external body to raise the matter with.
 
Accredited Registers will have a clear complaints procedure and can instigate appropriate actions to ensure their standards are being upheld. Their practitioners have to have received adequate training to meet their high standards.
 
Be Warned: Some Awarding Bodies are not as good as others. There are genuine awarding bodies who belong to the Voluntary Accredited Register (or who are in the application process), who abide by agreed regulated standards. There are however, acrediting membership bodies that are set up, often by the institution they grant qualifications for, in order to guarantee their students accreditation of some sort. Therefore someone therapists/practitioners can become qualified and accredited without the accrediting body and/or the qualification itself meeting required standards that would be expected of those on the Accredited Register.

An ethical complimentary therapist will want you to continue seeing your GP or medical specialist and will see your therapy or their practice, as a complimentary service and not a replacement for real 'medical' care. Some therapists and practitioners will want to work with doctors and other specialists as part of a multi-agency team approach to helping the client. If their client has existing issues which should have been brought to the attention of their doctor the ethical complimentary therapist WILL ensure they work with the doctor. In some cases they will refuse to continue working with the client until their doctor agrees that any contraindicative conditions have been tackled first.
 
In  some instances it would not be medically recommended to offer certain types of complementary therapy to people with complex, or commonly misunderstood conditions. So an ethical therapist will ensure they take a detailed medical history to be certain that there are no contraindications that would prevent them from offering you this type of treatment. They will want to know what, if any medications you are on and what they are prescribed for. They will need to know that you are not under the influence of any illicit drugs or alcohol during sessions. In short, they will ensure they give due diligence to any medical issues which they are not qualified to deal with.
 
An ethical therapist will either confirm they are qualified to work with you or refer you on to another specialist. Even if they are qualified to work with you they may still ask you to see your doctor in order to get a consent form signed saying that it is okay to proceed with this kind of treatment or practice. Only if the client's doctor confirms that in their 'medical' opinion the client does not have any contraindications and are okay to continue with the treatment or practice, would the client then be taken on.

For those of you who are interested in self-help complementary therapies - there is an alternative to spending out lots of money on finding a complementary practitioner or therapist who understands your specific differences (whatever they may be). It might be an idea to do some searches on the internet regarding therapies that interest you. Ask friends what has worked for them, do Google searches and YouTube searches as they can provide great insight into all the different types of therapy. There are a lot of free tutorials on YouTube that will at the very least give you some insight into the subject. There are many of us are who are only qualified to practice because we wanted to learn the skills for ourselves and a lot of us started by learning as much as we could from the internet.
 
So long as your GP is in agreement with you studying the therapy or practice as a way of empowering yourself, then you do not have to hire a practitioner, you can just read up on the strategies and techniques. You could undertake a basic qualification to help you gain the skills for  yourself. There are many online distance diploma courses available and from time to time they are available at very low prices through groupon internet schemes. The majority of these courses have no completion date, so you can take as long as you like to finish them. Some of them will just give you a flavour of the topic whereas others will let you delve deep into many more areas, but if you are doing it just for personal interest, or to add to your own collection of skills then there is no harm done.
 
Rather than paying for a practitioner, you could enrol on a course to better understand any of the complementary therapies for yourself. That is what I did. The problem is once you are qualified to practice, and you know how helpful some of the techniques have been for you - then it's hard not to want to go into practice. That is when you first realise the importance of becoming accredited by an awarding body who is on the Accredited Register. It is also unfortunately when you realise how many charlatans are out there claiming to do medical things they simply cannot do.
 
I have come across some amazingly talented practitioners within many complementary fields, but I have also come across more than a few unethical ones. I believe that misrepresenting the medical benefits of a complementary therapy harms all therapists and practitioners as it drags all standards down.
 
This is this reason I have written this guide.
 
People will want to seek alternatives when the options they are given do not seem to work, or do not work fast enough. There are some great therapists and practitioners out there who have really helped to turn some of their client's lives around. So for those of you who are looking to find a new way to tackle your personal health and well-being, I hope this guide will lead you to finding the right complementary therapist/practitioner for you.

If you are still intent on finding a complementary therapist. One more thing I feel I need to warn you about is that sometimes practices can seem more professional and established than they actually are.
 
There are practitioners and therapists who hire virtual offices in Harley Street, London. Possibly the most prestigious medical street in the world. They can have the virtual office listed as their actual business address and request all their mail be forwarded to them at their chosen (real) address. They can then rent a complementary therapy suite in the building from time-to-time to see clients in. I'm sure there are many well trained and valued practitioners running very ethical and beneficial practices from those offices. If I lived in London I might have looked into it myself, however the cost of the rail fare alone would make my practicing from London totally unrealistic. Yet I have come across people who rent out rooms in Harley Street even though they are also not based near London. I have no issue with professionals renting these rooms for practical reasons but I know some who did it because 'it created the illusion' that their business was more respected and established than it actually was.

Many individuals do benefit immensely from undertaking complementary therapies and practices. It could just be the placebo effect where some of us respond well when we believe we are being taken care of and given something that will make us feel better. My personal opinion is that there is no harm in learning new techniques and trying out new strategies, or following healthier routines, especially if they bring benefit to your health and wellbeing; although I do not see any complementary therapy, practice or activity as having the potential to 'cure' anything medical. I do believe the human mind is an amazing thing and sometimes the positive or negative vibes can lighten or worsen existing conditions. This is where complementary therapies, practices and activities can make a huge impact on individuals' overall health and wellbeing.
 
The key to successful remedies is having healthy expectations. Do not expect a complimentary therapy to CURE something that modern medicine cannot cure. Instead see it as something that can perhaps target certain symptoms, like; stress, self-esteem, energy levels, mood management, etc. Remember to always make sure the practitioner/therapist is made aware of any pre-existing medical conditions you may have as they may need to understand how it impacts you or it may be a contraindicative condition which they will need to refer you on to a more suitably qualified practitioner.
 
I wish you good health and hope this guide goes some way to increasing understanding of the different standards available in complementary therapies/practices currently available within the UK.

We, the neuro-divergent community have watched your rise to power with intrigue. So many of us had given up entirely with politicians who seemed blind to our plight. You have caught our attention because like us, you are a little different. ;-)

Neuro-Divergent differences include many developmental neurological differences like: ADHD, autism, DCD/dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, Tourette's Syndrome and other commonly co-occurring developmental differences like Joint Hyper Mobility Syndrome/EDS, Epilepsy, and others

We are estimated to make up approximately 20% of the population but we are fragmented, socially and geographically segregated. Many of us feel that we are currently treated as second class citizens and that we are seen as a 'challenging' minority by the ruling classes.

Although we are isolated within our geographical communities we have found others like us and formed huge communities on the internet. We gain support from each other and find ways to overcome hurdles together.

Politicians usually ignore us or complain of the difficulties we present for the system. They will happily talk about us as as statistics to further their arguments but only when the statistics further their political ideology. When schools fail to teach us WE are blamed for the failure. When politicians talk about us it is to spread fear and hatred of our differences amongst the population so that we receive no support or understanding from our communities. We have hidden differences which prevent us from navigating the Neuro-Typical systems which is allegedly there to support us. These actions have lead many of us to feel isolated, and at times broken, because of this many of us develop overlapping additional mental health issues.

The Conservatives seem hell bent on increasing the inequalities against us in education as they drive to increase 'exclusions' from children who display 'undesirable' behaviours and alter the curriculum to the detriment of all SEN children. We need someone to champion our cause NOT out of pity but out of logic.

We are potentially the future innovators, the leaders, the Entrepreneurs, the inventors; yet we are being failed. Very few of us reach our potential because we lack the understanding and acceptance needed within society. We are not going to achieve greater understanding or acceptance until we have that same understanding and acceptance from the policy makers themselves.

We need a leader who will look at us and accept our differences but also see the pure untapped POTENTIAL we have. We need someone who can start a conversation with us. There should be no policy created for us that did not include us from the moment of inception.

We are all too often deemed as lesser people because we struggle to manage some things that many others find easy. The conclusion is, well if they can't even tie their own shoelaces and dress themselves properly, then they aren't really fit to work. The truth is that I often struggle to tie my shoelaces, the expression on my face when I'm doing it is one of complete concentration because if I don't concentrate I get it wrong. Although I can't tie my shoelaces I am still an asset as are all neuro-divergent people no matter what basic functions they cannot master.

Jeremy Corbyn, you have created a Minister for Mental Health and I applaud you for that, it truly is an immensely important post in this era. Can we ask that you also consider appointing a Minister for Neuro-Diversity to work closely with the Minister for Mental Health? We are in need of political representation.

This letter has been written on behalf of the ND communities; from Parents of ND children who feel like they are having to battle a system in order to have their children's differences recognised, from adults with differences that are not accounted for in their employment many of whom are disadvantaged to the point of being forced onto benefits, from adults who have discovered that they too are wired differently and need additional support but who cannot even get diagnosed on the NHS in order to get these differences accounted for. That is just one example of the inherent discrimination we face.

We need someone who can start the conversation in Parliament. We need someone who understands that just because someone dresses differently or who fail to gain a basic education by the age of 17, or who seems weird and a quirky, we need someone who can see past the differences and realise that these people can still be valuable contributors to society.

ND differences don't just affect the estimated 20 odd percent of people who are wired differently, it affects their families too. We need a voice.

Will you champion our cause and start the conversation?

Nothing For Us Without Us Please... we are equal humans with equal rights... we watch your rise to power with intrigue because some of us are believing you will be the first one to see past our labels and help us unleash our true potential.

 

Monique Craine

Short-listed as a Positive Role Model (disability) for the National Diversity Awards 2015

 

Please add a comment if you want to endorse this plea and help to spread the word. Let’s start the conversation now.

I have had many difficulties achieving my potential in education and in the employment sector. I firstly thought it was because there was something 'wrong' with me. I underwent many tests and assessments to get to the bottom of why I couldn't seem to function like everyone else. I eventually received a number of developmental neurological diagnoses that started me on my path to understanding why I work the way I do. As a result of these assessments I was diagnosed with: Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), dyspraxia/Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), and dyslexia to name but a few.

But I don't think I 'have' autism, dyspraxia or dyslexia.

Don't get me wrong... I was not misdiagnosed, I do present with the correct delays, deficits and disorders to warrant these 'medical' diagnoses and the reality is that I do need extra support as I am disabled in many settings; but despite being severely impacted by these differences I still do not believe I 'have' any 'conditions'.

Is it just a case of semantics?

Perhaps it is 'Political Correctness' coupled with the fact that the labels were originally created by people who did not themselves 'have' any Neuro-Divergent (ND) differences, (at least,  probably not that they were aware of), that creates the problem I (and many like me) have with the language.

These professionals tried to act in our best interest when 'labelling' and 'classifying' our 'disorders', 'deficits', 'delays' and 'syndromes'. They decided that the most politically correct way to 'identify' these kinds of developmental neurological delays was by talking about the 'person first' and then mentioning the 'condition' second. This was meant to encourage people to see the person before the label. Even now, I am corrected when I do not use the politically correct term that is preferred by many professionals and parents of diagnosed children. I think they fear that I am not being politically correct. Despite the fact that I have these neurological differences myself, my opinion on how I like to be referred to seems irrelevant to most professionals, charities and organisations who prefer to say that we 'have' certain conditions.

Our understanding of Neuro-Divergent differences has grown massively over the past twenty or so years, and more and more ND labels have started appearing. Certain medical conditions have been renamed or reclassified. For example; Clumsy Child Syndrome became dyspraxia which then became Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), dyslexia became a specific learning difficulty, whereas ADHD became a mental health disorder, Asperger's Syndrome was pushed out and replaced with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and ASD also became a mental health condition, and so on.

When there was little understanding of Neuro-Divergent differences it must have seemed logical to diagnose these separate areas of difficulty. After all the characteristics of dyslexia are very different to those of autism. These neurological differences seemed unrelated. We were told we 'had' autism or that we 'had' dyslexia for example. This was then emphasised by some as us 'suffering with' or being 'afflicted with' these kinds of neurological differences. The reasoning in talking about the person 'first' may have seemed sound at one time but there is an inherent problem with saying that someone 'has', 'suffers with' or is 'afflicted with' a difference like Autism, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, and so on.

Many diagnosed adults do not see these differences (or any of the other ND labels), as something they 'have'. They seem to have a valid point, after all they did not catch it, or suddenly start to degenerate into it... it's just the way their brains were wired from the moment they were born, they have never known a different way of being. Those of us with any developmental neurological difference are intrinsically different to others in the way we perceive and interact with the world... but we did not catch something that caused it, we did not suddenly become this yet the terminology implies that we 'have' something to give or to be pitied for.

From my participation in a number of different forums I see that many people see their neurological differences as an integral part of how they work, part of what makes them who they are. These differences are are intrinsic to the way they work. I am one of the many neurologically different people who tells people that I do not 'have' autism, dyslexia or dyspraxia... but I am a Neuro-Divergent thinker who has autistic, dyslexic and dyspraxic traits and qualities. To me that better describes how I work.

Unfortunately, no matter how many diagnosed adults call for changes in the diagnostic process our voices seem to be drowned out by others who do not have our understanding of what it's like to be neurologically different to the majority of society. Funny thing is that it is the people they are trying to protect with their political correctness who are taking umbrage with the language they are using.

Who knows... but my guess is that we would not be automatically classed as having a mental health problem if we had developmental delays and deficits associated with conditions like autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Tourette's Syndrome. We would be 'labelled' the same as all the other children who presented with 'Developmental NDs.

We would have a category of our own which would qualify us for additional support (much like the mental health category or specific learning difficulty ones do now), but it would be under its own category of Neuro-Divergent.

Within the Neuro-Divergent 'category' we would have specific areas of difficulty, so there would still be Neuro-Divergent people who were further identified as being dyslexic, dyspraxic, autistic, and so on. Research into the different specific areas would need to continue to help raise understanding and acceptance for each ND variant.

This would have to be an inclusive umbrella term, and would probably consist of just about everyone who's cognitive function deviates from the 'norm'. Anyone with a developmental neurological difference would fall under the Neuro-Divergent umbrella. So many current 'conditions' like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Bi-Polar, Schizophrenia, Epilepsy, Tourette's Syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia/Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), Dyscalculia, Sensory Processing Disorder and many, many more, would warrant inclusion of the Neuro-Divergent category/label.

The ND label is more appropriate because it more accurately describes our intrinsic difference in brain function to the more neuro-typical majority. It tells us that neurologically we are significantly different to the majority in the way our brains work. It is also a more appropriate label because of the amount of overlap between neurologically based developmental differences. Many with one of the above conditions in today's society will end up with multiple diagnoses of other neuro-divergent differences under the current system.

Many people have ADHD, autism and epilepsy, or dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD, or OCD and autism or... well you get my point.

Many who are diagnosed with just one developmental ND difference will often have overlapping traits with the other 'conditions'. So to me, the average layman on the street, it seems logical that our medical categorisation should be removed from the specific learning difficulty and mental health categories and put into a separate Neuro-Divergence category all of it's own.

Although as a group of people we may be more prone to developing mental health difficulties like anxiety, low self-esteem and reactive depression these are not an intrinsic part of our ND differences and whether we develop these additional mental health labels usually comes down to additional societal factors as opposed the the ND differences themselves.

Perhaps the first ND label would be given to babies and toddlers by Health visitors in routine checks. It could read something like this:

           'XXXX at 38 months, has presented with a number of Neuro-Divergent traits and qualities, special attention should be paid in future to ensure adequate screening for specific areas of difficulty or delay are undertaken as and when necessary.'

It would be essential that the child's parents be provided with reading materials on what it means to be neuro-divergent at this point. Ideally the reading material would list strengths as well as weaknesses and it would give the parents the understanding of what to look out for so early intervention could be put in place as soon as difficulties in any ND area presented. It would be even better if it also helped parents to identify and work to the child's strengths.

As we grew older our ND diagnoses would probably look very different. They could read something like:

            'XXXXX is a 40 year old ND mother of three who has presented throughout her life with qualities and deficits commonly associated with the following neurological differences:
            Autistic traits and qualities associated with social interaction, social imagination and social             communication.
            Dyspraxic Difficulties with processing/sequencing thought and controlling fine and gross                         motor function.
            Dyslexic traits and qualities associated with delays in acquiring literacy skills and persistent             difficulties in all areas of 'lexis', poor working memory and other related difficulties.
            Hypersensitive to light and touch
            Attention differences - characterised by an inability to focus thoughts and/or will hyper-focus       for long periods...'

... and so on.

It would not really have to alter the current medical diagnoses, it would just involve moving us out of the 'mental health' and 'specific learning difficulty' categories that we're currently in into the new Neuro-Divergent category.

The rest is just semantics. We could still identify ourselves as being dyslexic, dyspraxic, and so on but the overriding umbrella 'label' would be that of Neuro-Divergent because that would be more relevant to our experiences.

ND people don't tend to fit into anything neatly. We stand out in education and in the employment market like sore thumbs, often because of out deficits and delays. We need to be adjusted for and our different needs accounted for. Problem is the individual labels do not give anyone an accurate or holistic picture of who we are or what to adjust for us in order that we can function without hitting too many barriers.

I've had mothers tell me that their child has been diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD so on a Tuesday the school take them for specialist dyslexia training but the dyslexia trainer won't tolerate the ADHD behaviours and shows no understanding of the triggers and that exacerbates the difficulties for the child. Then on Thursday the child attends social interaction classes where memory games are played to entice the children into interacting and 'turn-taking', but the child's poor working memory makes them hate going even more.

The end result is that the child does not fit neatly into the 'separate' individual diagnoses, and instead of supporting the child in a holistic manner they actually 'limit' the support the child receives. These stories are all too common so they leave me to conclude that the individual 'separate' diagnoses and training regarding these types of ND differences are inefficient.

Don't get me wrong, we need the in-depth training in all the separate ND differences to be continued, or even expanded on so as to raise awareness in spotting these differences because when early intervention is put in place and the ND individuals get a chance to work to their strengths they can achieve so much more. So 'identification' of the individual differences is essential. The difference would just be in the 'label' and 'categorisation' not in the rights of the individual to have their different needs accounted for.

Again, it comes down to semantics... the language we use and the connotations we bring to it. Maybe I'm hung up on the language because I've studied Neuro-Linguistic Programming and I believe that the language we use influences the way we view ourselves and how we view others. When I hear the words neuro-divergent I think it pretty much means what it says on the tin. This person is neurologically divergent (significantly different) to others.

I am Neuro-Divergent, my brain works differently to the majority of people I encounter, although I do know a fair few people that are also ND and who function similarly to me. Because I have multiple diagnoses to communicate with people like me I have had to join internet sites for dyslexic, autistic, and dyspraxic people, it's exhausting keeping up with all of them. In most of the groups they only allow discussion of one ND difference, so there are sites for ADHD where your posts are deleted if they are about autism, dyslexia sites that tell you you cannot post about ADHD and most sites don't want you talking about epilepsy or Tourette's Syndrome. I only know of two sites where all ND differences are welcomed and discussed by the members but even these two communities are separated by diagnostic names.

There is a Dyspraxia community I belong to where discussions about epilepsy, ADHD, autism, Tourette's and other differences are discussed and one Autism organisation who discuss all the differences too; but they are separated from each other. Unless you are dyspraxic (or have an interest in dyspraxia), you wouldn't join a dyspraxia site and unless you are autistic (or have an interest in autism), you wouldn't join an autism site.

We are separated by diagnostic labels despite the fact that many of us have multiple differences or overlapping traits which we could be learning coping strategies for from others in the community. We could be working together to increase awareness of what being Neuro-Divergent is like so that people could stop just associating the label with deficits and disorders and start to see qualities and strengths that these individual neurological differences bring.

I think we need to unite the ND communities so that we can enable society to pigeonhole us more appropriately. We need to be able to spread the word that we are a diverse group with strengths and qualities, and that we can be a valuable asset even if we can't seem to do basic things like tie a shoe laces or remember a round of drinks for more than two people. When we are allowed to be us - then we flourish but in order to be able to be us we need support to navigate this neuro-typical society.

I would prefer my diagnoses to state that I am Neuro-Divergent and that I present with difficulties and strengths commonly associated with autistic, dyspraxic and dyslexic differences in cognitive function as well as affecting my gross and fine motor coordination.

I'm lucky that I can say I'm autistic and/or dyspraxic, to me it better describes how I am affected by these neurological differences I've had since birth, because to me, they are an intrinsic part of what makes me ME. People 'with' ADHD not only have to say that they 'have' this 'condition' but if they are not abbreviating they have to include the words 'deficit' and 'disorder' in there. That's a bit harsh if you ask me. I know quite a few people 'with' ADD and ADHD and they seem no less Neuro-Divergent than any other ND group. They no more 'have' ADHD than I have dyslexia.

We need to change the language so that people with these neurological developmental differences aren't having to talk negatively about something they have not acquired or suddenly developed. Something that they have had for their entire lives and something they see as being 'just the way they work'. Their ADHD type of mental wiring is so integral to the way the person has developed that it is part of them. They have the choice to either learn to manage the difficulties that type of brain function can present them with and work to their strengths or they can let their ADHD qualities/traits run their life. They have a choice in how they deal with it but they have no choice in whether they developed it.

There are a few problems with the term for me, perhaps because I am so literal.  For starters I cannot 'give it back' so to my mind I really can't 'have' it? I cannot outgrow it, or have it taken off me... so again I ask can I really 'have' it?

What I have is a significant difference in wiring in my brain when compared to most, it cannot be seen from the outside, it doesn't affect my intelligence or my appearance, its not degenerative or contagious. It is just the way my brain works. Because of these differences I need extra support in learning to navigate this Neuro-Typical society which was not built for me. Without the support I I am less likely to be able to achieve my potential but it's not because I 'have' something wrong with me... it's because I am different. I am Neuro-Divergent.

It's just the way I work. Not all the Neuro-Divergent population will agree with this as our opinions tend to vary as much as they do in any other groups within society. We don't all see eye-to-eye but then why would we. We are a diverse group even amongst ourselves.

We need a new CATEGORISATION that Unites us, where people with ALL developmental ND differences can learn about the difficulties, barriers and where they can learn the coping and management strategies used by others who have 'similar' differences to them.

We need to change the way ND differences are discussed

We need easy paths to 'identification' and 'diagnoses' of all ND differences

We need additional support to help us navigate the Neuro-Typical world we live in

We need people to understand that we don't 'have' anything that can be taken from us.

 

We are just neurologically very different to the majority of the population!

I specialise in neuro diverse differences like:

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD/ADD), Autism Spectrum Disorder/Asperger’s Syndrome, Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)/Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Tourette’s Syndrome... and more

I used to think I could relax, that I could chill out to music or relax in front of the television but the truth was that I didn’t actually know how to relax. No matter how still I managed to get my body, my brain never seemed to switch off. This seriously affected my ability to function as I felt stressed pretty much all the time. Even during my sleep I would wake up suddenly after having night terrors, my mind racing and not able to get back to sleep, or I would just wake up suddenly thinking about something I was meant to have done and had forgotten, like turning off the oven.

Being in a pretty much perpetually stressed state meant that I struggled to access my exectutive functioning. I would respond to most new stimuli with a fight or flight response and it felt as though the pressure would eventually cause me to collapse! I was 40 before I actually learned how to relax and I have certainly never looked back!

I really had no choice really, the stress and anxiety were ruining my life. I am neuro-diverse which means I have a number of neurological developmental diagnoses like DCD/dyspraxia, dyslexia and Autism Spectrum Differences. As the world I live and interact with is not made for people with my differences I suffered with a lot of stress and anxiety issues brought on by how my difficulties were perceived by others, I also have Joint Hyper Mobility Syndrome and my joint pains had become increasingly worse over the years and it felt like my muscles were permanently knotted.

I tried everything from seeing the GP and taking medication, to doing meditation and Yoga but nothing seemed to be able to stop me from getting distracted by stressful thoughts, often to the point where I’d forget I was even meant to be relaxing. So for me it was essential that I learn how to relax. I eventually had to study Hypnotherapy in order to learn the theory behind relaxation. I then adapted what I had learned to suit my neuro-diverse nature and started putting the theory into practice.

Fortunately for me one of my first modules on the hypnotherapy course was on the role of relaxation. Through this I was able to confirm what I already believed. That it was impossible to be stressed and relaxed at the same time, that just 5 minutes of targeted relaxation each day could lead to improved sleep, it could reduce muscular and/or chronic pain, could even help ND people like me access our executive functioning easier in order to make better thought through decisions. Best of all for those who know what their triggers are – it could even be used to prevent melt-downs.

The theory was very easy to learn as it all seemed pretty logical. If our mind is always racing in random directions and we never relax it, then either we will never be in harmony with our bodies or our bodies will end up feeling like we have been through the trenches. So the theory was easy but unfortunately, the practice was not so straight forward for me!

I knew exactly how to use the very effective Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) technique commonly used in hypnotherapy and as I practiced on my hypnotherapy test subjects I could see that they all seemed to be reaching a very deep state of relaxation, there were changes in the breathing pattern, their skin colour and other signs I could see which were clear indications of deep relaxation. All the test subjects claimed to benefit immensely from the PMR exercise on its own, but I still couldn’t master performing it on myself at home.

I would have to cheat to try and achieve the same results at home purely because I couldn’t get my mind to focus on one thing at a time, or to stay on track without getting horribly distracted. So instead I would play a game on my iPad called magic piano, I would pick songs that relaxed me and then I would concentrate on my fingers hitting the notes as they fell down the screen until I could get the tune sounding right. Although this didn’t have the same effect as the guided relaxation exercises did I would use this technique to stop my mind racing as playing the magic piano would get me into a natural trance state which is also preferable to an unproductive stressed state.

I always thought that the problem was unique to me, that I just didn’t have the strength of mind to stay focused on one topic at a time. It wasn’t until I started coaching other neuro-diverse clients that I realised that they all seemed to have the same issue as me.

They all claimed to really LOVE the exercise, claiming they had been in less pain, had got better night’s sleep, had been in a better mental state to make decisions and so on. The problem here is that my time is not cheap. My coaching sessions cost £45 per session and I like my clients to set targets for what they will achieve by the next session so I know they are stepping onto the right path for them and not procrastinating. So although it was a great compliment that every single client wanted to do my relaxation class two or three times to help them gain the skills to relax, it soon occurred to me that they were going to hit the same problem as me. It is quite common for my clients to present with poor working memory and problems focussing their thoughts so I refused to run multiple relaxation sessions for them as their time would be better identifying the right path for them. In the meantime I would work out how to provide them with the lesson at a reduced rate. The truth is that my clients all needed to be able to use relaxation techniques as a coping mechanism because the benefits relaxation could give them, could be the key to being able to unlock their true potential, so the truth is that it is an essential skill.

If I was charging the same rate for re-run sessions then I would be ripping off the clients. The reason my sessions cost as much as they do is because of the amount of time I have to work behind the scenes, in identifying strategies, helping clients monitor their progress and because they are mainly ND clients, I need extra time to adapt strategies to suit their ND natures. It would be wrong of me to charge that much and if the clients needed to come back over and over it would also soak up time I could be spending with other clients. So I decided to put my ‘learn to relax’ script onto a CD for my clients so that after their initial ‘relaxation session’ they would be able to benefit from the CD immediately.

I firstly used a Dictaphone, but the sound quality was appalling, even I couldn’t relax to that. I then tried using some software on my computer, but again the sound quality really wasn’t any better. Although my clients were telling me they would use it no matter what it was like, I still had standards, and I knew that if I couldn’t relax to it, then they would probably struggle too.

In the end I hired a recording studio that professionally edited and produced the CD for me. They designed the Artwork for the CD and even put me in touch with a company who could professionally duplicate the CD so that it is of professional quality. Of course that worked out much more expensive than buying a stack of CDs and burning copies, but I wanted my CD to be relaxing in every way and having used burned CDs before I know how poor the quality becomes after constant use. I wanted my clients to be able to use the CD until they had taught themselves how to use the technique unaided.

Of course I had a backlog of clients and test subjects (from when I was designing the script), who all wanted a copy. To them the £15 price tag was nothing as they would have been happy to pay £45 for each follow-up session but these were designed for my clients so I figured any clients who in future enjoyed the relaxation session could then purchase the CD separately if they felt it would be of benefit to them. So far all my clients have wanted it so I figured eventually I’d sell all the copies I’d bought.

I posted about my having made the CD on my facebook profile as I had really enjoyed doing the recording session. A couple of people from my ‘friends’ list asked if they could buy a copy. I was a bit concerned at first as I felt they would only be getting half the package, after all the CD was designed for my clients who would have been told all about the impact relaxation can have on the human body, and how it can be used to combat stress and anxiety. My clients would have gained a really good understanding of what the point of the exercise was so that they could discover all the benefits for themselves and learned how to use affirmations and Future You techniques for use with future CD sessions, so I was concerned that the ones who just bought the CD would not benefit as much as my clients did... But I was wrong!

Truth is I didn’t expect the fantastic feedback I received from those who had never taken the relaxation session with me. It is because of the excellent feedback that I’ve had from these clients that I have put the CD up for sale on my website. So if any of you are like me, and just cannot switch your minds off or focus on one thought long enough to de-stress your entire body then this might well be the CD for you.

I do not advise those of you with strong ADHD qualities to purchase it as although you could well find it beneficial there are gaps in the guidance where I allow clients minds to wonder and that is usually problematic in itself for those with severe ADHD. I am working on a new CD, specifically designed for adults with ADHD but still have a few more test subjects to try it out on before I am ready to take it to the recording studio.

If you would like to purchase ‘Learn The Art Of Relaxation with Monique Craine’ click here to go to the shop on my website. You will see an audio bar which has about 2 minutes of the playback. This is here because I learned very quickly in hypnotherapy that the voice of the person doing the guidance has to be right for you. By clicking the audio link you will be able to hear my voice and assess whether you can understand my accent and whether I have the type of voice that you find acceptable to relax to.

To book an individual telephone or Skype relaxation coaching session to go with the CD contact me at monique@mccas.co.uk

Are there any Hypnotherapy CDs you would like to see designed specifically for the neuro-diverse community? Please leave comments to let me know if there are any topics you would like to have a hypnotherapy CD for.