In this week’s episode, SPA’s Laura Caire (she/her)- senior advisor mental health and trauma speaks with Kate Mulheron (she/her), ADHD speech therapist, from Perspectives Speech Therapy about the transition to neurodiversity and trauma informed affirming practice.

Laura and Kate discuss Kate's journey towards neurodiversity affirming practice, how this intersects and overlaps with trauma informed practice, and the emotional challenges when changing the way you practice.

Kate speaks about learning how to do better for our clients and hold self-compassion about choices that were made before we knew better.

Speech Pathology Australia acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of lands, seas and waters throughout Australia, and pay respect to Elders past, present and future.

We recognise that the health and social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are grounded in continued connection to culture, country, language and community and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Resources:

Find Kate:

Kate provides supervision to speech therapists about neurodiversity affirming practice. You can contact her here:

https://perspectivesspeech.com/

SPA member resources:

Autism practice guideline- https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/Members/Practice_Guidelines/SPAweb/Members/Clinical_Guidelines/Clinical_Guidelines.aspx?hkey=0fc81470-2d6c-4b17-90c0-ced8b0ff2a5d

Working with Autistic people position statement-

https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/Members/Position_Statements/SPAweb/Members/Position_Statements/Position_Statements.aspx?hkey=b1a46941-246c-4609-bacc-1c1b5c52d19d#autism

Resources Kate mentioned-

Neurowild- https://www.facebook.com/p/NeuroWild-100087870753308/

Play learn chat- https://playlearnchat.com/

Autism level UP!- https://www.autismlevelup.com/

Two sides of the spectrum podcast- https://learnplaythrive.com/podcast/

Double empathy problem- https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/double-empathy-explained/

Communication hub info sheet- https://communicationhub.com.au/Communication_Hub/Resources/Fact_Sheets/Autism_and_Communication.aspx