My speech therapy practice is grounded in compassion and a firm belief that no one’s behaviour or communication is bad or wrong, but there may be gaps in people understanding themselves and each other that lead to communication breakdowns. By learning about their authentic communication and building on their skills, people’s social interactions can become a more positive experience.

I have competed several courses on “social skills training”, and each of them just pushed me further towards appreciating neurodivergent communication styles and away from teaching people to mask their true selves. My ongoing professional development in social communication comes from the neurodivergent community, as well as my lived experience as a high-masking autistic woman. Discussions of social skills in our session will include:

• estbablishing a positive neurodivergent identity,

• education about neurodivergence, such as neurodivergent communication styles, the double empathy problem, the social model of disability,

• education around masking - the pros and cons, and how it can be made safe, and

• learning skills to self-advocate so that neurodivergent people don’t have to do all the work.

I completed my Master of Speech and Language Pathology at the University of Sydney, and have worked in a private practice ever since.

I believe in life-long learning, so I dedicate time every week to professional development. The most notable courses I have completed are:

• Sounds-Write (for literacy instruction),

• Meaningful Speech’s Natural Language Aquisition Course (for gestalt language processors)

• Hanen’s It Takes Two To Talk (for late talkers),

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy principles (for when mental health is impacting communication skills), and

• The Lidcombe Program (for stuttering).