What is Neurodiversity Affirmative Care?

Neurodiversity seems to have become a popular buzzword. 

What does it even mean? And how can I tell if someone is actually neurodiversity affirmative?

Neurodiversity refers to the many ways our brains are wired and interact with the environment. It is essentially the ways we, as humans, show up to the world, including how we process information, sensations, and communicate.

Being neurodiversity affirmative means that we, as therapists, value one’s differences and do not place the judgments of good, bad, right, and wrong on these differences. Instead, we look at how effective one is in operating within the environment they are inhabiting. It means utilizing problem solving techniques to allow the individual to become more effective in getting to the goals they have set for themselves. Sometimes this means coaching the individual towards change and identifying barriers to that change and sometimes it means changing the environment itself. Often it is a bit of both.

Finally, being neurodiversity affirmative means a commitment to our clients and those around us to constantly be learning, expanding, and amending the way we practice therapy to be inclusive and equitable. This inherently means a commitment to being antiracist, anti-ableist, anti-heterosexist, and anti-cisgenderist. We are not perfect AND because of that, we continuously examine and re-examine our own internal bias, amending our practice to work towards these values.