Service categories: Counselling and therapies, Information, advice and advocacy

Service URL: https://exhale-neurodiversity.coach

Neuroaffirmative Coaching with Neurodivergent Insight

I’m Kate - Neurodiversity Coach and Mentor, Youth and Community Worker, late-diagnosed AuDHDer, and parent of an AuDHD teenager. 

After 13 years working as a Youth Worker and Practice Development Manager, I took redundancy from my much loved job due to experiencing neurodivergent burnout, which ultimately led to an exciting career change to become a Neurodiversity Coach. 

My own journey of learning and self discovery to diagnosis has taught me the power and healing that comes from really understanding and internalising that you are, in fact, a glorious zebra and not a malfunctioning horse, and you have been all along!  

Everyone’s experience is different, and I believe that everyone’s experience is equally valid and respected.

I approach my coaching relationships with curiosity, care, and unconditional positive regard for the adults and young people I work with. I bring my lived experience as a late diagnosed neurodivergent woman, navigating raising and parenting a neurodivergent child, and my professional experience of working with, supporting, and advocating for neurodivergent young people, parents, and colleagues. 

Exhale Neurodiversity Coaching practice is:

• Neuroaffirmative - respecting how different brains work, rather than trying to adapt them 
• Non-judgemental 
• Person-centred and holistic 
• Client-led and collaborative
• Non-pathologising and strengths-based 
• Authentic and empathic 
• Intersectional, anti-oppressive, and anti-racist 

Exhale Neurodiversity Coaching integrates:

• Lived experience 
• Coaching approaches (utilising ATTUNED and other neuroaffirmative coaching models) 
• Psychoeducation - helping clients understand their unique brain differences so they can make better sense of their experiences 
• Practical strategies and tools 
• Youth Work principles and practice 

Working collaboratively to develop respectful, trusted relationships and create a safe space for clients to exhale and…

• understand your neurotype and learn to work with your brain instead of against it
• reflect and reframe lived experiences through a neuroaffirmative neurodivergent lens 
• work to achieve radical acceptance and develop a positive neurodivergent identity

Our online sessions are 50 minutes in length, they are client-led and do not follow a prescribed formula; clients are invited to bring their experiences, curious questions, challenges, and reflections each week. Sessions may cover a client’s experiences of:

• Sensory Overwhelm 
• Emotional Dysregulation 
• Rejection Sensitivity
• Demand Avoidance
• Executive Dysfunction  

Sessions can include: 

• Reflection and reframing 
• Psychoeducation 
• Strategies and tools 
• Goal setting
• Behavioural activation 
• Parent support 
• Self-advocacy 
• Self-compassion 
• Reasonable adjustments and support 
• Body doubling and guidance for admin tasks, e.g. Access to Work application  
• Celebrating your neurodivergent identity and your wins! 

Who do we typically support?

• Late diagnosed, self-identified, and questioning neurodivergent adults 
• Diagnosed, self-identified, and questioning neurodivergent young people (12+)
• Parents, carers, siblings, and grandparents of neurodivergent young people 
• AuDHD women experiencing neurodivergent burnout, often colliding with perimenopause/menopause
• Managers and organisations supporting neurodivergent staff 

Referral Sources: Private Only, Social Care, Yourself

Specialisms: Autism, Autism and Neurodivergent , Generic, Staff and volunteers get autism awareness training