Kate is stood leaning against a tree. She is looking towards her left, wearing light grey jeans, a blue and white stripped top and cream jacket. She is laughing.

Hi, I'm Kate (she/her)

I am a white, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent (autistic ADHD), dual-qualified Speech and Language Therapist and Sensory Integration Practitioner. I also work as a Relationships and Sex Education Practitioner. Alongside these areas of interest, I have over a decade of experience in both clinical and operational management and leadership and championing intersectionality-focused, neurodiversity-affirming practice in the workplace.

I understand that in visiting my website, you may be doing so to decide whether you'd like to get in touch about working together. This is really important. When we're looking to commission a therapist, most people do not have the time, nor resources to audition lots of them, to find the right person. Therefore, below you will find information about my approach, training, current commitments to ongoing learning, voluntary roles, background and values.

I hope this is helpful. However, if there is anything else you need to know, please do get in touch with me as I'd be happy to have a conversation.

Who I Work With

Individuals, Families & Couples

Please note, I do not work with early years and young children

Schools, Colleges & Universities

Businesses, Charities & Organisations

Health Professionals & Clinical Services

My Focus Areas

Speech and Language Therapy

Story telling through whatever means works for an individual, is incredibly empowering and healing. I'm a huge advocate for supporting people to develop language for their own and others' experiences.

Through exploration together, utilising an approach which is both collaborative and holistic, I support neurodivergent people to understand their communication preferences and support needs, including identifying any skills they wish to develop. This can include self-advocacy, perspective taking, developing vocabulary, understanding socially dominant norms and divergent norms.

Sensory Integration and Processing

Being dual qualified allows me to support neurodivergent people to understand their own, or their loved one's sensory processing preferences and support needs.

Sensory processing and integration has a close relationship with communication. Through exploration, I support neurodivergent people, their families, educators and carers to understand sensory identity, preferences, support and accommodations needs, including environmental support.

Relationships and Sex Education

I’m passionate about disability and sexuality rights. Influenced by my own lived experiences, I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to safely enjoy relationships, identity expression, intimacy, pleasure, and sex, if they desire.

In one way or another, this has always been part of my work since my days as a Support Worker for people with learning disabilities began, in 2008. I work with neurodivergent people and people with intellectual disabilities, their families, educators, carers and other professionals to provide accessible and comprehensive RSE.

Intersectionality-Focused Practice

Neurodiversity and the Workplace

With everything I do, intersectionality-focused practice is at the forefront of my mind. Over the last few years, my knowledge and language has grown extensively in relation to Disability Justice, intersectional identities, intersectionality and the systems of oppression which underpin the ableism so many people experience and many of us are working towards dismantling.

I’m proud to be a Speech and Language Therapist, however, I recognise the role I can play in decolonialising the profession and utilising privilege meaningfully. This journey is ongoing and certainly won’t be without mistakes, however, all growth is necessary and crucial for truly neurodiversity-affirming practice.

With over 15 years of experience in management and leadership roles, I know firsthand the impact on neurodivergent wellbeing, when workplace environments and systems do not cater to the diverse needs of its employees. Likewise, I have observed the joys and benefits to individuals, teams and workplaces when they have fostered inclusive and supportive workplaces.

I bring both professional and lived experience to my work with businesses and organisations and I’m passionate about helping organisations embrace neurodiversity, not as a challenge to overcome, but as an incredible strength that drives creativity, innovation, and collaboration.

Values-Led Practice

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Intersectionality and Inclusivity

Strengths-Based

Leadership

Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice

Collaboration

Anti-Oppression and Disability Justice

Reflective and Continuous Learning

Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice & Social Justice

Neurodiversity-affirming practice must go beyond individual support—it requires recognising the broader systems that shape our experiences. Many neurodivergent people face overlapping forms of marginalisation, including racism, ableism, and other systemic barriers. Without actively addressing these dynamics, therapy risks reinforcing the very structures that create harm. By committing to ongoing reflection, unlearning, and advocacy, I strive to create a practice that not only supports neurodivergent individuals but also challenges the inequities that impact their well-being.

I strive to create a space that is inclusive and mindful of the barriers faced by marginalised communities. As a white person, I am committed to ongoing learning and reflection, working to recognise and challenge biases—both in myself and in the wider systems we navigate. My approach is rooted in a willingness to grow, listen, and actively support equity and inclusion.

“The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable.”

― Arundhati Roy

My Training and Registrations

Speech and Language Therapy (BSc), University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth
Postgraduate Certificate in Sensory Integration, University of Ulster and Sensory Integration Education
Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) registration
Health Care and Professional Council (HCPC) registration
Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice (ASLTIP) membership

All Speech and Language Therapists are expected to complete at least 30 hours of Continuing Professional Development, per year, relevant to their role. Some of the CPD I completed during 2024 included:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for SLT's
Mindfulness for SLT's
National Autistic Society's Annual Conference
Active Bystander training
University of Central Lancashire's Leadership for Allied Health Professions

My 2025 CPD plans are already shaping up, to begin the year I'll be completing the Trauma Geeks Neurodiversity + Trauma Study Group.

Above all, I center lived experience. I am deeply curious and committed to lifelong learning, in fact it dawned on me fairly recently, that it is probably a deep interest of mine and that learning, diversifying my knowledge and perspective provides the parts of my neurology that seek it, novelty and stimulation.

I believe that it is important to prioritise the voices and knowledge of those often excluded from research, mainstream trainings, and academia. I like to get a dose of learning each day, particularly the wisdom of lived experience which supports me to develop my thinking and practice in line with anti-colonial/anti-oppressive principles.

Kate is sat on a rock on Dartmoor smiling, wearing sports clothing and sunglasses. She looks towards her right and is smiling.

My Identities and My Work

“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
- Fannie Lou Hamer

I grew up in Derbyshire, moving to Cornwall in 2008, before settling in Devon from 2013. It wasn't until 2017 that I began to identify with autistic traits, pursuing an ADHD assessment following a trusted supervisor and I talking about my curiosities and me, in arguably typical AuDHD style, taking her comment 'I don't think you're autistic, but I would say you have ADHD traits', literally.

It wasn't just my neurodivergence I came to later, I'm also queer, now married to my wife, but it wasn't until my early 20's that I began to explore being queer. Now it makes sense to me (being undiscovered at that point, and therefore not having any of the language I now do for being AuDHD) what I had experienced growing up was a predominantly heteronormative, white, middle-class upbringing. My access to diversity of people, perspectives and experiences was limited.

I'm late-discovered autistic and ADHD. Growing up, I always felt like I was on the outside looking in—like everyone else had the rulebook for social connection, and I was just trying to piece it together. I moved between different groups, never quite settling, always observing, always adapting. I still often feel like an outsider and spend time watching, adapting, and searching for belonging in spaces that weren’t built with neurodivergence in mind.

Discovering I’m AuDHD as an adult has helped me to piece many things together, but it has also made me realise just how much of the world isn’t designed for people like me.

That’s why the Neurodiversity Paradigm (Walker, 2014) and social justice work feel like home to me—they're inseparable and don’t just make space for difference, they recognise its value and challenge the systems that push us to the margins. Lived experience fuels my commitment to dismantling the norms that exclude neurodivergent people and other marginalised groups. Embracing the Neurodiversity Paradigm isn’t just about acceptance; it’s about affirming that difference isn’t a deficit and that true inclusion requires systemic change. This work isn’t just professional for me—it’s personal.

I honour neurodiversity as naturally occurring variants in human neurology. I'm committed to unlearning internalised/externalised forms of ableism and in disrupting my internalised white supremacy over the last few years (check out Talila Lewis' working definition of ableism here) I now understand that ableism and white supremacy are deeply interconnected, shaping not just societal structures but also the ways we see ourselves and each other.

I've come to recognise how these systems influence perceptions of competence, productivity, and worth—especially for neurodivergent and disabled people. Unlearning these patterns is an ongoing process, requiring reflection, accountability, and a commitment to meaningful change, both in my own practice and the spaces I engage with.

My lived experiences, combined with those I have had working in the field of Speech and Language Therapy and clinical management and leadership, shape everything I do. I know firsthand what it’s like to navigate the world as a neurodivergent person, and I’m passionate about creating spaces where others feel seen, valued, and understood.

Advocating for intersectional, neurodiversity-affirming practice is at the heart of my work. I challenge ableism in therapeutic, health, social care, and education settings, drawing on frameworks like the Neurodiversity Paradigm (Walker, 2023), Neurodiversity Affirming Zones of Practice (Murphy, 2023), and anti-racism practice (Ibrahim, 2020).

I do not believe I am an 'expert', nor wish to perpetuate expertism as a therapist. I utilise a dynamic approach throughout my work, underpinned by values like collaboration, compassion, innovation and empowerment. I utilise strengths and rights-based frameworks, and strategies such as coaching to support assessment, joint planning, problem solving, goal setting and therapy planning.

I am committed to working towards building systems that are inclusive and affirming for neurodivergent individuals and communities. Whether I’m speaking at events, lecturing at universities, or running workshops, my aim is always the same: to speak to share, rather than change minds (Imani, 2024) and to support the process of becoming inclusive and equity--focused.

When I’m not working, you'll probably find me out with my dogs for a walk or enjoying some parallel play with my wife, watching a good series or film, or reading and learning.

Accessibility Statement

Diversity Rider