Specialist Support For Employers and People in Work
Embracing Strengths, Unlocking Potential
With over 15 years of experience in management and leadership, I know firsthand the impact of fostering inclusive and supportive workplaces. As an AuDHD (Autistic and ADHD), queer Speech and Language Therapist, I bring both professional expertise and lived experience to my work with employers, managers and teams.
With dual qualifications as a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist and Sensory Integration Practitioner, combined with extensive experience in Clinical Leadership and Operational Management, I have a deep understanding of the challenges and complexities senior leaders face.
As a neurodivergent professional, I also recognise the realities of navigating systems that aren’t built for neurodivergence while balancing the demands of holding down employment and meeting the responsibilities of a job description. I know burnout, sensory and emotional overwhelm and stress.
I’m passionate about helping teams and organisations embrace neurodiversity, not as a challenge to overcome, but as an incredible strength that drives creativity, innovation, and collaboration.
How I Can Help You
Why Work With Me?
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Experience You Can Trust: With 15 years of management and leadership experience, I understand the pressures and responsibilities leaders face.
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Personal Perspective: My lived experience as an AuDHD professional means I bring empathy, authenticity, and real-world insights to every engagement.
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Inclusive and Practical Approach: My work is rooted in intersectionality and disability justice, ensuring that the solutions we create together are both effective and equitable.
Keeping up to date on research and community feedback is a strong interest of mine, particularly in relation to the workplace. Recent research from McDowell, Doyle & Kiselevaz (2023) demonstrated key areas of focus for organisations to develop neuroinclusive workplaces.
My years of frontline management and leadership experiences combined with my lived experience and dual qualification in Speech and Language Therapy and Sensory Integration hugely complement these areas of focus, uniquely positioning me to support you, your team or organisation.
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Strategic Leadership and Policy Development
Providing neuroinclusive workplaces requires us to go beyond tokenistic and performative actions. Policies and procedures play an integral role in supporting proactive, neurodiversity-affirming, and intersectionality-focused adjustments to the environment and workplace journey of neurodivergent employees. This includes through staff training, embedding equity principles and designing and implementing neurodiversity-inclusive policies.
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Team Management and Coaching
Line managers and supervisors can play incredibly supportive roles for neurodivergent team members, in fact, they are referred to as 'first responders' in the McDowell, et al., (2023) research. This can be achieved through leading with a focus on collaboration and inclusivity, mentoring neurodivergent employees, mediating workplace challenges and assessing workplace accessibility.
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Problem-Solving and Communication
Neuroinclusive workplaces understand neurodivergent communication, processing styles, sensory preferences and approach supporting with reasonable adjustments and workplace culture and environmental changes proactively and compassionately.
04
Wellbeing and Psychological Safety
To provide appropriate wellbeing and psychological safety within the workplace, initiatives such as Employee Assistance Programmes and other initiatives must be tailored to the needs of neurodivergent team members. Therefore understanding both communication, processing and sensory needs in the context of workplace and culture change, is key.
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The Importance of Community
Fostering community within an organisation is important for providing relational safety within the workplace, but also for developing initiatives and optimising processes and outcomes for people and the organisation. Community should include both neurodivergent, allistic and neurotypical team members and people externally.
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Retention, Attraction and Improvement
Neuroinclusive workplaces strive to foster long-term meaningful change including the develoopment of and retention of neurodivergent talent and harnessing neurodivergent strengths, such as those which make good leaders and help shape services through feedback mechanisms.
"Kate is a passionate and inspiring leader, always putting the students first. Kate has taught me more about advocating for our service (and myself) than anyone else in my
career so far. Kate has supported me to grow as an ND affirming clinician and (hopefully) a future successful leader. I am excited to see
what Kate will conquer next!"
