Share the stage at NWC25
If you are a neurodivergent leader, advocate or professional in the neurodiversity space or if you are passionate about creating solutions for neurodivergent individuals, then please apply to present.
Apply to present at NWC 2025.
Final applications due Friday, 4 April 2025.
Why Present at NWC?
The conference committee is looking for presenters (and co-presenters) who are ready to passionately share experiences that address the conference topics with originality and flare.
- This is your chance to share your valuable work, programs, research and initiatives with the wider neurodivergent mental health community.
- Boost your professional presentation skills, build your self-confidence and grow in leadership and influence.
- Contribute to the future direction the sector and use your voice, expertise and lived experience to create change for neurodivergent community.
- Inspire your community with your ideas, insights, research, stories and case studies.
- Your attendance as a presenter guarantees a personalised certificate to use towards CPD points.
- As a presenter you will receive the biggest discount to attend the conference, as well as gaining a special discount which you can share with your colleagues, friends and followers.
The NWC25 Program
Innovation, Inclusion, Empowerment: the Future of Neurodivergent Mental Health
NWC25 Topics
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Exploring The Paradigm Shift of Neurodivergence
- The neurodiversity movement and its impact on how we understand mental health and cognitive differences
- Depathologising neurodivergent experiences and expressions
- Neuronormativity: What is normal?
- Navigating society as a neurodivergent person
- Valuing lived experience: What does it mean to be neurodivergent?
Addressing Sanism, Neuronormativity, and Stigma in Mental Health
- Understanding sanism and its impact on individuals experiencing mental illness and neurodivergence
- Challenging neuronormativity by creating inclusive and supportive spaces for neurodivergent individuals
- Reducing stigma and bias around highly stigmatised neurodivergences, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and DID/OSDD
- Centering lived experiences to challenge misconceptions and inform effective policies and support systems
- Developing culturally and contextually appropriate strategies to support neurodivergent individuals and promote understanding
- Unmasking all forms of neurodivergence: The psychological and social impacts of camouflaging
Understanding and supporting children and adolescents
- Strategies and recommendations for improving neurodivergent mental health services
- Inclusive practices for neurodivergent children
- Fostering positive self- concept, identity and purpose in neurodivergent young people
- Attentional differences in neurodivergent children
- Social, academic, and personal influences on mental health of neurodivergent adolescents
- Exploring eating disorders across neurodivergent populations: ARFID, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and beyond
Mental Health Interventions and Supports for Neurodivergent Students in Educational Settings
- The roots of school avoidance: Understanding anxiety, depression, and victimisation in neurodivergent students
- Creating safe and inclusive classrooms: Mental health-centred approaches
- Behaviours as communication: Rethinking Autism and ADHD interventions in schools
- Supporting emotional wellbeing in neurodivergent students: Tools for educators
- Navigating transitions: Supporting neurodivergent students through school, university, and beyond
Neurodivergent Adults: Enhancing Mental Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifespan
- Mental health and wellbeing in neurodivergent adults: Holistic approaches to thriving
- Addressing the prevalence of interpersonal, domestic, and sexual violence in neurodivergent populations
- Navigating relationships, career, and independent living
- Late diagnoses: The impact on mental health and personal identity
- Mental health challenges for neurodivergent adults in higher education and work settings
- Trauma-informed approaches to supporting neurodivergent adults
- Social isolation and its impact on neurodivergent adults: Strategies for fostering connection
- Neurodivergent parents parenting neurodivergent kids
- Neurodivergent aging: Understanding cognitive changes and mental health in later life
Promoting Positive Mental Health in Neurodivergent Women and Girls
- ADHD in women and girls: Understanding the unique mental health challenges
- Masking and camouflaging in autistic women: Long-term mental health consequences
- Understanding the prevalence and impacts of borderline personality condition (mis)diagnoses in neurodivergent women
- Understanding anxiety in neurodivergent teenage girls: The role of sensory regulation, masking, and trauma
- Supporting neurodivergent women in their reproductive years: Mental health during pregnancy and postpartum
- Sensory processing differences in neurodivergent girls: Impacts on wellbeing
Intersectionality, Co-occurring Conditions, and Mental Health in Neurodivergent Individuals
- The intersection of neurodivergence: Co-occurring anxiety, depression, and OCD
- Bias in diagnostic tools: Addressing inequities in assessments for neurodivergence
- Addressing mental health in neurodivergent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations
- Neurodivergence across cultures: Understanding and supporting CALD communities
- Creating responsive support services for neurodivergent refugees and immigrants
- The intersection of neurodivergence and LGBTQ+ identities: Addressing unique mental health challenges
- Neurodivergence and gender identity: Supporting trans and gender-diverse neurodivergent individuals
- Suicidality in neurodivergent populations: Identifying risks, protective factors, and interventions
- Understanding self-harm and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in neurodivergent individuals
Advancing Inclusion in Employment, Healthcare and Research
- Neurodivergence in the workplace: Supporting neurodivergent professionals
- Best practices for creating neurodivergent-affirming work environments
- Neurodivergent leadership: Empowering neurodivergent individuals in leadership roles
- Managing burnout and stress in neurodivergent employees: Strategies for employers and HR professionals
- Disclosure and mental health support in the workplace: Navigating neurodivergence with employers
- Neurodivergent disability rights and employer responsibilities
- Nothing about us without us: The role of participatory research in neurodivergent advocacy and innovation
- Challenging systemic bias in neurodivergence research: Towards equity and inclusion
- Bridging perspectives: exploring the double empathy problem in autism research and practice
- The triple empathy problem in healthcare: Understanding the disconnect between neurodivergent patients and healthcare providers
- Health inequities in neurodivergent populations: Addressing systemic barriers and disparities
Embedding Neurodivergent-Affirming Practices Across Sectors
- Making generalist mental health services neurodivergent-affirming: Practical strategies for inclusive environments and adaptations
- Validating neurodivergent-affirming diagnostic tools and assessments
- Making generalist mental health services neurodivergent-affirming: Practical strategies for inclusive environments and adaptationsBridging the gap: Improving neurodivergent identification in forensic, legal and education sectors
- Paragraph locked by Lise Saunders
Breaking the cycle: The overrepresentation of undiagnosed neurodivergence in forensic and correctional settings - Collaborative care: Integrating neurodivergent-affirming practices in multi-disciplinary teams
Neurological and Biological Implications in Neurodivergent Mental Health
- Neurobiology of neurodivergence: Brain structure, function, and connectivity in autism, ADHD, and beyond
- Gut-brain connection: The role of microbiome and gut health in neurodivergence
- Neuroinflammation and mental health: Links between immune response and neurodivergence
- Genetics and epigenetics: How genes and environment shape neurodivergence
- Neurotransmitters and mental health: Dopamine, serotonin, and their effects
- Hormonal impacts on neurodivergence: Puberty, pregnancy, menopause, and mental health
- Advances in neuroimaging: MRI, EEG, and new diagnostics for neurodivergence
Presentation Styles
Oral Presentation
Take the stage and present to the audience in a 15 or 25 minutes speaking session with 5 minutes for questions.
Workshop
Keep the attention of attendees via engaging, hands-on learning experience in a 60-minute workshop.
Panel Presentation
Panel presentations bring together views from a group of presenters into a discussion of innovative ideas, current topics, and relevant issues. Each panel session will run for 60 minutes and will consist of at least 3 panel members.
Poster Presentation
Visually showcase your research or services via a printed poster, displayed in the conference exhibition area for the duration of the conference. A dedicated 10-minute poster session is included in the conference program.
Important Dates
| Presentation applications close | Friday, 4 April 2025 |
| Notifications to presenters | Monday, 28 April 2025 |
| Acceptances and registrations due | Thursday, 1 May 2025 |
| Program launch | Thursday, 8 May 2025 |
| Scholarships close | Monday, 23 June 2025 |
| Early bird closes | Friday, 27 June 2025 |
| Conference dates | August 11-12, 2025 |