Share Your Voice at NWC26

Summary
Language shapes how neurodivergence is understood, supported, and lived. This topic explores the power of words, diagnosis, and self-identification—how they influence belonging, stigma, and wellbeing. Delegates will unpack the shift from deficit-based models to neuro-affirming paradigms that empower both practitioners and the people they serve.

Subtopics:

• The evolution from pathologisation to empowerment
• Inclusive, person-preferred language across sectors
• Diagnostic language and its cultural impacts
• Labels, identity, and the psychological effects of naming
• Critical neurodiversity theory and the neurodivergent paradigm in practice

Summary
Systems can either enable or restrict neurodivergent wellbeing. This topic examines how education, justice, welfare, and healthcare structures impact access, inclusion, and outcomes for neurodivergent individuals. Sessions will explore strategies for systemic reform, trauma-informed policy, and inter-agency collaboration that create environments where neurodivergent people can thrive.

Subtopics:

• Decolonising systems of care across mental health, education, housing, healthcare, disability, and family violence sectors
• Neurodivergence in justice, child protection, and forensic systems
• Systemic bias and equitable access to services
• Trauma-informed systems design and cross-sector collaboration
• Policy frameworks supporting neuroinclusion and equity

Summary
Systems can either enable or restrict neurodivergent wellbeing. This topic examines how education, justice, welfare, and healthcare structures impact access, inclusion, and outcomes for neurodivergent individuals. Sessions will explore strategies for systemic reform, trauma-informed policy, and inter-agency collaboration that create environments where neurodivergent people can thrive.

Subtopics:

• Decolonising systems of care across mental health, education, housing, healthcare, disability, and family violence sectors
• Neurodivergence in justice, child protection, and forensic systems
• Systemic bias and equitable access to services
• Trauma-informed systems design and cross-sector collaboration
• Policy frameworks supporting neuroinclusion and equity

Summary
Neurodivergent experiences evolve over time, intersecting with key developmental, hormonal, and life transitions. This topic highlights approaches that support thriving from early childhood through ageing — ensuring that care, education, and employment pathways remain affirming, adaptive, and inclusive at every stage of life.

Subtopics:

• Early regognition and inclusive early childhood supports
• School transitions, adolescence, and higher education
• Workforce entry and mid-career challenges
• Late diagnosis and self-identification: journeys of discovery and understanding
• Menopause, hormones, and cognitive health
• Neurodivergence in ageing, retirement, and dementia care

Summary
Real progress in neurodivergent wellbeing begins when lived experience leads. This topic centres neurodivergent voices as co-creators of research, practice, and policy, exploring storytelling as a form of knowledge, advocacy, and reform. It embraces epistemological pluralism — recognising diverse ways of knowing and communicating lived experience — and celebrates community connection, belonging, and the power of shared narrative. Sessions will also explore what neurodivergent leadership means in practice, challenging neurotypical assumptions and redefining leadership through lived experience

Subtopics:

• Co-production and co-design in research, service design, and policy
• Storytelling, creative expression, and narrative identity
• Building community connection and peer-led models of care
• Leadership pathways and accessible professional development for lived-experience professionals
• Embedding lived experience in organisational decision-making

Summary
Neurodivergent experiences and wellbeing often intersect in complex and interdependent ways. This topic reframes co-occurrence through a neuro-affirming lens, focusing on regulation, resilience, and recovery. Sessions explore how to reduce stigma, understand burnout, and support emotional wellbeing through trauma-informed, inclusive approaches.

Subtopics:

• Anxiety, depression, and trauma through a neuro-affirming framework
• Neurodivergent burnout: recognition, prevention, and recovery
• Emotional regulation and sensory-based tools
• Destigmatising experiences of complex mental health and distress (e.g. bipolar experiences, psychosis, schizophrenia, etc.)
• Suicide prevention and postvention within neurodivergent communities
• Building resilience and protective factors in care models

Summary
As practice evolves, so must therapy. This topic brings together evidence-informed and creative approaches that respect neurodivergent experience. It highlights innovations in psychotherapy, somatic and sensory work, and integrative health — helping practitioners move beyond adaptation toward true affirmation. Discussions will also address iatrogenic harm and explore how to bridge the gap between emerging research and real-world therapeutic practice.

Subtopics:

• Adapting therapy modalities (DBT, CBT, IFS, ACT, EMDR, Play Therapy)
• Polyvagal-informed, body-based, and sensory-aware interventions
• Working with PDA and trauma-sensitive therapy adjustments
• Integrating art, music, and nature-based and holistic therapies
• Nutrition, movement, and sleep for nervous system regulation
• Repairing therapeutic rupture, addressing iatrogenic harm, and rebuilding trust
• Translating innovative research into clinical and community practice

Summary
Inclusion is more than accommodation — it’s cultural redesign. This topic explores how schools, workplaces, and community spaces can create affirming environments that promote genuine access, participation, and belonging. Through leadership, universal design, and collaborative practice, delegates will consider how systems can evolve to support all forms of neurodivergence.

Subtopics:

• Schooling and educational approaches
• Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and learning differences in practice
• Peer education and student voice in inclusion
• Organisational neuroinclusion: culture, policy, and leadership
• Employment pathways, mentorship, and entrepreneurship
• When adjustments aren’t enough: overcoming barriers to systemic redesign

Summary
Inclusion is more than accommodation — it’s cultural redesign. This topic explores how schools, workplaces, and community spaces can create affirming environments that promote genuine access, participation, and belonging. Through leadership, universal design, and collaborative practice, delegates will consider how systems can evolve to support all forms of neurodivergence.

Subtopics:

• Schooling and educational approaches
• Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and learning differences in practice
• Peer education and student voice in inclusion
• Organisational neuroinclusion: culture, policy, and leadership
• Employment pathways, mentorship, and entrepreneurship
• When adjustments aren’t enough: overcoming barriers to systemic redesign

Summary
Inclusion is more than accommodation — it’s cultural redesign. This topic explores how schools, workplaces, and community spaces can create affirming environments that promote genuine access, participation, and belonging. Through leadership, universal design, and collaborative practice, delegates will consider how systems can evolve to support all forms of neurodivergence.

Subtopics:

• Schooling and educational approaches
• Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and learning differences in practice
• Peer education and student voice in inclusion
• Organisational neuroinclusion: culture, policy, and leadership
• Employment pathways, mentorship, and entrepreneurship
• When adjustments aren’t enough: overcoming barriers to systemic redesign