Introducing me!

My book is out next week. Hard to believe that's something I'm typing...

?I thought this would be a good opportunity to give a bit of background to me and how I got into what I do! If you haven't met me, you might be wondering "why have you written this book?". If you have met me, you may have heard this all before...

?I originally got into what I do completely by accident. When I was younger I wanted to be a social worker. So I spoke with a social worker when I was about 16 and she told me to the best thing to do was to get some volunteering experience. I thought "work for free.. no thanks" so I ignored that valuable advice for a year or so. And then about a year later I noticed a volunteering opportunity on a notice board at my college Esher Sixth Form College.

It said come and volunteer with our autistic boy on a playscheme. And you know what its like when you are that age, I was in a good mood that day and thought of the social workers advice. I rang the number on the advert and started volunteering on the play scheme with the autistic boy. This was where my passion for working alongside autistic people started back in 2000. And in the end, I never became a social worker!

?This volunteering led me to work at The National Autistic Society Where I spent an incredible 8 years. Originally joining as a support worker in the day centres in Croydon. ?I loved my time there, learnt so much (realising so much I’d learnt academically about autism was wrong!) The NAS had a great training course for new starters called SPELL and a major part of that training was to focus on the positive. This then has been a theme throughout my work and attitude to peoples lives!

?After a few years working in the day centre, I moved onto “Prospects” The NAS employment service. This role involved helping autistic people access employment, volunteering and supporting autistic people in work.

A major turning point, for me in that role, was seeing although every autistic person was different every workplace was the same. What I mean by that is, every workplace presented similar barriers to autistic people accessing employment. Whether it was the application process, the interview, onboarding, a lack of managers understanding of autism or colleagues lack of autism understanding. I felt early on in my career I could put a lot more energy into supporting the workplace to making changes to become more inclusive then I could “changing” autistic people to fit in and navigate those barriers. In fact changing autistic people goes against everything I stand for. I do still believe we should offer opportunities for autistic people to develop in ways they choose and access coaching and mentoring.

?Another important experience that I had whilst working at the NAS was learning the term “Neurodiversity” from an autistic person who worked at the NAS. I had been telling this person about the fact i'd been off work as I had an epileptic seizure (Ive been seizure free since 2008). And he said that means your neurodiverse! And explained Neurodiversity to me, saying it meant my brain worked differently to the majority. And I thought “YES, yes it does!” Understanding this term helped me understand the fact that so many autistic people we worked with had overlapping neurotypes such as ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia.

?After leaving the NAS I went to work at St George's, University of London supporting students and employees undertaking CPD who were training/developing as healthcare professionals such as Doctors, Paramedics, Physiotherapists etc. A phenomenal number of paramedics had ADHD and so many Physios had dyslexia. The skills sets of those neurotypes lending themselves fantastically well to those jobs! Its something I talk about in my talks/training!

?Then 7 years ago in April 2016 I launched Adjust. To help workplaces start their neurodiversity conversation. I've always loved to talk about this subject very clearly and avoiding too much jargon. I've attended neurodiversity conferences myself over the years and failed to understand what the speakers were going on about as the talks were so jargon filled and abstract! And I work in the field!! But delivering a talk in this clear and accessible way, was how the book came about. I was delivering a lunch and learn to Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Ltd on Neurodiversity in the workplace and Amy Lankester-Owen who was a participant, thought it would be a great book! Then it took a while for the book to come together, as I basically could not sit down and write it! It was during lockdown and it was also during this time I got diagnosed with ADHD. Would love to talk about that further in another post. But I was amazingly supported through this process by JKP and Amy.

?Phew – that’s me! Blimey that was a longer post then I expected, nearly written another book!

?I hope you all enjoy the book. I would say regarding the book, its very much aimed at those starting their journey into the topic. Maybe you’ve been newly diagnosed with a neurodivergent neurotype, maybe you are a parent of a newly diagnosed child or a teacher looking to learn more about the neurotypes of children in your class? Or perhaps a manager of a neurodivergent employee and you want to learn more in a quick, jargon free accessible way or work in HR and want to learn how you could make many aspects of the workplace more neuroinclusive. I think another great way the book could be useful, is if you are neurodivergent person you could share it with those around you to help understand neurodiversity. Recommend it to people in your life from your friends to your dentist!

Happy Reading!

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#Neurodiversity #NDPocketGuide #Autism #ADHD #dyslexia #dyspraxia