From Values to Practice: Translating Neurodivergent-Affirming Care into Therapeutic Decisions
Tracks
Monarch - In-Person & OnAIR
| Tuesday, September 29, 2026 |
| 1:25 PM - 2:25 PM |
| Monarch Room |
Overview
Den Abreu, Haven Psychology Centre Pty Ltd
Key Learnings
1. Translate neuro‑affirming values into concrete therapeutic decisions across assessment, formulation, and intervention.
2. Identify common clinical pitfalls that unintentionally increase masking, shutdown, or burnout.
3. Apply practical, trauma-informed strategies and ethical decision-making frameworks that support dignity, safety, cultural responsiveness, autonomy, and access within real‑world practice constraints.
Speaker
Mx Den Abreu
CEO and Principal Psychologist
Haven Psychology Centre Pty Ltd
From Values to Practice: Translating Neurodivergent-Affirming Care into Therapeutic Decisions
Presentation Overview
This workshop translates neurodivergent-affirming values into practical therapeutic decisions and clinician skills.
Many practitioners endorse neurodivergent/identity-affirming, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive principles—yet struggle to consistently apply them in complex clinical work. This gap between values and practice can unintentionally reproduce harm, particularly for multiply marginalised neurodivergent clients navigating trauma, dissociation, power, and access.
This interactive workshop focuses on translating affirming principles into moment-to-moment therapeutic decisions. Drawing on trauma-informed, parts-based, intersectional and relational frameworks, the workshop explores how clinicians can adapt formulation, pacing, communication, consent, and documentation to support nervous system safety without defaulting to pathologising or compliance-based models.
Rather than introducing new techniques, the workshop emphasises clinical discernment: how values show up in everyday choices, boundaries, and interactions. Participants will engage in reflective exercises and applied examples that highlight where well-intentioned practice can drift into neuro-normative assumptions—and how to course correct in ways that remain ethical, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, with professional integrity. Emphasis is placed on reducing emotional and cognitive burden, supporting autonomy, and embedding affirmation and inclusivity into sustainable, real-world practice that relies on professional responsibilities while meaningfully improving neurodivergent wellbeing rather than treating it as an add-on.
Many practitioners endorse neurodivergent/identity-affirming, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive principles—yet struggle to consistently apply them in complex clinical work. This gap between values and practice can unintentionally reproduce harm, particularly for multiply marginalised neurodivergent clients navigating trauma, dissociation, power, and access.
This interactive workshop focuses on translating affirming principles into moment-to-moment therapeutic decisions. Drawing on trauma-informed, parts-based, intersectional and relational frameworks, the workshop explores how clinicians can adapt formulation, pacing, communication, consent, and documentation to support nervous system safety without defaulting to pathologising or compliance-based models.
Rather than introducing new techniques, the workshop emphasises clinical discernment: how values show up in everyday choices, boundaries, and interactions. Participants will engage in reflective exercises and applied examples that highlight where well-intentioned practice can drift into neuro-normative assumptions—and how to course correct in ways that remain ethical, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, with professional integrity. Emphasis is placed on reducing emotional and cognitive burden, supporting autonomy, and embedding affirmation and inclusivity into sustainable, real-world practice that relies on professional responsibilities while meaningfully improving neurodivergent wellbeing rather than treating it as an add-on.
Biography
