Creative Practice as a Neurodivergent-Led System of Wellbeing and Support
Tracks
Monarch - In-Person & OnAIR
| Monday, September 28, 2026 |
| 1:30 PM - 1:50 PM |
| Monarch |
Overview
Brendan Chippendale & Berinda Karp, Affirming Access
Key Learnings
1. Understand how creative practice can function as a genuine system of neurodivergent wellbeing support, enabling emotional regulation, identity expression, and reduced masking through sensory-aware, choice-based creative environments.
2. Recognise how wellbeing is shaped by relational and environmental factors, including sensory safety, autonomy, and affirming facilitation, and how these elements can be intentionally embedded into services and community programs.
3. Gain practical insight into how lived-experience leadership and intersectional inclusion—centering neurodivergent, disabled, LGBTQIA+SB, and CALD communities—can transform wellbeing supports into spaces that foster dignity, belonging, agency, and authentic participation.
Speaker
Mr Brendan Chippendale
Chairperson
Affirming Access
Creative Practice as a Neurodivergent-Led System of Wellbeing and Support
Presentation Overview
Wellbeing for neurodivergent people cannot be separated from the environments in which we live, create, and belong. Too often, support systems frame neurodivergence through deficit-based models that prioritise correction, compliance, or independence over dignity and relational safety. Affirming Access is a neurodivergent- and LGBTQIA+SB-led initiative that re-imagines wellbeing as something co-created through creativity, community, and lived-experience leadership. Grounded in critical neurodiversity, neuroqueer theory, and disability justice, the project positions creative practice not as enrichment, but as essential infrastructure for support.
Over the past year, Affirming Access has expanded its collaborative reach through partnerships including the National Ethnic Disability Alliance and cultural programming connected to Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2026. These partnerships embed neurodivergent creative expression within broader community and cultural spaces, shifting wellbeing to visible collective belonging.
Through textile workshops, wearable art, co-design sessions, and public exhibitions, participants engage in sensory-aware, choice-based environments that actively support regulation, identity expression, and autonomy. Creative processes enable communication beyond spoken language, reduce masking pressures, and foster relational trust. Participants consistently report increased confidence, reduced internalised stigma, and greater willingness to engage socially and professionally when environments affirm neurodivergent ways of being.
Central to this model is intersectionality. Neurodivergent wellbeing cannot be separated from disability, queerness, trans identity, race, culture, and migration experience. For disabled, LGBTQIA+SB, and CALD communities, layered exclusion across services often compounds distress. Affirming Access embeds intersectional design into facilitation, representation, and partnership—prioritising cultural safety alongside sensory safety.
This presentation introduces a replicable framework for embedding creativity as a neuro-affirming system of support. It invites practitioners, educators, and organisations to move beyond token inclusion toward relational, co-created wellbeing systems grounded in dignity, agency, and collective care.
Over the past year, Affirming Access has expanded its collaborative reach through partnerships including the National Ethnic Disability Alliance and cultural programming connected to Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2026. These partnerships embed neurodivergent creative expression within broader community and cultural spaces, shifting wellbeing to visible collective belonging.
Through textile workshops, wearable art, co-design sessions, and public exhibitions, participants engage in sensory-aware, choice-based environments that actively support regulation, identity expression, and autonomy. Creative processes enable communication beyond spoken language, reduce masking pressures, and foster relational trust. Participants consistently report increased confidence, reduced internalised stigma, and greater willingness to engage socially and professionally when environments affirm neurodivergent ways of being.
Central to this model is intersectionality. Neurodivergent wellbeing cannot be separated from disability, queerness, trans identity, race, culture, and migration experience. For disabled, LGBTQIA+SB, and CALD communities, layered exclusion across services often compounds distress. Affirming Access embeds intersectional design into facilitation, representation, and partnership—prioritising cultural safety alongside sensory safety.
This presentation introduces a replicable framework for embedding creativity as a neuro-affirming system of support. It invites practitioners, educators, and organisations to move beyond token inclusion toward relational, co-created wellbeing systems grounded in dignity, agency, and collective care.
Biography
Brendan Chippendale is a psychotherapist, educator, and neurodivergent advocate based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of Achieve Collective and co-lead of Affirming Access, a neurodivergent- and LGBTQIA+SB-led initiative advancing creative, rights-based approaches to wellbeing and inclusion. Brendan has over 30 years’ experience supporting neurodivergent young people and adults across education, therapy, and community settings. His work integrates participatory arts, co-design, and lived-experience leadership to challenge deficit-based models of support. As an autistic and queer professional, Brendan focuses on developing creative, relational systems that promote dignity, belonging, and sustainable neurodivergent wellbeing.
Berinda Karp
Autism Australia
Creative Practice as a Neurodivergent-Led System of Wellbeing and Support
Presentation Overview
Wellbeing for neurodivergent people cannot be separated from the environments in which we live, create, and belong. Too often, support systems frame neurodivergence through deficit-based models that prioritise correction, compliance, or independence over dignity and relational safety. Affirming Access is a neurodivergent- and LGBTQIA+SB-led initiative that re-imagines wellbeing as something co-created through creativity, community, and lived-experience leadership. Grounded in critical neurodiversity, neuroqueer theory, and disability justice, the project positions creative practice not as enrichment, but as essential infrastructure for support.
Over the past year, Affirming Access has expanded its collaborative reach through partnerships including the National Ethnic Disability Alliance and cultural programming connected to Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2026. These partnerships embed neurodivergent creative expression within broader community and cultural spaces, shifting wellbeing to visible collective belonging.
Through textile workshops, wearable art, co-design sessions, and public exhibitions, participants engage in sensory-aware, choice-based environments that actively support regulation, identity expression, and autonomy. Creative processes enable communication beyond spoken language, reduce masking pressures, and foster relational trust. Participants consistently report increased confidence, reduced internalised stigma, and greater willingness to engage socially and professionally when environments affirm neurodivergent ways of being.
Central to this model is intersectionality. Neurodivergent wellbeing cannot be separated from disability, queerness, trans identity, race, culture, and migration experience. For disabled, LGBTQIA+SB, and CALD communities, layered exclusion across services often compounds distress. Affirming Access embeds intersectional design into facilitation, representation, and partnership—prioritising cultural safety alongside sensory safety.
This presentation introduces a replicable framework for embedding creativity as a neuro-affirming system of support. It invites practitioners, educators, and organisations to move beyond token inclusion toward relational, co-created wellbeing systems grounded in dignity, agency, and collective care.
Over the past year, Affirming Access has expanded its collaborative reach through partnerships including the National Ethnic Disability Alliance and cultural programming connected to Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2026. These partnerships embed neurodivergent creative expression within broader community and cultural spaces, shifting wellbeing to visible collective belonging.
Through textile workshops, wearable art, co-design sessions, and public exhibitions, participants engage in sensory-aware, choice-based environments that actively support regulation, identity expression, and autonomy. Creative processes enable communication beyond spoken language, reduce masking pressures, and foster relational trust. Participants consistently report increased confidence, reduced internalised stigma, and greater willingness to engage socially and professionally when environments affirm neurodivergent ways of being.
Central to this model is intersectionality. Neurodivergent wellbeing cannot be separated from disability, queerness, trans identity, race, culture, and migration experience. For disabled, LGBTQIA+SB, and CALD communities, layered exclusion across services often compounds distress. Affirming Access embeds intersectional design into facilitation, representation, and partnership—prioritising cultural safety alongside sensory safety.
This presentation introduces a replicable framework for embedding creativity as a neuro-affirming system of support. It invites practitioners, educators, and organisations to move beyond token inclusion toward relational, co-created wellbeing systems grounded in dignity, agency, and collective care.
Biography
