Supporting Neurodiversity Through Lived Experience Leadership
Tracks
Monarch - In-Person & OnAIR
| Monday, September 28, 2026 |
| 1:55 PM - 2:15 PM |
| Monarch Room |
Overview
Emi O'Brien, Reachout Australia
Key Learnings
1. That ‘symptoms’ (like sensory sensitivity or associative thinking) are actually ways of knowing that allow for deeper resonance and faster trust-building in peer support.
2. That digital spaces (like PeerChat) aren't just tools, but accessible environments that remove the social and sensory barriers inherent in traditional clinical settings.
3. The core of Lived Experience (LE) leadership moves beyond empathy into actual resonance. Lived Experience Leadership isn't just about representation at the top; it's about creating a culture where the people providing the support are as seen, heard, and regulated as the people receiving it.
Speaker
Emi O'Brien
Peer Work Team Leader- Education and Reputation
Reachout Australia
Supporting Neurodiversity Through Lived Experience Leadership
Presentation Overview
Real progress in neurodivergent wellbeing begins when lived experience moves from consultation to the center of leadership. This presentation explores how PeerChat, a youth digital support service led by and for people with lived experience of mental health (including neurodivergence), validates different ways of thinking and sharing to create safer, more responsive support for young people.
As neurodivergent team leaders, we challenge the traditional ‘clinical gaze’ by centering storytelling as a legitimate form of knowledge, advocacy, and reform. We will examine how neurodivergent leadership functions in practice – moving away from neurotypical hierarchies and embracing a leadership style that values the unique shape of every mind to build a more effective, collaborative team. Key themes include:
- The digital advantage: How text-based communication can reduce the sensory-tax and facilitate authentic neurodiverse storytelling.
- Connecting through lived experience: Traditional clinical support often involves a neurotypical practitioner trying to decode a neurodivergent young person. This can often lead to miscommunication and a clinical gaze. An ND peer worker doesn't need to decode; they resonate.
- Universal strengths: How ND ways of knowing – radical transparency, direct communication, and sensory-aware practice – benefit all young people.
- Neurodivergent LE leadership as a strength: How team leaders use alternative and neurodivergent aware ways of working to create a culture where staff don't burn out. If the staff are safe, validated, supported, and regulated, the young people they support will be too.
By sharing our journey as LE ND leaders, we aim to redefine what professionalism looks like when it is rooted in lived experience.
As neurodivergent team leaders, we challenge the traditional ‘clinical gaze’ by centering storytelling as a legitimate form of knowledge, advocacy, and reform. We will examine how neurodivergent leadership functions in practice – moving away from neurotypical hierarchies and embracing a leadership style that values the unique shape of every mind to build a more effective, collaborative team. Key themes include:
- The digital advantage: How text-based communication can reduce the sensory-tax and facilitate authentic neurodiverse storytelling.
- Connecting through lived experience: Traditional clinical support often involves a neurotypical practitioner trying to decode a neurodivergent young person. This can often lead to miscommunication and a clinical gaze. An ND peer worker doesn't need to decode; they resonate.
- Universal strengths: How ND ways of knowing – radical transparency, direct communication, and sensory-aware practice – benefit all young people.
- Neurodivergent LE leadership as a strength: How team leaders use alternative and neurodivergent aware ways of working to create a culture where staff don't burn out. If the staff are safe, validated, supported, and regulated, the young people they support will be too.
By sharing our journey as LE ND leaders, we aim to redefine what professionalism looks like when it is rooted in lived experience.
Biography
Emi has worked in a range of mental health settings during her time as a peer worker, including safe haven suicide prevention and acute and subacute mental health units. Emi joined ReachOut as a Youth Ambassador volunteer before transitioning into a peer worker role. She now co-leads ReachOut’s PeerChat service as a team leader.
Emi is passionate about using her lived experience, including her neurodiversity, to support others and advocate for positive change in the workplace and broader society. Her role specialises in education and reputation - supporting peer workforce development and service growth, whilst working to build service awareness.
