Welcome to Divergent Futures
We are very excited to welcome you and share our passion for Neurodiversity-Affirming practise. We have been working towards launching Divergent Futures for the past year and it is a little surreal to see our business venture finally out there. We hope this website can add something of value to your journey through the ever evolving world of Neurodiversity.
Monique and I met at an online EMDR conference in 2021. I remember my little bubble of excitement when looking through the forums and seeing that Monique had invited EMDR therapists to join a discussion space about Neurodiversity. This was something I had never seen discussed within the EMDR community before and I raced to sign up. Monique and I chatted and quickly realised we had similar interests in supporting therapists to understand Neurodiversity.
Monique and I quickly began tossing around many ideas, sharing passion projects, and infodumping on each other about our interest in this area. We soon realised that the many ideas we had for sharing knowledge with our peers were bigger than what could be contained to a single webinar. Neurodiversity is such a new and rapidly advancing area and can be a lot to get your head around initially. It certainly took me a lot of time to understand the changes in the literature, my own internalised ableism (an ongoing process), and then learn how to integrate this with clients. Divergent Futures is out attempt to support other therapists in navigating the literature and new paradigms.
Monique and I also have lived experience of Neurodivergence. We are passionate about challenging stereotypes and stigma that is still projected on Neurodivergent people. The slogan for Divergent Futures is “Embracing difference is the path forward”. The high likelihood of negative physical, social, and psychological outcomes for Neurodivergent people are well established in the literature. The burden and trauma of living with difference is real. Fortunately, the social narrative about difference and disability is beginning to change. Neurodivergent people have so much to offer the world. Society needs difference! However, Neurodivergent people need support to navigate a social world that was not designed for the needs of their Neurotype (brain type) in mind. In doing so, society benefits from what Neurodivergent people have to offer because of their different thinking styles.
Welcome aboard!