Frequently Asked Questions
Neuro-Affirming Philosophy
Q: What does the Neuro-Affirming Partnership do?
A: The Neuro-Affirming Partnership is a leading global provider of neurodiversity consultancy, neurodiversity coaching, neurodiversity mediation, and neurodiversity education. and training. We provide deeply attuned, evidence-based support for public sector organisations, schools, tutor agencies, and neurodivergent individuals, couples and families.
Q: What does it mean to be a ‘neuro-affirming’ coach or consultancy?
A: Being neuro-affirming means we completely reject the medical "deficit" model of neurodivergence. We do not view Autism, ADHD, AuDHD, or SpLDs as conditions to be cured or behaviours to be fixed. Instead, as comprehensive research evidences, neurodivergence is a valid variation in human cognition. Our work focuses on nervous system regulation, unmasking, and adapting environments to fit the person, rather than forcing the person to fit the environment.
Q: Do I need a formal medical diagnosis to work with you?
A: Absolutely not. Whether you are formally diagnosed, on a multi-year NHS waiting list, or self-identified, your neurological reality is valid here. We provide practical, non-medical strategies that you can start using immediately to improve your focus, executive function, and psychological safety.
Public Sector and Schools
Q: Does an employee, leader, or educator need a formal diagnosis to access your support?
A: No. NHS waiting lists for Autism and ADHD assessments stretch into years across much of the UK, so waiting for a piece of paper does not help. In line with the Equality Act 2010 and the 2025 ACAS Guidance on Neurodiversity at Work, legal protections and the duty to provide reasonable adjustments are based on a person’s day-to-day challenges, not whether they hold a formal certificate. We support staff who are formally diagnosed, self-identified, currently on a waiting list, or simply exploring why certain parts of their role feel harder than they should.
Q: How is "Neuro-Affirming Mediation" different from standard HR mediation or ACAS?
A: Standard workplace mediation assumes both parties process thoughts, emotion, eye contact, tone of voice, and verbal turn-taking in the same neurotypical way. Placing a neurodivergent employee in a high-stakes process without accommodations can trigger their autonomic nervous system (fight, flight, freeze or fawn) causing potential power imbalances or emotional overwhelm, incongruence, rejection sensitivity and communication breakdown that results in an ineffective or failed mediation.
Our Neuro-Affirming Mediation adapts the process to all brains in the room. We account for sensory processing, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), and the Double Empathy Problem (where neurodivergent and neurotypical people misread each other’s intentions). Furthermore, unlike statutory ACAS Early Conciliation - which usually steps in at the very end of a dispute to negotiate a financial exit before an Employment Tribunal - we step in early to repair the working relationship, agree practical adjustments, and keep talented people thriving in their roles. We equally and impartially represent Neurodivergent people and Neurotypical people, ensuring that all parties are equipped to be able to advocate for their position and needs during the mediation process, without fear of judgement or bias.
Q: We already have an in-house HR team and Occupational Health - how does your Consultancy fit in?
A: We don’t replace your HR or Occupational Health teams; we act as their specialist "Critical Friend" and sounding board. Most HR professionals and line managers are brilliant generalists, but they haven't been trained in the neurobiology of executive dysfunction, time blindness, or AuDHD burnout.
When a neurodivergent employee is struggling, standard procedures—like placing them on a rigid Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)—often backfire, triggering long-term sickness absence or a grievance. We work alongside your HR team and school leaders to translate what is happening neurologically and put simple, low-cost adjustments in place that solve the issue safely.
Q: How do you work with Schools, Colleges and Universities?
A: With 25 years of experience in UK and international day and boarding education, we represent educational settings on three fronts:
Supporting Your Workforce: Providing 1:1 coaching for neurodivergent teachers, SENCOs, support staff, and school leaders (Headteachers, Deputies, and Pastoral Teams), as well as mediating staff or parent-school disputes.
Whole-School Culture & CPD: Delivering practical, evidence-based INSET training, leadership consultancy, to help schools move beyond behaviourist compliance models toward neuro-affirming classrooms where both staff and pupils thrive.
Parent Webinars: Creating a shared language between parents and the school by providing parents with education about the school’s neuro-affirming framework, and the evidence-based principles and practices that are most effective at meeting the needs of neurodivergent young people in the home.
Q: What is the difference between Neurodiversity Coaching and Therapy or Counselling?
A: Therapy and counselling focus on healing past trauma and clinical mental health crises. Neurodiversity Coaching is practical, forward-looking, and supports people to work with their neurology, not against it.
Working together as equals, we help neurodivergent employees, educators, and senior leaders understand their unique "operating system." We focus on real-world workplace challenges: overcoming task paralysis and procrastination, managing energy (rather than just time) to prevent burnout, navigating workplace communication, and leading authentically without the exhaustion of constant masking. (Where an individual requires clinical trauma therapy rather than coaching, we will always signpost them ethically and safely).
Q: Can your 1:1 Coaching be funded through the UK Government’s 'Access to Work' scheme?
A: Yes. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Access to Work scheme regularly funds specialist workplace coaching for employed individuals (including civil servants, council officers, NHS staff, and teachers) with ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, and related conditions. This means organisations can often secure specialist 1:1 coaching for their staff at little to no cost to their core departmental budget. We can also guide your HR team and employees through what to ask for when applying.
Q: Do we have to sign up for a Monthly Retainer, or can we book a one-off service?
A: You have complete flexibility. Our services are designed as a modular menu:
On-Demand / Ad-Hoc: You can book a single Workplace Mediation, a 90-minute INSET or Line Manager Workshop, an Inclusive Recruitment Audit, or a 6-session block of Executive Coaching whenever you need it.
Priority Partner Retainer: For public sector organisations and schools that want ongoing peace of mind, our fixed monthly retainer (£500/month for organisations with less than 1000 employees; £825/month for larger organisations) acts like an insurance policy—giving you a guaranteed 48-hour priority response, monthly "Critical Friend" HR triage clinics, quarterly manager webinars, and a 20% discount on all consultancy, mediations, and coaching.
Q:. Is your pricing compliant with UK Public Sector and School procurement rules?
A: Yes. We have structured our fees specifically to remove procurement headaches. Both tiers of our Annual Priority Retainer (£6,000/year and £9,900/year) sit safely below the standard £10,000 single-quote sign-off limit used by most Local Authorities and NHS Trusts, and well below the £30,000 statutory threshold under the Procurement Act 2023 - leaving compliant headroom for ad-hoc mediation or coaching call-offs throughout the year.
Q:. How quickly can you step in when we have an urgent situation?
A: When a workplace relationship is breaking down or a senior leader is approaching burnout, waiting three months for support isn't an option. For our Retained Priority Partners, we guarantee an initial triage consultation within 48 hours. For ad-hoc enquiries, we aim to hold an initial discovery call within the same working week and can usually commence pre-mediation preparation or coaching within 7 to 14 days.
Q: Do you work online or in person?
A: Both. We deliver the majority of our 1:1 Coaching, HR Sounding Board clinics, and many of our Workplace Mediations online via secure video call across the whole of the UK and globally for international schools. Many neurodivergent employees find online mediation and coaching significantly more regulating and accessible, as it allows them to control their own sensory environment. For full-day school INSET days, leadership away-days, or complex in-person mediations, we are happy to travel to your site across Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and all reasonable expenses will be charged to the client as part of the package of support.
Q: How can my school work with The Neuro-Affirming Partnership on neuro-affirming training for staff and parents?
A: We partner directly with independent day schools, and boarding schools in the UK and Internationally, to deliver high-impact staff CPD, INSET training, and parent webinars. We upskill educators and private academic tutors to transition from compliance-based approaches to relational, neurobiologically grounded frameworks that work with each individual’s unique neurology to enhance academic engagement and attainment.
Q: Where can I find practical training for teachers and parents on making a school more supportive of neurodivergent students?
A: The Neuro-Affirming Partnership delivers comprehensive, practical training for both educators and parents. We bridge the gap between home and school, teaching practical strategies for navigating many common factors of neurodivergence, e.g., PDA (we prefer to call it a ‘Pervasive Drive for Autonomy’ but it also known as ‘Pathological Demand Avoidance’), managing sensory overload, Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, and building low-demand environments that allow students to thrive.
Q: How do you support Tutor Agencies with neurodivergent students and EBSA (Emotionally Based School Avoidance)?
A: We provide specialised CPD for freelance tutors working in partnership with the Tutor Agencies with whom the tutors work. We help them to adapt their pedagogy for students facing EBSA, burnout, or exam trauma. We teach tutors how to harness the interest-based nervous system, prioritise nervous system regulation over rigid drilling, and prevent placement breakdowns. The work we do with the Tutees’ parents helps to create mutual understanding and a shared language in supporting neurodivergent students.
Parents & Whole Family Support
Q: Do you offer support to parents raising neurodivergent children?
A: Yes. We offer 1-to-1 parent coaching, webinars, and whole-family support. Rather than generic parenting advice, we provide evidence-based psychoeducation on neurodivergent profiles (including Autism, AuDHD, ADHD, and Specific Learning Differences like Dyslexia and Dyscalculia) and advocate for more effective parenting principles and practices that abandon rigid compliance based approaches and focus on working with each child’s neurology, whilst generating greater compassion and acceptance. We help parents implement low-demand parenting strategies, set neuro-affirming boundaries, and actively dismantle parental guilt and shame.
Coaching and Mentoring for Adults or Teens
Q: What do you know about Autism, AuDHD, ADHD, and Learning Differences?
A: The Neuro-Affirming Partnership specialises in neurodiversity consultancy and coaching for Autistic, AuDHD and ADHD adults, couples and teens. We have over 25 years of experience as educators and pastoral leaders in independent day and boarding schools in the UK and Internationally. We are trained in accredited Neurodiversity coaching and mentoring, trauma-informed and restorative approaches and family mediation. Our founders have extensive lived experience of Autism and ADHD, and are parents to neurodivergent children. We have worked in the Health and Social Care sector, supporting people with disabilities and provided consultancy to a clinical provider of Neurodevelopmental Assessments under contract to the UK NHS and NHS Right to Choose. We provide a deeply validating space that considers the whole person, for you to safely unmask and address whatever is important to you.
Q: Which coaching options are suitable for a neurodivergent teenager who is struggling at school?
A: We offer 1-to-1 neuro-affirming mentoring specifically designed for teenagers who are struggling with school exclusion, school refusal, anxiety, or academic disengagement. We counter rigid compliance-based approaches. Instead, we provide a highly empathetic, low-demand, safe space to talk, helping young people understand their own nervous systems, self-advocate, and rebuild their confidence and self-esteem. We see them. We also run a teens boundary setting programme to empower young people to self-advocate.
Q: Can you help with procrastination, task initiation, and executive dysfunction?
A: Yes. We understand that task avoidance is not laziness or a character flaw - it is often the reality of an interest-based, novelty-seeking or urgency-led nervous system. We help clients move past the shame of ‘failure’ and implement tailored, dopamine-friendly strategies like micro-tasking, body doubling, and energy management to bypass executive dysfunction.
Couples Coaching & Relationship Support
Q: Can The Neuro-Affirming Partnership help an Autistic and ADHD couple or a mixed-neurotype couple with their relationship?
A: Yes, absolutely. Navigating a relationship where partners have different neurotypes (e.g., Autistic and ADHD, or neurodivergent and neurotypical) can lead to the ‘Double Empathy Problem.’ We offer specialised couples coaching, that is neurodiversity informed and underpinned by the principles and approaches of family mediation. We help partners to translate each other’s neurological languages, reduce conflict, and rebuild deep connection based on mutual understanding and compassion.
Q: What kind of support can help me and my partner understand our different communication and sensory needs?
A: We provide highly attuned relationship mediation that focuses directly on sensory and communication profiling. We help couples identify conflicting sensory needs (e.g., one partner needing deep pressure and loud noise, the other needing silence) and co-design a home environment that honours both partners' nervous systems without resentment or guilt. It is important to stress that we represent the needs of all neurotypes equally. There is is no hierarchy between neurotypical and neurodivergent needs. All neurotypes are treated equally. Needs are addressed on a person-centred basis and we take a whole person and systemic approach to the needs of the relationship.
Professional Accreditations and Supervision
Q: What training or regulation is required to deliver the Neuro-Affirming Partnership coaching, mentoring and mediation services?
A: In addition to our lived experience of neurodivergence, we have completed extensive professional training that is accredited by established industry bodies and associations promoting best practice, professional standards, quality assurance and codes of conduct. We attend monthly Neurodiversity group supervision which is a small forum to review cases on a completely confidential and anonymised basis.
The Attuned Approach - https://attunedapproach.co.uk/
The Association for Coaching, UK - https://www.associationforcoaching.com/
The Family Mediation Council, UK - https://www.familymediationcouncil.org.uk/
The College of Mediators, UK - https://collegeofmediators.co.uk/
The General Teaching Council for Scotland - https://www.gtcs.org.uk/