Consultation

Helping clinicians break out of the ivory tower.

The affirming path forward…

We strive to be culturally-competent, but our training often perpetuates myths about autistic people that can cause harm to those seeking our care. Research suggests that 1 out of 5 outpatient clients might be autistic (Nyrenius et al., 2022), and we have the opportunity and ethical obligation to override outdated stereotypes and attune to their true selves in an affirming and corrective way.

Countless autistics have experienced profound gaslighting and invalidation from their treatment providers, and accurate assessments are so rare that “self-diagnosis is considered valid” in the autism community. While “neurodiversity-affirming” has become a popular buzzword, it is important that clinicians learn best practices and understand the weight of what this means.

hand pointing to map location showing the way to neurodiversity-affirming practice

Relational consultation with a depth psychologist, autistic ADHDer, and trauma specialist.

Dr. Burnett is on a mission to help right the wrongs of the field by increasing access to justice-oriented, neurodiversity-affirming care and empowering other neurodivergent clinicians.

Popular topics for clinical consultation:

  • education on the neurodiversity movement and best practices for neurodiversity-affirming therapy and assessment

  • specific case consultation regarding adult clients (neurodivergent individuals and cross-neurotype relationships)

  • professional development for neurodivergent clinicians who want to override internalized ableism, feel more confident in the face of profound stigma, and learn how to run their practices in ways that work with their brain.

autistic gold infinity symbol made by sparklers

Learn from a cutting-edge clinician:

  • Become educated on the paradigm and learn best practices from a late-diagnosed autistic ADHDer with innate knowledge of neurodivergent brain differences and a committment to continous learning from the neurodiversity movement and #actuallyautistic community. Deepen your awareness and empathy into the all-too-common journey of painful invalidation enroute to diagnosis, and learn how to become part of the solution.

    Dr. Burnett integrates lived experience with her specialized training in neuropsychological and personality assessment, treating survivors of covert and overt abuse, psychoanalytic theory, and cultural/ spiritual integration to provide nuanced and holistic insights.

    While learning neurodiversity-affirming language and coping strategies can be helpful, it’s even more important to deeply-understand the impacts of pervasive relational and systemic trauma on neurodivergent adults to facilitate true healing.

  • Learn from a trauma specialist who has extensive training on treating survivors of power-based harm and sexual abuse, has presented on rape culture and empowering abuse survivors, and completed her dissertation on covert psychological abuse (i.e., gaslighting/manipulation) across individual, familial, and institutional/societal levels. Dr. Burnett has also led DBT skills groups, co-created a mind-body awareness group for trauma survivors, and readily integrates somatic techniques and exploration of bodily signals into her clinical work.

    Gain nuanced understanding into how society pervasively gaslights neurodivergent people, and learn how to help your clients become more attuned to their intuition, emotional compass, and empowered in their true selves.

  • Learn from a depth-oriented psychologist who has nuanced understandings of personality structure and defenses, Jungian perspectives on archetypes, synchronicities, and shadow work, cultural/ existential/ spiritual dynamics, and how bodily signals can shed light into emotional suffering to understand your clients beyond the DSM-5.

    Gain clarity on differential diagnosis, holistic conceptual insights, and learn more effective interventions to help your clients in a life-changing way.

  • Learn from a relational therapist with extensive supervising and consulting experience. Dr. Burnett’s training included psychodynamic, attachment-based, humanistic/person-centered, IFS, Jungian, CBT, DBT, relational-cultural, somatic, and feminist/justice-oriented theory and techniques, so she is readily-able to understand your theoretical orientation and help you integrate neurodiversity-affirming principles in a congruent way.

    Dr. Burnett was trained in a wide variety of clinical settings and has experience working with the full range of mental health disorders and neurodevelopmental differences. In addition to individual therapy, she has experience creating and running effective process and skills-based groups and treating cross-neurotype relationships/couples through a neurodiversity-affirming, family systems lens.

    She has also worked through outdated narratives from training about being an “objective, blank slate” and can help you deepen connection with your clients by bringing grounded authenticity to your work.

  • Learn from a progressive psychologist who integrates the best of her traditional training on neuropsychological, personality, and vocational assessment with insights from lived experience, expertise on trauma, and community wisdom on neurodiversity-affirming and gender-affirming care to provide testing experiences that are therapeutic, collaborative, and corrective.

    Learn how to create your own testing battery, understand strengths/weaknesses of various measures, avoid common mistakes that miss or misdiagnose high-masking adults, and become more confident in clinical interviewing and nuanced differential diagnosis. Understand your clients from the bottom-up and learn what types of recommendations are actually helpful (i.e., beyond “use a planner”).