Description
Master specialized Trauma-Informed Mental Health Care approaches specifically tailored for Neurodivergent Populations.
Join Therapist Neurodiversity Collective and Dr. Gabriela Hurtado Alvarado, Ph.D., a Licensed Psychologist, for an engaging and informative 1.5-hour course focusing on neurodiversity-affirming and trauma-informed therapeutic strategies.
This advanced course builds upon the foundational knowledge from our introductory on-demand course, “Neurodiversity-Affirming, Ethical Trauma Therapy.”
Did you know that
↪ Individuals with intersecting identities of neurodivergence and histories of trauma experience high rates of metal health difficulties and face significant barriers to accessing appropriate, neurodivergence-affirming mental health care? For any therapy to adhere to ethical standards, it’s crucial to demonstrate that there is evidence for both the efficacy (whether the intervention works) and effectiveness (whether it has benefits for the individual) of an intervention (Chown, 2015).
↪ Standard mental health interventions, typically created with neurotypical individuals in mind (Kelly and Farahar, 2021), often fail to address the specific requirements of autistic individuals? These interventions are not always grounded in evidence and tend to prioritize promoting neurotypical behaviors over the actual needs of autistic people (Curnow et al., 2023). Autistic individuals frequently report little to no benefit from treatments originally designed for neurotypical populations (Mazurek et al., 2023; Sharma et al., 2021; Weston et al., 2016). Given this, current research in autism mental health strongly advocates for the ethical necessity of adapting standard interventions to better cater to the unique needs of autistic individuals.
How can Providers move beyond Behavioral and Exposure Therapies? ✨✨✨
In this course, therapists will learn how to move beyond traditional behavioral and exposure-based approaches, such as CBT and DBT, which may exacerbate trauma, to explore adapting mental health care to be more inclusive and effective for neurodivergent clients.
Course Highlights:
- Best Practices for Screening and Assessment: Learn to effectively screen and assess autistic and neurodivergent clients, focusing on understanding their unique needs.
- Personalized Plan of Care: Gain insights into various levels of care, addressing acute safety needs and considering the client’s identities, disabilities, strengths, support network, and cultural context.
- Neurodivergent-Centered Care – Case Studies: Dr. Hurtado Alvarado will provide examples of how assessment and therapy practices were adapted to the specific sensitivities and needs of individual neurodivergent clients, fostering healing respectfully and safely.
This course is an essential step for therapists committed to providing compassionate, effective, and neurodiversity-affirming mental health care to autistic and other neurodivergent clients.
► Presenter: Dr. Gabriela (Gaby) Hurtado Alvarado, Ph.D., a Licensed Psychologist
► On-Demand Course: Learners have access to course for 180 days from the date of enrollment
► Audience: Therapy Providers seeking to deepen their understanding and application of neurodiversity-affirming practices. ✴✴✴ (Therapy Neurodiversity Collective Members, this course is included in your membership!)
Included:
☑ Slide handout
☑ Course handout with references
☑ Certificate of Attendance for 1.5 hours of professional development
Dr. Hurtado (she/hers/ella) has experience in the field of clinical psychology, with a particular focus on the mental health of Latinx/e adolescents and adults. Her clinical interests and practice involve crisis intervention, assessment and evaluation, and treatment of trauma and PTSD, and eating disorders. Dr. Hurtado area of expertise is the delivery of culturally-grounded interventions, as well conducting neuroaffirmative, culturally-grounded assessments and evaluations with immigrants and bicultural/bilingual adolescents and adults.
Participants will
- Identify and define the principles of neuro-affirmative care.
- Examine the structure for conducting initial assessments in a manner aligned with neuro-affirmative principles.
- Utilize neuroaffirmative principles to guide the development of a plan of care, goals, and outcomes.
- Explore the practical applications of neuro-affirmative care through the use of case studies.
