Neurodivergent Friendship Workshops
For Neurodivergent children ages 8-12 and their caregivers.
HCF is now offering neurodiversity affirming friendship workshops. These workshops form a mini-series of structured lessons intended to support Neurodivergent youth and their families in making lasting, affirming, and safe friendships. While children are meeting in one room, their caregivers will be just across the hall in another.
Each age-group will have a meeting focused on a complimentary theme. We will cover frameworks for the differences between neurotypical and neurodivergent friendships, neurodivergent communication styles, sensory needs, and examples of the application of these framework and topics in neurodivergent children’s lives.
These are considered workshops for education around ND themes and conversation around those topics. This is not group therapy and does not replace mental health treatment. It is for educational purposes only.
Keep reading for further details and to learn why we put this workshops series together.
Why might these workshops benefit your child?
Most of us are raised with neurotypical standards for friendships. But for neurodivergent children, adhering to these standards can be painful, making it hard to form meaningful and positive friendships. But these children still want connection and friendship!
This mini-series will give families a new framework with which to approach friendships. It will create space for enrolled children to ask themselves, “What kind of friendship do I want?” Encouraging them to seek friendship on their terms, where they can be their full, authentic selves.
Holistic clinicians Sepideh (she/her) and Mar (they/them) conceptualized these workshops as a direct response to the needs our team has observed across the Neurodivergent community at large. The workshops aim to provide pyschoeducation to clients around friendship struggles and neurodivergence.
What are the meeting topics?
March 5: Neurodivergent connection and communication. This meeting will dive into ways that ND people connect that are often overlooked, undervalued, or unseen by neurotypical standards. They are SO many ways friendship can look. Let’s learn about some you might have not thought of, but just might like. During this session our caregivers will learn how to set expectations, build community, and neurodivergent communication styles and how they impact ND child friendships.
April 2: Understandings Sensory profiles. In this meeting children will learn about sensory profiles and how differ across people and neurotypes. They’ll hear about how sensory profiles can impact friendships. Caregivers will also focus on sensory profiles, with further details about how parents can apply knowledge of sensory profiles to facilitating successful connection for ND youth.
May 7: What makes a friend? This meeting will build off the first two sessions, defining what makes a friend and signs that someone is a good friend. Our caregiver workshop will focus on ways that parents can support ND children as they are vulnerable and open themselves up to rejection in making friends.
Who is facilitating?
These workshops will be facilitated by Holistic clinicians who specializing in working with neurodivergent youth, parents, and families. We’ve got some of our resident AuDHD and PDA experts facilitating, plus clinicians with experience supporting parents of ND youth in therapeutic and parent coaching capacities. They are facilitating these sessions in an educational context, not a therapeutic context, but will draw on the practice’s years of experience with ND populations and current of ND affirming care.
The facilitator team also consists of student interns. These are future therapists completing their masters degrees with the goal of specializing in ND and Queer populations. Their participation helps grow the number of Neurodiversity affirming providers in the field through education. They will also bring their unique experiences of working with our populations in other settings to the workshops.
If you’d like to learn more about each facilitator, you can check out their bios!
If you / your child are current Holistic clients and you are worried about a conflict of interest (ie - your child’s therapist would be facilitating the parent lessons) we recommend you still complete the registration request and then contact us at Holistic (spots are very limited). Clinicians involved in the care of your family system will advise you based on your specific situation.
Youth Meetings: Mar Rodriguez (they/them), MSW, LICSW & Sepideh Kittleson (she/her), MSW, LSWAIC & Maya Broetje Bairstow (she/her), Generalist Intern
Caregiver Meetings: Kayta Downey (she/they), MSW, LICSW & Christina Kettman (she/her), Clinical Intern
Details
When:
First Thursdays, 4:30 - 6:00 pm - March 5, April 2, May 7
Where:
In Person @ Holistic Child and Family (4500 9th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105)
Cost:
$200 per session per child
NOT reimbursable by insurance (self pay only) - This is not a pyschotherapy group and will not provide mental health treatment. It is an educational workshop with related discussion and activities
This cost includes caregivers. Polycules, intergenerational, and non-traditional family structures welcome. Caregivers are those who are regularly responsible for the day-to-day care and well-being of the child.
If you would like to discuss a payment plan or unique payment structure, please complete the registration request form and select “yes” for the payment plan question. We’ll reach out to set one up. Payment plans will NOT impact your child’s ability to register.
Interested?
Complete our registration request form below!
Please note that completing this form does not garentee registration. Our team will reach out afterward to complete registration. Ability to register will be based on availability in each workshop meeting.
Spots are limited. This is a pilot series, but we expect there to be a high demand. Spots are limited so that clinician/child ratio remains small. If interest is high enough, we will consider opening a second series, and we will maintain a list of interested parties for cancelations.
Sign up for one, two, or all meetings.
Deadline to register is February 26 @ 11:59 pm local. So our team has time to complete registrations.