Mark is a neurodivergent therapist specialising in counselling people with neurodiversity, an area of work he has been involved with for 30 years plus. This was not the first such talk Mark has undertaken for HACP and it was a welcome return for him and us. He continued to openly and sensitively discuss the experiences neurodiverse people endure of a daily basis and may be able to work to overcome. A life journey with a neurodiverse condition is not easy for anyone and takes time to accept and manage requiring good support from understanding and experienced listeners. Mark is definitely one and his enthusiasm, understanding and experience with neurodiversity, underpinned by his belief in the value of all people, is beneficial to many.
Mark is an excellent speaker who is passionate about this subject and is willing to openly and honestly respond to questions and challenges not only about his client-work but also about himself.
He honours his boundaries and those of others. He explained within the world of neurodiversity he could already see rapidly evolving, seriously interesting ideas are being developed further by the neurodivergent people themselves. This has to offer more of a sense of empowerment which could prove so beneficial to the more a positive sense of self and its future growth and development.
For tonight’s talk Mark explored double empathy in Autistic people and the way it impacts, or plays out, in the work within therapy. There is a school of thought which may hold the belief Autistic people do not have empathy. In fact, more often they have ‘double empathy’. It is understood in a number of situations communication can break down both ways between the neurodiverse and neurotypical, meaning neither is able to understand the other. It is, therefore, important for us to appreciate how empathy works differently for people with Autism and so help neurotypical people to begin to understand the neurodiverse world. Mark felt the more understanding of the neurodiverse world we have, the more specific help can be offered which could improve the experiences of people struggling to understand the ‘normal’ world.
He hoped this evening’s talk would help increase our insight into how ‘empathy’ works differently for people with Autism. He explained a little more about how we can build our understanding
of double empathy and hoped this would help for our future counselling with Neurodiverse clients. The Talk was enjoyed by all and we very much appreciated the amount of extremely helpful and relevant information Mark had openly shared.
A well worthwhile evening talk. Thank you Mark.
(Reviewed by Jacqueline Holloway)