NEURODIVERGENCE: TRAUMA AND DIAGNOSTIC OVERSHADOWING TRAINING FOR THERAPISTS

Diagnostic overshadowing happens when trauma responses get mislabeled as "just ADHD" or "just autism," or when ADHD or autism get misread as trauma-driven dissociation. Once a label is assigned, every behavior gets filtered through that lens, which is exactly what this course teaches clinicians to catch and correct.

This course uses concrete differential questions rather than relying on a single screener: when did it begin, what triggers it, what function does it serve, and what happens when sensory load or executive demand decreases. Elevated dissociation scores can reflect trauma dissociation, autistic shutdown, ADHD attention drift, or sensory overwhelm, so the driver has to be identified through interview, not assumed from a scale score.

The course reviews the WURS-25, ASRS v1.1, PCL-5, DES-II, and CAPS-5, along with each tool's real limitations, including how elevated trauma symptoms can inflate ADHD self-report scores. The framing throughout is that screeners are hypothesis generators, not diagnostic deciders.

Yes. Participants leave with stabilization charts built specifically for ADHD, autism, and dissociation, mapped to a neurodivergent-adapted window of tolerance, plus guidance on masking, unmasking as a regulation intervention, and sensory coping strategies by channel (auditory, tactile, vestibular, and more).

Yes. It covers a safety-first framework for neurodivergent clients presenting with suicidal ideation, including direct risk assessment (plan, intent, means) before any driver-mapping work, since neurodivergent overload can intensify risk but never replaces a standard risk assessment.

LPCs, LCSWs, LMFTs, psychologists, and clinical interns who already have foundational familiarity with trauma-informed care and neurodevelopmental conditions and want sharper differential clarity between the three.