We are so excited to launch our 2025 Conference by The Nurture Programme.
Neurodivergence & Trauma: The Big Beautiful Reframe.
Over the last four or so years we have built a beautiful community of people and if you join us this October we will be one more person, carer, professional human being closer to helping more of you grow from crisis to calm and to learn, work or live, in safety.
Safe spaces for you to be Authentic. Safe for you to live and learn without fear or judgement, or anxiety about whether or not you are accepted; confident that your own uniqueness is understood and that you are valued and celebrated for who you truly are!
We are here with a unique lineup, waiting for you to join us, to grow with us, to be part of our Calm, Connection & Co-Regulation
Neurodivergence & Trauma: The Big Beautiful Reframe
After the reframe comes repair, rest, and reconnection.
For too long, Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) has been misunderstood — reduced to defiance, mislabelled as oppositional, or dismissed as trauma alone. This conference offers a bold, compassionate reframe: PDA is not a disorder to be fixed, but a deeply intuitive neurotype wired for autonomy, authenticity, and nervous system truth.
But reframing is just the beginning.
This event is an invitation to move beyond labels — to explore how trauma and PDA intersect without being conflated, and how we can offer care that doesn’t demand compliance but creates safety. Together, we’ll walk the path from misinterpretation to understanding, from survival to sovereignty.
Through keynotes, workshops, lived-experience panels, and embodied practices, we’ll explore what it means to truly support PDAers — and ourselves — in a world that often asks too much and listens too little.
Join us as we:
Reframe outdated narratives.
Repair what misunderstanding has broken.
Rest the overwhelmed nervous system.
Reconnect with self, community, and compassion.
Whether you’re a parent, practitioner, educator, PDAer or ally — this space is for you.
Come for the insight. Stay for the healing.
The Big Beautiful REFRAME
PDA isn’t defiance.
Trauma isn’t a flaw.
It’s a call for safety, not control — for understanding, not obedience.
This event invites you to reframe outdated narratives, reconnect with what really matters, and learn how to truly support PDAers — and yourself — with compassion, clarity, and care.
If you’re ready to stop managing behaviour and start honouring needs, this is where your shift begins.
Many more amazing presenters to come!
presentation:
Amplifying young Autistic voices earlier
workshop:
The Essential Steps needed to Teach High Tech AAC To An Autistic Child
presentation:
Amplifying young Autistic voices earlier
workshop:
The Essential Steps needed to Teach High Tech AAC To An Autistic Child
presentation:
Amplifying young Autistic voices earlier
workshop:
The Essential Steps needed to Teach High Tech AAC To An Autistic Child
presentation:
Parent Carer Blame and Fabricated and Induced Illness
workshop:
Social Care Uncovered: Navigating Support
The MEDICAL MODEL version of Pathological Demand Avoidance is largely rejected by the Neurodivergent community, as it is defined by behavioural, prejudicial, and ableist biases that fail to honour the lived realities of PDAers. It reduces rich inner worlds to mere defiance, pathologises autonomy, and overlooks the deeper truths behind resistance to everyday demands.
In reality, PDAers are not broken or disordered — they are courageous, fiercely intuitive, and deeply connected to authenticity. These are individuals who walk through life with a blazing passion for creativity, humour, joy, and justice. They are often the truth-tellers and norm-questioners — the ones who instinctively challenge oppressive systems and social expectations not because they want to rebel, but because they must live in alignment with their values and nervous system needs.
Rather than being “disordered,” PDAers are exquisitely attuned — wired for freedom, for connection on their own terms, and for uncovering the deeper meanings behind what most take for granted. Their so-called “avoidance” is often a powerful expression of autonomy, trauma-informed protection, and a refusal to betray the self.
To understand PDA through a neurodiversity-affirming lens is to see the brilliance behind the behaviours — to celebrate the creativity, sensitivity, and fierce self-respect that lies beneath. It’s time we honour PDAers not as problems to be fixed, but as people to be fiercely protected, understood, and embraced for exactly who they are.
Trauma is not just what happened to us — it’s what got stored in our bodies when we were left alone with too much. It’s the invisible weight we carry when our nervous systems had to adapt to survive in environments that didn’t feel safe, seen, or supportive. And for so many Neurodivergent people, this is not the exception — it’s the backdrop of our lives.
Relational trauma — the kind that happens not in isolated incidents, but over time, in the space between people — wounds us at the level of connection. It’s what happens when we grow up walking on eggshells, masking our needs, or learning that love is conditional. It’s the ache of being misunderstood, misattuned to, or made to feel like “too much” or “not enough.” These patterns don’t just hurt — they shape the way we show up in the world, in our relationships, and with ourselves.
Intergenerational trauma runs even deeper. It’s what’s passed down through silences, through survival strategies disguised as parenting, through nervous systems that were never allowed to rest. It’s in the inherited shame, the hypervigilance, the avoidance of conflict, the fear of softness. And it is not our fault. But here’s the power: when we name it, we stop it from owning us.
Because healing from trauma — especially in the Neurodivergent context — isn’t about “getting over it” or “fixing” ourselves. It’s about coming home to ourselves. It’s about honouring the incredible adaptations our bodies made to keep us safe. It’s about gently peeling back the layers of protection, not to erase them, but to understand them — to meet them with fierce compassion.
Trauma isn’t who we are. But the way we survived it? That is a story of brilliance. And when we choose to turn toward our pain with presence, when we dare to disrupt the patterns handed to us, we become cycle-breakers. Bridge-builders. Hope-holders. We become the people we once needed — and the ones future generations will thank
Here is the complex truth: while trauma doesn’t cause PDA, the lived experience of being a PDAer in a world that misunderstands, pathologises, and punishes these natural instincts can lead to trauma.
Imagine being constantly told you’re manipulative, oppositional, or lazy — when in truth, your nervous system is screaming for agency. Imagine being forced to comply, to mask, to fit into systems that demand obedience over understanding. This is not just uncomfortable — it is traumatic.
PDA is not inherently traumatic. It is a valid neurotype, a beautiful and intense way of being. But living as a PDAer in a non-consensual world often is. Especially when demands are relentless, when relational safety is missing, or when adults in childhood misunderstood the refusal to comply as a behavioural problem instead of a cry for autonomy. And still — trauma and PDA are not the same thing.
Where trauma is a response to what has overwhelmed our system, PDA is an innate wiring that precedes those experiences. But once trauma enters the picture — particularly relational and intergenerational trauma — it can intensify demand avoidance, heighten nervous system sensitivity, and blur the lines between survival adaptations and neurobiological responses. It becomes even harder to distinguish what is trauma-protection and what is neurodivergent expression.
That’s why healing matters — not to fix the PDAer, but to create safety.
Because when PDAers are met with curiosity instead of control, when they’re supported in autonomy rather than compliance, when the trauma that may have layered on top is gently untangled with compassion — that’s when the magic happens. That’s when PDAers thrive.
They become the truth-tellers, the norm-breakers, the creatives, the cycle-breakers — not in spite of their wiring, but because of it.
It’s time we stop confusing trauma with difference, and start building systems that honour both.
HERE’S WHATS BACK FOR 2025
- Downloadable note booklets
- More workshop options
- Workshop preparation
- Amazing hosting platform
With the return of our two-day virtual neurodivergence conference ‘Neurodivergence & Trauma: The Big Beautiful Reframe’, this is all possible.
Back for its 5th year, The Nurturing Neurodivergence Programme is running again on 16th & 17th October 2025.
We will be joined by 10 internationally renowned speakers who will provide you with their experiential insight and give you the toolkit you need to understand the needs of any neurodivergent individuals you are living or working with.
With interactive workshops, case studies and the opportunity to ask our speakers questions based on your own challenges and experience, you will leave this conference feeling better equipped to help them to thrive and achieve their individual potential.
Our Aims & Values:
We are a Neurodivergent led organisation which aims to break down the stigma of disabilities, advocate for the importance of authenticity and autonomy, whilst supporting everyone’s right to self-advocacy.
Calm, Connection and Co-Regulation® are at the heart of EVERYTHING that we do.
What is this?
2 FULL days of Neurodivergence focused, and Neurodivergent led training!
Where is this being held?
It is all online so no travelling fees, hotel costs, long distance journeys or SOCIAL HANGOVERS!
Who is this for?
Basically EVERYONE but crucially for those who are involved in the teaching and support of, as well as those living with and caring for neurodivergent pupils, children or adults.
Do I have to be there LIVE?
Absolutely not! This is Online and Recorded for those who cannot make the live sessions. Recordings will be available to watch for 60 days after the event and usually take 2 weeks to be sent out, as they are professionally edited. Please note the workshops are interactive only and therefore cannot be recorded.
16th & 17th October 2025 at 9am-4pm BST. We have included speaker times in EST and AET for convenience.
Those caring for our Neurodivergent young people are often the most inspirational people in our young people’s lives. But whether they (you!) are a professional, parent or carer, they are probably overworked, largely underpaid and hugely under-appreciated. Access to training is potluck and access to the right kind of training is like finding a needle in a haystack.
So we are inviting you to come and take part in what we hope to be a life-changing event.
We will give you the opportunity to look through a different lens; one that brings about change, diversity, inclusion, acceptance and understanding. One where disability is not stigmatised by the judgment of a label.
We do NOT learn from TEXTBOOKS at The Nurture Programme®. We learn from those of us who are neurodivergent, who have lived experiences and seen first-hand what living in a world geared towards non-neurodivergence is like.
Children who are diagnosed or self-identified (because that is accepted just as much as a formal diagnosis) as Autistic, ADHD and PDA or other neurodivergence, are often misunderstood and sanctioned, with many being placed in isolation, excluded, sectioned, imprisoned or worse – all because they cannot manage within mainstream environments.
With long waiting list times for services, our children are being failed.
Often, these children and adults are simply misunderstood, and their needs aren’t being met. The education system has been built on the assumption that whilst differentiation is required, all children will fit into this mainstream picture and thrive. This isn’t the case, and the rise in need for EHCPs and support is a significant indication that if we always do what we have always done, then nothing will change.
It’s not surprising then that those unsupported children will grow into unsupported adults who are in crisis.
Our two-day conference is the opportunity for us ALL to come together and learn how best to engage, support and nurture the next generation.
ONE THAT IS NEURO-AFFIRMING, INCLUSIVE AND NEURODIVERGENT LED
2-day Virtual Conference on 16 & 17 October 2025
HOW TO BOOK:
Simply click the ‘Book my tickets’ button below, then click to buy tickets. You will be taken to a payment page to complete your purchase. Shortly after, you will receive an email with joining links for each day – please save these. We’ll also send email reminders leading up to the conference.
GROUP BOOKINGS:
If you are an organisation that wishes to book multiple places for your staff, we have multi-place options available and we can invoice your organisation for payment. For full details on our group packages, simply click the button below to download our Group Booking Brochure. The brochure contains a booking form to secure your places.
Questions?
Absolutely, this is suitable for everyone, and we encourage all to learn from neurodivergent adults.
Of course, only one device per booking will be able to log-in but you can easily watch it off of the same device or even cast to the big screen.
If you are an organisation that wishes to book multiple places for your staff, we have a multi-place option available and we can invoice your organisation for payment. Please email admin@thenurtureprogramme.co.uk to enquire
Yes, you will receive a recordings within 7 days and it will be available for catchup for 60 days. The only segments that won’t be recorded are the workshops.
Once you have purchased tickets you will be sent an email confirmation with a link to register, please make sure that you do this even if you cannot attend live and prior to the event as you will need to register for the recording.
You don’t need to do anything. Once you have paid and registered, your email will be automatically added to the recording database and sent out within 14 days of the conference.
This conference is scheduled as a webinar and you can make use of the Q&A function which has anonymous options available.
No, just relax, in your home with a coffee and cake and fully immerse yourself in the most inclusive conference there is! Only our speakers will have their cameras on.
Please do email jodie@
COMING SOON
Recordings are available to watch for 60 days for attendees. They are not available to purchase separately. However, the recordings will be added to our membership group, The Nook, a few months after the conference has taken place and will be available for members to watch for as long as they are members. If you’re interested in how you can join our membership, details are on our website.
Yes, we hope to run this conference year after year, and we will be introducing you to even more amazing guest speakers and neurodivergent people.
Absolutely, we will soon have a full list of speakers available, and their country of origin and specific timings for their time zone will be included.
