TPP 514: An Introduction to Neurodiversity-Affirming OT, with Dr. Bryden Carlson-Giving
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
37 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 9 hours ago
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What is the EMPOWER model and why was it created?
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I'm Debbie Reber, and this is Full Tilt Parenting. Today, neurodivergent and disabled occupational therapy practitioner, Dr. Bryden Carlson-Gibbing joins me for a great conversation about neurodiversity affirming OT and the importance of changing traditional therapeutic models to ones that center dignity, inclusion, and true understanding. Bryden is the creator of the Empower Model, the first neurodiversity affirming OT framework And he's the editor of the new book, Neurodiversity Affirming Occupational Therapy, Empowering Approaches to Foster Neurodivergent Participation. He is passionate about helping practitioners challenge ableism and create more supportive, affirming environments for neurodivergent humans.
This is one of those deep chats that I love to have on the show. We get into so many things, including the evaluation and assessment process, how ableism can show up in subtle and systemic ways, even within protocols that are supposed to be supporting our kids, and what it really means to truly shift toward inclusive, affirming care. I hope you find this one as thought-provoking as I did. Here's my conversation with Bryden Carlson-Giving. Hey, Bryden. Welcome to the podcast.
Hello, Debbie. So honored to be here. Thanks for having me.
Thank you for accepting my invitation, which you told me before I hit record you thought might have been spam, which is not the first time that's happened. But I saw, I'm sure it was some Instagram or some kind of social media sharing about your new book. And I instantly was like, oh, I got to talk to this guy. So you are the editor of a wonderful new resource. It's called Neurodiversity Affirming Occupational Therapy, Empowering Approaches to Foster Neurodivergent Participation. It just ticked so many boxes for me. So I'm really excited to get into it. But I'd love to hear about why you wrote this book and you are so pulled to kind of do this work of changing the system from the inside.
Oh my goodness. Yeah. So, and I will say too, I'll never say it's my book. It's ours. It was like a beautiful collective of 50 people. And I was truly just honored to even just be the editor and connecting all these wonderful ideas. As far as my OT journey, I knew I wanted to become an OT in undergrad. I almost became a kindergarten teacher, but I knew I wanted to still dabble in healthcare. And so I don't have a super romantic story for how I became an OT. Some of my friends were like, I discovered OT because an OT saved my uncle's life or something like that. I don't have a beautiful romantic story like that, but I literally just Googled teaching and healthcare and OT. Occupational therapy was one of the first things to pop up.
And I fell in love with the idea that we get to support human beings in participating in skills and life activities that are meaningful to them and kind of on their terms too. And so that's the whole thing too is occupational therapy. Like a lot of people think occupation, like you must teach children how to find jobs. No, no child labor. But what we do instead is we support occupational participation. So an occupation is any meaningful activity. Like we as human beings, we're occupational beings.
How did Bryden’s personal journey shape his neurodiversity‑affirming OT practice?
We occupy our time with meaningful activities and, And so we get to support human beings in their participation in life. And I like to think of OT as like, we're super duper problem solvers. I like to think of life with anything is like this beautiful interaction of the person, the environment, the activity. And if there's like a mismatch in some capacity, we get to totally explore how we can make that into a better match. But my first OT job was actually, I was an occupational therapist for
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the EMPOWER model and why was it created?
0:00–3:49
2
How did Bryden’s personal journey shape his neurodiversity‑affirming OT practice?
3:49–7:57
3
What does neurodiversity‑affirming occupational therapy actually look like in practice?
7:57–12:33
4
How does ableism show up in everyday OT assessments and interventions?
12:33–16:22
5
What are inclusive evaluations and how can they be implemented in schools?
16:22–20:39
6
What are the four foundational pillars of the EMPOWER model?
20:39–28:32
7
How can practitioners access resources and training for neurodiversity‑affirming care?
28:32–35:06
8
What actionable steps can parents, educators, and therapists take right now?
35:06–37:07
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids