Becoming a Neurodivergent-Affirming Clinician: Understanding ADHD and Autism through a Strengths-Based, Neurodivergent-Affirming Lens
2026-02-04 10:00 - 2026-03-11 13:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom
Law & Ethics, Health Equity,
and Cultural Competence CEs!
Becoming a Neurodivergent-Affirming Clinician: Understanding ADHD and Autism through a Strengths-Based, Neurodivergent-Affirming Lens
Presented by: B Lourenco, MA, LMHC
When: This course will be held for six consecutive Wednesdays: February 4th through March 11th, 2026, from 10:00 am – 1:15 pm Pacific / 1:00 pm – 4:15 pm Eastern

Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 | 10:00 am – 1:15 pm Pacific / 1:00 pm – 4:15 pm Eastern
Wednesday, February 11th, 2026 | 10:00 am – 1:15 pm Pacific / 1:00 pm – 4:15 pm Eastern
Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 | 10:00 am – 1:15 pm Pacific / 1:00 pm – 4:15 pm Eastern
Wednesday, February 25th, 2026 | 10:00 am – 1:15 pm Pacific / 1:00 pm – 4:15 pm Eastern
Wednesday, March 4th, 2026 | 10:00 am – 1:15 pm Pacific / 1:00 pm – 4:15 pm Eastern
Wednesday, March 11th, 2026 | 10:00 am – 1:15 pm Pacific / 1:00 pm – 4:15 pm Eastern

Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the event.
18 CEs (12 CEs can be used for Cultural Competence or Health Equity CEs, and 6 can be used for Law & Ethics CEs) | $599.00 *** (see below for payment options)
As technology progresses and education on mental health becomes increasingly more available, the population has become more self-aware. The world is changing quickly, and with it, more and more people realize that their brain works differently than others. Due to the influence of social media and the shift to focusing on lived experience as a legitimate means of diagnosis, we are seeing a sudden increase in clients that identify as Autistic and/or an ADHDer. We find that clients are speaking up and finding validation of what they have always known: their brains operate differently than the brains of their peers, colleagues, friends, and families. As a result, we are seeing a sudden increase in the young adult and middle-aged population who identify as being Neurodivergent in a Neurotypical world.
This workshop series is designed to help clinicians build greater awareness and familiarity with ADHD and Autistic experiences. Participants will come away from this course with a deeper understanding of ADHD and Autism from the Neurodiversity-Affirming Paradigm that focuses on strengths and differences, not diagnoses, disorders, and deficits.
Especially following the Covid pandemic and its sometimes long-term impact on the brain and the immune system’s inflammatory processes, many clients report having different and often challenging sensory processing experiences. We are seeing more adults presenting in our offices with reports that they now have issues not only with taste and smell but with a range of visual, hearing, tactile, balance, and internal bodily sensations they never have before experienced, as well as difficulties with attention and memory. This begs the question: have these brain differences always been there but now have been sensitized or magnified by exposure to Covid and months-long isolation?
Many adults are now recognizing they are not alone and are demanding they not be dismissed or invalidated any longer, often having experienced the continued frustration of providers questioning their own lived experiences and, as a result, having been either undiagnosed or underdiagnosed due to outdated and debunked diagnostic criteria still used by mainstream psychiatrists and physicians. These individuals are finding validation for what they have suspected all along: their brains work differently than those of their peers, families, and friends.
With new research available and an increasingly empowered clientele, we see more than ever the need to remain current in our understanding of–and support for–those who have brain differences. Committed to blending cutting-edge scientific evidence with the lived experiences of our clients, Cascadia Training, is delighted to offer a new workshop series designed to help clinicians build greater awareness and familiarity with ADHD and Autistic experiences.
Upon completion of this series, participants will have a deeper understanding of ADHD and Autism from the Neurodiversity Affirming Paradigm that focuses on strengths and differences, not disorders, diagnoses, and deficits!
Woven throughout the series are the law and ethics of working with neurodivergent clients, including the danger of misdiagnoses, and the harm of using biased, outdated, debunked diagnostic criteria leading to the under-diagnosis of ADHD and Autism spectrum experiences. In addition, participants will learn about and identify pathologizing, stigmatizing, and harmful treatment protocols and clinical interventions still utilized by providers in educational, physical, and mental health professions.
This series uses a system developed explicitly by B Lourenco, an expert on ADHD and Autism. The course focuses to a large degree on the internal, lived experience of neurodiversity. Each of the six weekly sessions will include a didactic portion, an experiential section, and direct case consultation time. All modules will include lecture, video, and experiential segments.
Certificate Program Weekly Modules:
Week One: Sensory Systems – Getting in touch with the sensory system is the most critical step in supporting neurodivergent clients. Sensory information can regulate emotional and physical experiences. In addition, we will focus on using sensory profiles, menus, and diets to support day-to-day quality of life.
Week Two: Communication and Relationships – Understanding how those with Autism and ADHD communicate creates room for therapeutic connection. With this understanding, we will dive into tools for managing meltdowns and shutdowns in an affirming way.
Week Three: Attending and Executive Function – This module will explain why those with Autism and ADHD face challenges attending to their environment by addressing social expectations on perceptions of “functioning.” You will also learn how to use the client’s natural rhythms to support positive functionality.
Week Four: Social Systems and Disability – Understanding how society directly impacts the lives of people with disabilities. We will focus on how clinicians can incorporate advocacy into their practice and tools to unlearn neurotypical values by connecting clients to personal values.
Week Five: Differentials and Comorbidities – This module will teach participants how to rule out or “dial in” on other mental health concerns or diagnoses. We will present comorbidities that exist with your neurodivergent clients and how to effectively support them in a non-stigmatizing way. The role of trauma and grief in the lived experience of clients who identify as neurodivergent will be discussed, as well as the impact of these events on the developing brain. We will process how to best support the grief and disenfranchised losses felt by our autistic and ADHD clients and their families.
Week Six: The Use of Joy As a Tool Against Oppression. Creating celebrations of being neurodivergent and finding joy in everyday life as we partner with our neurodivergent clients. The Neurodivergent-affirming certificate program series will conclude with various celebrations we can share with our clients and the shift to viewing “joy itself as a tool against oppression.” As clinicians, it is important for us to first comprehend–and then share– the ways that society benefits from neurodiversity in general and ADHD and Autism, in particular. We will conclude by learning ways to help our clients celebrate their neurodiversity and see themselves through an affirming, strengths-based lens.
Other topics that will be covered in this practice- and life-altering certificate program series include, but are not limited to:

Alexithymia and Dysthymia
ARFID
Misophonia
Gender and sexuality in the ADHD and Autistic communities
The role of menstruation on ADHD and Autistic brains
Interdependence vs codependence and/or independence
Myths and stigmas about neurodivergent people
Experiences of abuse in neurodivergent people
Pervasive Desire for Autonomy (PDA)

***Payment Options:
Cascadia Training values quality continuing education that is accessible, inclusive, and without barriers to all. We never want the cost of our workshops to be a barrier to attending one of our workshops, particularly our multi-session workshops.
We offer several options to make our workshops cost-inclusive: payment plans, a limited number of full and partial scholarships, discounts for students, and discounts for early professionals. Please email us at hello@cascadiatraining.org for more information.
For payment plans, you can select paying 50% today and 50% due on March 31, 2026.
REGISTER HERE

🆕BRAND-NEW! An Introduction to the Ethical Use of Assessment Measures 🆕
2026-02-20 09:00 - 13:15
🆕BRAND-NEW!🆕
Law & Ethics CEs!
An Introduction to the Ethical Use of Assessment Measures

Presented by: Dr. Brenda Butterfield, EdD, MSW, LMHC
When: Friday, February 20th, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 1:15 PM, Pacific Time
Where: Live via Zoom. You’ll receive the link via email the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 4 Law & Ethics CEs | $125.00
Communicating care to clients is essential for developing a therapeutic alliance. But with the increased focus on client treatment outcomes, communicating care can be overshadowed — and even lost — when assessing, evaluating, writing treatment plans, and monitoring progress. Thank goodness purposefully using assessment measures can do both! Using them can help create a therapeutic alliance by supporting clinicians and clients when used ethically and in client-centered ways.
Assessment measures can identify a wide array of clinical concerns used to diagnose disorders and validate a client’s lived experience. When used ethically, they can be used to develop a client-centered treatment plan and monitor client progress throughout treatment. Working together, clinicians and clients can use them to connect, learn, and grow.
But it appears many clinicians don’t use them. Learning how to access, score, and use them efficiently throughout treatment can be overwhelming. But with an easy, purposeful process, that can all change!
Learn a purposeful process for using free, evidence-based assessment measures that are valid, reliable measures to assess clients’ overall health and assess depression, generalized anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety, trauma, and substance use. Ethical implications will be highlighted for using measures efficiently and effectively from intake to discharge, while focusing on client-centered care and the therapeutic alliance throughout.
Workshop Objectives:

Learn how to use assessment measures ethically and in client-centered ways to support the development and growth of a therapeutic alliance from start to finish.
Learn how to skillfully engage clients with assessment measures to support and inform assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation of care provided.
Practice administering and scoring assessment measures during the workshop for proficiency in diagnosing and treating common disorders, including depression, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, trauma, and substance disorders.
Increase knowledge of copyright rules and identify free assessment measures that are valid, reliable and easily accessed in the public domain.

REGISTER HERE

Menopause and Mental Health: Navigating the Challenges from Perimenopause to Post-Menopause
2026-02-20 09:00 - 16:30
Meets Health Equity or Cultural Competence Continuing Education Requirements!
Menopause and Mental Health: Navigating the Challenges from Perimenopause to Post-Menopause
Presented by Rebecca Bloom, LMHC (she/her)
When: Friday, February 20, 2026 | 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 6 CEs (meets criteria for Health Equity or Cultural Competence CEs) | Cost: $199.00
The experience of pre-menopause/perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause is rarely talked about, but thousands of people are diagnosed daily with menopause-related challenges.
It shows up in clinical settings in many ways: if someone has been medically induced and is having many symptoms at once; if the whole family system is under stress because “now Mom is mad all the time;” if a client cannot get a medical doctor to address that all her symptoms are connected; or a client feels sex is just “too painful now” and plans never to have sex again.
As clinicians who may be in perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause ourselves, do not understand our own bodies anymore and may find our work life more difficult than ever.
You may have a 48-year-old female client referred by a medical doctor. This new client has no history of depression, but suddenly, she cannot get out of bed, she cannot track her thoughts, and her blood pressure is through the roof. In this workshop, you will learn that these are all symptoms of perimenopause or menopause.
In this workshop, you will gain an in-depth knowledge of the 37 most common symptoms of perimenopause and menopause that affect us physically, mentally, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually.
In addition, you will learn how to talk with your clients about these symptoms and how to help them advocate outside the walls of your office for themselves and the medical care they need. We will also look at how biases and inequalities surrounding race and gender (collectively, we’ll say women, but we mean that in a very inclusive way to include those who identify as a woman, those who are assigned female at birth (AFAB) but are transgender or non-binary but still have female reproductive organs and hormones), LGBTQIA+, socio-economic status, and more impact whether someone receives accessible, affordable, adequate, and effective health care.
We will also explore how the lack of adequate medical care for girls, women, and those AFAB continues throughout their lifespan and greatly impacts all aspects of their lives. This lack of adequate, affirming medical attention leads to this natural hormonal experience negatively impacting “everything” in our lives.
The destabilization and loss process in menopause will be explored from various angles. What does it mean to no longer be of “child-bearing age”? Is that transition cause for celebration? Is it a tremendous loss? What does it currently mean to be a “crone”? We will explore how this role has changed over time and in various cultures.
The latest neuroscience research suggests that the loss of estrogen in the brain has major impacts on many bodily systems. What does it mean to go on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)? Some current research suggests that HRT is safe for up to ten years. We will examine why this protocol changed and what it means for our clients and ourselves.
We will also explore natural options for care and support during the various phases of menopause. “Have your fans at the ready!” Let’s spend the day talking about menopause and learning about what impacts our receiving affirming, effective medical care, including the fact that the average medical doctor receives only one hour– in TOTAL—of formal training on menopause. You will leave this workshop knowing much more than when you arrived, knowledge that will help your clients and you on your journey.
Objectives:

Learn the three stages of menopause.
Learn the 37 most common symptoms of menopause.
Address how to help clients feel more stable in this process.
Learn how culture impacts on menopause.
Address the experience of gender and gender bias across the lifespan.
Destigmatize menopause and encourage authentic, effective discussions.

REGISTER HERE
