Neurodiversity-Affirming Autism Training for Organizations & Professionals

🌱 Neurodiversity-Affirming Training & Workshops for Supporting Autistic Individuals

Our clinicians at New Tides Counselling & Wellness offer trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming training designed for professionals, educators, and organizations who support autistic youth and adults.


These workshops are grounded in lived experience, person-centered care, and practical tools that help you and your team meet neurodivergent individuals with respect, clarity, and compassion with more confidence and ease.

Whether you're a counsellor, teacher, support worker, or post-secondary support staff, our goal is to equip you with a deeper understanding of autism and a toolkit you can actually use — one that honours the uniqueness of each person and supports real inclusion.

🌿 Who These Autism Training Workshops Are For:

Our workshops are ideal for:

  • High school and post-secondary educators and advisors

  • Counsellors, youth workers, and community mental health staff

  • Disability services teams and frontline nonprofit staff

  • Anyone supporting autistic individuals through school, transitions, or life planning

  • Organizations in Vancouver and across British Columbia seeking neurodiversity-affirming training

🌿 What You’ll Learn:

Participants will leave with:

  • A more person-centered understanding of autism and neurodivergence

  • Tools to support executive functioning, emotional regulation, and sensory needs

  • Awareness of how ableism, stigma, and functioning labels affect care

  • Skills to communicate clearly, set expectations, and build inclusive environments

  • A trauma-informed approach to meltdowns, shutdowns, and burnout

  • Language and strategies that promote competence, consent, and autonomy

🌿 What’s Covered in Our Neurodiversity Workshops:

Each of our workshop blends education, lived experience, and practical strategies that can be tailored to your organization and aims to bring your team up to speed on the basics or neurodiversity affirmed care. A typical training includes:

Opening Activities:

  • Experiential exercise on sensory stress and overload

  • Reflective brainstorm on autism bias, beliefs, and media messaging

Core Learning Topics:

  • What’s happening in the autistic brain: socially, emotionally, and neurologically

  • Common challenges: organization, self-advocacy, executive function, interpersonal communication

  • Moving from a spectrum model to a gradient of support needs

  • Presuming competence, avoiding infantilization, and affirming autonomy

  • Understanding meltdowns vs burnout, masking, and shutdowns

  • The impact of internalized bias — and why autistic individuals can feel it instantly

Strategies & Tools:

  • Sensory-friendly options: fidgets, low-light spaces, predictable environments

  • Skill-building tools like TIPP (from DBT) and Spoon Theory

  • Clear communication strategies, including scripts and visual supports

  • Emphasis on asking the person: “What do you need today?” instead of using one-size-fits-all tools

Closing Reflection:

  • Integration through discussion and personal reflection

  • Optional scenario-based case work

  • Audience Q&A

Workshop Format & Accessibility:

  • Available as 90-minute, 2-hour, or half-day workshops

  • Offered virtually or in-person (in Vancouver and surrounding areas)

  • Sliding scale options available for nonprofits, schools, and grassroots organizations

Why Learn About Autism & Working with Neurodiversity With Us?

At New Tides, our team of neurodivergent and neurodiversity-affirming clinicians bring a relational, grounded lens to this work. We care deeply about helping professionals move beyond both buzzwords and antiquated model — and toward real, sustainable change in how they show up for the autistic youth and adults they support.

We’re honoured to work alongside schools, community agencies, and nonprofits across BC to co-create more inclusive systems — and we’d love to support your team next.

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Workshops

  • Our workshops are built for professionals, educators, and community organizations who support autistic youth and adults in a variety of settings. This includes counsellors, teachers, academic advisors, post-secondary staff, youth workers, and frontline nonprofit teams.

    If you're supporting autistic individuals through school, transitions, relationships, or emotional wellness — this training can be for you; please reach out with details regarding your organization and the work you do so that we can explore what this workshop could look like for you!

  • Not at all. We meet people where they’re at. Whether you’re brand new to autism-informed care or some of your team is already involved in neurodiversity work, we create space for reflection, growth, and skill-building. Our goal is to bring your team up to a similar foundational level of understanding!

  • Yes! We offer all trainings virtually (via Zoom), as well as in-person workshops within Vancouver and the surrounding areas. If you’re outside BC, we’re happy to connect and explore options.

  • Absolutely. While we offer a core structure, we’re happy to adapt the content to your team’s needs — whether you're in a school, nonprofit, clinic, or community program. Let us know what your goals are, and we’ll work with you to shape the experience.

  • Pricing varies depending on the format, group size, and duration. We can offer a sliding scale for schools, nonprofits, and grassroots organizations. Fees are typically based on our clinician’s prep, travel and presentation time and typically range from $700+ for a 2 hour presentation with 2 of our team!

    Reach out to us at connect@newtides.ca and we’ll send over a quote.

  • Our workshops are designed by clinicians with lived and professional experience. We focus on relational, person-centered, and trauma-informed care — not checkbox-based learning. Our goal isn’t to “fix” autistic people — it’s to help professionals build trust, flexibility, and real inclusion.

    We bring both clinical insight, lived experienced and deep compassion to this work, with content that’s honest, current, and genuinely helpful in practice.

Autism Training & Workshops
Registered Clinical Counsellor Practice
Serving Vancouver BC and Online Services in British Columbia