The Neurodivergent Coach
About Samantha Nuttall
Founder of The Neurodivergent Coach
My Mission...
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To empower people who are Neurodivergent to design careers built upon their unique strengths, abilities and interests.
To create organisational cultures where people who are Neurodivergent (think differently) belong, thrive and flourish.
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To challenge the global status quo of poor employment and educational outcomes for people who are Neurodivergent and passionately pursue systemic change.
In addition to my postgraduate qualification in Coaching Psychology, I am proud to be an accredited Stanford 'Designing Your Life' Coach.
I utilise the unique and innovative design thinking based coaching to empower those I work with to think differently about their lives, identify and remove their barriers to thriving and gain clarity on how to move forward.
Do you Love a podcast? Hear me speak to Lou Kuchel about the employment of neurodivergent people and my lived experience as a neurodivergent mum to two neurodivergent children on the Square Peg Round Whole Podcast.
Lou and I discuss the inherent biases in most recruitment practices and the importance of strengths based career coaching for neurodivergent young adults and professionals.
From missed diagnosis... to life mission...
I was diagnosed as neurodivergent (or identified, depending on your viewpoint!) in 2018 at the grand old age of 41, and for me, diagnosis was life changing. Finally! An explanation for the ever present sense of difference and unease in 'normal' ways of doing things.
However, my late diagnosis and the diagnosis of my two children, prompted a total "Life Redesign" which included the reassessment of my life/career goals AND identification of the need for new ways of working.
I was lucky; my unique experience as a Careers and Employability Coach for the University of Sydney Business School, as an Early Years Recruiter and Talent Development Manager at Deloitte and my post graduate qualification in Coaching Psychology provided much of the specific knowledge and skills I needed to make the changes I needed.
However, in my role at University of Sydney and subsequent role as an Access and Inclusion Consultant for the Australian Network on Disability, the scale of disadvantage for Neurodivergent people in the workplace became apparent to me and I realised, I had to become a change maker in this space for other neurodivergent people...and so my mission began!
The Neurodivergent Coach Giving Back Program
I am determined to ensure that we reduce the impact of unsupported neurodivergence on people's lives and in particular on the lives of those already facing significant disadvantage. Missed diagnosis particularly impacts children who belong to another disadvantaged group e.g. in out of home care. I have specifically designed my business in ways that enable me to contribute to this goal by donating 10% of the profit from the work I do to the screening of disadvantaged early school years children via the charity SAVED.
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Around 15% of the Australian population are Neurodivergent. However, in Australia, the majority of us are not identified or diagnosed as young children. For example, according to a 2020 study by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, “Only one in every five children meeting criteria for ADHD at age 7 already has a diagnosis.”
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Missed diagnosis/identification is associated with a number of negative life outcomes including poor educational performance, lower rates of employment, lower life satisfaction and higher rates of mental illness including depression and anxiety, imprisonment, poverty and suicide.
The charity 'SAVED’ is championing the provision of free, screening of attentional, learning, emotional, and behavioural differences for primary school children with the ultimate goal of radically improving the life and educational outcomes for children who might otherwise go undiagnosed and unsupported. You can donate to SAVED here.
