AuDHD Joy
Welcome! AuDHD Joy, run by Hel Straker, is a coaching and consulting service that connects neurodivergent professionals to their strengths, and helps organisations harness the value of unique neurodiverse talent.
Not ready for a call? Email me at heledd@audhdjoy.com
You’re not weird, you’re not alone
Autistics and ADHDers are often branded as “difficult”. But the reality is that we’re burning ourselves out trying to mould ourselves to a world not designed for us. I know, because I spent 35 years believing I was broken. When I was diagnosed autistic in 2019 and ADHD in 2022, realised I wasn’t a broken neurotypical, but a perfectly normal neurodivergent.
By then I’d built a 15+ year career in HR, consulting and DEI (reaching HR Director, and working for the likes of Accenture and PA Consulting) trying to fix myself by ‘fixing’ the working world. After my diagnoses, I focussed more consciously on neuroinclusivity, including coaching neurodivergent people, not to change them, but to help them see they’re valuable just as they are.
Today, I’m a qualified neurodiversity workplace coach (ADHD Works, BSC ILM 5) helping neurodivergent people find their path to joy at work, and advising employers on the smart, novel and cost-effective ways to bring out the best in their neurodiverse teams.
Because when we have access to what we need to be happy and successful as ourselves, everybody wins.
The AuDHD Joy approach
My approach combines what my career in HR and DEI taught me about how work is designed (and who it’s designed for), qualifications in coaching, psychology and business, and lived experience as an AuDHDer.
Map
I work with individuals to map their unique neurodivergent profile: values and strengths, energy and cognitive style, and connection needs.
Understand
I get to know the business (its goals, culture and HR processes) to put each person’s challenges and opportunities in context.
Build
Together, we explore strategies that bring out the best in neurodivergent professionals, transforming performance and wellbeing.
Are you ready to embark on your AuDHD Joy journey?
Neurodivergent professionals
We deserve happiness and success because of who we are, not despite who we are. Experience more AuDHD Joy today with neuroaffirming coaching and mentoring.
Employers
Neurodiversity can be a competitive advantage, not a risk to be managed. Harness neurodivergent potential today with neuroinclusion coaching and consulting.
FAQs
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AuDHD is a portmanteau of autism and ADHD. It is currently estimated that up to 70% of autistics are also ADHD, while around 20-50% of ADHDers are also autistic.
AuDHD is often described as a ‘conflict’ of autism and ADHD. We seek novelty AND predictability; we are social AND solitary; we target AND miss detail. But we are no more walking contradictions than anyone else. It’s just there isn’t currently enough research into AuDHD as a cohesive neurotype.
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AuDHD Joy comes from the well-known term “autistic joy”, which refers to the intense happiness that autistic people feel when engaged with what brings them joy.
In this case, ‘AuDHD Joy’ refers to the needs and strengths of each neurodivergent individual that my coaching and consulting approach seeks to unpick. Because when we’re connected to what brings us joy, everyone wins.
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Coaching is a powerful didactic method, where the coach uses powerful questions and provides critical tools to empower the coachee improve their self-understanding and achieve their goals.
Neuroaffirming coaching specifically starts from the perspective of the neurodivergent coachee. The questioning, tools and support are designed to enable the neurodivergent individual to flourish as their authentic themselves, rather than be forced into a neurotypical mould.
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After 15+ years in the HR strategy consulting world, I came to the conclusion that the most effective way to bring out the best in (neuro)diverse talent is not a hefty transformation progarmme, but a series of small tweaks, the effects of accumulate over time.
AuDHD Joy’s neuroinclusive approach is to understand the relationship dynamics between neurodivergent employees, their managers, teams, HR (and others), and identify small, unintrusive, cognitively easy ways to create healthy relationships and high performance.
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Neurodiversity - the natural variation in cognitive, emotional and sensory processing that occur in all humans. We are all neurodiverse.
Neurodivergence - those whose brains are wired differently from the socially accepted norm and are often marginalised because of it.
Neuronormativity - societal structures that have been built with neurotypical people in mind, resulting in the exclusion and disablement of neurodivergent people.
The Equality Act (2010) - a UK employment law that protects disabled people from discrimination. Neurodivergent people count as disabled and you don’t have to be diagnosed to be protected.
Reasonable adjustments - a legal term in The Equality Act (2010) that refers to accommodations that an employer is legally obliged to make for disabled employees. It is an acknowledgement that workplaces are further disabling for our community, with the purpose of reasonable adjustments to level the playing field.