The EMPOWER Model: Empowering Neurodivergent Occupational Participation and Well-Being

In this session, occupational therapist Bryden Carlson-Giving presents the EMPOWER Model, the neurodiversity-affirming occupational therapy model he developed in his doctoral work at Boston University, then takes questions in a live Q&A moderated by Nicole Day. Bryden is a multiply neurodivergent, school-based OT in Minnesota and the editor of Neurodiversity-Affirming Occupational Therapy, and he drew every illustration in the slides himself.

He starts with the medical model of disability as a lens rather than a setting, and with a much wider idea of neurodivergence that includes acquired, psychiatric, and contextual differences. He is candid about his own: he would keep his autism and ADHD, and he treats his depression. From there he walks through the model piece by piece. Four foundations, disability justice, trauma-informed care, anti-racism, and strengths-based approaches, are held together by lived experience. Inside them sits a five-stage anti-ableist process that starts with examining your own biases before you ever meet a student, then moves through evaluation, supports, outcomes, and advocacy. Each stage comes with something concrete to try, such as a test for whether an assessment tool is more affirming than not, or goals that target positive disability identity. In the Q&A he talks about involving non-speaking students in goal setting and picking battles inside a school system.

Occupational therapists, other therapists, and educators will come away with a structure for checking their own practice from first reflection through to advocacy, a list of tools and programs created by or with neurodivergent people, and one or two changes small enough to try next month. Grounded in Bryden's research and his daily work in schools, this session is thorough, generous with resources, and honest that the work is never finished, including for him.