Oran Blackwood has been working with neurodiverse young people over 10 years. He is also a SENCO and a therapist qualified in Child Counselling and Integrative Psychotherapy. He works with both neurodiverse adults and children.
He is also the parent of a son with autism and global developmental delay.
Through his educational and clinical work, as well as voluntary work for the National Autistic Society (NAS) and in suicide respite, he realised that services available for neurodiverse people are largely oversubscribed and underfunded. This was especially true for services that supported mental wellbeing. Working as a counsellor, he decided to develop and offer a low-cost counselling service for neurodiversity.
He identified two main challenges; support for parents of children with special educational needs as well as support for neurodiverse children and adults. With the public sector services inundated with referrals, counselling support is often delayed or cut short and issues with depression, social anxiety and school refusal may not meet the threshold for statutory services.
He is highly experienced in working with adults and children who present with a range of neurodiverse conditions, especially attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism. These include working with client’s suffering from depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and self-harm.
A skilled practitioner in the use of counselling techniques including Person-Centred Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Gestalt Therapy and Psychoanalysis he also uses art and play therapy with younger children tailoring his intervention to his client’s needs.