Neurodiversity-Affirming Occupational Therapy

Empowering Approaches to Foster Neurodivergent Participation

By: Dr. Bryden Carlson-Giving, OTD, OTR/L

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Paperback | 1 July 2026

At a Glance

Paperback
320 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
17.3 x 24.6 x 2.0

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This community-driven resource is a timely collaboration amongst justice-focused leaders, equipping OT professionals with the tools to foster neurodiversity-affirming practice. Drawn from lived experience, professional expertise, and justice-oriented frameworks, this is both a practical guide and a visionary blueprint for dismantling ableism in OT practice. The first half of the book explores essential foundations such as neurodiversity, ableism, disability justice, trauma-informed care, antiracism, and strengths-based approaches. The second half offers practical strategies for embedding affirming principles throughout the OT process, including evaluation, intervention, research, and education.

Supplemented with over 100 pages of digital content including a bonus chapter of case studies, a resource on how to support Neurodivergent students in higher education and more, this book is a roadmap for transforming OT into a more equitable profession that celebrates neurodivergent ways of life.

Industry Reviews

Karen Whalley Hammell PhD., Honorary Professor, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of British Columbia

This is a remarkable book that provides an accessible, yet scholarly introduction to neurodiversity-affirming occupational therapy. Centered both on disability justice and on the enhancement of meaningful occupational engagement, the various contributors contest ableism, challenge personal and professional assumptions, and promote a strengths-based approach to the provision of occupational therapy that fosters an understanding of both neurodiversity and queerness as naturally-occurring dimensions within the spectrum of human variations. This book has provided me with knowledge from which I am both learning and reflecting, and I unreservedly recommend it to my international occupational therapy colleagues.
Kieran Rose, Consultant, Researcher, Author. www.theautisticadvocate.com

This book reconnects the work of occupational therapy to its foundations of embodied social justice, human rights, and resistance to oppression. Rigorous and courageous, this collection interrogates the structural and cultural forces that shape practice, grounding its analysis in disability justice, and inviting practitioners to think critically, challenge themselves, and be bold. For anyone seeking to shift their practice from affirming to transformative, this is an essential resource.
Aster Harrison, PhD., OTD, OTR/L, Post-Doctoral Scholar at Aix-Marseille Universite

This text is full of practical guidance for OT practitioners to embrace anti-ableist approaches to practice. It takes a refreshingly intersectional anti-oppressive approach that moves our profession in the right direction. For those curious about neurodiversity and related paradigms, this book can serve as an inspiring introduction. For the social justice-minded OTPs working to rebuild OT from its very foundations, this text provides concrete tools and a precious reminder that we are not alone.
Antoine L. Bailliard, Ph.D., M.S., OTR/L, FAOTA, Professor of Occupational Therapy at Duke University School of Medicine

Neurodiversity-Affirming Occupational Therapy is a groundbreaking contribution to occupational therapy and occupational justice. It offers a bold, compassionate, and practical guide for enacting anti-ableist, antiracist, strengths-based, and trauma-informed practices. It accomplishes this by blending theory, research, and personal narratives while integrating diverse voices from neurodivergent authors, activists, and scholars.
Greg Santucci, MS, OTR Founder of ClimbRx and Executive Director of Power Play Pediatric Therapy

This gloriously radical book teaches OT practitioners that neurodiversity is not just a buzzword, but a biological reality. The authors of this book, each in their unique way, provide a clear roadmap to improving neurodiversity-affirming practice, while inspiring the reader to level up their commitment to helping individuals be their true authentic self while pursuing meaningful occupations.
Rachel Ashcraft, OTR/L, FAOTA, TBRI® Practitioner and Program Director for the University of Alabama in Multitiered Approach to Trauma Graduate Certificate. Co-editor of Trauma, Occupation, and Participation.

Neurodiversity-Affirming Occupational Therapy invites us to envision our work, our relationships, and ourselves through the lens of radical inclusion. In reading this incredible text, I laughed, I cried, I wondered, I felt pangs in my heart that may be something like hope. This text offers us a path forward, one that insists occupational therapy be rooted in justice and demands accountability. At the same time, this book is like a loving mentor, pulling up a seat beside us and gently guiding us toward something better.
Georgia Vine, Occupational Therapist, Disability Activist, and Author of Occupational Therapy, Disability Activism, and Me

This is one of the best pieces of current activism I have seen in the profession! Dr. Bryden Carlson-Giving and the books co-authors skillfully outline the relationship between concepts such as disability justice, anti-racism, trauma-informed care, strengths-based practice and more to give the reader tangible actions points to implement into their practice. This book will enable everyone no matter where they are in their journey to allyship to take direct action and critically challenge systems.

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