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Hello! My name is Emily Lees (she/her)

I'm an Autistic Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) based in Manchester, UK. I am also the Co-Founder of Divergent Perspectives - a training provider delivering workshops to professionals in  how to support Neurodivergent / Autistic children, young people, and adults. I advocate and campaign for radical changes in therapy practices for Autistic people through public speaking, training, and education, in order to transform the way professionals assess and support Autistic children and young people.

I use my lived experience of being Autistic to inform my work in addition to my clinical expertise as a SLT to guide my work, which I feel makes me uniquely positioned to make a difference.

Autistic children do not have social impairments. I don't provide interventions based on behaviourism and the social-deficit theory of Autism; these practices are rooted in flawed theories and outdated research about Autistic people. We now have research which shows the opposite; Autistic people have a diversity in social intelligence and communicate just as effectively with each other as when neurotypicals interact with each other. As a Neurodivergent-Affirming SLT I do not provide Social Skills Training. We know that these interventions are designed to teach Autistic children to mask and perform a set of socially expected behaviours built upon neuronormative norms of attention and communication. 

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Read my recent blog post for Neurodiverse Connection:
 

"The challenges of being an Autistic Speech and Language Therapist"

As a Neurodivergent-Affirming SLT I focus on helping the Autistic person to advocate for themselves through their chosen method(s) of communication. I support them to express their choices, views, boundaries, emotions, and decisions. I give the person full autonomy to select their own goals. I help them to identify their communication strengths & needs using non-pathologising language. I use a trauma-informed approach which takes into context the historic marginalisation and exclusion of Autistic people, I consider the accumulation of sensory, interpersonal, and emotional trauma, and the intersections between other struggles e.g., gender dysphoria, eating disorders, ethnicity. 

Please note -

 

I am now on maternity leave and aim to return around July time - I will be working on a part-time basis and offering a limited number of Communication Assessments

 

I will be checking emails periodically and if possible, I will respond. 

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MY GOALS

To empower Autistic children / adults through:​

  • Lived experience of being Autistic

  • Expertise of Speech, Language and Communication

  • Advocating for reasonable adjustments / accommodations

  • The Neurodiversity Paradigm

  • Respecting Autistic styles of communication

  • Accessible information

  • Activism

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