Upcoming Training

Diagnostic Overshadowing in Neurodivergent Clients

Why Mental Health Symptoms Get Misread and What Clinicians Can Do About It

Neurodivergent individuals are among the most underserved populations in mental health care because the frameworks clinicians were trained to use were not built with this population in mind. One of the most significant consequences of this gap is diagnostic overshadowing: the tendency for a client's neurodevelopmental profile to obscure co-occurring mental health conditions, or for psychiatric symptoms to be misattributed to the disability itself rather than recognized as distinct clinical concerns requiring their own attention.

This 1.5-hour live webinar examines how and why diagnostic overshadowing occurs with autistic and developmentally disabled clients, what it costs them clinically, and what a more informed approach to recognizing and responding to their mental health needs looks like in practice.

What You Will Learn:

• Define diagnostic overshadowing and explain how it manifests in clinical work with autistic and developmentally disabled clients

• Identify at least three ways standard mental health diagnostic frameworks can produce inaccurate or incomplete clinical pictures with neurodivergent populations

• Describe how co-occurring mental health conditions present differently in autistic and developmentally disabled individuals compared to neurotypical presentations

• Apply at least two clinical strategies for reducing the risk of diagnostic overshadowing in your own assessment and treatment planning practice

Format: Live Webinar

Length: 1.5 hours

CE Credit: Coming soon

Price: Coming soon

Dates and registration details coming soon. Join our mailing list to be notified when registration opens.