Wajdi Akef Fakhoury, LMFT 148333
.png)
Training & Consultation
Neurodivergent-Affirming Mental Health Education for Care Systems
We see this moment again and again — in hospitals, schools, residential programs, family meetings, and therapy rooms. Everyone in the room is trying to help, yet the person at the center of the conversation is being misread. Emotional distress, sensory overwhelm, and mental health needs are present, but remain unseen or misunderstood. Supports are proposed. Decisions are made. And still, something essential is missing.
Samar Neurodivergent Therapy Center’s training and consultation work grew out of these moments.
Through years of working alongside neurodivergent individuals, families, clinicians, and service systems, we have seen how often mental health distress is reduced to “behavior,” how trauma is overlooked, how sensory and communication differences are misinterpreted, and how systems — despite good intentions — can unintentionally cause harm.
What becomes clear is that distress rarely exists in isolation. It is shaped by environments, expectations, relationships, and system responses. When training and consultation do not reflect this reality, care fragments and mental health suffers.
Our training and consultation work focuses on how expectations, routines, transitions, relationships, and environments across settings interact with people’s nervous systems, communication styles, mental health, and wellbeing — and how system-level changes can meaningfully improve care.
.png)
Who This Work Commonly Supports?
This work is designed for the systems, teams, and caregivers who support autistic individuals, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and others with diverse neurodevelopmental profiles—often in the context of co-occurring mental health, medical, trauma-related, or psychosocial needs.
Training and consultation focus on strengthening how supports are organized and delivered across settings, with attention to how expectations, communication, routines, and environments can better align with neurodivergent ways of thinking, communicating, and regulating. This includes supporting consistency and coordination across home, school, community, workplace, and residential settings.
Our Approach to Training & Consultation
Training and consultation at Samar Neurodivergent Therapy Center focus on helping systems identify patterns across settings and respond more effectively over time — particularly patterns that impact mental health, emotional safety, and crisis risk.
This work supports provider teams & systems in:
-
recognizing distress as meaningful communication
-
understanding how mental health is affected by routines, transitions, environments, and expectations
-
clarifying roles, routines, and environmental demands
-
supporting major transitions (school to home, adolescence to adulthood, changes in placement)
-
strengthening prevention and response to mental health crises
-
improving communication and coordination across caregivers and provider teams
-
supporting more consistent responses across settings
The goal is to help systems respond in ways that are clearer, steadier, and more supportive of mental health and wellbeing over time.
What This Work Can Include
Training and consultation may include:
-
curriculum development for service providers and care settings
-
live trainings for direct support staff, supervisors, and leadership
-
recorded trainings to support onboarding, continuity, and consistency
-
resource development addressing recurring system-level challenges
-
consultation to support implementation and cross-system coordination
All services are developed with attention to real-world settings, operational realities, and long-term sustainability.
Who This Is For
This work is intended for:
-
Regional Centers and public systems
-
service providers supporting individuals across care settings
-
residential, SLS, and day program teams
-
schools, workplaces, and community programs
-
multidisciplinary and cross-agency collaborations
It is especially well-suited for organizations seeking to strengthen system-level support for mental health and wellbeing, rather than relying primarily on crisis-driven responses.
.png)