a different kind of neurodiversity consultancy
What is a “spiky profile?”
The spiky profile is the classic shape of neurodivergence. It manifests when someone has very binary extremes of ability across different cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions. This exists in stark contrast to the smoother, flatter profile generally associated with the neurotypical mind, which tends to be more evenly matched across all categories.
As a Neurodivergent entrepreneur, I wanted a name that resonates with others like me, and piques curiosity in those unlike me.
different how?
The way i see it, there are roughly four basic types of Neurodiversity consulting firms out there. they are as follows:
the expert researcher
In the burgeoning field of neurodiversity studies, there are a ton of experts to be sure, easily smarter than I am. I know some of them, and admire all of them. I keep up with their work obsessively. That said, the majority of these researchers are siloed in the ivory towers of academia while the rest of us schlubs get up and go to work for large organizations every day. I may not conduct the research myself, but I’m educated and intelligent enough to appraise it critically and tell you, in laymen’s terms, what it means and how to apply it to your specific situation.
the organizational expert
There are countless organizational consultants in industry that have decades of experience in lean six sigma and all sorts of other management-style-du-jour trainings. I’ve been through a bunch of these myself - in the military, in the private sector, and in the public sector. I have occupied nearly every stratum of the organizational hierarchy from the guy scrubbing the toilets and mopping the floors all the way to the rarified air of senior leadership.
This perspective alone places me in a very small percentile of folks.
the expert clinician
there are a ton of autism experts, psychiatrists, and psychologists out there that can talk to you all day about the pathophysiology of neurodivergence and give you treatments and talk of cures. This is the Medical Model, which is ableist in nature and sees people like me as somehow “lesser than” and in need of “fixing.” In all but the most extreme cases, this pathologizing, deficits-based mindset is inappropriate. It’s definitely inappropriate as a starting point for most Neurodivergent individuals you already have working in your company. A more appropriate starting point for our work is the Social Model - a strengths-based, “start from yes” approach that works infinitely better in organizational settings. Do I understand the physiology of the majority of neurodivergent presentations? Of course I do.
But I believe “where do we go from here?” is a much higher-yield question than “how did we get here?”
the salty, road-weary neurodiversity elder
There are a multitude of first voices of neurodivergence out there with absolutely invaluable insight and impactful anecdotes from a lifetime of living as an invisible minority. The majority of them have been engaged in advocacy and change far longer than I have, as well.
I sincerely hope that I do them and the community proud as I stand on their shoulders to chart a better path forward for all of us.
The tetrad
I don’t know of any other ND consultancy in the current market space that does what I do. spiky profile takes the most effective parts of each of these four options, and rolls them all up into one consultant. Instead of four different experts with four different talks, you get one person in four aspects, existing simultaneously in all four worlds and able to speak competently and authoritatively on each. Scientific thinker, clinical doer, organizational leader, and Neurodivergent first voice - all in one consultant.
Put simply, spiky profile sits at the precise nexus of theory, practice, organizational application, and authentic lived experience.