Challenging Stigma in Counseling for Neurodivergence and Disabilities

Presenter: Olivia Fadul, LPC, NCC

Learning Objectives:

Learn some of the unique emotional stressors of neurodivergence and clients with disabilities.
Develop a case conceptualization and treatment plan that considers disability in the context of client’s lived experience.
Provide a framework that empowers counselors to partner with clients in building a Disability and Neurodiverse Affirmative toolkit.

CE Credit: 1 NBCC Hours; 1 CRCC Hours; 1 WA Hours; 0 APT Hours; 0 NAADAC Hours; 1 NY Hours; 0 Ethics Hours

Olivia Fadul, LPC, NCC

Olivia Fadul is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and a National Certified Counselor. She identifies as a 2nd generation Filipino-American with hearing loss. Olivia graduated from Jacksonville State University in 2008 and 2011. In 2020, she founded Olive Tree Counseling and Wellness, where she provided pro bono services to frontliners. Olivia’s counseling experience includes working with substance use disorders, co-occurring disorders, first-generation students, at-risk adolescents, disability, and neurodiversity. Her clients during COVID-19 influenced her to return to school. In 2021, she started her Counseling Education and Supervision Doctoral Program at the University of New Mexico, where she began the UNM Deaf and Hard of Hearing Support group, served on Albuquerque’s Mayor Tim Keller American with Disability Council, past secretary of UNM Chi Sigma Iota, past President of JSU Chi Sigma Iota, past president of the Alabama Addiction and Offender Counselors, ACES membership committee, CSJ research committee, ARCA Accessibility Taskforce, ARCA Supervisees with Disabilities Taskforce, and is Past President of the New Mexico Counseling Association Counselor for Advocacy and Social Justice. In 2024, she received the Counselor for Social Justice O’Hana award and is a 2024-2025 NBCC MFP Doctoral Fellow. She is on track to graduate from UNM with her doctoral degree in 2026 or 2027. Other ACA divisions she belongs to are AARC and ASWG.