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Join date: Sep 14, 2024
About
Caitlin Hughes (she/they) is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW) and Autistic ADHDer. Through their private practice, Cathartic Collaborations, Caitlin offers neuro-affirming therapeutic support to Autistic folks and ADHDers. As a published researcher and PhD candidate focused on Autistic mental health, Caitlin combines academic and personal insights to drive change. They also co-host, Divergent Dialogues, a podcast dedicated to educating others about Neurodivergent mental health through the lens of lived and professional experience.
Posts (25)
Jan 10, 2026 ∙ 7 min
Not a Map, But a Compass: Reclaiming Neurodivergent Professional Identity Beyond the Binary of Brokenness
A reflective essay on masking, internalised ableism, & professionalism as performance - how neurodivergent practitioners can reorient toward congruence, not compliance.
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Nov 15, 2025 ∙ 4 min
Reclaiming the Self: What Giftedness Means After Identification
When You Name What Was Always There I didn’t grow up knowing I was gifted. I knew I felt things deeply. That I thought about things other kids didn’t. That I was sensitive to injustice, curious about the stars, and endlessly preoccupied with the inner lives of people, systems, and stories. But for most of my life, those traits weren’t seen as strengths. They were quirks. Overreactions. “Too much.” It wasn’t until I was in my thirties — after already being formally diagnosed as Autistic and...
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Oct 11, 2025 ∙ 4 min
Tall Poppies and Grounded Confidence: Navigating Giftedness in Australian Culture
Don’t Get a Big Head About It Growing up in Australia, I quickly learned that brilliance was best kept quiet. Praise was to be deflected. Success should look accidental. And heaven forbid you actually believed in your own potential — that would make you arrogant, self-important, or “full of yourself.” This is the cultural backdrop many gifted Australians grow up in: the silent enforcement of tall poppy syndrome — a phenomenon where those who stand out are “cut down” through criticism, social...
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Caitlin Hughes
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