Writing Neurodiversity: Processing Lived Experience through Poetry with DAC Member Rachel Carney

10 weekly online workshops beginning 27 January 2026

Tuesdays from 19:00 - 21:00

This course will offer a safe and supportive space in which to explore your own neurodivergent experience through poetry.

There has been a huge rise in the number of adults seeking a diagnosis for autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or dyspraxia in their 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond, while many individuals remain unsure about whether a diagnosis will be helpful or even possible.

Although attitudes are beginning to change, there remains a certain amount of stigma in society, with unhelpful stereotypes and a lack of awareness about how these neurological differences can affect individuals in different ways.

This course will offer a safe and supportive space in which to explore, articulate, process and reflect on the neurodivergent experience, using poetry as a therapeutic tool.

We will respond to negative experiences and stereotypes, but we will also celebrate our neurodivergent strengths, playing with language and poetic techniques to express what it means to be neurodivergent in a neurotypical world.

This neurodivergent-led course is open to anyone who has (or who thinks they might have) lived experience of neurodivergence (diagnosed, self-diagnosed, or undiagnosed).

Most of the example texts will be poems, but you are welcome to respond to exercises in whatever form or genre you prefer. No previous writing experience is required, but experienced writers are welcome to attend.

Learn more and enrol here: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/part-time-courses-for-adults/courses/view/writing-neurodiversity-processing-lived-experience-through-poetry