Kate Walker Psychotherapy

15/06/2026

Hello and welcome 👋

I’ve decided to focus my time and energy on my website and Instagram, so this page is no longer updated regularly.

For current information about therapy, autism & ADHD consultations, courses, blog posts, and ways to work with me, please visit:

www.katewalkerpsychotherapy.co.uk

You can also find me on Instagram , where I’m most active.

Thank you for stopping by and for supporting my work.

Kate 🤍

Neurodivergence & trauma-informed therapist in Oakham, Rutland. Supporting adults with ADHD, autism & developmental trauma. In-person & online across the UK and internationally. Enquire today.

02/04/2026

For World Autism Awareness Day, I wanted to offer something practical.

So for the next week, I’m offering 75% off my online course:

Understanding Your Neurotype

That means you can access the full course for £17.50 (lifetime access).

Use code AutismAwareness2026 at checkout to get 75% off.

This isn’t about pushing you towards a label or a conclusion.

It’s a space to:
– map and make sense of your neurodivergent traits
– explore your sensory profile
– identify strengths and challenges
– understand masking, unmasking, and more

Whether you’re questioning, self-identifying, recently diagnosed, or just curious… this is for you.

The offer will run for one week.

No pressure to figure everything out.
Just space to understand yourself a little better.

🔗 link in bio

21/03/2026

This is a great post 👏 I have nothing more to add.

Echolalia is a meaningful tool.

Many autistic and neurodivergent individuals use echolalia to:

🎈 Process language and thoughts.
🎈 Regulate emotions or self-soothe.
🎈 Build memory and practice communication.
🎈 Navigate routines, tasks, or social situations.
🎈 Engage with learning or creative activities.

It can be immediate, right after hearing something, or delayed, replaying phrases from hours, days, or even years ago.

Rather than trying to stop echolalia, noticing its purpose helps create environments where neurodivergent communication is understood, supported, and celebrated.

At Blue Sky Learning, our neurodiversity-affirming therapists and coaches help adults and families understand communication differences like echolalia, reduce shame, and build strategies that honour how each brain processes language.

📩 Book a free 20-minute consult at www.blueskylearning.ca

or email [email protected]

💻 Follow for neurodiversity-affirming mental health education and resources.

20/03/2026

This is a great visual of two different response patterns.

One protects us.
One helps us grow.

We don’t choose between them as consciously as we might think - they’re shaped by safety, capacity and past experience.

Growth isn’t about forcing accountability.
It’s about building enough safety to be able to tolerate it.

11/03/2026

Have you ever wondered what therapists like about their job?

Some of the things I love most aren’t what people expect.

1. The moment something finally clicks for someone.

When an experience they’ve carried for years suddenly starts to make sense in a new way and you can almost feel the energy in the room shift with the landscape.

2. Watching people become kinder to themselves.

Not overnight. Usually slowly. But that shift from constant self-criticism to a little more understanding, and the visible effect it has on their lives can be incredibly moving.

3. The honesty.

Therapy rooms often hold conversations that people have never been able to have anywhere else. There’s something really humbling about the bravery of another human-being sharing their story and trusting me to hold their most vulnerable truths. That part never gets old.

It’s a real privilege and I don’t it take lightly.

04/03/2026

Have you ever wondered if your experiences might relate to autism or ADHD?

For many adults, exploring neurodivergence can feel confusing and inaccessible.

NHS referrals can take years, and private diagnostic assessments are often financially out of reach. Many people are left somewhere in the middle - recognising traits in themselves but unsure where to begin.

Autism & ADHD consultations offer a structured space to explore and better understand your individual neurodivergent traits.

This can be especially helpful if you recognise experiences such as:

• feeling overwhelmed by noise, lights, or busy environments
• replaying conversations afterwards and worrying you got something wrong
• feeling like you’re performing socially rather than simply being yourself
• needing significant time alone to recover after being around people
• struggling to find the right words in the moment
• your mind racing or jumping between ideas
• periods of hyperfocus followed by difficulty starting or finishing other things
• feeling driven by last-minute urgency rather than steady motivation
• feeling emotions very deeply or reacting strongly to criticism
• cycles of burnout, exhaustion, or shutdown

Two consultation options are available:

Consultation + Clinical Summary (£225)
A two-hour consultation followed by a written clinical summary outlining the traits and themes discussed.

Neurodivergence Deep Dive (£200)
A reflective two-hour consultation focused on helping you understand and articulate your individual neurodivergent profile.

These consultations are not diagnostic assessments, but they offer a thoughtful, clinically informed space to help you make sense of your experiences.

More information is available via the link in my bio.

You may want to save this post so you can come back to it later - or share it with someone who might find it helpful.

And if you’re not sure whether your experiences “fit” or not, that’s completely okay - you don’t need to have everything figured out before reaching out.

25/02/2026

Masking isn’t weakness.
It’s adaptation.

But long-term adaptation without recovery often becomes burnout.

Many people don’t realise how much energy they spend monitoring themselves until they finally stop.

If this resonates, you’re not dramatic.
You’re likely tired.

And there are ways to understand yourself that don’t require you to perform.

19/02/2026

Have you been shamed for “jumping on the neurodivergence trend”?

There’s a narrative circulating that dismisses social media as a legitimate starting point for understanding autism or ADHD. It frames online self-recognition as shallow or performative - as if people are diagnosing themselves casually after watching one video.

In my experience, that’s rarely how it happens.

What I see far more often is this:
Someone recognises one small thing that resonates - sound sensitivity, masking, burnout, social exhaustion - and then they begin researching deeply. Reading. Listening. Reflecting. Questioning.

People rarely adopt a label lightly.
They tend to arrive there carefully.

So why is this dismissive narrative damaging?

Because it overlooks how inaccessible clinical diagnosis can be.

Private assessments are costly.
NHS waiting lists in many areas are years long.
And the referral and assessment process itself is often not neurodivergent-friendly.

Self-identification can be the first step towards:
• tailored support
• community
• self-compassion
• language that makes sense

Here, both clinical diagnosis and self-diagnosis are valid.

If you’d like to explore your neurotype somewhere more grounded than TikTok - but without going down the clinical route - I’ve created something that might help.

Link in bio.

12/02/2026

What is masking?

Masking is a form of social camouflaging.
It refers to consciously or unconsciously suppressing parts of yourself in order to fit in with social expectations.

Masking is very common in autistic and ADHD individuals and often develops as a protective coping mechanism to avoid misunderstanding, judgement, or negative reactions.

You’ll often hear people say that you should never mask, or that you should aim to be unmasked 100% of the time. I don’t agree with that. I respect masking for what it is - a protective strategy that can help you stay emotionally safe. And that can be very important for a neurodivergent person navigating a predominantly neurotypical world.

However, while masking can be necessary, it is also cognitively and emotionally demanding, and over time can contribute to burnout and a sense of losing yourself.

Because of this, it’s important to find a balance between masking and unmasking - and to approach unmasking in ways that feel safe, intentional, and sustainable.

This is something I explore in much more depth in my psychoeducational course Understanding Your Neurotype - including how masking shows up, how it affects the nervous system, and what safer unmasking can look like over time.