2eHub

Anne Jackson

I have been counselling and advocating for and with the twice-exceptional young person for many years. These are young people who are gifted as defined by Gagne’s model of talent development but who also carry an identified disability. Currently I am completing my Doctor of Cognitive Neurodiversity and have been fortunate enough to specialise in the student who carries giftedness and ADHD in the same body. To engage with these wonderfully complex young people I use a combination of Narrative Therapy and ACT as the gifted student is highly likely to bamboozle a counsellor who uses a more directive modality. Such young people may become engaged in a verbal debate over all the reasons that change cannot happen or that change requires others to do something but not them. The result is that many twice-exceptional students will fail to achieve their potential and or become involved in risky strategies to deal with their distress. My passion is to engage such young people on a journey whereby they can become the author of their life story. Being gifted yet disabled is an oxymoron that doesn’t have to be a disaster.