Neurodiversity consultancy ·
Dubai and worldwide

Understand the mind.
Realise the strengths.

I work with neurodivergent people and the businesses, families and schools around them. Twenty years of education, assessment and psychology, turned into strategies that hold up in real life.

The Nikki Mitchell emblem: two hands forming a circle around four figures
Eight circles of exactly the same size, each holding a different pattern:
                  a narrowing tunnel for deep focus, scattered dots with one held sharp for
                  detail, a repeating wave for pattern, a quotation mark for words, a
                  scaling sequence of dots for numbers, overlapping shapes for design, a
                  branching sprout for invention, and viewfinder corners for big-picture
                  thinking. Beneath them, Understand the mind. Realise the strengths.

These are only examples rather than a list to fit into, and most minds are a mix.

Relocating to the UAE

Moving to Dubai with a neurodivergent child?

Choosing a school here is the decision that shapes the next few years, and it is usually made from another country, after a short walk around, or on information gleaned from a website. I can help you choose well before you sign and pay anything, and all of it can happen before you arrive.

If school turns out not to be the answer, I can help you build learning at home instead.

The gap worth measuring

The best schools can tell you exactly what support looks like in an ordinary lesson on an ordinary Tuesday, not only what the policy says.

That is the distance worth asking about, and the schools who answer it well are the ones worth choosing. It is one of seven things worth establishing before you enrol anywhere.

The seven things to establish
Why this work

Different thinking is not less capable, just less understood

Most of the people I meet have spent years being told what they cannot do. A child who reads well but cannot answer the question. An adult who runs a department and still cannot start an email. A team that hires brilliant people and loses them within a year.

None of that is a character or culture problem. It is a mismatch between how a mind works and how the environment around it is designed. Once you can see the mismatch clearly, you can do something about it.

Disability is a distinct ability. That is not a comforting phrase to put on a wall. It is the working assumption behind every assessment I write and every session I run, and it shapes the support I put in place afterwards.

Nikki Mitchell
Nikki Mitchell delivering corporate training
In your school, in school hours

I fit around your child's  week, not the other way round

Work with children and young people can take place at their school in Dubai, inside the school day, rather than becoming another appointment at the end of an already long one.

For a lot of neurodivergent students, being in a familiar room with a person sitting opposite them makes learning and engagement far easier than a screen does. Face to face is often the difference between a session that lands and one that is simply got through.

I arrange the schedule directly with the school, so there is nothing for you to organise.

  • Delivered at the school, anywhere in Dubai
  • Scheduled during your child's school day
  • Saves you having evening appointments or weekend traffic
  • Nothing extra to fit around work or siblings
  • Your child stays in a setting they already know
  • Arranged with the school directly, not through you
The Mitchell Method

Reveal. Reframe. Realise.

Every piece of work I do follows the same three movements, whether the client is a nine year old, a graduate, or a leadership team of forty.

1

Reveal

We find out how the mind in question actually works. Formal assessment where that is useful, observation and conversation where it is not. No assumptions carried in from anyone else.

2

Reframe

We change the story being told about that mind. Difference becomes distinct ability. The person stops being explained and becomes the one doing the explaining, the expert on their own thinking.

3

Realise

We put strategies in place that hold up on a Tuesday afternoon. Realise carries both meanings here. Realise the strengths, and make them real in the classroom, the home, the office.

Qualified, registered, accountable

Credentials that stand up to scrutiny

Neurodiversity coaching is a largely unregulated field. These are the qualifications that let me carry out formal assessment and write reports that schools and examination boards accept.

ACCPH Fellow BPS Registered Test User CPT3A Certified NPQSL PGCert in Educational Leadership Adv. Dip. in Counselling and Psychology 20+ years in education and psychology UK GDPR compliant assessment
What people say

In their words

Thank you for everything you have done for F this year. It's been a strange and sometimes unsettling first year in Dubai, and your support has made an enormous difference. He has settled more smoothly than we could've hoped. Thank you for making such a positive impact on his life.

Parent, Arcadia British School, Dubai

The assessment gave us understanding and language we hadn't had before, and a plan the classroom could actually use. It has changed how the school talks about him, how we interact with him and how he talks about himself.

Parent, JESS, Dubai

Before this training, three of our best people were quietly managing conditions we never knew about. All three are still with us, two have since been promoted, and building roles around what someone is good at has become how we manage everyone.

Founder and CEO

Not sure which door to knock on?

Tell me a little about the situation and I will point you to the right starting point, even if that turns out to be someone other than me.

Get in touch