Dr. Matthew Zakreski

One of five people are neurodivergent, which means that they have different brains (i.e., ADHD, giftedness, Autism, dyslexia) and ways of interacting with the world. And while some fields tend to attract more neurodivergent employees than others, supporting neurodivergent employees is everyone’s task. Understanding the neurodiversity of our employees empowers leaders, managers, and HR professionals to not only support their needs but also amplify their significant strengths. When we collaborate well with our neurodivergent stakeholders, we improve our culture, output, and bottom line.

This workshop will focus on broader neurodiversity and how neurodivergent and neurotypical workers differ.  When we ground our work with employees and teams in neuropsychology, our understanding of our colleagues’ behaviors, social skills, learning styles, and emotional regulation drastically changes for the better. Neurodivergence is both a vital lens to see our people through, but it also represents a broader social justice movement that extends far beyond the office. When we meet our employees where they are and work with them to build their strengths and develop their weaknesses, they not only feel better, but they do better too. Support for these employees can take the form of personal development, systemic support (like ERGs), and leadership from management.  

Learning Objectives:

1. Attendees at this session will learn how to differentiate between neurodivergent and neurotypical employees and clients and to give examples of both.
2. Attendees at this session will workshop how to make workplaces and products more neurodivergent-affirming and accessible to different populations
3. Attendees at this session will troubleshoot aspects of their workplaces and management styles that interfere with neurodivergent employees engaging with those services.

Life. Is. HARD! As a psychologist, I often say I am in the “business of hope.” But what is hope? And how do we have it authentically when it feels like the world is increasingly chaotic, unfair, and cruel? This talk will focus on what hope truly is from a psychological standpoint and explore how to apply it meaningfully to our lives. I also will talk about the importance of hope from a neurodiversity perspective.  We will also identify potential barriers towards having hope and workshop solutions to overcome those challenges. 

Many of us hope that our lives will improve and that bad things will not happen to us, and those are admirable goals. But how do we get them? Hope differs from optimism in that it not only aligns us with a better future but gives us a plan to get there. Hope is one of the best aspects of the human psyche and it can be enhanced by personal, situational, and organizational factors. In the right circumstances, hope functions both as a virtuous cycle – allowing us to feel better so we do better, and then feel better as a result which helps us to do better – and as a kind of bank where we can make withdrawals of motivation when we need it. This session will operationalize definitions of hope, connect those feelings to behaviors and those behaviors to plans, and give the audience strategies to take the messages of hope to their lives…and keep them.  

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to differentiate between hope, optimism, and toxic positivity, and give examples of each
2. Participants will develop the skills necessary to tap into their personal values and dreams and use those visions to create deeper and more authentic connections to hope.
3. Participants will develop the skills necessary to create workplaces and communities that amplify and support feelings of hope in their employees and community members.

“What if I fall? But, darling, what if you fly?” Failure is inevitable, yet we spend a lot of time and emotional energy trying to prepare for and avoid failure. This talk helps us to understand the role that failure plays in teaching us and informing our practices, as well as how it helps us to build resilience for future attempts. By reframing failure as inevitable, we can prepare ourselves for it and develop resilience around these incidents.  

Failure is one of the most challenging aspects of life for neurodivergent folks to manage. We spent so much time thinking about it, worrying about it, planning for it, and then dealing with it. But failure is an unavoidable part of life. Instead of becoming hopeless when faced with that reality, this session focuses on how to identify the positive aspects of failure, from teachable moments to opportunities to build resiliency. By accepting the reality and inevitably of failure, we lessen its negative impact on us. This talk will focus on how to build resiliency and navigate failure in the best possible ways.  

Learning Objectives:

1. People who attend this conference will understand the potential psychological benefits from failure and how to help access those benefits
2. People who attend this conference will analyze the areas in their lives where failure is holding them back and process strategies that can work through those challenges
3. People who attend this conference will develop the analytic skills to determine how to make their systems more friendly to inviting positive failure and learning from it.

Can’t you just focus? Many neurodivergent people struggle with executive functioning skills (time management, organization, task initiation, response inhibition, etc.). There is a lot of misinformation around executive functioning skills, especially in why they occur and how to help remediate them. This presentation will establish the neuroscience behind executive functioning and how to use the realities of the neurodivergent brain to shape and build skills that help people develop executive functioning.

Executive Functioning skills can be one of the hardest things to develop in neurodivergent learners. Setting structures and systems can help support the development of these vital skills while accommodating the neuropsychological and developmental realities that come with being neurodivergent. This presentation will emphasize realistic expectations, systems to support mistakes, and ways to build meaningful skills. Another aspect of this presentation is how to empower students with knowledge of their own brains so they can articulate their strengths and weaknesses within the executive functioning suite of behaviors.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will learn about the neuropsychological underpinnings of executive functioning challenges and how they show up in different conditions, disorders, and profiles.
2. Participants will practice strategies to adapt their leadership, teaching, and/or parenting styles to accommodate the needs of a person with executive dysfunction.
3. Participants will workshop how to adapt their environments to be more affirming to people with executive functioning challenges.  

Anxiety is a part of life. And that’s OK! It can be very unpleasant, but it isn’t all bad; anxiety even has an evolutionary benefit. We spent a lot of energy trying to avoid anxiety or minimize it, but the true path forward is embracing anxiety to allow us to grow.  Anxiety can change our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and while it attempts to do so for the worst, we can use it to empower ourselves by embracing the power of non-zero thinking.  There’s always a chance that something bad could happen, but by embracing that fact, we open ourselves up to other possible outcomes that are less negative and possibly even positive.

“Have you tried NOT being anxious?” Well, if it was that simple, my job as a psychologist wouldn’t exist.  The fact is that life presents us with lots of challenges that naturally bring up feelings of anxiety. The more ambitious, accomplished, and successful you are, the more feelings may come up when we face increasing challenges. When those challenges emerge, our bodies can get stuck in maladaptive patterns of thinking and avoidance, which create self-fulfilling prophecies that can keep us from being successful at school, work, and life. This presentation is about identifying anxiety, learning to embrace it, and developing the skills to challenge it effectively.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants in this session will be able to identify anxiety and fear and articulate the differences between them.
2. Participants in this session will be able to explain the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and how behaviors reinforce our thoughts. This triad works for all emotions, but this session will focus on anxiety.
3. Participants will develop emotional regulation skills and cognitive flexibility to address our anxiety in healthier, more productive, and more prosocial ways.