Library / Watch / Think Autism Sydney 2025
Lived experience, Think Autism Sydney 2025
The peer worker who once feared being sued for mentioning her ADHD
In short
At Think Autism Sydney in 2025, Georgia Zentrich described once fearing she would be sued for speaking about her ADHD, and finding a job in which she is employed to share her lived experience.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
Georgia Zentrich once expected to be punished for talking about her ADHD, which she is now employed to draw on. On the neurodivergent health practitioners panel at Think Autism Sydney in May 2025, the ADHD educator and Headspace peer worker said that, coming from a background in psychology, she had felt so much fear and stigma about speaking up about ADHD, “to the point where I thought I was going to get sued if I spoke about it on LinkedIn.”
Her experience with clients ran the other way. Zentrich, who has ADHD, told the panel that when she works with clients who have ADHD, “my lived experience is actually what helps them feel seen for who they are.” She said she can teach them the same research that clinical psychologists and psychiatrists try to teach them, and that teaching it from her own experience helps them feel empowered, which feels very different.
Sign in to keep reading, listening and watching.
Sign in with your email and everything in the Library is open to you: every story, every talk and every episode. It is free and it always will be. If you can, a donation helps keep it free for everyone.
Sources the story draws on
- National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Development Guidelines (opens in a new tab), National Mental Health Commission
- PsyBA competency updates: now is the time to enhance your neurodiversity-affirming practice (opens in a new tab), Australian Psychological Society
More from Think Autism Sydney 2025
All 44- 4 minutes 4 seconds, captioned A trauma therapist traced the distrust of lived experience back to colonisation Think Autism Sydney 2025 At Think Autism Sydney in 2025, a trauma therapist on a panel of neurodivergent practitioners argued that mental health care inherited its suspicion of lived experience, and described sitting on the ground with clients.
- 6 minutes 45 seconds, captioned Neurodivergent practitioners on the village that got them through Think Autism Sydney 2025 At Think Autism Sydney in 2025, a panel of neurodivergent practitioners described the partners, parents, housemates and lecturers who got them through, and what neurodivergent clinicians need from each other.
- 10 minutes 12 seconds, captioned Advice for neurodivergent clinicians began with treating burnout as an environment problem Think Autism Sydney 2025 Asked at Think Autism Sydney in 2025 what they would tell neurodivergent people entering mental health work, three practitioners spoke about burnout, saying no, schemas and lowering the bar to safe enough.
- 2 minutes 11 seconds, captioned A physiotherapist asked why physiotherapy regulation lags psychology on lived experience Dr Naomi Malone At Think Autism Sydney in 2025, a physiotherapist with lived experience asked a panel of mental health practitioners how to win at the regulatory level what psychology was already writing into its standards.
- 1 minute 16 seconds, captioned Téa Rundback asked for spaces built with autistic people already in mind Téa Rundback, Georgia Zentrich At Think Autism Sydney in May 2025, Téa Rundback set the measure of belonging at never having to prove eligibility. Georgia Zentrich explained why autistic people on every side of the support needs line still end up proving themselves.
- 2 minutes 24 seconds, captioned Care is a text that needs no reply, a Think Autism panel heard Georgia Zentrich At Think Autism Sydney in May 2025, panellists argued that autistic community can live online and that care is defined by the people who give and receive it, in small, everyday acts.