$99 Early Bird Pricing Ends April 19 — Save $80 Now
3 days live + 60-day on-demand + community access
June 10-12, 2026 | LIVE
Daily | 8:00am-1:30pm MT
If you've spent years adapting tools that were never quite right for the people in front of you, Differently Wired Thriving was built for this moment in your career. Hosted by STAR, this live virtual summit brings together occupational therapists, neurodivergent professionals, advocates, and researchers who share a common conviction: that thriving doesn't come from fixing individuals — it comes from rethinking the relationships, environments, and systems around them.
Unlike traditional lecture-based conferences, Differently Wired Thriving is designed as a relational learning experience, where science and lived experience are placed in genuine conversation. Co-regulated openings, facilitated dialogues, and application labs create space to slow down, engage with complexity, and reflect — modeling the very approaches being discussed, not just describing them.
Over three days, the summit moves from understanding yourself and your own regulatory experience, to exploring what happens between people in relationships and systems of care, to examining the broader ecological and cultural forces that determine whether neurodivergent individuals merely cope — or truly thrive. You'll leave with practical strategies you can apply immediately, and with renewed clarity, confidence, and alignment in your professional work.
What you'll take away:
- Reconnect with purpose and meaning. If traditional models have left you feeling misaligned or burned out, this summit offers a path back to approaches that honor humanity, complexity, and dignity — without requiring you to compromise either.
- Learn through dialogue, not directives. Researchers, clinicians, and neurodivergent voices aren't siloed into separate sessions — they're in conversation with each other, and with you, creating the kind of richer understanding that lectures alone rarely produce.
- Walk away with strategies you can actually use. Application Labs translate reflection into action, helping you adapt insights to your own setting without demanding unrealistic system overhauls. What you learn here works in the real world you go back to.
- Experience neuroaffirming learning in action. From co-regulated openings to intentional pacing, the summit doesn't just teach sensory-aware, relational practice — it models it. You'll feel the difference.
- Stay connected beyond the three days. Access to an online community and 60 days of on-demand recordings means the learning doesn't stop when the summit does — you can revisit, integrate, and apply at your own pace.
OUR 3-DAY PROGRAM
DAY 1 | JUNE 10 | 8:00AM - 1:30PM MT | Understanding Ourselves – Our Bodies
Day 1 is where your next-level neuroinclusion journey begins. We start by turning inwards, to the body. Together we will examine what regulation really means across neurotypes and how sensory experience shapes identity, energy, and self-expression. This is hands-on professional reflection: what do we really mean when we talk about regulation? How is it different to self-discipline/self-control? Unpacking energy rhythms, confronting how systems like work culture, gender expectations, and bias affect the body’s capacity to thrive.
Across our series of panels, application labs, and short presentations, we will discuss the complexity of sensory diversity and well-being across contexts. How can sensory diverse people stay true to themselves while navigating a world that wasn’t built with them in mind? How do things like work, misogyny, and white supremacy impact self-regulation?
Expect to leave this day with practical frameworks for adapting sensory and regulatory strategies across contexts and with a renewed understanding of your professional and personal self. This is where doing the work starts, centering integration as the foundation of ethical neuroaffirming practice.
8:00am–8:30am | Welcome | Virginia Spielmann, Kieran Rose
8:30am-9:00am | Short Presentation | Damon Kirsebom
9:05am–10:00am Dialogue 1: What Does Regulation Mean for Different Bodies | Bryden Carlson-Giving, Naureen Hunani
10:05am–10:20am | Break
10:20am-11:05am | Application Lab 1
11:10am-11:40am | Short Presentation
11:45am-12:45pm | Dialogue 2: Authenticity, Energy, and Masking | Lulu Larcenciel
12:45pm-1:30pm | Application Lab 2
1:30pm | Close | Dr. Virginia Spielmann
DAY 2 | JUNE 11 | 8:00AM-1:30PM MT | Understanding Each Other
On Day 2, we will be exploring relationship, co-regulation, and belonging. If Day 1 helps you understand self, Day 2 is about what happens between us. Connection is regulation.
Throughout the day’s live dialogues, presentations, and guided application labs, we will explore how relationships, teams, families, and communities can support or sabotage safety and learning. This event will move us beyond theory to practice, how to build spaces and places where people experience true belonging, not surface-level inclusion (which can sometimes cause as much harm as overt exclusion).
You will learn to notice co-regulation in action, repair it when it falters, and design interactions that honor difference without exhaustion. The return on investment here is enormous: clarity, confidence, and relational tools that immediately elevate your professional and personal effectiveness.
8:00am–8:30am | Welcome | Virginia Spielmann, Kieran Rose
8:30am-9:00am | Short Presentation | Kristy Forbes
9:05am–10:00am | Dialogue 1: Co-Regulation and Belonging in Relationships and Systems | Lovette Jallow, Iris Varela
10:05am–10:20am | Break
10:20am-11:05am | Application Lab 1
11:10am-11:40am | Short Presentation | Dr. Karen Gravett
11:45am-12:45pm | Dialogue 2: Validating Not Belonging | Nyck Walsh, Dr. Karen Gravett and Monique Botha
12:45pm-1:30pm | Application Lab 2
1:30pm | Close | Dr. Virginia Spielmann
DAY 3 | JUNE 12 | 8:00AM-1:30PM MT | The Ecological Context
Day 3 continues to expand the conversation of the previous two days, looking out beyond the individual and beyond the small-scale community toward building a sensory-diverse world that respects the dignity and difference of neurodiverse people. Together, we analyze what a neuroinclusive world could look like in education, health care, workplaces, and culture; and how to face the realities of building this. Through panels, reflection, and application sessions, you will learn how to root advocacy in intersectional ethics and turn ideals into concrete, manageable and maintainable action.
This is where we translate insight into action: transforming how we design programs, policies, and professional cultures. You’ll leave ready to be an advocate and architect of real systemic change, equipped, aligned, and inspired to lead the next phase of this movement. Participants will leave equipped to influence the cultures and institutions they touch; ready to build settings where neurodivergent people, colleagues, and clients don’t just survive but fully participate and flourish.
8:00am–8:30am | Welcome | Virginia Spielmann, Kieran Rose
8:30am–9:00am | Short Presentation | Vesper Moore
9:05am–10:00am | Dialogue 1: Imagining Systems That Feel Like Home | Vesper Moore, Dr. Diamond Rashad and Lulu Larcenciel
10:05am–10:20am | Break
10:20am-11:05am | Application Lab 1
11:10am-11:40am | Short Presentation | Dr. Alicia Broderick
11:45am-12:45pm | Dialogue 2: Accountability, Culture, and Sustainability | Dr. Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Lulu Larcenciel, and Warda Farah
12:45pm-1:30pm | Application Lab 2
1:30pm | Close | Dr. Virginia Spielmann
Get to Know Our 2026 Speakers - CONFIRMED TO DATE
Virginia Spielmann |
Kieran Rose |
Kristy Forbes |
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Vesper Moore |
Karen Gravett |
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Naureen Hunani |
Diamond Rashad |
Bryden Carlson-Giving |
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Lovette Jallow |
Nyck Walsh |
Iris Varela |
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Morénike Giwa Onaiwu |
Alicia A. Broderick |
Warda Farah |
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Continuing Education
Differently Wired Thriving is designed for professionals who want more than a certificate — but we know continuing education hours matter too. An AOTA/ASHA CEU add-on is available at registration for an additional $90, giving you a straightforward path to credit without it getting in the way of the learning itself.
What's included with the CEU add-on:
- 1.5 AOTA CEUs (pending approval)
- CEU eligibility will be confirmed prior to the event
- ASHA credit eligibility
- Certificate of Completion
- Access to the ASHA CE Registry reporting process
Don't need CEUs? All registered participants receive a Certificate of Attendance at no additional cost — no quiz required.
Questions about continuing education? Contact us at education@sensoryhealth.org.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is this event right for me? Differently Wired Thriving is designed for occupational therapists, mental health clinicians, educators, and neurodivergent professionals and advocates who work with or within neurodivergent communities. If you've found yourself questioning whether traditional frameworks are truly serving your clients, feeling misaligned with conventional models, or simply hungry for approaches that center dignity and lived experience alongside research — this summit was built for you. You don't need to be an expert in neuroaffirming practice to attend. You just need to be ready to engage.
- I'm a neurodivergent professional or advocate, not a clinician. Is this space for me? Absolutely. Neurodivergent voices are not an afterthought at this summit — they're central to it. Speakers, dialogues, and application labs are designed to bring lived experience and clinical research into genuine conversation. Whether you come as a practitioner, an advocate, or both, you belong here.
- What if I can't attend live? You don't have to choose between attending and your schedule. All sessions are recorded and available on demand for 60 days following the event — from June 12 through August 11, 2026. You can join live when you can and catch everything else at your own pace.
- What does my registration include? All registered participants receive access to a dedicated virtual event space on STAR's online platform. This is your home base for the summit — where you'll find your livestream access, downloadable presentation handouts, and session recordings as they're uploaded after each live day. It's also where the community lives. Rather than a conference that ends when the last session closes, the event space gives you a place to continue the conversations, stay connected with fellow attendees, and integrate what you're learning over time.
- How do I access the recordings? Recordings are uploaded incrementally after each live session, so you won't need to wait until the summit ends to start watching. Access details will be provided after registration.
- What does the summit cost? Early bird tickets are $99 through April 19. After that, advance pricing is $139 through a later cutoff, and regular pricing is $179. Registering early is the simplest way to save.
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What time zone are the sessions in? All sessions run live from 8:00am to 1:30pm Mountain Time (MT) on June 10, 11, and 12, 2026. For reference, that's 10:00am–3:30pm ET | 7:00am–12:30pm PT | 3:00pm–8:30pm GMT | 4:00pm–9:30pm CET | 11:00pm–4:30am AEST.
Can't make the live sessions from your time zone? No problem. All sessions are recorded and available on demand for 60 days after the event, so international attendees can engage fully at a time that works for them. Handouts and resources are available in your virtual event space regardless of when you tune in.
- Is there an add-on for CEUs? Yes. An AOTA/ASHA CEU add-on is available for an additional $90 and includes a Certificate of Completion and 1.5 AOTA CEUs (pending approval). To receive credit, you'll need to complete a brief quiz for each approved session by July 13, 2026, with a passing score of 80% or higher. All registered participants receive a Certificate of Attendance regardless of whether they purchase the CEU add-on.
- Do you offer accommodations for disabilities? Yes — and we mean it. Contact us at education@sensoryhealth.org before the event and describe what you need. We're committed to making this experience accessible in a way that reflects the values of the summit itself.
Still have questions? Reach us at education@sensoryhealth.org. We're happy to help you figure out if this is the right fit.
Attendance Policy
Participants may join the conference at any time during the live broadcasts and/or view the recorded presentations for 60 days after the livestreamed event.
To receive the Certificate of Completion, participants must meet the following criteria:
- Purchase the AOTA/ASHA CEU Add-on
- Attend the live event or watch the recordings
- Complete and pass a brief quiz for each approved presentation by July 13, 2026
- A passing score is 80% or higher
- Quizzes must be completed in the order of the presentations
- Quizzes may be retaken as needed
If you would like STAR Institute to report your credits to the ASHA CE Registry, please submit the ASHA CE Registry Reporting Form by July 13, 2026
Please note:
- All participants will receive a Certificate of Attendance
- Access to Presentation Recordings - Recordings will be available from June 12, 2026, through August 11, 2026. Live sessions are scheduled for June 10-12, 2026, with recordings uploaded incrementally after each session.
Cancellation Policy
Since this program is recorded and available for on-demand access, cancellations are generally not accepted. If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with education@sensoryhealth.org.
In the rare event that this program must be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances such as illness, fire, strikes, war, acts of God, or other disruptions beyond our control, STAR Institute will make every effort to reschedule. If rescheduling is not possible, all registration fees will be refunded.