Welcome to KatieTrowse.com – the home of Rise with Katie neurodivergent family support, and my work as an author and advocate for neurodiversity and neuroaffirming practices in education.
I am Katie Trowse!
I am a teacher, mentor, author and business owner, as well as a proud neurodivergent parent.
I help children and young people grow their own confidence, own their strengths, advocate for themselves, and adapt to challenges and understanding themselves with love, support and guidance that works for them. We work together to embrace differences, feel empowered to learn in ways that work for us, and have a lot of fun!
I first became a teacher back in 2010 (as yet unaware of my amazing neurodivergent brain and true strengths) and keen to share the joy of learning with the children I taught! Of course, over my career as a teacher I got to know a lot of students who did not share my love of learning, and it took a long time to gradually understand and really see the experience from their point of view, through their eyes, and uncover how to help them succeed and thrive at school and beyond..
My experience of school was a challenge in different ways to most, and was mostly hidden from view beneath top grades and exemplary behaviour. I always felt different and never understood why certain things that others found easy were always such a challenge, even though I could achieve so well academically, and others were often baffled by it too, and would simply explain it as ‘ditsiness’ or ‘carelessness’ or ‘laziness’, not understanding that none of those things applied to me.
I masked my ADHD traits as much as possible, until I first burnt out and suffered a mental health crisis during my teacher training years, but this was just diagnosed as anxiety until around 4 years later, at the age of 30, not long after my mum received her own ADHD diagnosis in her 50s. It was almost unheard of for women and girls to be diagnosed still, especially as adults, and those around me were pretty stunned and confused by the diagnosis, as I wasn’t a hyperactive boy!
But gradually I learned the hard way how to advocate for myself as I understood my brain better and better, with A LOT of research and self-development along the way (plus therapy, coaching and an intense healing process!). I battled with trying to advocate for my students in our UK education system, many of whom were also misunderstood for their neurodivergent brains, or were undiagnosed, and to keep going as a neurodivergent teacher within it.
All of these experiences led me to my work today, and eventually out of the classroom. Now I use my greatest strength, my sensitivity and ability to connect with my students, as the foundation of my work and my business, helping others navigate paths similar to mine, whether related to building confidence, understanding neurodivergence, or learning HOW to learn in ways that work best for them.