About
Outspoken SP
Outspoken SP is a speech pathology service from a neurodivergent clinician for neurodivergent people.
Cicely Binford, MSPA CPSP, is a late identified/diagnosed AuDHD speechie with PDA.
We're in this together.
I am here to get to know you, learn how you communicate, help you identify your strengths, collaborate with you, and support you using evidence-based strategies tailored for your unique way of thinking, living, and communicating.
I strive to practice in ways that are neurodiversity-affirming, gender diversity-affirming, client-led, family-centred, strengths-based, and culturally safe.
I meet you where you're at and will advocate for your needs in the community, whether that be with your family, educators, employers, or service providers. I aim to help you find solutions that work for you, to gain and maintain access to supports, and to work towards goals that are meaningful and valuable to you.
More about me...
Howdy, I'm Cicely.
I grew up a band & theatre kid in Texas and have a Bachelor of Arts in Drama degree from Texas Woman's University (TWU) and a Master of Speech Pathology degree from Curtin University.
After graduating from TWU in 2000, I found my way to a job at an international freight forwarding company, which enabled me to move to Boorloo/Perth in 2007. After 20 years in freight forwarding, disability support, freelance arts writing, and other odd jobs and side-hustles, it was finally time for a 'real' career that aligned with my principles and interests, and would allow me to have a tangible impact on my community. So I enrolled in the Master of Speech Pathology course at Curtin University.
Unexpectedly, the decision to return to study also set me on a path of understanding and acceptance about my own lifelong struggles with social communication, relationships, sensory processing, and mental health. After barely making it through the first highly demanding semester, I went to my GP to seek a referral for an autism assessment. Her initial response was that I probably have ADHD, but that I "didn't seem autistic" because I wasn't like her daughter who was. While I was grateful to have some of my challenges validated with a subsequent ADHD diagnosis, I was still filled with self-doubt and shame when my other concerns were dismissed. Two years later, after continual periods of extreme demand avoidance, burnout, and shutdown as I started my new career, I finally booked in for an autism assessment and received a diagnosis.
Since then, I've been learning A LOT (hi, special interest!) through professional and personal development, listening to theory and to the lived experiences of others in the neurodiversity/disability movement, and actively putting neuroaffirming principles into practice. I've been looking for answers about why autistic girls/women/AFAB people are overlooked and underserved by professionals. And I've been working through the inevitable conflicts that come from being a neurodivergent clinician working under a traditionally deficits-based paradigm.
I now know that I can only practice in a way that aligns with my neurotype. But I think that's an asset and not a deficit.
Ultimately, I want to be the kind of speechie that I would have had fun with and felt safe with as a kid, who would have valued me as I was and didn't want to change me, but who would offer me opportunities to try new things when I was ready and willing. Who would have gone to bat for me and helped make the world around me a little kinder, more patient, and less confusing, scary, threatening. Who would have let the anxious, awkward little girl who just wanted to sing and perform and talk in silly voices know that 'weird' is wonderful, not woeful.
Now, have I overshared? Nah...that's just the tip of the iceberg...
Thanks for reading,
Cicely
