About Me
The phrase I fear the most is ‘We’ve always done it this way.’
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Anne-Lise - A singular woman
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My Background...
I always overadapted, even though I knew that I was, in fact, different and permanently out of step with others. I had good results at school (‘perfect student syndrome’), I went on to higher education, and then I had a successful career at companies such as L’Oréal, Shiseido and CHANEL. On the outside, everything was going great and I was meeting social and societal demands well.
But inside, it was a completely different story. Lots of questioning, searching for meaning, and uncontrolled intensity resulted in me experiencing 2 burnouts which pushed me to look deeper inside myself at the age of 17. This quest led me to take a test in 2008 which was a shock and also a relief! I could finally “acknowledge” my difference, but without really understanding what it meant.
This ignited my passion for neurodiversity, and so I studied, observed, analyzed, supported, and recruited neurodivergent individuals and worked on their inclusion. I noticed how difficult it was for the disabled one to bring their full potential. An experience with an autistic talent in my team showed me that the path towards inclusion in organisations was difficult but possible. Having witnessed positive results to my “in vivo” work, I decided to dedicate my energy to the cause of neurodivergent.
I then set up structures, wrote a book to help neurodivergent manage their difference, co-founded a non-profit organisation, built bridges, and witnessed the results.
I knew that a different vision was possible and, above all, effective.
Neurodivergence is not an illness.
My Beliefs…
It shouldn’t necessarily be subject to disorders, even though it can be a real social disability. If pathologies are present, they usually arise from the difficulty of adapting to a society which was not designed for them and which doesn’t understand them.
In every era, the neurosis is intimately linked to the problems of the time. It represents, in short, a misguided attempt by the individual to solve the general problem within himself.
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Carl Jung
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that allows for intense interaction with the world and an endless supply of new ideas to change it. Although neurodivergent people have long been pushed aside during the period where the world was believing in a infinite linear growth, they have now become indispensable in these uncertain, cyclical, and complex times.
It’s with this strong conviction that I humbly play my part in building bridges between people who don’t understand this intensity and those who experience and suffer from it. It’s time to extend our vision of cognitive diversity including disabilities, sensitivity, and “thinking differently” , and thus to stop wasting talents that only wish to contribute their value to society without being judged.
