Hello
Ashley Ellis-Smith is a qualified Social Worker with over 20 years of experience across community services, education, and family systems. At Affirming Care Services, Ashley provides neuroaffirming, regulation-informed support for neurodivergent adults, parents, and families, with a particular focus on PDA profiles, school engagement challenges, and collaborative family-school support.
Services offered:
• Secret Agent Society (SAS)
• Dragons on the Spectrum
• Social Work services: Parent and Carer Support
My Story
Ashley Ellis-Smith is a qualified Social Worker with over twenty years of experience working across community services, education and family systems. At Affirming Care Services, Ashley provides neuroaffirming, regulation-informed support with a strong focus on adults and parents navigating the complexities of raising and advocating for neurodivergent children.
Ashley brings particular expertise in supporting families of children with a Persistent Drive for Autonomy/Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) profile and in working with situations often described as "School Can't," where attendance, engagement or participation have broken down due to nervous system overload rather than defiance or refusal.
Ashley designed ACS's signature support model for supporting students at school the Neuroaffirming Care Plan (NCP), a structured framework used to support shared understanding of regulation profiles, early indicators of stress and responsive strategies across home and school settings.
Her work integrates systems thinking, demand-sensitive practice and relational safety. Ashley also brings lived experience of ADHD, informing her understanding of burnout, masking and the invisible cognitive load many neurodivergent adults carry.
