This role is a deeply meaningful opportunity for a grounded, creative candidate to become a foundational support and steady, trusted anchor for an perceptive, attentive and artistic young teen whose world has collapsed following school-based trauma, medical challenges, and autistic burnout. The young person is an active, detail-oriented maker and investigator. She flourishes through tactile, process-driven creating, enjoying experimenting with pigments and colour mixing, remixing audio, baking, and immersing herself in languages through creative engagement with technology.
The ultimate vision for this role is to enrich this young person's quality of life and autonomy, standing beside her as she rediscovers joy and learning. Eventually, as trust stabilises and the young person's nervous system settles, the candidate will also act as a gentle bridge to the wider world, helping her reconnect with lost passions, such as her love for swimming and being beside the sea. The candidate will hold open space, celebrate the young person’s unique neurotype, and champion her journey back to a life rich with creativity, play and wonder.
Location: Online/Asynchronous and Home-based (Postcode: TW11 Teddington ). With long-term potential for supporting community-based access.
Contract Type: Flexible, Part-Time (15 hours per week across short, dynamic delivery blocks, with capacity to build as relational trust and capacity allows). Other indirect hours will be provided for Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) meetings, training, and report writing.
We are open to considering flexible working arrangements. Please state your preference in your application.
About Us: Believing in Different is a neurodivergent led organisation which offers a range of services to neurodivergent and trauma-impacted young people and their families. Our Team Members are all neuro affirming and highly experienced in working with young people with a wide range of individual needs. They are overseen by a qualified SENCO with postgraduate qualifications in Counselling and Psychotherapy, as well as our in-house Educational Psychologist. We work creatively as a team to design bespoke, responsive packages for the young people we work with. We are a trauma responsive, neuro affirming and low demand organisation by nature, and take our responsibility in this respect very seriously.
The Role: As a Specialist Educator, you will be working initially to build a slow-burn connection through a steady, reliable presence. The young person’s current capacity for direct contact is extremely low, and her trust in adults will need to be exceptionally carefully rebuilt, with the initial mission being a slow and intentional growth of relational safety. Meeting the young person where she is, indirectly at first, building to working together in person through shared creative curiosity and eventually leading to the embedding practical, functional and applied skills, all at a pace dictated entirely by her.
Why Join Our Team: You will be an integral part of a supportive ecosystem dedicated to the young person's success, working alongside a skilled team of professionals. This role offers the profound satisfaction of making a lasting, positive impact on a young person's life, helping them navigate past and ongoing challenges to embrace their full potential. You will be empowered to apply neuroaffirming practices, championing the young person's autonomy and self-determination. We offer on-the-job training around neurodiversity and trauma to further enhance your expertise and you will be working with an established team of professionals who will be able to offer ongoing professional development and supervision to support you.
Key Responsibilities:
- Maintain consistency, emotional predictability, and a calm presence. Understand that traditional adult-led authority structures will likely trigger trauma responses.
- Facilitate connection through low-demand, side-by-side co-creation (e.g. sitting adjacent while mixing paints, manipulating audio pitch/speed, or baking) rather than direct, intense face-to-face interaction, reducing social demand and pressure.
- Engage with the young person as an active maker and investigator. Facilitate and engage with tactile, sensory experiences where the joy and therapeutic benefit lie in the process rather than a final product.
- Show compassion and understanding, respecting and interpreting the young persons communication differences with compassion
- Engage as an authentic co-enthusiast in key passion areas to build mutual trust and intellectual respect, building connection through parallel co-creation and companionable activity.
- Recognise that rest, co-regulation, and companionable silence are valid, high-value outcomes in themselves.
- Act as a decoder of the young person’s whole-body communication. Being attuned to non-verbal cues and subtle shifts in demeanour and proactively anticipating sensory overload or physical exhaustion, adjusting sessions before distress or dysregulation occurs.
- Translate learning concepts into applied contexts. e.g. embedding mathematics and literacy through baking or music mixing.
- Focus on holistic well-being and gradually expanding her world toward community at a pace dictated entirely by her.
- Work in close, respectful alignment with the young person’s family, ensuring clear boundaries, open communication, and absolute respect.
- Contribute actively to the wider wrap-around team, working alongside other services to actively contribute to clinical reviews, mapping progress, and adapting strategies both individually and as a coordinated team.
What We Can Offer:
- Competitive pay: £25.00-£30.00 per hour
- 15hrs a week with potential to increase
- Flexible part-time hours: Scheduled on a mutually agreeable basis
- Immediate start
- On-the-job training, ongoing support and supervision opportunities
- A collaborative and supportive expert professional team
- The chance to explore and implement alternative, neuroaffirming and trauma responsive relational approaches
- Expert training opportunities for professional development
Make a Lasting Impact:
Your work will directly contribute to the well-being of a young person who is experiencing significant challenges. By fostering a relationship built on trust, respect, and shared interests, you will empower them to develop their talents, advocate for themselves, and engage with others. This role offers the unique opportunity to redefine what learning looks like for a neurodivergent young person, proving that compassion, understanding, and interest-led approaches can unlock immense potential.
Essential Requirements:
- Professional background or lived experience of supporting neurodivergent young people experiencing severe burnout, school-based trauma, PTSD, or profound demand avoidance.
- Experience or genuine personal interest/fluency in applied, active, and process-driven learning (visual arts, audio/music tech, practical cooking, or creative therapies) outside of traditional paradigms.
- An understanding of how to rebuild confidence over time, support curiosity, wonder and access to community/nature experiences (e.g. water/sea, outdoor spaces) after periods of prioritising safety through staying at home.
- High degree of self-awareness. Ability to reflect on personal energy, body language, and subtle relational dynamics, with the humility to repair missteps and adjust approach without ego.
- History of establishing collaborative, non-intrusive partnerships with parents and primary caregivers within home environments.
- A belief in the power of self-directed, practical, bottom-up learning for young people who have been unable to access education in traditional forms.
- An ability to facilitate engaging, low-demand, indirect contact strategies, such as physical creative drop ins, shared digital projects, asynchronous messaging; building connection without requiring real-time demands.
- Ability to work transparently and collaboratively across multi-agency teams, representing the young person's journey, wishes and views clearly to stakeholders.
- A willingness to learn from the team in what works best regarding approach and delivery.
- An ability to translate therapy targets (OT sensory diets, Speech & Language communication goals) into everyday creative activities and document progress for clinical reports.
- A full UK driving license is essential.
Desirable Requirements:
- Expertise in operating from a framework that views neurodivergence and trauma as experiences to be supported with compassion
- Competency in professional observation and the ability to articulate progress in a way that respects and advocates the young person’s unique journey
- Experience working one-to-one with young people at home or in community settings
- Understand trauma, burnout, and the emotional impact of navigating complex support systems.
Safeguarding Requirements:
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults. The successful candidate will be required to undertake an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. The cost of the DBS check will be covered by the company. This post is also subject to the receipt of two satisfactory references.
How to Apply:
Please send your CV and a cover letter outlining your relevant experience and why you are passionate about this role.
Recruitment Policy:
To ensure a fair and manageable recruitment process, all correspondence and applications for this vacancy must be conducted through the Indeed platform. We kindly request that you refrain from sending direct emails or making contact through other company channels, as we will be unable to respond.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, or age.
All conditional job offers are strictly subject to:
1. Enhanced DBS Check with Children’s Barred List clearance.
2. At least two professional references (including the most recent employer involving work with children/vulnerable adults).
3. Open-source digital footprint and social media screening in line with KCSIE guidelines.
4. Verification of original identity documents, UK Right to Work status, driving credentials, and professional qualifications.
5. Completion of a post-offer confidential Health & Medical Fitness Declaration.
Job Types: Part-time, Permanent
Pay: £25.00-£30.00 per hour
Benefits:
Application question(s):
- Are you willing to undergo an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and to register for the DBS Update Service?
- Are you able to provide two professional references that cover your most recent employment?
- Do you have any gaps in your employment history that you are unable to account for?
- Our organisation is committed to a neuroaffirming approach. Can you please explain what this means to you in the context of this role?
- Our organisation is committed to a trauma responsive approach. Can you please explain what this means to you in the context of this role?
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
