Executive Functions – Understanding the Skills Behind Everyday Life
Why do everyday situations sometimes trigger such intense emotional responses? Why can demands feel overwhelming, changes become difficult, or thoughts become impossible to switch off?
Executive functioning skills influence how we manage information, regulate our responses, adapt to change and navigate everyday life.
However, executive functioning does not operate in isolation. Neurodivergent individuals may also experience differences in sensory processing, emotional awareness, anxiety and other overlapping challenges.
In this extended two-hour interactive workshop, we will explore the three core executive functioning skills and look more closely at other experiences and conditions that can affect daily functioning.
What will we explore?
Understanding Executive Functions
Working Memory – remembering instructions, holding information in mind and completing tasks.
Inhibitory Control – managing impulses, emotional responses and the space between thought and reaction.
Cognitive Flexibility – adapting to changes, shifting attention and managing unexpected situations.
Exploring Related Challenges
RSD (Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria): Understanding intense emotional responses to perceived criticism, rejection or failure.
PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance): Exploring demand avoidance, the importance of autonomy and why everyday expectations can create overwhelming distress.
OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder): Understanding intrusive thoughts, compulsions and how they can affect concentration, decision-making and everyday functioning.
Alexithymia: Understanding difficulties recognising, identifying and describing emotions.
Anxiety and Emotional Regulation: Exploring how anxiety, overwhelm and executive functioning difficulties can interact.
Sensory Processing: Recognising how sensory experiences can influence our ability to think, respond and manage everyday demands.
Looking Beyond Behaviour
What may appear to be refusal, avoidance, defiance, overreacting or a lack of motivation can have much more complex explanations.
Understanding the underlying processes helps us move away from assumptions and towards support