Michelle Kenny – Neurodiversity Specialist
Academic & Life Coach for Late-Diagnosed Adults | Neuro-inclusive Advisor
Lived experience meets academic understanding.
INSIGHT Neurodivergent Minds was founded by Michelle Kenny (BBs, MA, PhD candidate at Lancaster University). Michelle is a late-identified neurodivergent academic and practitioner, and is neurodivergent herself. Her work centres the realities of neurodivergent adults in higher education; especially those who discovered this part of themselves later in life.
Her approach is calm, direct and collaborative; making space for your story, naming patterns without judgement, and working with you (and, where relevant, your institution) to create supports that feel sustainable rather than overwhelming.
Why I created INSIGHT
I was diagnosed as neurodivergent later in life, after years of assuming that everyone else found university as exhausting and confusing as I did. Once I had a name for what was happening, I went looking for support and mostly found generic advice that didn’t match the reality of juggling study, work, family, and a nervous system that was already running on empty.
Much of what was on offer focused on “fixing” individual students instead of changing the environments causing the strain. I could see that colleagues and institutions often wanted to do better, but they were working from incomplete information and one-size-fits-no-one approaches.
INSIGHT grew out of that gap. I wanted a space that took neurodivergent adults in higher education seriously; our time, energy, ambitions, and our limits. A space where honesty is valued over politeness, and where we can talk openly about systemic barriers without turning those conversations into inspiration stories.
Rather than trying to fit myself into existing models, I decided to build something that actually works for people like me and for the organisations who are ready to make authentic, practical changes.
Background and credentials
My academic background is in business and education; I hold a BBs and an MA. I am currently a PhD candidate at Lancaster University. My doctoral research focuses on the experiences of neurodivergent adults in higher education, particularly those who receive a diagnosis later in life.
Alongside research, I have spent years working within universities in teaching, mentoring, and advisory roles. That mix of practice and scholarship means I understand both the constraints institutions are working within and the scope they have to do things differently.
The INSIGHT framework sits at the centre of this work. It weaves together lived experience, critical disability studies, and organisational research into a practical structure for designing teaching, policies, and support that work for real people, not abstractions.
Every project, workshop, and consultation draws on this framework, so you are not getting one-off opinions or trends-driven content; you are getting an approach that is tested, reflective, and continually refined.
Ready to find out more?
No pressure and or judgement, just a straightforward conversation about where you are and how we might help.
INSIGHT Neurodivergent Minds 