From the Green Velvet Couch | A Conversation with Briar Harvey
What if the people quietly struggling in your workplace are also some of your greatest untapped talent? What if a few small accommodations could was all it took to build workplaces that work for every brain?
On her podcast, From the Green Velvet Couch, Shelly sat down with Briar Harvey, a storyteller, systems witch, and IDEA consultant whose work focuses on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility, with a particular passion for neurodivergence. Briar is also the founder of the Neurodiversity Media Network, a collaborative and accessible media company. Their conversation moved through Briar’s own diagnosis journey, the ways neurodivergent brains actually function, and the simple workplace shifts that can boost retention by as much as 50 percent.
Here are the moments worth holding onto.
A Long and Winding Road to Diagnosis
Briar’s path to understanding her own brain was anything but straightforward. She was first diagnosed as bipolar in the 1990s as a teenager, an era when treatment looked very different than it does today. By 21, she had given birth to her oldest child, lost her mother six months later, and developed a severe case of postpartum psychosis that went largely unrecognized. Her daughter was born just three days before September 11th. The compounding weight of all of it was nearly impossible to carry.
She did not receive her own autism diagnosis until age 41. Even with years of advocacy work and a daughter on the spectrum, Briar’s understanding of what autism could look like had been too narrow to include herself. She was hyperverbal and hyperlexic. Her daughter was verbally stunted. The contrast made it hard to see the truth in the mirror.
That kind of slow recognition is heartbreakingly common, and it points to something Briar wants more people to understand about how the mental health system handles neurodivergence.
The Statistics Nobody Talks About
The numbers Briar shared are staggering. The average diagnosis of neurodivergence takes seven years. For Black people and people of color, that number jumps to ten. For trans individuals, it climbs to fourteen. Only 3 percent of psychiatrists feel confident treating neurodivergence at all.
This is not a minor gap in the system. It is a structural failure that leaves millions of people without the language, the tools, or the validation they need to understand their own brains. Briar shared a story about a friend who is a PhD student now consulting in her own classes about neurodivergence, because her professors simply do not know enough to teach it. That kind of grassroots education is happening everywhere, and it should not have to.
What Neurodivergence Actually Means
Briar offered one of the clearest definitions of neurodivergence you will hear. A neurodivergent brain is one where the underlying chemistry is functionally different. That includes autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and similar conditions where the wiring itself is permanently distinct. It does not include trauma or PTSD, which involve different processes that can be rewired through healing.
She also gave a beautiful metaphor for the autism spectrum. Think of it less like a line from low to high and more like a synthesizer or equalizer, with dozens of knobs and dials all set differently. Some are turned all the way up. Some are turned down. Every neurodivergent brain has its own configuration, which is why no two people experience the world quite the same way.
Neurochemically, autistic brains create extra neural pathways and do not delete the unused ones the way neuromajority brains do. The result can look like a city map of constant electrical activity. It is part of why some autistic people have flawless memories spanning decades, while others struggle to recall what happened yesterday. There is simply too much information moving through the system at once.
Shelly often sees this kind of brain difference show up in her work with high-performing leaders, which is one reason her performance mentoring work with founders, executives, and creatives takes individual wiring so seriously. There is no one-size-fits-all template for thriving.
Strengths Hiding in Plain Sight
Shelly opened up about her own experience as a woman with ADD, and the conversation took a wonderful turn. Her ADD has been a tremendous asset in building a healthcare group with multiple locations. She can spin many plates at once. Every day looks different, and that variety is fuel rather than friction. The flip side, she admitted, is hyperfocus and the tendency to talk a topic into the ground when she gets passionate about it.
Briar laughed in recognition. Task initiation is the easy part for ADHD brains. Task completion is where things get tricky. She also shared a striking statistic. Roughly 70 percent of entrepreneurs are estimated to be neurodivergent, and most of them are likely ADHD. The reason is simple. Traditional employment, with its rigid routines and standardized expectations, often does not work for neurodivergent people. So they build something that does.
Accessibility Helps Everyone
One of the most powerful ideas in the conversation was Briar’s reframing of accessibility. Accommodations are often seen as something a company does for one specific employee, but accessibility benefits the entire workplace. Once you start building it in, it becomes part of how the business runs.
She told the story of a friend who hired a man with hand tremors that made it difficult for him to use a standard mouse. Rather than writing him off, her friend immediately looked for solutions. She found a program called SteadyMouse that helped him navigate his computer, and she pushed her software provider to redesign tiny checkboxes that were inaccessible to anyone with motor or vision challenges. That single accommodation will likely benefit dozens of future employees who never would have asked for it themselves.
The ripple effect is real. The man whose career was saved will never forget it. Neither will his family. That kind of workplace loyalty cannot be manufactured through perks or pizza parties. It is built through being seen and valued as a whole person.
The Real Cost of Bad Retention
Briar walked through some sobering math. The average company spends roughly three months of salary training each new hire. Post-pandemic retention rates have collapsed to between eight and twelve weeks for many roles. Companies are now spending more to train new employees than they would spend building accommodations that would keep their existing ones in place.
Neurodivergent people are some of the most loyal employees a company can hire. They tend to stay longer, develop deep institutional knowledge, and often become the keepers of organizational memory. The problem is getting them through the door in the first place. They interview poorly because they may not make eye contact, dislike personality batteries, and ask questions interviewers do not expect.
Once hired, the make-or-break moment is training. If the role is not clearly defined, if expectations are murky, or if there is no obvious person to ask for help, neurodivergent employees will leave. Fixing that is structurally one of the easiest things a company can do, and it is one of the highest-leverage investments a leader can make.
This kind of retention strategy is a perfect fit for the work Shelly does through her wellness consulting services for organizations, where culture change starts with structural decisions and reaches every employee.
Disclosure, Safety, and the Personal 504 Plan
Shelly asked Briar what advice she gives neurodivergent employees who need to advocate for accommodations in a new role. Briar was honest. Disclosure is one of the hardest conversations a person can have. Even though neurodivergence is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, at-will termination after disclosure still happens. The decision to ask for accommodations comes down to safety, and only the person in the chair can assess that.
For those who feel safe enough to advocate, Briar teaches a workshop on building a personal 504 plan. The 504 plan is a tool covered under the ADA that originated in education and can travel with a person from school into the workforce. It documents what the person needs, how accommodations will be implemented, who is responsible for them, and how the system will be reviewed over time.
The more people who walk in with one of these plans already drafted, the more normalized the conversation becomes for everyone.
Say What You Mean
The episode wrapped with a simple but powerful piece of communication advice. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Sarcasm, humor, and indirect language are not universal. Some neurodivergent people read sarcasm fluently. Others take everything at face value. Neither is wrong, but the gap between them can create real conflict in workplaces and relationships when no one realizes it is happening.
When we get clearer with each other, we get kinder with each other. That is the heart of what Briar is teaching, and it benefits every single brain in the room.
🎧 Join the Conversation
If this post sparked something in you, the full episode is waiting with even more warmth and thoughtful insight.
✨ Listen to the full conversation on the From the Green Velvet Couch podcast. Visit the Podcast page to discover more episodes focused on resilience, leadership wellbeing, and holistic wellness.
Let this be your invitation to slow down, breathe deeply, and step into a well-grounded life full of growth and intention.
