This interactive presentation will focus on a role-play by the presenters with audience participation throughout several "Acts" of the role-play. “The Relationship Translation Lab” will focus on intimacy and sexual wellbeing as clinically significant, and often underexplored aspects of mixed neurotypes in individual and relationship therapy.

Role-play material will illustrate how sensory differences, masking, avoidance, rejection sensitivity, differing desire styles, difficulty initiating intimacy, emotional processing differences, shame, minority stress, trauma histories, and neurotypical sexual scripts may shape relational and sexual distress. Rather than positioning one partner as deficient or one relational style as correct, the role-play will demonstrate how psychologists can help partners move from blame and misattunement towards curiosity, explicit communication, mutual understanding, and relational repair.

Delegates will be introduced to a practical Mixed Neurotype Relational Formulation Map addressing neurotype, meaning, protection, impact, repair, and intimacy. This framework supports clinicians to assess all partners’ experiences of safety, closeness, desire, touch, autonomy, communication, and repair while maintaining accountability and avoiding pathologising difference.

This presentation demonstrates relational depth in practice with complex contemporary relationship presentations. It offers delegates an applied, inclusive, and clinically sophisticated framework for supporting mixed neurotype couples to build shared language, intimacy, sexual wellbeing, and meaningful connection across differences.

This novel role-play and audience interactive session invites delegates to move from:
“Who is right?” to “What is different?”
“Who failed?” to “What need was missed?”
“Why don’t they understand?” to “What relational language is each partner speaking?”
“What is wrong with them?” to “What meaning has been made?”

Learning Outcomes:
1. Analyse how neurotype differences may influence emotional expression, communication, sensory experience, interoception, executive functioning, intimacy, sexual wellbeing, desire, conflict, and relational repair in mixed neurotype relationships.

2. Evaluate how neurotypical assumptions within relationship therapy may contribute to misformulation, shame, blame, pathologising of difference, or over-identification with one partner’s account, particularly when presentations include intimacy avoidance, sexual dissatisfaction, shutdown, escalation, or repeated rupture.

3. Apply a relationally responsive mixed neurotype formulation framework to clinical case material by identifying each partner’s neurotype-related needs, meanings, protective strategies, relational impacts, intimacy preferences, sexual wellbeing concerns, and repair requirements to support explicit communication, mutual understanding, accountability, and relational depth.