In this interview, host Angie speaks with Shawna Ackerman, a psychotherapist, former teacher, and founder of Karma Country Camp, about the challenges neurodiverse children and teens face in accessing appropriate summer programs. Shawna shares her personal journey as a late‑diagnosed neurodiverse adult and parent of two deaf neurodiverse children, which motivated her to create a nonprofit camp. Karma Country Camp, now in its fifth year, operates across six Greater Toronto Area locations, offering interest‑based activities from 10 am to 3 pm, staffed by 25 mentors who teach emotional literacy, transit skills, and social interaction. Shawna describes concrete outcomes: campers forming friendships, learning to navigate public transit, reducing social anxiety heightened by the pandemic, and decreasing reliance on technology. She also highlights benefits for parents, including family‑centered therapy through her private practice, Karma Cares Community, which provides broader skill‑building and support. The conversation ends with Shawna calling for systemic changes—better school referral pathways, increased awareness of post‑secondary supports, and more readily available services—so families don’t have to seek help on their own.
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Over to this hour's spotlight, and tonight we focus on kids and access to services like camps and other programs. For many kids, well, getting access is difficult. But well, what about those who identify as neurodiverse kids who struggle with conditions like ADHD or autism, and they need a camp or program that is tailored to their needs. For them, it can be even harder. Shawna Ackerman is a psychotherapist, a former educational teacher, as well as the founder of Karma Country Camp. She's been working with families with teens who are in need of more of these specialized programs, and so happy to have Shawna here with us on this hour. Thank you so much for your time today.
Oh, hi Angie, thanks for having me.
You know, I know this is a really— this issue is really close to home for you, a very personal connection. Talk to us a little bit about that.
As a neurodiverse individual myself, lately, late diagnosed as an adult, and raising 2 neurodiverse deaf children into thriving adults was quite a challenge. There was a lot of needs, not a lot of accessibility in the programs, and came with a lot of challenges. We had to find a lot of solutions over our time. And I've been so lucky through my experience to be able to learn so much and have the access of so many other people And you're doing that with Karma Country Camp.
Talk to me about that, because as you say, through your journey, you've had to learn not only for yourself at a young age, but also then as a parent for your children. And you're kind of helping these families skip over all of that and providing them what they need directly.
Yeah, it's so true. So Karma Country Camp is a nonprofit charity. We're celebrating 5 years with 6 locations across the GTA. York Region, and we have such a diverse group. As you can see, all the campers, they all have unique needs. They are all looking for some social interaction, how to make friends, learn new activities, build some interests. We have an incredible staff that mentors them in emotional literacy and gives them a different perspective than you get from your parents.
How— what's the impact been like for these kids? We know programs in general have been hard, being able to find them in schools, et cetera, and that extra support. But being able to give them a summer like all the other kids is critical. So what's the impact been?
Oh, well, it's amazing. So first, the 25 staff are all feeling so good every day about what they're delivering. So it's the staff that are gaining as much as the campers, which I really like. And the campers, so we've made a couple of friendships. We have 2 13-year-olds who have made friends and have exchanged numbers. We've taught transit training to a whole bunch of the teens so that they can get to the mall, that they can learn to go places on their own, even get to the library.
Mm-hmm.
There's so many of the families that their kids have not left the house in years since COVID Right. And the social anxiety is so high. So you can see all of the activities are interest-based.
Mm-hmm.
We order the activities based on what the kids want, what our teens want, not kids. What our teens want, and we deliver a program for them. It's 10 to 3, so they don't have to wake up early. They can be teens.
Yeah. And the parents— I was going to say, the parents benefit as well.
Well, they do. We're getting our kids off technology, right? That's really important. You know, that's that false sense of friendship. Like, you feel like you're doing something, but really you're creating a life that is only sustainable inside.
Right.
We need a life sustainable outside. How do we get How are they going to learn to ask for the accessibility they need when they go to a job? And post-secondary, there's so many incredible programs out there that parents aren't even aware of. Throughout the summer, our staff— through pre-camp, we teach our staff a lot of these programs and they start having these conversations with parents.
Before I let you go, I've got a few seconds left here, Shawna, but what more do you want to see being done? You've got this camp, you formed it. We know that there's other programs out there. Overall, there has to be, you know, support and not be asked for the supports, but the support should be available. What do you want to see change?
Oh, I wish that would be like the best answer. Yeah. I'd love everything to be changed. I'd like our education system to be able to refer their students out to professionals.
Right.
Right. Where do parents find who they need? So I have my private practice, Karma Cares Community. And here we have a group of individuals that mentor, that teach kids all the skills they need. And we do family therapy. We work with the whole family because when you have someone with neurodiversity, it impacts everything.
Shawna, thank you so much for this. It's amazing work that you're doing. You're helping these families and these teens. Shawna Ackerman, psychotherapist and founder of Karma Country Camp, thank you again for this.
Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. We have lots of spots left in camp if anyone's interested.
