Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy

 

Telehealth service areas: Minnesota, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Georgia, Indiana & Tennessee

If you’re exhausted from masking, burned out from trying to meet neurotypical expectations, or finally beginning to understand why life has always felt harder than it seemed to be for everyone else, you are not alone.

Many neurodivergent adults spend years trying to force themselves into ways of functioning that never actually fit their nervous system. Over time, this can create chronic exhaustion, perfectionism, self-doubt, anxiety, shutdown, burnout, and the painful feeling that no matter how hard you try, something still is not working.

Therapy is not about teaching you how to perform neurotypicality more successfully.

It is about understanding yourself more accurately, reducing the strain of constant self-monitoring and self-correction, and building a life that feels more sustainable, authentic, and workable for your actual nervous system.

My Approach

My approach is neurodiversity-affirming, trauma-informed, evidence-based, and grounded in clinical judgment rather than rigid, one-size-fits-all techniques.

I do not view autism, ADHD, or other forms of neurodivergence as flaws to be corrected.

Rather than asking:

“What is wrong with you?”

we explore:

“What makes sense about what you are experiencing when we understand it in the context of your nervous system, history, relationships, environment, and the expectations you have been trying to meet?”

That context can change how we understand a pattern.

Burnout may look like a lack of motivation until we understand how long you have been functioning beyond your capacity. Perfectionism may make more sense when we understand what mistakes, disappointing people, or being misunderstood have meant throughout your life. Shutdown may look like avoidance until we understand what happens when your nervous system becomes overwhelmed.

When we understand the context and function of a pattern, we can respond to it differently.

The goal is not simply to replace one behavior with another. It is to understand what your experiences are telling us, reduce unnecessary shame and self-blame, and develop ways of living that work more sustainably with who you actually are.

A Different Starting Point

Many of the people I work with have already spent years trying to function differently.

They have learned coping strategies, pushed themselves harder, tried to become more organized or disciplined, worked on anxiety or depression, and sometimes spent years in therapy trying to change patterns that never fully made sense.

And yet something still feels unresolved.

My approach starts somewhere different.

Before asking what you need to change, we work to understand what is actually happening — and why.

That may mean exploring autism or ADHD, masking, sensory and emotional processing, executive functioning, trauma, relationships, perfectionism, nervous system capacity, chronic stress, identity, or the environments and expectations you have been trying to function within.

Often, experiences that once seemed like separate problems begin to make more sense when we understand the patterns connecting them.

Instead of applying strategies simply because they are supposed to work, we can ask whether they fit you. Instead of treating burnout, shutdown, overwhelm, or difficulty functioning as evidence that you are failing, we can explore what those experiences may be telling us about your capacity, needs, environment, and nervous system.

And instead of focusing only on reducing the symptoms visible on the surface, we can work toward understanding what may be producing the difficulty underneath them.

Understand yourself more accurately. Work with your actual system. Build a life that fits.

What Therapy With Me Is Like

Therapy is collaborative rather than prescriptive.

I bring clinical knowledge, neurodiversity-affirming frameworks, and lived experience. You bring expertise in your own internal experience, history, relationships, needs, and life.

We put those forms of knowledge together.

I am not interested in handing you a list of techniques and asking you to work harder at implementing them. Strategies can be useful, but they work best when they emerge from an accurate understanding of what is actually happening.

Sometimes our work involves slowing down enough to notice a pattern that has been operating for years. Sometimes it means connecting experiences that previously seemed unrelated. Sometimes it involves practical changes — boundaries, accommodations, communication, routines, expectations, sensory supports, or different ways of approaching executive functioning.

And sometimes the most important work is learning to trust your own experience after years of questioning, minimizing, overriding, or explaining it away.

Understanding comes before action.

As understanding develops, self-blame can begin to give way to self-compassion. You can become better able to recognize what you need, what exceeds your capacity, what is sustainable, what is not working, and what genuinely fits.

The goal is not simply to cope more effectively with a life that continually overwhelms you.

It is to build a life that fits you better.

Therapy That Adapts to You

This work can go deep, but depth does not mean pushing past your capacity.

Some sessions involve exploration of identity, history, trauma, relationships, grief, or long-standing patterns. Others may focus on something happening right now — burnout, a difficult interaction, a decision, a boundary, an executive functioning problem, or simply getting through a particularly demanding week.

You do not have to arrive with an agenda, know exactly how you feel, explain yourself perfectly, respond quickly, or produce an insight by the end of the hour.

If you need time to think, we can make room for that.

If you do not know what you are feeling yet, we can start there.

If you need space to make sense of something before deciding what to do with it, we can take that time.

Your nervous system does not have to perform therapy correctly.

The work can adapt to your capacity rather than requiring your capacity to adapt to therapy.

Is This a Good Fit for You?

Many clients find their way here while questioning whether they may be autistic or ADHD, processing late identification, recovering from burnout, feeling exhausted from years of masking, or trying to understand long-standing patterns through a more accurate and compassionate lens.

Others arrive carrying years of anxiety, depression, trauma, perfectionism, overwhelm, relationship difficulties, chronic self-criticism, or difficulty functioning without fully realizing how deeply neurodivergence may have shaped those experiences.

You do not need a formal diagnosis to begin this work.

This approach may resonate if you have spent years trying harder without understanding why things still feel difficult; if you understand coping strategies intellectually but struggle to make them work sustainably; if traditional therapy has felt incomplete or misattuned; or if you want to understand the patterns underneath your distress rather than focusing only on surface symptoms.

What matters most is not having the “right” terminology.

It is whether this way of understanding and approaching your experience feels useful to you.

What Therapy May Support

Our work may include autistic or ADHD identity and late-identification integration, burnout and chronic overwhelm, masking, perfectionism, executive functioning, sensory and emotional needs, shutdown, trauma, boundaries, relationships, chronic self-blame, rebuilding self-trust, and creating more sustainable expectations and ways of living.

These areas are often interconnected rather than separate problems to solve one at a time.

The goal is not to become someone different.

It is to build a life that actually fits who you already are.

What to Expect

60-Minute Telehealth Sessions

Sessions are held through secure telehealth and are typically scheduled weekly or biweekly depending on your needs, capacity, and what feels sustainable.

Telehealth allows you to participate from your own environment without the additional demands of commuting, unfamiliar spaces, or unnecessary sensory and social strain.

You Do Not Have to Perform

You do not need to prepare something insightful to talk about, communicate in a particular way, or demonstrate progress from week to week.

Therapy is collaborative. Your experience — including what feels helpful, what does not, and what does or does not feel accurate — helps guide the work.

Between Sessions

Reflections, resources, or practices may occasionally be suggested when they seem useful, but therapy is not another place where you need to perform or get everything “right.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a formal autism or ADHD diagnosis?

No. Many clients begin therapy while questioning or exploring neurodivergence without formal assessment.

You do not need documentation proving that you are autistic or ADHD in order for us to take your experiences seriously or explore whether a neurodivergent framework helps make sense of them.

How is this different from traditional therapy?

The difference is not that other therapy is inherently wrong or ineffective.

It is the framework we begin with.

Rather than assuming the primary task is to change symptoms or behaviors, we first work to understand what may be producing the difficulty, what function particular patterns may be serving, and how your nervous system, history, environment, relationships, and neurodivergence may be interacting.

From there, we can determine what kinds of support or change actually fit.

What if I have tried therapy before and it didn't help?

Sometimes an approach can be perfectly reasonable and still not fit the person receiving it.

If previous therapy felt incomplete, we can explore what helped, what did not, what may have been missing, and whether approaching your experiences through a different framework helps us understand something that was previously overlooked.

Do you accept insurance?

This is a private-pay/out-of-network practice.

I have intentionally structured my practice this way so therapy can remain flexible, individualized, depth-oriented, and responsive to each client's needs and lived experience.

Insurance coverage is generally organized around diagnosis, medical necessity, and symptom reduction. While these are important parts of mental health care, they do not always capture the full scope of neurodivergent experience, including work around identity, masking, burnout, self-understanding, nervous system capacity, and creating a life that fits.

Working outside of insurance gives us greater flexibility to focus on what is most relevant and meaningful to you, rather than restricting our work to concerns and goals that meet insurance requirements for coverage.

Therapy sessions are $225 for 60 minutes.

I do not bill insurance directly. If your plan includes out-of-network mental health benefits, you may be eligible for partial reimbursement. I can help facilitate the out-of-network reimbursement process or provide superbills if you prefer to submit claims independently. HSA/FSA cards are also accepted.

When You’re Ready

You do not have to understand everything before beginning therapy.

You do not have to arrive knowing exactly what needs to change.

We can begin by understanding what has been happening.

For many neurodivergent adults, having a framework that finally makes sense of their experiences can change the questions they ask themselves — from “Why can't I just make myself do this?” to “What is happening here, and what might I actually need?”

That shift can create room for less self-blame, more accurate understanding, greater self-trust, and more sustainable choices.

And, over time, a life that feels increasingly like your own.

Understand yourself more accurately. Work with your actual system. Build a life that fits.