What I love most about neurodivergent minds is their uniqueness from one another. We are such a wide, varied group of brains. At the same time, we possess distinct neural patterns, and learning these can aid our self-understanding.

With compassion, we will use both bottom-up (nervous system-based inquiry) and top-down (intellectual curiosity) approaches to tell your story in all its complexity. We’ll weave together an understanding of your brain, sensory needs, and emotions to map your patterns, struggles, and strengths.  

Along the way, we’ll start putting language to feelings, needs, and experiences that you previously struggled to name. You’ll stop feeling “weird” or “less-than” and create an accurate view of yourself as a gifted, at times challenged, and courageous person who has trudged and excelled, rested and gritted, and rebounded and climbed their way through the process of living this life.

To learn late in life that you’re neurodivergent may feel like you’re seeing a blurry photo come into focus. You may experience diagnosis as a lightning bolt of relief and recognition or as a slow process of questioning and integrating. You may gain clarity on how long you’ve flexed yourself to fit in and please others. Anger and grief may surface as you realize the impact of unmet needs, or long for a repair that isn't possible. 

Having a neuroaffirming therapist alongside you during this process can provide guidance and containment. We will make meaning of your past through the lens of your neurodivergence. You’ll cultivate compassion for your past self while making space for your current self to appreciate who they are, feel empowered, and be free.

You may experience overwhelm and anxiety because of sensory sensitivities, masking, and the stress of living in a world not built for you. When these experiences are so often misunderstood by others, that can lead to shame and rumination. And sometimes, the way your brain is attuned to small details, pattern-seeking, and gathering information can lead to obsessive thoughts and compulsions (OCD). 

In therapy, we will peel apart the factors, one by one, that load up your nervous system. You’ll build neuroaffirming tools to ground your nervous system, regulate your emotions, and cope with unproductive thought patterns. We may also help you increase your interoception (sense your body’s internal signals) by learning to pay attention to your physical and emotional patterns, rhythms, and needs. 

How we experience connection, love, community, and solitude is integral to our well-being. As a neurodivergent person, you can face a variety of challenges with relationships. Like anyone, you desire connection. But you also often need space and time to recover after being social. Additionally, you don’t feel comfortable around everyone and can feel overwhelmed at social gatherings like family events or work meetings. Even with our closest relationships, we can lose a sense of ourselves and our own needs. 

While solitude can be a refuge, you might also experience loneliness. It can be challenging to find the right balance between being with people and being alone. 

In therapy, we’ll explore what your relationships are like now and what your ideal relationships might look like. We’ll work to improve your ability to give and receive care in meaningful ways. We’ll help you build internal and external skills to navigate the tension between alone time and intimacy with others.  

Engaging in special interests may be where you first experienced a sense of vitality, peace, connection, or the feeling that everything finally made sense. 

As your responsibilities grew, these activities may have been pushed aside as "unproductive," “selfish,” or “just a hobby” when they actually were essential to your well-being. We’ll identify and make space for what captivates you, ensuring it remains protected and prioritized in your life. 

Going to the harder, more fragile places in therapy is bolstered when we also weave in your special interests—the areas of your life in which you have expertise, passion, and commitment. And, sharing your special interest(s) during a session gives me a chance to see you in your place of joy, and helps you feel that an essential piece of you is seen.

For neurodivergent teens and adults, creative work can be a place to process and make meaning of your complex experience of the world—a space to work with the intensity and beauty that you take in. But for many, while you may have experienced both solace and flow in the creative process, you may have also faced resistance, times when getting to your creative work has been like pulling teeth. 

In therapy, we can assist you in riding the waves of resistance. We can help you connect with your creative energy, which is likely rich but may have protections around it, and support its opening. We can use your creative work as a pathway to understand you or as a modality to process your experiences. We can integrate your dreams into therapy (the dreammaker is a close cousin to our creative life).

If you’d like to integrate creative elements into your therapy, such as writing, drawing, or mindfulness exercises, please let me know during consultation or at any point of our work together. If you’d like to integrate creative writing into group therapy, please see my group for late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults.