“Neurodivergent” Spoken Here.
ADHD
Whether you were formally diagnosed and treated as a child, late-diagnosed in your 30s or beyond (common for women), self-diagnosed, or simply wondering whether ADHD may be part of describing your gifts and challenges, neurodiversity-affirming therapy could be right for you. I am skilled, experienced, and passionate about helping ADHDers (who may also identify as highly sensitive, gifted, autistic, or 2E) thrive. Work in this realm may look like the following:
—Recognizing and accepting your neurotype. Grieving lost time without this knowledge and possibly years of criticism, self-doubt, and ineffective coping.
—Identifying the positive and negative impacts of ADHD in various areas of life: school, work, relationships, sex, parenting.
—Building emotion regulation and mindfulness skills.
—Psychoeducation on executive functioning and strategies.
—Organization and planning tips (yes, you CAN find a way to keep track of your sunglasses).
—Realistic goal-setting and accountability.
—Discussion of medication, exercise, sleep, nutrition, and other factors which can aid balance.
If you think this could be of help to you, please feel free to reach out. Also, to clarify what can be confusing: a neurodivergent person is an individual with an atypical neurotype (such as me!). Neurodiversity is the concept of acknowledging and embracing innate differences in how brains are wired.
Autism
It has been said that if you know one autistic person… you know one autistic person. Initial research on autism was focused on mostly wealthy, white, young cis-het boys, casting a narrow gaze for decades, while today the appreciation of diverse presentations is growing. If you identify as autistic, I can help support you in teasing out autism from the other factors informing your experience in the world. I can help you identify the ways in which you want to change and grow and understand others better, as we all do to some extent, and the ways in which you want to unmask, find your tribe, and be yourself more. I can help you develop emotional flexibilty to better handle stress and overwhelm, to face life without falling apart or getting stuck. Other areas of emphasis:
—Reframing autistic stereotypes.
—Problems with the diagnosis: “deficits in social functioning” and the “double-empathy problem.”
—Common autistic communication patterns and how to request change from others.
—Preventing, managing, and recovering from burnout.
—Celebration of your autistic strengths.
If you think autism may be part of your experience but have never sought formal diagnosis (which is always optional), you may fine some validated autism self-assessments here. If you’d like to know more about how I can be of service, feel free to contact me below.