Neurodivergent-affirming therapy is therapy that takes a strengths-based, non-pathologising view of neurological difference. It means working with how your brain actually functions rather than treating neurodivergence as a deficit to be managed or a set of symptoms to be reduced. 

Many neurodivergent people have had damaging experiences with services that approached their neurodivergence from a deficit framework, as something broken, disordered, or in need of correction. That approach has caused real harm, and it is not the foundation of my practice. Neurodivergence is a different way of being in the world, not a lesser one. The difficulties that come with it are often as much about environment, expectation and the exhaustion of navigating a world that wasn’t designed for you as they are about the neurodivergence itself.

You don’t need a formal diagnosis to work with me. Late diagnosis is common, particularly among women, non-binary people and those from communities where neurodivergence has been historically underidentified. Self-identification is valid. If you understand yourself as neurodivergent, that understanding is the starting point.

Masking (the process of suppressing or camouflaging neurodivergent traits to fit neurotypical expectations) is exhausting, often unconscious and frequently damaging over time. Autistic burnout in particular can look like depression or withdrawal but has distinct features and causes. These are things I understand and take seriously, and they are often central to the work.

Neurodivergence doesn’t exist in isolation. For many people it intersects meaningfully with sexuality, gender identity, relationship style and the experience of being LGBTQ+. Research increasingly shows the connections between autism, ADHD and gender and sexual diversity. My practice is well placed to hold all of that together rather than treating each part of a person’s identity separately.