A Therapist inEugene, Oregon

It is one room, and it is small. White walls, wooden shelving, plants, and a window that looks out onto trees. There are books, and there are board games, because I work with children and a game on the table is often the only reason a nine year old keeps talking. Adults use those same shelves.

The setup is deliberate. It is a low arousal environment with natural lighting and low noise, and fidget and low stim toys are provided. Alternative seating is available: couch, chair, spinning chair, big pillows and blankets. You do not have to sit in a particular spot or hold still. If the light is wrong for you, we change it. If you think better walking, we can do that instead, because I will meet you where you're at.

Children, teens, adults, couples and families all use this same room. Nothing about it is set up for one age group at the expense of another. That is on purpose. A family that comes in together should not feel like they are borrowing a child's space or sitting in a boardroom.

Autistic children and adults, and families who want support that does not ask an autistic person to perform being someone else. ADHD across the lifespan, including adults who only put the pieces together in their forties and are angry about the years they spent thinking they were lazy. Trauma, including childhood abuse and neglect, and adults still carrying what happened to them as kids.

Anxiety that has quietly narrowed somebody's life down to a few safe routes. Grief, the recent kind and the kind that arrives years late. Life transitions: a move to Eugene, a job that ended, a body that changed, a house that emptied out. Co-parenting after a separation, and the slow work of rebuilding a parent and child relationship after time apart. Foster and kinship caregivers, who are usually the last people in the household anyone thinks to ask about.

I have had the pleasure of spending three decades working with people across schools, child welfare, residential care and disability advocacy. That range is why an autistic eight year old and a grandmother raising her grandchildren can both be on the same week's schedule.

Before the first appointment there is a free 30-minute call. That call is a real conversation. You tell me roughly what is going on, I tell you how I would think about it, and if I am not the right fit I say so then and give you somewhere else to look.

On the day, arrive a few minutes early and take a seat. I come out and get you rather than calling a name across a room. In the first session I want to hear the story in your own order, not mine. I will ask what brought you now, what has already been tried, who is around you, and what you want to be different. If you are bringing a child, I will ask you both what you each think the reason for coming is, because those answers are often not the same, and the gap is useful.

There is some practical ground to cover: confidentiality and its limits, payment, cancellations, how to reach me between sessions. It takes a few minutes and then we move on. Toward the end we talk about what would be worth doing next and how often to meet. You leave with a plan you agreed to, not one I handed you. Modalities are chosen with you rather than applied from a manual. I don't get to choose what works. You do.

I do not diagnose, and I do not provide assessment or testing, including autism and ADHD evaluations. If that is what you need, that is a real need and I will point you toward where it is done rather than keeping you on my schedule while you wait. I do not provide ABA. My work is neurodiversity affirming, which means the goal is never to make an autistic person look less autistic.

I am not a psychologist. I am licensed as a Professional Counselor in Oregon and work only with people located in Oregon, in person here in Eugene or by telehealth anywhere in the state. If something you are asking for sits outside what I do, you will hear it on the first call, not three months in.