Neurodivergent-Affirming Therapy

The Short Version

Affirming means I am not trying to make you look less autistic, less ADHD, less odd or less inconvenient. Your way of thinking, moving, communicating and regulating is treated as your operating system, not as a set of symptoms to be reduced.

That does not mean nothing changes. People come to therapy because something hurts. We work on the hurt, burnout, anxiety, conflict, trauma, a life that does not fit, without treating the person as the malfunction.

What It Looks Like in the Room

The room adjusts to you. Lights, seating, noise, the option to move or not speak, sessions that use writing, drawing, games or a walk instead of face-to-face conversation. Stimming is welcome. Eye contact is optional and always has been.

You will not be scored on how you present. I am not counting how often you interrupt, whether you smiled at the right point, or whether your flat delivery matched the content. Those are not clinical findings; they are just how a lot of people talk.

I will also say plainly what I notice and check whether I have it right, rather than interpreting you to yourself. Guessing at meaning and then acting on the guess is how a lot of neurodivergent people end up with a therapy experience that feels like being managed.

Skills Without Compliance

Affirming does not mean skill-free. Plenty of what we do is concrete: regulation, communication, transitions, executive function, conflict repair, self-advocacy. The difference is why a skill is being taught and who it serves.

A skill that helps you get what you want counts. A skill whose only purpose is to make you easier for other people counts differently, and you get to decide whether it is worth the energy. Sometimes it is: most of us perform something to keep a job. The point is that it is your call, made with the cost visible, rather than a goal written for you.

This is also why I say the modalities are chosen with you, not for you. I do not get to choose what works. You do.

Where This Comes From

I learned this alongside people, not from a manual. Thirty years across schools, child welfare, residential care and disability advocacy, including years with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Some of my closest friendships came out of that work.

The practice is named Ubuntu, which I first heard from visiting speakers from Africa while I was working in Alaska with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I am because we are. Our humanity is bound up in our relationships with each other. A room built on that idea does not start by asking someone to be less themselves.

Limits, Stated Plainly

I do not diagnose, assess, test or evaluate for autism or ADHD. Affirming care does not include telling you what you are; it includes taking you seriously when you tell me.

I do not provide ABA. I am trained and experienced in this work, and I am a Licensed Professional Counselor. I work with people located in Oregon, in person in Eugene or by telehealth.