Neurodiverse Therapy
Navigating a world not designed for how your brain works.
Being part of a mixed-neurotype relationship comes with its own distinct set of pressures; but at the core of those pressures are the same pursuer-withdrawer tendencies that are common across all relationships. At Healing Moments Counseling, our independent therapists understand that. Mixed-neurotype relationship therapy provides a safe space for you and your partner to explore your experiences, thoughts, desires, cycles, and patterns safely and without judgement.Â
Our team of experienced independent therapists help you navigate your relationship through the distinct challenges mixed-neurotype relationships face WITHOUT reducing you or your partner to a list of symptoms to be fixed. Here are some of the ways we can help:
Improved communication: You and your partner(s) are speaking different languages. Our independent therapists work with you, as a system, to help learn how to speak the same language and understand what happens when cycles take over.Â
Conflict Resolution: Conflict resolution for mixed-neurotype relationships isn’t the same as it is for neurotypical relationships. We help all involved in the relationship to firstly understand the way each partner perceives the world around them. When we understand that, we can understand why they responded the way they did.Â
Increased Intimacy: Closeness doesn’t have to look the same for both people to be real. Our independent therapists help you build emotional and physical intimacy that honors and respects sensory needs, energy limits, and authentic shows of affection.Â
Identifying and Reframing Cycles: We help you see the recurring conflicts as a shared pattern to solve together rather than fault to assign. This shift treats neurotypes and behaviors as a difference to be translated and understood so we can do things differently.Â
We want to help you stop translating each other’s languages as rejection or pressure and start building a bond that works for both of your minds. Our independent therapists work with you to develop a way of living and loving together that honors all experiences while naming and shaping cycles that leave you feeling hurt and abandoned. With Healing Moments Counseling, you don’t have to choose between being understood and being yourself. Â
Neurodiverse therapy can help with...
- Inattentive and Hyperactive ADHD
- Autism
- Rejection Sensitivity
- Emotional Regulation
- Sensory Overwhelm
- Burnout & Chronic Overwhelm
- Masking & People- Pleasing
- Communication Differences
- Attachment Challenges
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Anxiety & Overthinking
- Intimacy Concerns
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Friendship and Work Navigation
This is not an exhaustive list. Every neurodivergent person has a unique experience, and therapy can be tailored to your individual needs and challenges.
Neurodiversity Therapy FAQ
What is neurodiversity-affirming therapy?
Neurodiversity-affirming therapy recognizes neurological differences as part of natural human variation. Rather than automatically viewing differences as deficits that need to be corrected, therapy explores your individual strengths, challenges, needs, and ways of experiencing the world.
Our goal is not to change who you are. Instead, therapy can help you better understand yourself, identify what helps you feel safe and supported, and develop ways of navigating relationships and everyday life that honor how your brain works.
Do I need a formal autism, or inattentive and hyperactive ADHD diagnosis to receive therapy?
No. You do not need a formal diagnosis to explore neurodivergence in therapy.
Some adults come to therapy after receiving a diagnosis later in life. Others begin wondering whether neurodivergence might help explain experiences they have had for years. Therapy can provide a supportive space for exploring those questions without requiring you to prove or defend your experience.
Can you help adults who discover they are neurodivergent later in life?
Yes. Learning that you may be neurodivergent as an adult can bring many emotions at once—relief, validation, curiosity, grief, anger, or even a new understanding of your past.
Therapy can help you make sense of earlier experiences through this new lens while exploring what being neurodivergent means for your identity, relationships, work, sexuality, boundaries, and emotional well-being.
What does masking mean?
Masking can involve consciously or unconsciously hiding, suppressing, or modifying natural behaviors in order to meet social expectations or avoid rejection.
For some neurodivergent people, masking has been a way to stay connected, accepted, employed, or safe. At the same time, constantly monitoring yourself can be exhausting.
Therapy can help you explore where masking shows up, what purpose it has served, and where you may want more freedom to be authentically yourself.
Can neurodivergence affect relationships?
Absolutely. Neurodivergence can influence communication, emotional processing, sensory needs, routines, conflict, transitions, affection, and expectations within relationships.
Sometimes partners care deeply about one another but interpret each other’s behavior very differently. What one partner experiences as withdrawal, for example, may actually be overwhelm or a need for time to process.
Therapy can help partners become more curious about these differences and develop ways of connecting that work for their particular relationship rather than expecting both people to communicate or regulate in exactly the same way.
Do you provide neurodiversity-affirming couples therapy?
Yes. Neurodiversity-affirming couples therapy recognizes that different nervous systems may have different needs.
Rather than deciding that one partner’s way of communicating is correct, therapy can help couples understand each other’s internal experiences, identify recurring patterns of disconnection, communicate needs more clearly, and create greater emotional safety.
The goal isn’t sameness. The goal is understanding, responsiveness, and connection.
Do you work with individuals or just couples with neurodiveristy?
We work with both! You can choose to work with us as an individual or as a relationship dynamic.
Can neurodivergence affect sex and intimacy?
Yes. Neurodivergence can intersect with sexuality and intimacy in many ways.
Sensory preferences, transitions, attention, communication, emotional regulation, body awareness, desire, initiation, touch, predictability, and feeling pressured or misunderstood can all influence sexual experiences.
A neurodiversity-affirming approach to sex therapy makes room for these differences without assuming there is one “normal” way to experience desire, pleasure, affection, or intimacy.
Can therapy help with emotional overwhelm or shutdown?
Yes. Therapy can help you better understand your own patterns of activation, overwhelm, shutdown, or the need for additional processing time.
Together, you and your therapist can explore what contributes to these experiences, identify early signals, and develop strategies for regulation and communication that are responsive to your individual nervous system.
Will therapy try to teach me to act more neurotypical?
Neurodiversity-affirming therapy is not about teaching you to appear more neurotypical.
There may be skills you choose to develop because they make your life or relationships easier, but those goals should be collaborative and meaningful to you. Therapy should also make room for accommodations, boundaries, self-understanding, and changes to your environment—not place all of the responsibility on you to adapt.
What does attachment have to do with neurodiversity?
We all have attachment needs—to feel safe, understood, accepted, and connected to important people in our lives.
For neurodivergent individuals, repeated experiences of being misunderstood, criticized, excluded, or expected to communicate differently can shape how safe connection feels.
An attachment-informed approach can help us look beneath behaviors and ask a different question:
What is this person experiencing, and what might they need in order to feel safer, understood, and connected?
Is neurodiversity therapy LGBTQIA+ affirming?
Neurodiversity, gender, sexuality, relationships, and identity can intersect in important ways. Affirming therapy makes space for the whole person rather than treating one aspect of identity in isolation.
Our intention is to provide a respectful environment where clients can explore identity, relationships, sexuality, and neurodivergence without shame.
Does Healing Moments Counseling provide assessment for neurodiversity?
No we do not. However, we work with providers who can provide any assessments that might be needed.