Autism

Autism can feel like experiencing the world with the volume turned all the way up — every sound, thought, texture, and sensation leading to overwhelm and shutting down.

Being autistic can mean navigating a world that wasn't built with your wiring in mins where social rules can feel like unwritten codes and sensory overload lurks in everyday places like grocery stores or classrooms. It can be exhausting to constantly mask or explain your needs just to fit in or be understood. The challenge isn’t being autistic. it’s often the lack of accommodations, patience, and true acceptance from the world around you.

Common Examples

Sensory overwhelm/sensory seeking

Difficulty with social norms

Hyperfocus/Special Interests

Rigid/Concrete Thinking

Need for Routine and Consistency

Meltdowns/Emotional Dysegulation

How We Can Help

  • Not everyone can afford a formal diagnosis or may not even want one, so we are here to help you navigate your identity with Autism through free, self-guided assessment tools and other neurodivergent affirming resources as well as thoroughly conducting an initial evaluation and reviewing criteria in the DSM-5.

  • Through a supportive person-centered lens, we work to honor your sensory needs and your unique experience so that you can feel more confident in who you are and meeting your needs.

  • We will help you explore sensory seeking tools that can help regulate you when you’re in stressful, overstimulating situations. This is often called stimming and can look like fidgets, rocking back and forth, playing with your hair, etc.

  • At your pace, we support breaking the stigma of being Autistic and seeing outside of the stereotypical portrayal of Autism. As we learn more about the Autistic experience, you get to decide what helps you shine and show up authentically so you aren’t having burnout from masking.

  • Yellow alarm clock on a knitted mustard-colored blanket and white sheet.

    Exploring Diagnosis and Identity

    Using evidenced based tools and screenings, we can help you figure out if it might be worth pursuing a full ADHD or Autism diagnosis for you or your loved one.

  • Hands solving a Megaminx puzzle with colorful geometric shapes.

    Neuro-affirming Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

    Traditional CBT can feel a little like gas lighting for Autistic folks so we have modified this effective treatment to better align with the Autistic mind. Neuroaffirming CBT recognizes that the client’s thoughts and feelings often make perfect sense in the context of their lived experience. It focuses more on understanding those thoughts, validating them, and working with the person’s neurotype rather than against it.

  • Person sitting on a bed with an open book, a blue bookmark, and wearing blue patterned leggings. Near them, a wooden tray holds a cup of tea, a teapot, and a snack beside a plant. A yellow fluffy blanket covers part of the bed.

    Meeting Sensory Needs

    We can help you figure out what sensory issues are challenging you while finding tools, skills and strategies to self soothe, minimize triggers, learn to communicate limits, and improve emotional regulation and reduce meltdowns. Learning to also unmask and allow sensory needs to be visible can be a huge relief.

  • Child working on a colorful craft project at a wooden table with paper, scissors, glue, and markers.

    Developmentally Focused

    Assessing and working with the actual emotional age to create realistic goals that are attainable regardless of the chronological age. We understand the importance of involving the family in the process of understanding their child’s needs and see the parents/caregivers as the experts who can collaborate with us to help their child thrive.

  • A young child sitting on a white textured blanket, surrounded by toys, plush animals, and snacks, playing with colorful star and leaf-shaped foam pieces, with a jar of foam pieces, a basket of small foam figures, and a children's book nearby.

    AutPlay/Play Therapy

    Through Sand Tray, play therapy, art therapy and other creative outlets including AutPlay, we rely on hands-on learning and playing to explore emotions, thoughts, and reactions. Whether in person or telehealth, we find strategies to engage children in n a sensory-friendly manner that utilizes all parts of the brain.

  • A child wearing a yellow and gray long-sleeved shirt is coloring a picture of a cow in a storybook with a black marker. The book has colorful illustrations and text.

    Behavioral Strategies

    Through Sand Tray, play therapy, art therapy and other creative outlets including AutPlay, we rely on hands-on learning and playing to explore emotions, thoughts, and reactions. Whether in person or telehealth, we find strategies to engage children in n a sensory-friendly manner that utilizes all parts of the brain.