Counseling for Neurodiversity, Social Skill Challenges, Job Performance Issues, or Relationship Challenges

You’re such a nerd. And sometimes you’re proud of that, but sometimes you feel like such a mess!  How long can you go on thinking of yourself as a burden to family or people who care about you? You wonder why you can‘t just be NORMAL,  living by yourself successfully, paying your own bills, or you know, just ADULTING? But you feel so anxious, still want friends and maybe even a special relationship…but you worry that is just impossible!

Sometimes you feel like a failure.  Maybe you learned to keep a job, but it isn’t the one you want because you’re not really good at being around people, and you can’t really be part of a team when there are collaborative projects. How can you really be successful?  Or you wonder if you just have to “settle”, not doing what you want, or work alone selling those skills that come so easy and you’re good at, but then again, you can’t keep up with the logistics of finding new clients, billing new clients, all those organizational things that others seem to be able to do.  And you keep telling yourself to forget about relationships….you tell yourself that you have too many problems but that doesn’t mean you don’t want one.  Even a friend or friends, someone to count on to spend some time with on weekends.  That would be a start. And you really don’t want to give up on that hope for  a real relationship with a “special person” ….but with all your quirks you tell yourself to just get use to being alone.

Hi, I’m Mary, and I Help Adults with their Neurodiversity… and With Possible Anxiety, Depression, Even Alcohol or Substance Abuse.

Through counseling, I help with social skills, and to identify your strengths and work on challenges. This journey may require rethinking some of your life’s experience and negative messages from others… but know that you can stay true to yourself, and still have confidence around others. It may feel like it is a balancing act, but is do-able and can become much easier with coaching and guidance.

As a Certified Austim Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist, I Can Help With Learning How to Connect & Build Self-Acceptance

Therapy work in our sessions may include: Identifying and making peace with your neurodiverse traits. Making plans on how your traits, your strengths, can be effective with a focus on people skills. Together we can identify values and work towards your personal goals. Learn to manage your sensory sensitivities so you can better regulate yourself or create work-arounds when you are faced with sensory laded experiences. Become more skills at not taking everything so literally and expand your understanding of non-verbal communication. Transform your worldview from “solo experience” to “one of friendship potential” with a focus on egocentric tendencies and building “flexibility.” Explore your flexibility, not rigidity, while still caring for your unique self. Practice different levels of social skills, while learning how to accept negative feedback or “constructive criticism.” Build awareness of priorities, and breakdowns in communication with others, while learning self-regulation techniques and creating co-regulating opportunities. Learn how your efforts are appreciated and recognized by (even neurotypical) others. Create workarounds for better executive thinking — to improve on planning, organizing and putting in action your tasks. Experience the journey and growth, with change and positives along the way.

Click here to schedule your free 15- minute phone consultation. I can provide counseling in my office or online. As a licensed clinician, I am also a ASDCS, (Certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist), which requires training and testing to provide specific supports. Additionally, I was co-director of a clinic supporting individuals, couples or families who have a family member diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, or are atypical, and considered neurodiverse. I have worked with college-aged HFA students transitioning to college and learning tools for a successful academic outcome. My substance abuse certification for AOD (Alcohol and Other Drugs) means that I have past experience in both inpatient and outpatient substance abuse facilities, so that I can provide guidance towards better coping tools.

My other specialties are relationship repair for typical or neurodiverse couples, as well as lessening anxiety or depressive symptoms, or even trauma transformation. including ETT (emotional transformation therapy), EMDR or TF-CBT, or Parenting Support.