Autism

A lot has changed in how we understand autism. Some of what you learned years ago — maybe even what you learned in graduate school, if you're a clinician reading this — is outdated.

Autism is not a deficit. It's a different neurotype. Autistic brains process sensory input, social information, and patterns differently than neurotypical brains. Not worse. Differently. Some things are harder. Some things are easier. The profile varies enormously from person to person, which is part of why the old stereotypes miss so many people — especially women, people of color, and adults who learned to mask so well that nobody suspected.

Late-diagnosed autism in adults is one of the most common presentations we see now. People come in exhausted. They've spent decades performing a version of themselves that didn't quite fit. They're often skilled — unusually so, sometimes — and also burned out in ways that don't resolve with a vacation. Because the exhaustion isn't about workload. It's about the cumulative cost of suppressing who you are in every interaction.

Discovering you're autistic as an adult is rarely straightforward. There's often relief. This explains so much. There's often grief. What would my life have looked like if I'd known? There's often re-examination of memories that suddenly make different sense.

Therapy for autistic adults is not about becoming less autistic. It's about understanding your own nervous system, your own sensory profile, your own communication style. It's about unlearning the masking that kept you safe at the cost of keeping you exhausted. It's about figuring out which accommodations your life actually needs — at work, in relationships, in how you structure your days — and giving yourself permission to make them.

The goal is not fitting in better. The goal is living in a way that fits.

If you're exploring the possibility of autism, late-diagnosed or recently diagnosed, we work with this regularly.