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Becoming Yourself Counselling and Consulting

Therapy for gifted and twice-exceptional (2e) adults in Ontario

Who I Work With

I work with adults who are exploring or identifying with neurodivergence. This includes individuals who have received a formal diagnosis, those who are self-diagnosed, and those who are in the process of exploring whether ADHD, Autism, AuDHD (both ADHD and Autism), or twice-exceptionality (2e/giftedness) may describe their experience.

Many of the people I see identify as high-masking or high-achieving. Outwardly, they may appear capable, successful, or well-organized, yet internally, they may experience stress, exhaustion, or uncertainty about how to navigate daily life and relationships.

I also work with individuals who:

  • Experience the challenges of balancing strengths with areas of difficulty.
  • Have spent years masking or adapting in ways that feel draining.
  • Live with the impacts of anxiety, self-criticism, or perfectionism.
  • Identify as gifted or twice-exceptional and are navigating both opportunities and challenges that come with these experiences.

Some people come with questions about belonging, identity, and how their neurodivergence influences different areas of life. Others are looking to better understand patterns of behaviour, emotional experiences, or ways of coping.

This practice offers a space for individuals who want to reflect on their experiences and explore what feels most authentic to them.

 

Neurodiversity Affirming Therapy

Therapy That Meets You Where You Are

Every person comes to therapy with a unique story. For many neurodivergent adults, that story includes the exhaustion of constantly adapting, the impact of feeling misunderstood, and the weight of masking.  

Others share how rejection sensitivity, self-criticism, or difficulty with transitions creates strain in their relationships. Whatever brings you here, therapy may provide a compassionate space to slow down, take stock, and explore new ways forward.

Things We Can Explore Together in Therapy

Starting therapy is more than naming what’s hard. It’s about creating a safe, collaborative space where we can work with your strengths, values, and needs. We’ll explore strategies that fit your life, practices that bring steadiness, and new ways of relating to yourself and others. This section highlights the areas we may focus on in therapy, offering possibilities for growth, healing, and sustainable change.

 

Self-Image & Identity: Building Self-Understanding, Self-Acceptance and Self-Compassion

Your story is still unfolding. In therapy, we’ll work on building self-understanding, exploring ways to quiet the inner critic, and supporting you in cultivating pride in who you are, without an apology.

Together, we might explore:

  • Reframing your neurodivergent traits as strengths, not flaws
  • Healing from self-doubt, shame, or imposter syndrome
  • Rebuilding confidence and self-trust after setbacks
  • Practicing self-compassion and acceptance
  • Living more authentically, even in spaces that don’t always feel safe

Attention & Thinking Patterns: Working With Your Unique Mind

Your mind is powerful and unique. We’ll explore how to work with your natural rhythms instead of against them.

Together, we might explore:

  • Executive functioning tools that may support focus, planning, and organization in ways that feel more sustainable
  • Strategies for navigating hyperfocus and task-switching
  • Approaches to working with procrastination and perfectionism
  • Practicing observation of thought patterns without judgment or reactivity
  • Exploring ways to move from urgency-driven cycles toward steadier, more sustainable rhythms

Emotional Regulation: Understanding and Navigating Emotions

Your emotions reflect deep sensitivity and intensity. In therapy, we’ll explore ways to understand, work with, and channel them in ways that feel safe and sustainable.

Together, we might explore:

  • Coping strategies for moments of overwhelm, shutdowns, or mood shifts
  • Support in navigating experiences of rejection sensitivity (RSD) and fear of criticism
  • Naming, processing, and making space for complex feelings
  • Gentle approaches for exploring grief, trauma, or emotional wounds
  • Practicing acceptance of emotions and learning to “surf the waves of emotion”

 

Anxiety & Mood: Finding Calm and Balance

Your nervous system works hard to keep you safe, but sometimes it can leave you feeling stuck in cycles of worry, low energy, or exhaustion. In therapy, we can explore tools and approaches that may support calm and protect your well-being.

Together, we might explore:

  • Techniques that may help with overthinking and rumination
  • Approaches for working with low mood and exploring motivation
  • Tools to support burnout recovery and energy protection
  • Exploring ways to reframe unhelpful thought patterns with more compassionate perspectives
  • Building daily practices that may support balance and emotional well-being

 

Social & Communication: Creating Connections

You deserve relationships where you feel seen and understood. In therapy, we’ll practice skills and boundaries that may support safer, more nourishing connections.

Together, we might explore:

  • Navigating communication differences across neurotypes
  • Practicing boundary-setting in ways that feel more sustainable
  • Exploring ways to build supportive friendships and community
  • Approaches for managing relational conflicts with greater clarity and compassion
  • Working toward confidence in expressing your needs and self-advocacy
  • Practicing strategies for advocating with healthcare providers

 

Sensory & Physical Needs: Supporting Mind and Body

Your body and sensory system are part of your mental health story. In therapy, we’ll explore ways that may support your physical well-being alongside your emotional growth.

Together, we might explore:

  • Grounding and self-soothing practices for moments of sensory overload
  • Outlets for sensory-seeking energy
  • Exploring routines that may support sleep and rest
  • Understanding how our environment impacts us and what modifications might help accommodate it
  • Exploring connections between physical symptoms and stress or burnout
  • Working toward daily rhythms that may nurture both body and mind

 

Online therapy for executive function, rejection sensitivity (RSD), and masking support in Ontario-1

Neurodiversity-Affiriming Care

Neurodivergent adults often carry challenges that extend beyond the day-to-day stressors. Chronic invalidation, being told directly or indirectly that your way of thinking, feeling, or processing is “wrong”, can lead to self-doubt and shame. Executive functioning challenges can lead to self-criticism and judgment.

Masking who you are, or your challenges, can lead to masking fatigue, exhaustion, or burnout. Sensory differences may make environments overwhelming. Transitions, whether big or small, can spark anxiety and resistance.

The accumulation of these experiences may leave you feeling isolated, disconnected, and unsure of how to move ahead.

A neurodiversity-affirming therapist recognizes that these differences are not deficits, but natural variations in human experience.

 

Therapy for adults with ADHD, autism, or 2e in Ontario-1

Trauma-Informed and Client-Centred

My practice is also trauma-informed, which means attention is given to pacing so that the process feels manageable and safe. Sessions unfold in a way that respects your readiness, allowing time to reflect and adjust as needed.

It is client-centred, meaning collaboration is central. You bring your knowledge of your life, and I bring therapeutic tools and perspectives; together, we can explore what feels most relevant and supportive for you.

This work is grounded in a strengths-based, humanistic, and existential foundation. These perspectives invite curiosity about meaning, self-understanding, and the resources you already carry.

What Commonly Brings Neurodivergent Adults to Therapy

 

 

Undertanding Yourself & Identity

  • Navigating a late or self-diagnosis
  • Unmasking and desire in reconnecting with your authentic self
  • Making sense of giftedness or twice-exceptional (2e) experiences
  • Challenges of high-masking, high-achieving
  • Letting go of internalized ableism
  • Deciding how and when to share your neurodivergence

Relationships & Connection

  • Building friendships and a supportive community
  • Navigating communication differences between neurotypes
  • Setting healthy boundaries and limits
  • Coping with loneliness
  • Working through family or romantic challenges
  • Workplace dynamics and relationships
  • Finding it hard to say 'No"

Emotional Well-Being

  • Anxiety, depression, or burnout
  • Rejection sensitivity (RSD)
  • Emotional overwhelm or shutdown
  • Relational harm and invalidation
  • Processing past trauma
  • Emotional Intensity or overexcitability.
  • Being 'too hard' on themselves or not hard enough 
  • Feeling of shame and inadequacy
  • Shame spirals.

 

Daily Life & Executive Function

  • Focus, planning, and organization struggles
  • Procrastination or perfectionism
  • Burnout recovery
  • Balancing energy with work or school demands
  • Want new strategies to support executive function. 
  • Lack of Motivation
  • Internal and External stress/expectations/demands

Coping Tools & Habits

  • Strategies for improving healthy habits
  • Replacing draining patterns of behaviour
  • Nervous system regulation strategies
  • Building therapeutic tools and skills
  • Need for sustainable habits and routines.
  • Reduce the harm of addictive behaviours or substances. (For example: Technology use, gaming, alcohol, marijuana)


 

Thoughts and Thinking

  • Unhelpful thoughts and thinking
  • Spiralling thoughts, overthinking and rumination
  • Feeling 'pushed' around by our thoughts 
  • Seeking tools and strategies to help with these various challenges. 
  • Working with our thinking in a way that helps us move forward, not holds us back.
  • Challenges processing thought, or how to make sense of things like late diagnosis, relationship difficulties. 
  • Difficulties with 'Theory of Mind'

 

A toolbox of approaches

A Toolbox of Therapeutic Approaches

My work is relational and use an integrative blend of evidence-based approaches and insights to inform our work, adapted to your specific goals:

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Exploring ways to notice unhelpful thoughts while moving toward what matters most.
  • Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT): Encouraging a kinder, more understanding relationship with yourself.
  • Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT): Practical tools for managing intense emotions, building mindfulness, and improving communication.
  • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT): Identifying patterns between your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, and developing more balanced ways of responding.
  • Motivational Interviewing (MI): Clarifying your own reasons for change and supporting motivation.
  • IFS-Informed and Polyvagal Practices: Exploring your internal world and supporting nervous system regulation.
Common Areas of Focus

Common Areas of Focus in Therapy

While each person’s needs are unique, some themes frequently arise in my work with Autistic, ADHD, AudHD, 2e, gifted adults:

  • Late-diagnosis, Self-diagnosis/late realization or exploring identity
  • Burnout and masking fatigue
  • Rejection sensitivity and self-criticism
  • Explore executive functioning strategies
  • Anxiety and depression
  • Relationship challenges and boundary-setting
  • Navigating transitions and change
  • Examine the internal or external expectations placed upon us.
  • Exploring coping strategies, including reducing reliance on patterns like avoidance or substance use
  • Closing the gap between where they are and where they want to be

Therapy as Collaboration

Therapy here is a partnership. You bring your history, insights, and strengths. I bring my training, lived experience of late-discovered neurodivergence, and the perspective of a neurodiversity-affirming therapist. Collaboratively, we can create a process that is flexible, compassionate, and responsive to what you need most.

 

An Invitation

Whether you are facing burnout, struggling with self-criticism, or longing to feel more at home in yourself, therapy may provide space to reflect, recalibrate, and reconnect. We can all benefit from a supportive place to talk things out, and hopefully not feel so alone in the struggle.

If you are curious about how therapy might support your journey, I invite you to reach out and explore whether this is the right fit.

You can use the online booking link to schedule a 20-minute free consultation.

 

“There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche

 

FAQs About Services: Therapy Services FAQ: ADHD, Autism, Giftedness, and Online Counselling

 If you can't find an answer to your questions here, plea

Do you offer harm-reduction therapy instead of requiring abstinence?

Yes. I understand that substances are often used as a way to regulate stress, anxiety, or pain. My harm-reduction approach allows you to explore your relationship with use without pressure to quit. Together, we focus on reducing harm, building alternative regulation tools, and making conscious choices that align with your goals.

How can therapy help with executive functioning and ADHD challenges?

Therapy can help you create systems that work with your brain rather than against it. We explore task initiation, organization, time management, and procrastination, not as personal failings, but as areas where tailored strategies can make a big difference. Many clients experience relief when they finally understand why past systems didn’t work and build ones that actually fit.

What if I’m “gifted” but still struggling with underachievement or burnout?

Giftedness often comes with high expectations and painful self-criticism. Therapy can help you reframe your story from one of “wasted potential” to one of resilience and complexity. Together we address burnout, emotional intensity, and rejection sensitivity (RSD) while helping you reconnect with your creativity, intelligence, and worth, without pushing yourself to collapse.

Can therapy help me process a late diagnosis of ADHD or autism?

Yes. A late diagnosis often triggers grief for missed opportunities and relief for new clarity. Therapy supports you in integrating both stories, who you thought you were and who you now know yourself to be. We work on identity reconstruction, self-compassion, and building a sustainable lifestyle that honours your neurodivergence.

How does therapy address rejection sensitivity and relationship struggles?

Rejection sensitivity (RSD) can create intense emotional reactions and relational challenges. In therapy, we focus on recognizing these patterns, calming your nervous system, and building healthier ways to respond. The goal isn’t to eliminate sensitivity but to reduce its grip so you can feel more grounded, understood, and connected in your relationships.

Do you work with people who feel like contradictions or don’t fit neatly into one label?

Yes. Many of my clients describe themselves as paradoxes, part ADHD, part autistic, part gifted, and entirely unique. Therapy here is not about boxing you in. It’s about helping you integrate your complexity, hold your contradictions with compassion, and design a life where you can belong to yourself fully.

What does a first session look like?

The first session is about getting to know you. We explore your story, what brought you here, and what you hope to gain from therapy. There’s no pressure to share everything at once; you set the pace. From there, we start identifying your goals and shaping therapy around what feels most supportive for you.

Do you provide online counselling in Ontario?

Yes. I provide secure, confidential online therapy across Ontario. Many clients prefer online sessions because it saves travel time, reduces sensory and social stress, and allows you to meet from the comfort of your own space. All you need is a private place and an internet connection.