Many late-discovery neurodivergent adults learned to trust analysis more than their own experience. Therapy can help you reconnect with the parts of yourself you've spent years explaining away.
Many late-discovery neurodivergent adults learned to trust analysis more than their own experience. Therapy can help you reconnect with the parts of yourself you've spent years explaining away.
Maybe you had loving parents who genuinely tried to support you. So you don't think you there's any reason you should be struggling.
Maybe you had the parent who always reassured you, telling you “it’s fine, everything is okay. You are safe.” But underneath the words you felt their unexpressed anxiety, and as a child, you interpreted that as danger. Over time, you learned to doubt your own inner experience as the adults in your life said one thing, but you felt their emotional energy saying something different. You developed the habit of dismissing your intuition and emotions and over-riding signals from your body.
You learned to look outside yourself for evidence before trusting what you already knew, and to explain your feelings before feeling them. It became a survival adaptation -- to justify your needs before honouring them, and to gather enough proof before believing your own experience.
Maybe you had loving parents who genuinely tried to support you. So you don't think you there's any reason you should be struggling.
This is where cultural and societal influencing enter the picture. Our society makes assumptions about the care that children and adolescents "should" need and parents adopt those assumptions as part of living in a society. The problem is that these assumptions of care don't match what many children actually need.
Maybe you had the parent who always reassured you, telling you “it’s fine, everything is okay. You are safe.” But underneath the words you felt their unexpressed anxiety, and as a child, you interpreted that as danger. Over time, you learned to doubt your own inner experience as the adults in your life said one thing, but you felt their emotional energy saying something different. You developed the habit of dismissing your intuition and emotions and over-riding signals from your body.
You learned to look outside yourself for evidence before trusting what you already knew, and to explain your feelings before feeling them. It became a survival adaptation -- to justify your needs before honouring them, and to gather enough proof before believing your own experience.
Stuck in persistent, toxic shame when you have needs that conflict with work and relationship demands (eg., "I'm too much," "I should be able to handle this.")
Feeling numb and disconnected when feelings get too big.
Over-intellectualising emotions so they feel "acceptable" or "valid."
Feeling like life is "too much" and comparing yourself to others
Pushing through your capacity because you "should" be able to work like everyone else
Overcommitting, then scrambling to show up, and then feeling ashamed and judging yourself for abandoning yourself.
Feeling dimmed: "I'm alive, but not living."
Feeling emotionally exhausted from constantly monitoring other people's reactions
Struggling to trust your own perceptions and decisions
Carrying resentment that never gets spoken aloud
Losing touch with what you actually want and need
Feeling lonely, even in relationships that matter to you
Questioning yourself at work, in friendships, and in everyday decisions
Wondering why connection feels so much harder than it seems for everyone else
The solution isn't to find better ways to fit inside the box; it's to build a life that fits YOU, outside of the box. That is a methodical process that starts with giving yourself permission to have needs and validating your internal experiences.
The solution isn't to find better ways to fit inside the box; it's to build a life that fits YOU, outside of the box. That is a methodical process that starts with giving yourself permission to have needs and validating your internal experiences.
How and where guilt shows up for you when you say "no," ask for something, or rest.
The way over-intellectualising emotions is used to feel "acceptable" and access a sense of belonging.
Self-criticism when you repeat patterns of overfunctioning
Automatic self-dismissal of your intuition because "it can't be proven so it's not real."
Why you treat your feelings like a court case: gathering evidence, rehearsing argument, and anticipating corss-examination
You've spent years treating your own experience as something that needed to be justified before it could be trusted. Therapy becomes a place to experiment with a different possibility: that your perceptions, needs, and inner knowing might already contain important information.
The goal isn't to convince yourself you're okay. It's to stop requiring proof before you allow yourself to trust what you already know.
How and where guilt shows up for you when you say "no," ask for something, or rest.
The way over-intellectualising emotions is used to feel "acceptable" and access a sense of belonging.
Self-criticism when you repeat patterns of overfunctioning
Automatic self-dismissal of your intuition because "it can't be proven so it's not real."
Why you treat your feelings like a court case: gathering evidence, rehearsing argument, and anticipating corss-examination
Most approaches focus on helping you function better inside the same box that taught you to distrust yourself. My work starts somewhere different. We begin by rebuilding trust in your own experience so your needs, emotions, and intuition no longer require proof before they deserve respect.
You learned to adapt to a world that wasn't built with your nervous system in mind, and somewhere along the way you stopped trusting yourself.
You learned to adapt to a world that wasn't built with your nervous system in mind, and somewhere along the way you stopped trusting yourself.
Stop second-guessing yourself when you have a feeling about something
To live at a pace that feels sustainable, instead of a constant emergency
Trust your pacing and inner knowing enough to build something long-term
Develop self-trust so you feel safe saying no and don't overcommit and under-deliver
Build a relationship with your Self where your sensitivity is cherished and respected
Shift from asking "am I allowed to feel this?" to "what is this feeling telling me?"
Transform self -talk from prosecution to compassion. "Of course this is hard. What's one thing that would help me right now?"
Most approaches focus on helping you function better inside the same box that taught you to distrust yourself. My work starts somewhere different. We begin by rebuilding trust in your own experience so your needs, emotions, and intuition no longer require proof before they deserve respect.
No. Many people come to therapy because they suspect they may be neurodivergent, highly sensitive, or experiencing life differently than the people around them, but aren't sure what to call it yet. You don't need certainty or a diagnosis to begin exploring your experience. Therapy can be a place to understand yourself more clearly and develop greater trust in what you're noticing.
That's okay. Many people spend years sensing that something feels different but struggle to explain why. You may have learned to dismiss your experiences because they didn't fit common narratives or because other people seemed to have an easier time. Therapy can help you explore those questions without pressure to arrive at a particular answer.
Yes—but not by teaching you how to feel less. Often the issue isn't sensitivity itself. It's the shame, self-doubt, and self-criticism that develop when you've spent years receiving the message that your needs, feelings, or limits are wrong. Therapy helps you build a different relationship with your sensitivity so it becomes something you can understand rather than fight against.
Many people assume they shouldn't be struggling because they had loving parents or a relatively stable upbringing. But self-doubt doesn't only develop through obvious trauma. Sometimes it develops when your inner experience wasn't fully understood, reflected, or supported. You don't need a tragic backstory to deserve support.
There can be overlap, but this work is often earlier in the process. Many people arrive here before they've fully understood or accepted their differences. The focus is less on unmasking and more on rebuilding trust in your own experience so you can begin making choices that feel authentic and sustainable.
No. Many people come to therapy because they suspect they may be neurodivergent, highly sensitive, or experiencing life differently than the people around them, but aren't sure what to call it yet. You don't need certainty or a diagnosis to begin exploring your experience. Therapy can be a place to understand yourself more clearly and develop greater trust in what you're noticing.
That's okay. Many people spend years sensing that something feels different but struggle to explain why. You may have learned to dismiss your experiences because they didn't fit common narratives or because other people seemed to have an easier time. Therapy can help you explore those questions without pressure to arrive at a particular answer.
Yes—but not by teaching you how to feel less. Often the issue isn't sensitivity itself. It's the shame, self-doubt, and self-criticism that develop when you've spent years receiving the message that your needs, feelings, or limits are wrong. Therapy helps you build a different relationship with your sensitivity so it becomes something you can understand rather than fight against.
Many people assume they shouldn't be struggling because they had loving parents or a relatively stable upbringing. But self-doubt doesn't only develop through obvious trauma. Sometimes it develops when your inner experience wasn't fully understood, reflected, or supported. You don't need a tragic backstory to deserve support.
There can be overlap, but this work is often earlier in the process. Many people arrive here before they've fully understood or accepted their differences. The focus is less on unmasking and more on rebuilding trust in your own experience so you can begin making choices that feel authentic and sustainable.
Helping deeply sensitive and neurodivergent adults rebuild self-trust, inner authourity, and lives that actually fit.
Providing therapy in person and online for Burlington, Chittenden County, and anyone within Vermont.
Pre-licenced therapist in the State of Vermont 097.0135825.