Autism, understood & affirmed

Have you tried therapy and found it difficult to connect? Worked SO hard to find healing and continued to struggle? Been frustrated by a standard format of therapy that just doesn't seem to work for you?

This is because standard therapy culture was created without neurodivergence like autism and ADHD in mind. Neurodivergent people connect differently — our brains come alive in different contexts, we move differently, we pay attention to different things. When those differences aren't honored by the people around us, they create wells of anxiety and shame that can leave us stuck. Most therapy doesn't understand that what is normal for us is actually functional, and should be celebrated, not changed.

Many autistic people — especially adults, women, and those who learned to mask early — reach midlife without ever having a name for why life has felt the way it has. Discovering you're autistic later in life can be disorienting and profoundly freeing at once.

We support that journey with curiosity and zero pressure to perform “normal.” Whether you're seeking a formal assessment or simply a therapist who finally gets it, you'll be met as the expert on your own experience.

Autism rarely travels alone. It frequently overlaps with ADHD, and years of being misunderstood can layer on anxiety, depression, or trauma. We look at the whole picture — including the sensory world, executive function, and the exhaustion of masking — so support actually fits the life you're living.

Our therapists practice every modality — psychodynamic, humanistic, EMDR, and more — through an affirmative lens, adapting the pace and the format to how your mind actually works. Trauma work in particular is done slowly and safely, never flooding. And when a clear picture would help, our clinicians provide affirming autism assessment for children and adults alike.

Below is a crowd-sourced library assembled by Dr. Joel Schwartz together with many Autistic people — reading, community, and media to help you understand yourself, your child, your family member, or your client from a point of view that values the inherent personhood of Autistic people.

This neurodiversity perspective views autism as a normal variation of human diversity to be honored, understood, and respected. Autism can come with profound difficulties; it also comes with profound strengths that, when honored and channeled, can lead to a wonderful life.

The focus here is deliberately on actually Autistic voices — not the voices of non-autistic people who have traditionally pathologized difference. Have something you think belongs on this list? Send it our way.