Neurodivergent Affirming Care
Clinically reviewed by Marjorie Kreppel, LCPC, Founder of The Counseling Center Group, 2026. Marjorie is a DBT Certified Clinician through the DBT Linehan Board of Certification. She has completed Advanced Topics in DBT training (The Linehan Institute, Behavioral Tech, Level 4); Dialectical Behavior Therapy Intensive Training (The Linehan Institute, Behavioral Tech, Level 3); and has almost a decade of direct experience supporting the autism community prior to her work as a therapist.
Most people who come to therapy have been told, in one way or another, that something about them needs fixing. For people that have autism, people with ADHD, and other neurodivergent individuals, that message often started in classrooms, workplaces, and relationships that were never built with a neurodivergent brain in mind. At the Counseling Center Group, we believe everyone deserves to live a life they genuinely love, and that no one should have to become someone else to get there. Our work is to help people move out of survival mode and toward real connection, real support, and a life that fits who they actually are.
That belief shapes how we deliver care. We practice neurodivergent affirming therapy: evidence-based, personalized treatment delivered by clinicians who start from the position that autism, ADHD, and other forms of neurodivergence are natural variations in how a brain works. CCG clinicians understand that no two brains allocate resources the same way. Every person has areas of real strength and areas where support helps, and a neurodivergent brain divides those up differently. The benefits that come from that difference are genuine, and they are the part most often left out of a conversation that only focuses on what is hard. We provide tools and strategies to navigate burnout, anxiety, relationship strain, and executive functioning challenges while honoring each person’s unique way of thinking, communicating, and experiencing the world. What you want your life to look like is what we build treatment around.
What Is Neurodivergent Affirming Care?
Neurodivergent affirming care is a therapeutic approach that treats neurological differences like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and sensory processing differences as natural variations in the human brain rather than deficits to be corrected. Therapy targets the distress a person is actually experiencing.
In practice, this means a clinician’s goal is never to fundamentally change who a person is. The goal is to build up an individual’s unique strengths to help reduce what is genuinely causing pain, whether that is anxiety, burnout, sensory overwhelm, or relationships that keep breaking down, and to build skills the client actually wants.
Affirming care is not a single technique or modality. Rather, it is a framework that shapes how existing, well-supported approaches, such as CBT, DBT skills, ACT, and executive function coaching are adapted to fit each person’s strengths, needs, communication style, and goals. For example, when supporting a client with autism who has anxiety, a clinician using a neurodivergent affirming approach may use CBT strategies while also considering the sensory, social, and environmental factors that may be contributing to distress. Together, the clinician and the client can identify meaningful goals and develop tools that build on the client’s strengths, preferences, and existing ways of coping and self-regulating.
What Does Neurodivergent Mean?
We all take in information, hold attention, and read social cues a little differently, and those differences exist on a wide range. Neurodivergent describes the part of that range where the difference is significant enough to shape daily life, and where it is sometimes named through a diagnosis such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or Tourette syndrome. Neurotypical describes processing that lines up more closely with what schools, workplaces, and social settings already expect. Neither word says anything about intelligence, capability, or worth.
The word neurodiversity was coined in the late 1990s to describe the full range of human brain variation, in the same way biodiversity describes variation across species. Neurodivergence is not rare. The CDC estimates that approximately 1 in 31 children in the United States is identified with autism spectrum disorder, and NIMH reports that roughly 6 percent of US adults have a current ADHD diagnosis.
For a deeper explainer, see the Counseling Center Group’s “What Is Neurodivergent? A Guide to Brain Diversity” and “The Neurodivergent Spectrum: A Guide to Cognitive Diversity”.
Who Benefits From Neurodivergent Affirming Therapy?
Neurodivergent affirming therapy is for anyone whose brain works differently from the environments built around it and who wants support that does not treat that difference as a problem. Treatment at the Counseling Center Group is particularly meaningful for individuals who may have experienced approaches or environments that did not consider their strengths or individual needs.
This most often includes individuals with autism, people with ADHD, and people who are both (commonly described as AuDHD), as well as people with dyslexia, dyspraxia, sensory processing differences, or other forms of neurodivergence. It also includes people who strongly suspect they are neurodivergent but do not yet have a formal diagnosis, which is common, especially among adults, women, and people who were never evaluated as children.
Best For
- Individuals with autism and ADHD teens and adults, including AuDHD individuals, who want therapy that understands and respects how they experience and interact with the world Late-diagnosed or self-identified adults who were missed by childhood evaluation and are making sense of that now
- People experiencing anxiety, depression, burnout, or emotional dysregulation that is tangled up with masking, sensory overwhelm, or executive functioning strain
- People whose past therapy experience felt like it was trying to make them act more neurotypical rather than actually helping them
- Teens and young adults who want concrete social connection skills and are looking for structured, peer-based support such as PEERS
- Parents and partners who want to understand and support a neurodivergent family member without trying to change them
- People who have long felt misunderstood, disconnected, or different in ways that they are seeking to understand, gain insight, and learn skills.
How Is Neurodivergent Affirming Therapy Different From Traditional Therapy?
Traditional therapy has often measured progress by how closely a neurodivergent client comes to behaving like a neurotypical one. Neurodivergent affirming therapy measures progress by the client’s own goals: less distress, more capacity, better relationships, a life that has meaning and fulfillment. The traits stay. The suffering is what gets treated.
Neurodivergent affirming therapy starts from a different premise: recognizing differences while focusing on understanding what works best for each individual. The distress that shows up around them, whether that is anxiety about being misunderstood, burnout from years of masking, or shutdowns and meltdowns from sensory overload, is what therapy actually works on.
This distinction matters clinically, not just semantically. If a client’s goals are to make friends or get a job, a clinician who focuses treatment on building neurotypical behavior may actually get in the way of desired progress. Clinicians in neurodivergent affirming therapy focus on the client’s wellbeing, not societal norms or goals. This individualized treatment is accomplished by identifying what is actually causing distress or getting in the way of the client’s own goals, and buildings treatment around that.
What Does Neurodivergent Affirming Care Look Like at CCG?
In practice, neurodivergent affirming care at CCG means your clinician adjusts the room to you, not the other way around. It means goals are set collaboratively, based on what you actually want out of therapy, rather than a standard checklist applied the same way to every client. We do this because we believe therapy should never ask you to perform in order to benefit from it.
It also means we take co-occurring struggles seriously. Many individuals with autism and ADHD come to therapy for anxiety, depression, burnout, rejection sensitivity, or relationship strain that developed alongside years of masking or being misunderstood. We treat those difficulties directly, with the same evidence-based tools we use with any client, adapted so they actually fit a neurodivergent nervous system and communication style.
Approaches Our Clinicians Adapt for Neurodivergent Clients
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for anxiety and depression, adapted so that thought records and exposure work account for sensory load and interoception differences
- DBT skills for emotional dysregulation, including distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness skills taught without the assumption that neurotypical social norms are the standard. See also Counseling Center Group’s Neurodivergent-Friendly Mindfulness Strategies in DBT Therapy.
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for values-based goal setting, which fits well with clients who have spent years pursuing goals set by other people
- Executive function coaching for planning, task initiation, and follow-through, structured around how the client’s attention actually works
- PEERS social skills training for teens and young adults who want concrete, evidence-based tools for making and keeping friends
Where CCG Offers Neurodivergent Affirming Care
Counseling Center Group offers neurodivergent affirming therapy across all of our in-person locations: Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Washington, DC. Care is also available virtually throughout each state we are licensed in, so where you live does not limit which clinician you can work with. See all CCG locations.
Wherever you are, the right support should not be out of reach. We built our locations around that belief.
Our Bethesda, Maryland office is also home to PEERS social skills groups for teens and young adults, with plans for expansion across other CCG locations. Visit our PEERS page to learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your Care Team
Maryland
Dallas Matthews, LGPC
Dallas is dedicated to supporting clients through life’s complexities with warmth, and sincerity. Before pursuing a career in counseling, he spent many years in various mental health roles, all of ...
Jennie Robinson, LMHC, LGPC
Jennie is warm, empathetic, and emotionally attuned to her clients while providing a safe, nonjudgemental space to foster the therapeutic relationship. Jennie encourages individuals to discover insight into patterns that ...
Christina White, LCPC
Christina White, LCPC, is a DBT Linehan Board Certified Clinician committed to providing adherent Dialectical Behavioral Therapy to her clients. Her clinical focus is working with neurodivergent individuals, client with ...
Rachel Scharf, LCSW-C
Rachel Scharf, LCSW-C, works with children, adolescents, young adults, and families navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, life transitions, self-esteem challenges, relationship concerns, and emotional regulation difficulties. Rachel creates a warm, collaborative, ...
Virginia
Barbara Knapp, RC
Barbara is a Resident in Counseling in the state of Virginia with a deep passion for supporting both young children and adults through life’s complex and tender moments. Before entering ...
Sarah Epstein, RC
Sarah is a Resident in Counseling based in Virginia, working with teens and young adults navigating life transitions, anxiety, depression, trauma, and challenges related to self-esteem, identity, and emotional regulation. ...
Emma Ratpojanakul, LCSW
Emma is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) in the state of Virginia. She has a special interest in working with clients experiencing life transitions, cultural and racial identity issues, ...
Annemarie Manner, LPC
Annemarie is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Virginia who provides individual and family therapy to clients of all ages. Annemarie’s experience as a school counselor and private practice counselor ...
New York
Lauren Mackie, LCSW
Lauren is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a passion for helping teens, adults, and parents navigate life’s toughest challenges with more clarity, confidence, and peace. She specializes in CBT ...
Stella Marsh, LMSW
Stella is a strengths-based, trauma-informed, and evidence-driven therapist who believes that meaningful change is a collaborative process of goal-setting and harnessing an individual’s inherent resources and resilience. Her style is ...
Julia Ellis, LMSW
At the core of her therapeutic practice, Julia is committed to building genuine relationships. She brings warmth, curiosity, and honesty to each session, showing up authentically and inviting clients to ...
New Jersey
Casey Santora, LMSW
Casey Santora is a passionate and dedicated licensed social worker with expertise working with children, adolescents and adults to learn techniques and tools which will help them to lead happy ...
Florida
Kaycie Davis, RMHC-I
After spending over 16 years immersed in the worlds of health, fitness, and commercial photography, I developed an intimate understanding of how image and identity influence mental well-being. In those ...
Louise Jennifer Dogan, LCSW/LICSW
Louise Jennifer Dogan works with children, adolescents, adults, and families navigating a wide range of challenges, including anxiety, life transitions, family changes, co-parenting concerns, and neurodivergence in children. Her experience ...
Start Neurodivergent Affirming Therapy Today
You deserve a therapist who sees your neurodivergence as part of who you are, not something to manage away. Reach out to CCG to get matched with a clinician trained in neurodivergent affirming care. We believe a life you love is built around who you already are, not around who you were told to become.