Autism Therapy for Adults

What Usually Brings You Here

Most autistic adults I meet are not in crisis about being autistic. They are tired. Tired of translating themselves at work, tired of the social math that runs in the background of every conversation, tired of getting home and having nothing left for the people they actually love. Sometimes there is a diagnosis behind that and sometimes there is only a long, private suspicion that you have been playing a part since you were small.

You might be coming in for something that looks unrelated, such as anxiety, insomnia, a relationship that keeps hitting the same wall, or a job you can do well for eight months and then cannot do at all. Underneath, it is often the same thing: a life built to a shape that costs you more than it costs the people around you.

You do not need a formal diagnosis to work with me, and you do not need to prove you are autistic enough. I am not here to weigh your evidence.

Masking, and What It Actually Takes Out of You

Masking is not lying. It is a set of skills you built early because it was safer than being read as strange. Scripts, rehearsed expressions, forcing eye contact that hurts, holding a still body while your nervous system is loud. It works, which is exactly the problem. It works well enough that nobody notices what it costs, including you.

In this room you can stop. Stim, pace, look at the floor, bring headphones, sit with your back to the window, keep your coat on. If talking is hard on a given day we can write, use notes on your phone, or work from a list you brought. Silence is not something I will rush to fill.

Over time the work becomes about choosing when to mask rather than doing it automatically. There are still rooms where you will decide it is worth it. The difference is that it becomes a decision with a cost you can see.

Work, Money and the Systems Around You

A lot of adult autism work is practical. Which parts of your job drain you and which parts you are actually good at. How to ask for a written agenda without turning it into a disclosure conversation. What to do about open-plan noise, unpredictable meetings, phone calls, or a manager whose feedback comes in hints. How to recover on the days you cannot recover at work.

I have spent thirty years across schools, child welfare, residential care and disability advocacy, much of it sitting beside people while they dealt with systems that were not built for them. That experience shows up here as plain help: what to put in writing, who to ask, what a reasonable accommodation request sounds like, and when a system is stalling you.

Relationships, Family and Being Known

Adult clients often want to talk about the gap between how much they care and how it lands. Partners who read flat delivery as indifference. Friends who drift because initiating costs too much. Family members who still narrate your childhood back to you in a way you no longer recognize.

We work on being understandable without becoming someone else: telling a partner what shutdown looks like before it happens, naming your capacity out loud, letting people in on the actual reason you left the party early. Sometimes partners or family join a session so the translating does not all fall on you.

What I Do Not Do

I do not diagnose autism and I do not provide assessment, testing or evaluation. If a formal diagnosis is something you want or need, for accommodations, for documentation, or just to have it named, you will need an evaluating provider, and I am glad to talk about what that process tends to involve before you start it.

I do not provide ABA and my approach is not behavior-shaping. The goal is never to make you appear less autistic.

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in Oregon, so I can work with you in person in Eugene or by telehealth anywhere in Oregon.