Neurodivergent Mental Health Services

Neurodivergent folks often experience mental health challenges. This can look like anxiety, burnout, depression, severe distress, or low self esteem. 

WHY?
This often arises when ADHD or Autism is undiagnosed OR when individuals lack affirming support. Often, neurodivergent folks have gone through life without a proper understanding of their brain and without the right accommodations.

Whether the diagnosis is recent, suspected, or long-standing; psycho-education about neurodivergent brains is a powerful tool to build self esteem, acceptance, and challenge neurotypical ways of life that don’t work for us. 

HOW?
A mental health OT can work with you to reduce the impact of these mental health symptoms on daily life. This may be through approaches like behavioural activation, distress tolerance or challenging unhelpful thinking patterns.

Most importantly, it involves supporting you in identifying and UNdoing old patterns of pushing through in neurotypical ways in order to break cycles of burnout.

NOTE: 
For many, neurodivergent-affirming psychotherapy can also be helpful to manage areas like grief of late diagnoses, challenging core beliefs, navigating difficult relationships or abuse, building self esteem, and more.

If you are unsure about whether to start psychotherapy or OT (or both), you can book a consultation call to help decide what is best for you depending on your goals.

Neurodivergent folks can experience challenges in an area that healthcare providers and researchers refer to as “executive functioning”. 

On the outside, executive dysfunction may look like: forgetting or losing things, interrupting, challenges with focusing and starting tasks, trouble multitasking, laziness and more.

On the inside, the person is typically using a lot of effort to: remember details, start tasks, stay focused, not interrupt, and more. 

This can be quite challenging and often leads to distress. This stress, in turn, tends to exacerbate executive dysfunction, creating a cycle that can feel difficult to break. 

Tailored services can help you break this cycle and manage your symptoms by identifying barriers and implementing tools and strategies. These changes aim to improve executive functioning and emotional regulation, making daily life feel more manageable.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to workplace or academic accommodations.

An individual’s strengths, barriers, work/ school environments, and the tasks themselves, all play a role. Through considering all of these factors and their interaction, OT can support you to determine the most appropriate tools and systems. Sometimes, this may involve formal accommodations, and other times, may be supporting you to implement strategies that allow you to achieve your daily tasks with ease.

Individuals with ADHD and/ or Autism can also experience sensory processing differences. 

Sensory processing refers to the way the body and the brain interpret and respond to sensory information. This can include sights, sounds, textures, tastes, smells, movement, and pressure on our body. When someone experiences sensory processing differences, the signals for these various sensations may be more or less intense when compared to the majority of others. 

If this is something that you experience, you may find yourself overwhelmed or avoidant of sensations that others seem to be tolerating, or not even noticing. Other times, you may find yourself seeking input and loving certain sensations more than others. Contrary to common myths, most people are not 100% “sensory avoiders” or 100% “sensory seekers”. 

Your sensory profile is unique to you and can be very helpful to learn about. When sensory differences are not properly understood and supported, people may experience emotional distress, overwhelm, boredom, or a tendency to seek certain sensations in an uncontrolled or excessive way.

OT can help you identify your sensory needs and recommend appropriate tools to meet those needs effectively. 

Socializing is a part of every day life. For neurodivergent folks, socializing can be hard or tiring as it may involve keeping up with neurotypical norms.

What is Masking?
A common experience for ADHDers and autistic folks involves masking. This is when a person makes an effort to act in neurotypical ways in order to meet social expectations and blend in. It often does not come naturally, which can lead to burnout, mood challenges, and isolation.

OT can support you to learn about masking and build readiness and safety for unmasking within your environments. Unmasking for many, leads to socializing that feels more sustainable, energizing, and authentic.