Adult and Late-Diagnosed Autism Therapy in Atlanta
For adults who found the word for it late, and are still working out what it means
A lot of the adults I work with spent decades with a description of themselves that never quite fit. Too sensitive. Too intense. Too much, and somehow also not enough. Then something named it, and a whole life needed rereading.
That rereading is real work. Relief and grief usually turn up together — relief that there was a reason, grief for the years spent trying to become someone easier. Both belong in the room.
This is affirming therapy. Autism is not something I am trying to help you suppress more efficiently. The goal is a life that fits how you are actually built, and enough self-trust to stop auditioning for one that does not.
This May Sound Familiar
- You have been the person who studies how others do it and reproduces it convincingly
- Socializing goes fine and then costs you the rest of the day, or the rest of the week
- Sensory things other people barely register can end an evening for you
- You were called gifted, sensitive, difficult, or all three, depending on who was describing you
- You have been treated for anxiety or depression for years and something underneath never lifted
- You are not sure you are allowed to claim the word without a formal diagnosis
Self-identified clients are welcome here. Formal assessment is expensive and slow to reach, and recognising yourself is not something you have to earn a document for.
What We Work On
Late identification and what it rewrites
Going back through your own history with new information. What was actually happening in the moments you have spent years being embarrassed about.
Masking and the cost of it
Not whether to unmask, which is rarely that simple, but where it is safe to, what it takes out of you when it is not, and how to stop paying that price everywhere by default.
AuDHD, when both are in play
Autistic need for sameness and ADHD need for novelty pulling in opposite directions inside one nervous system. Advice written for either one alone tends to fail here, and that failure is not yours.
Sensory needs, taken literally
Treated as real physical information about your environment rather than a preference to be talked out of. Recovery time included, because it is part of the requirement.
Relationships, work and disclosure
Communication when the people around you process the world differently, plus the genuinely hard question of who to tell, at work and at home, and what it changes.
Identity after the label
Autism explains a great deal and is not the whole of you. We make room for what you actually want, separate from what you have been managing.
How I Work
I use Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, and experiential and person-centered approaches. In practice that means we pay attention to the parts of you that learned to perform normal, and to what your body is doing when it has had enough, rather than drilling social skills.
The room is built for this. Lighting you can change, fidgets, no requirement to make eye contact, and no expectation that you arrive with your feelings already organized into sentences. Silence is allowed to just be silence.
Common Questions
- Do you diagnose autism or provide testing?
- No. I am an Associate Professional Counselor, so I do not conduct formal autism or ADHD assessment or testing, and I do not prescribe medication. I work with adults who have been diagnosed, who are in the assessment process, and who have identified themselves. If a formal evaluation would be useful to you, I can point you toward providers who do that work.
- I am self-diagnosed. Will you take that seriously?
- Yes. Formal assessment for adults is costly, slow, and historically has missed people who mask well, particularly women and anyone who learned early that fitting in was safer. Your own recognition of yourself is a legitimate starting point.
- Is this ABA, or social skills training?
- No. I do not practice ABA and I am not trying to make you present as less autistic. The work goes the other direction: understanding how you are wired and building a life that accommodates it.
- I was diagnosed with anxiety or depression years ago. Where does that fit?
- Often those diagnoses were accurate descriptions of the effect while missing the cause. Sustained masking and unaccommodated sensory load produce genuine anxiety and genuine exhaustion. We can hold both at once rather than picking a single explanation.
- Do you offer sessions online?
- Most sessions are in person at my Atlanta office, which tends to build the strongest working relationship. I also offer online sessions across Georgia when that fits your life better.
- How do we start?
- With a free 15-minute consultation. It is a short, low-pressure conversation about what is going on and whether working together makes sense. Nothing is committed to on that call.
Start With a Free Consultation
Fifteen minutes, no cost, no pressure. We talk about what is going on and whether working together makes sense.