At a Glance

• Mother of two teenagers (ages 16 and 13) — parenting across neurotypes, up close

• ADHD, diagnosed in her twenties, and now discovering her own autism

• Grew up surrounded by neurodivergence — an autistic sister and a highly sensitive mother

• An expert in blended families and co-parenting, in childhood and adulthood

• Deep focus as a superpower — the ability to study a subject all the way to its depths

• Lived and clinical understanding of masking, sensory sensitivity, rejection sensitivity, and high sensitivity

• Adapts established therapy approaches to how the neurodivergent brain works

• Rooted in Narrative Therapy, with Family Systems and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

• Former real estate broker and operations leader; group facilitator, including anger-management work

• Coaching clients worldwide; therapy for clients in California

Why I Do This Work

I know what it's like to feel different, misunderstood, or exhausted from trying to fit into spaces that weren't designed with you in mind.

I'm a mother of two teenagers, ages 16 and 13. I've built and rebuilt a family through divorce and blending, navigated my own neurodivergence, and had several successful careers before this one. I mention that early because the experience behind it is exactly what I bring into the room. As someone with ADHD who is also coming to understand my own autistic traits, I know firsthand both the strengths and the challenges of being neurodivergent — thinking differently, processing differently, and working to balance my own needs against everyone else's expectations.

I work with neurodivergent individuals, couples, and families as they come to understand themselves and each other more clearly. Many of the people I work with arrive feeling stuck in cycles of misunderstanding, conflict, burnout, anxiety, or self-doubt. Together, we build insight, strengthen communication, and create relationships that hold each person's strengths and needs.

What I Understand About Neurodiverse Couples

When two people experience the world through different nervous systems, the same conversation, the same Tuesday night, the same small moment can land in completely different ways. One partner may be more literal, more direct, and more easily overloaded; the other may read between the lines, move faster, and need more back-and-forth to feel close. Without a map, those differences start to feel like rejection, distance, or "you just don't care."

I have deep expertise with autistic adults, ADHDers, mixed-neurotype couples, and families navigating the challenges that arise when people experience the world in different ways. My work is about slowing the painful loops down — not by asking either partner to become someone they're not, but by identifying exactly how each person's brain, history, and communication style is shaping the moments that keep going sideways, and then building something that works for both of you.

I work with couples who want to communicate better, strengthen their connection, and truly understand one another. I also work with individuals and families, because meaningful change doesn't require everyone to be in the room.

Growing Up Surrounded by Neurodivergence

Neurodiversity isn't something I studied from the outside — it's the water I grew up in. My sister is autistic, and my mother is highly sensitive and deeply detail-oriented, with her own neurodivergent wiring. Difference was simply part of my family.

I was a shy, quiet child — so much so that I didn't speak to anyone outside my own home until I was seven years old. School was hard socially; fitting in never came easily. We moved often, which meant starting over again and again, each time having to find a way to connect and belong. I learned early to cope, to mask, and to camouflage — to study how other people worked and to perform the version of myself that seemed expected of me.

With so much to navigate at home, I also grew up quickly. I took on more than a child should, and in some ways I didn't get to simply be a kid. I understand now, with language I didn't have then, how being parentified shapes a person — how it can make you capable and responsible while also leaving you disconnected from your own needs.

For a long time, these were just facts about me. Now I look back on all of it with understanding and grace, through the lens of my own neurodivergence, and it finally makes sense. That shift — from "what's wrong with me?" to "this is simply how I'm wired" — is one I know from the inside. It's a big part of why I connect so deeply with clients who are coming to understand themselves later in life.

My Own Neurodivergence

I was diagnosed with ADHD, inattentive type, in my twenties, and so much clicked into place — including the classic "out of sight, out of mind" experience, where if I can't see something, it may as well not exist. Over the years I've built real systems and strategies to work with that brain rather than against it. More recently, I've been exploring my own autism-adjacent traits — I'm on that discovery journey myself, even as I walk it alongside my clients.

One of the gifts of how I'm wired is the ability to focus deeply — to fixate on a subject and study it all the way down (what some call monotropism). When something captures me, whether it's the ocean, sharks, or the workings of the human mind, I go all the way in. I've learned to treat that intensity as a strength, not a flaw — and to help clients recognize their own.

This path has helped me name things I carried quietly for years — the high cost of masking, sensory sensitivity, rejection sensitivity, and life as a highly sensitive person. I'm also a veteran of my own therapy: I've done the work of learning to pay attention to my feelings, to accept myself, and to do things my own way rather than the neurotypical way. Coming to understand these patterns in myself changed how I understand them in others. When I sit with someone exhausted from masking, bracing against the sting of rejection, or overwhelmed by a world turned up too loud, I'm not working from theory. I know that territory, and I know there's a way through it.

A Blended Family, Then and Now

Blended families are something I understand from every angle. My own mother was married before I came along, so I grew up with a step-brother and a step-sister — a blended family was my normal from the very start.

As an adult, I married my high school sweetheart. We divorced after six years, when I was twenty-six. Today my former husband is remarried, I'm in a long-term relationship, and my partner and I are raising my two teenagers, ages 16 and 13, together. My ex and I co-parent successfully — not because it was easy, but because we did the work to make it work.

So when I sit with a blended or co-parenting family, I'm not speaking from a textbook. I know the logistics, the loyalties, the grief of a family that changed shape, and the real, ongoing work of building something healthy across households. Family dynamics — the roles we fall into, the patterns that pass down through generations, and the work of rewriting them — are a genuine area of expertise for me.

Many Careers, One Throughline

Therapy is not my first career — it's the one all the others were quietly preparing me for. I've been a real estate broker, worked in the title and insurance industry, led operations and teams, supported a busy chiropractic practice, and worked in healthcare administration. I've moved cities more times than I can count and started over successfully again and again.

Along the way I learned something I now bring into the room: the drive to succeed can be both a strength and a trap. It can carry you a long way, and it can also leave you burned out, disconnected, and measuring your worth by how much you produce. I help people hold that tension — to use their drive without being used by it.

Identity, Culture, and How It Shifts

So much of who we are is shaped early, and it keeps changing — as we grow, and again inside our closest relationships, where two histories, two cultures, and two sets of expectations meet and reshape each other. Helping people understand that evolution — where their story began, how it has shifted, and who they're becoming — is central to how I work.

I also bring a personal appreciation for the beauty and complexity of interracial and multicultural relationships, and for how culture, family expectations, communication styles, and lived experience shape a partnership in both meaningful and challenging ways. Whatever your background, I work to create a space where every part of your experience is welcomed and respected.

How I Work

A word about method, because with neurodivergent clients it matters enormously. Standard therapy models — Narrative Therapy, Family Systems, CBT, and the rest — were not designed with neurodivergent brains in mind. Applied straight off the shelf, they can miss the mark, and sometimes they backfire: a pace that feels "gently challenging" to one nervous system can be flooding to another, and a technique that builds insight for one person can create shame for the next. I adapt established therapy approaches to how the neurodivergent brain works. That adaptation is the work, and it's where my expertise lives.

Within that neurodiversity-informed frame, I draw most heavily from Narrative Therapy, because people are always more than the problems they face, their diagnoses, or their circumstances. I integrate Family Systems and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to make sense of the patterns that developed for a reason, strengthen relationships, and build practical tools for change. I will tell you what I see clearly and directly, I'll challenge you when it serves you, and I will always treat you as the expert on your own life.

Who I Work With

• Neurodiverse couples — mixed-neurotype and dual-neurodivergent partners navigating communication gaps and the search for connection

• Autistic adults and ADHDers (diagnosed or self-identified)

• AuDHD adults — people who are both autistic and ADHD, a distinct profile with its own strengths and challenges

• Adults coming to understand their neurodivergence later in life

• Blended families and co-parents navigating divorce, remarriage, and life across households

• People who grew up parentified — the responsible one who never quite got to be a kid

• Individuals working on anger, conflict, and emotional regulation

• Adolescents and young adults working through identity, confidence, and belonging

• Anyone navigating interracial, multicultural, or cross-cultural relationships

What to Expect in Session

Clients tell me I'm genuine, easy to talk to, and grounded. I believe therapy should feel like a partnership — a place where you feel safe and supported, and also honestly challenged when it will move you forward.

I accommodate neurodivergent needs, including movement, fidgeting, reduced eye contact, written summaries, and flexibility around sensory and energy load. What can look like resistance is often a nervous system protecting itself, and we work with that, not against it. You won't be asked to perform or to become someone different — you'll be asked to show up, stay curious, and let us slow things down together.

"Therapy doesn't require you to become someone different. Often, it is about helping you better understand who you already are, and learning how to build a life that works for you."

License, Training, & Education

Neurodiverse Coach Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT) — AMFT #164737

All sessions are virtual. I coach clients worldwide and provide therapy to clients in California.

Supervised by Dr. Harry Motro, LMFT #53452

Employed by New Path Family of Therapy Centers

Education: Master of Arts in Marriage & Family Therapy — Touro University Worldwide Bachelor of Arts in Psychology — Sacramento State University Associate of Arts in Psychology & Sociology — Bakersfield College

Clinical Training & Experience: Neurodiversity-affirming and neurodiversity-informed care; Narrative Therapy, Family Systems Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), each adapted for neurodivergent clients; group facilitation and class instruction, including anger-management work; strengths-based approach