Psychotherapy for The Highly Sensitive and Neurodivergent Mind
In a world that rewards speed over presence, certainty over nuance, and doing over being, those of us who feel deeply often end up wondering if something is wrong with us.
Whether you identify as a highly sensitive person (HSP), neurodivergent, or both, life can feel like too much—too fast, too loud, too shallow. You may pick up on things no one else sees. You notice what others miss. You carry the unspoken, and feel everything in high resolution. And while there’s beauty in that kind of perception, it can also feel like a burden. Especially when the world doesn’t make room for how you’re wired.
But there is nothing wrong with your sensitivity. And there is nothing wrong with the way you move through the world. You just haven’t had the support you deserve.
Highly Sensitive and Neurodivergent: Living in High Definition
High sensitivity, as defined by Dr. Elaine Aron, describes a nervous system that is more finely tuned—deeply attuned to the environment, to emotion, to subtlety. Neurodivergence, including autism, ADHD, and other ways of being, also pushes against rigid cultural norms around attention, communication, and expression.
These identities are not the same, but they often overlap. Many of my clients process the world with extraordinary depth—emotionally, intellectually, and energetically. They experience awe and overwhelm in equal measure. They feel the beauty and pain of the world acutely. And they often carry the weight of not being understood.
When the World Doesn’t Reflect Your Inner Reality
If you’ve been told you’re too much, too sensitive, too distracted, or too intense, it’s easy to internalize those messages. Many sensitive and neurodivergent people learn to mask—to push down their natural responses in order to fit into systems that weren’t built for them.
Over time, this disconnect can create deep fatigue, anxiety, low self-worth, and a kind of grief that’s hard to name. The grief of being misunderstood. The grief of not being met. The grief of feeling like you’ve had to leave yourself behind just to be accepted.
In therapy, we name that grief. We honor it. And we begin to gently unravel the belief that your sensitivity is the problem.
Depth-Oriented Psychotherapy: Coming Home to Yourself
My approach to therapy is grounded in depth psychology—gentle, curious, and soul-centered. It’s not about fixing you. It’s about helping you reconnect with who you were before the world asked you to be someone else.
Together, we’ll explore:
• The stories you’ve carried about your sensitivity or difference
• The parts of yourself that you’ve had to hide or quiet in order to be loved
• The toll that overstimulation, masking, and chronic invalidation has taken
• What rest, ease, and connection might look like on your terms
We’ll also talk about boundaries, nervous system regulation, and how to build a life that feels sustainable and nourishing—not one that forces you to override your needs.
You Deserve to Be Understood Without Having to Explain Yourself
One of the greatest wounds for sensitive and neurodivergent individuals is the experience of loneliness—not necessarily from lack of people, but from lack of being seen. So many of my clients have spent their lives translating themselves for others. In our work together, you don’t have to do that. You get to show up exactly as you are—with your rich inner world, your sensitivities, your questions, your longings.
Therapy for sensitive and neurodivergent people isn’t about “coping better.” It’s about coming back to yourself. It’s about making room for your sensitivity instead of shrinking it down to fit someone else’s mold.
If you’re in California and looking for therapy that honors your depth, I’d love to hear from you. I offer depth psychotherapy for highly sensitive people and empaths in Oakland and online throughout the state.
You don’t have to keep translating yourself. Let’s begin where you are. Contact me today.