How I Came to This Work
I provide help for neurodivergent teens and young adults, and my work is deeply connected to my own experience of development, learning, and identity.
When Things Didn’t Add Up
My work with neurodivergent adolescents and young adults is deeply connected to my own experience of learning, development, and identity.
Like many children, I imagined a future full of possibility. Every day seemed to offer new interests to explore and new versions of who I might become. The future felt open, and dreaming came easily.
As I grew older, that sense of possibility began to narrow. School introduced expectations that didn’t always align with how my mind worked. Differences in attention, learning, and organization became more noticeable, while many of my strengths were less easily recognized.
Like many neurodivergent people, I didn’t stop dreaming, I simply discovered that dreams often required translation. The future was still there, but reaching it demanded more adaptation, persistence, and self-understanding than I realized.
At the time, I couldn’t fully explain what was happening. Looking back, I understand that I was learning one of the most important lessons of my life: development is shaped not only by ability and effort, but also by fit, understanding, and support.
Living with ADHD, dyslexia, and a twice-exceptional profile gave me a deeply personal appreciation for how differently development can unfold. It also taught me that individual differences do not diminish potential, they simply change the path by which that potential is realized.
Those experiences eventually led me to become a child and family psychologist.
For more than thirty years, through my clinical practice, Humanex Academy, and my writing, I have worked alongside young people and families trying to make sense of moments when progress slows, confidence fades, or the future suddenly feels less certain.
Over time, I have come to believe that one of the most important questions we can ask is not, “What’s wrong?”, but “What is still developing?”
That question continues to shape everything I do.
It guides my clinical work, informs my writing, including The Art of Becoming Series and The Breakaway, and reflects my belief that growth is rarely a straight path. More often, it unfolds through greater self-understanding, supportive relationships, and environments that fit how a young person naturally develops.
Helping families recognize that possibility, and the hope that comes with it, remains the most meaningful part of my work.