Therapy for ADHD, Autism, and AuDHD.
I'm a Brisbane-based psychologist in Stafford, working with adults navigating ADHD, Autism, AuDHD, and the life experiences that come with being neurodivergent in a world built for someone else. Many of my clients arrive in their late twenties, thirties, or forties — often after a recent diagnosis, often after years of trying to make sense of why life seems to be played on hard mode. Standard daytime and evening sessions available — designed around full-time work and life.
Book OnlineWhat is ADHD, Autism, and AuDHD?
These are based on research literature and clinical observation.
ADHD
A neurodevelopmental condition involving differences in attention, executive function, impulse control, and emotional regulation. It exists in three presentations — predominantly inattentive, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, and combined. Adult ADHD often looks less like the stereotypical hyperactive child and more like chronic overwhelm, time blindness, rejection sensitivity, and a pattern of starting things and not finishing them.
Autism
A neurodevelopmental condition involving differences in social communication, sensory processing, and patterns of interest and behaviour. The term spectrum refers to variability across these dimensions, not severity. Autistic adults often describe a lifelong sense of being slightly out of sync with peers, sensory overwhelm, and exhaustion in the workplace.
AuDHD
The co-occurrence of Autism and ADHD in the same person. Research suggests around a third of autistic people also meet criteria for ADHD, with studies finding rates between 25% and 65%. AuDHD often produces internal contradictions — wanting routine and getting bored of it, craving novelty and being overwhelmed by it, deep focus and extreme distractibility in the same hour.
Early vs. late diagnosis
More people are being diagnosed in adolescence or childhood now, which is generally a good thing. But a diagnosis on its own doesn't always come with the skills or supports to actually work with the condition — and many adults come to therapy still carrying internalised shame, a sense of defectiveness, or the long quiet feeling of being different without knowing why.
Late diagnosis — whether at twenty-five or fifty-five — often brings a particular set of presentations: lifelong anxiety, relationship patterns that didn't quite work, difficulties with daily living tasks, and the slow exhaustion of holding it all together. Therapy can be a space to make sense of what was happening before the diagnosis named it, and to build the practical and emotional scaffolding the diagnosis didn't come with.
I don't conduct assessments myself. If you're considering one, I can help connect you with neurodivergent-affirming assessment services, and we can discuss whether NDIS support might be relevant.
The "high functioning" myth
The term high functioning is widely used and increasingly contested. For many adults, what looks like high functioning is more accurately described as high masking — the conscious or unconscious suppression of natural responses to fit into neurotypical environments. Masking can include rehearsing conversations, suppressing stim behaviours, performing eye contact, and reading social cues by analysis rather than instinct.
The unseen costs are real. Weekends spent in recovery. A house that doesn't match the put-together version that arrives at work. Clean clothes piled on the chair. The dishes. Relationships where the partner becomes a de facto unpaid carer. Long sick leaves that family members don't know about.
If you're reading this on behalf of someone you live with — a partner, an adult child, a sibling — you may be recognising this pattern right now.
Twice exceptional
Many of my clients are twice exceptional — high cognitive ability paired with neurodevelopmental differences. This may mean a high IQ, and it's often both a strength and a trap. It allows people to work around difficulties for years before the cost catches up. It also sets up a pattern of being relied on at work without the supports that should come with that responsibility — and the burnout that follows can take longer to recover from than the same burnout in someone without the cognitive load.
2E presentations often need targeted strategies that account for both sides — leveraging the cognitive strengths while also building structures to protect against the predictable patterns of exploitation, perfectionism, and exhaustion.
Co-occurring conditions
Several conditions show up alongside ADHD and Autism more often than chance would predict. These are correlations, several of which are now well-established in the research — not a claim about causation.
Chronic health conditions
There's a well-documented overlap between neurodivergence and conditions involving connective tissue, the autonomic nervous system, and chronic pain. I work collaboratively with physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and other specialists where it's relevant to a client's care.
PMDD
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is a severe form of premenstrual mood disturbance that shows up more often in neurodivergent women. If your mood, capacity, and executive function shift dramatically across your cycle, this is worth taking seriously alongside your GP or specialist.
I work in an LGBTQIA+-affirming way. There's a well-documented overlap between neurodivergence and gender or sexuality diversity, and I welcome clients across the full spectrum.
Alexithymia, interoception, and the missing link
A common frustration in therapy: I know what I'm supposed to do, but in the moment I don't do it. Or: I can't tell what I'm feeling until it's already too big. This is often where alexithymia and interoception come in.
Interoception is the brain's perception of the body's internal state — hunger, fatigue, heart rate, the early signal of an emotion building. Alexithymia is the difficulty identifying and describing one's own emotions. They're closely linked.
Research suggests that around half of autistic individuals meet criteria for alexithymia, and a substantial proportion of autistic adults report interoceptive confusion unless a bodily signal becomes extreme. The same pattern shows up in ADHD, where reduced interoceptive accuracy is associated with inattention, emotional dysregulation, and executive dysfunction.
Standard cognitive coping strategies often assume you can notice the early signal, name the emotion, and choose a different response. If the early signal isn't reaching the cortex clearly, those strategies skip a step that needs explicit work. This is where I weave in body-based approaches — somatic awareness exercises, breath work, and movement (drawing on my yoga training). Not to replace cognitive skills, but to build the foundation underneath them.
My approach
I draw on several evidence-based approaches and weave them together in response to what you bring. Brief descriptions below — fuller pages linked.
DBT
Practical skills building. We use cards, workbooks, and apps, with specific homework and between-session practice. Identifying and leveraging healthy coping strategies — your topics of interest (D&D, music, activism, art) are not distractions; they often are the regulation.
ACT
Clarifying values and direction. After years of high masking, many clients arrive without a strong sense of self — landed in jobs, relationships, and family roles that don't quite fit. Conversations here can be philosophical, sometimes existential.
EMDR
For neurodivergent trauma, which often takes the form of years of sensory overwhelm, rejection sensitivity, and nervous-system overload rather than a single discrete event. I use EMDR adaptations developed for neurodivergent clients, and EMDR 2.0 where appropriate.
Schema Therapy
Works alongside EMDR particularly well, and gives a shared language to explore long-standing patterns. Useful for understanding the why underneath the what — particularly where intergenerational patterns of neurodivergence and mental health are part of the picture.
Parts Work
Used when there's internal conflict, dissociation, or the sense of having multiple modes of self that don't always line up. Helpful for making sense of competing internal voices and bringing them into communication rather than collision.
Are we the right fit?
This work is best suited to people who can attend consistently and are seeking ongoing therapy rather than a one-off session or assessment. I don't conduct ADHD or Autism assessments — therapy only. If that's what you need, your GP can guide you toward an assessment service.
I'm not currently the right fit for clients with active suicidal ideation or those needing crisis support. These situations are better held by services with the resources to support them well.
I work with adults across Brisbane, with in-person sessions in Stafford and Telehealth across Queensland — including after-hours options for those who can't make weekday daytime.
Visiting the practice
My consulting room is at Soul Shine Collective on Stafford Road, in Brisbane's inner north — a local neurodivergent-affirming space, easy to get to from across Brisbane's north. The clinic is a short drive from Stafford Heights, Kedron, Everton Park, Gordon Park, Grange, Alderley, Chermside, Nundah, and Clayfield, with off-street parking available. Evening sessions are available Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday — for clients who can't make weekday daytime hours.
I also offer Telehealth sessions across Queensland for clients who prefer to work remotely, or who live outside the immediate catchment.
Book your appointment
Online booking via Zanda. Standard (50 min) and Longer (80 min) sessions available — including evening appointments Tuesday to Thursday. Longer sessions are recommended for EMDR, neurodivergent clients, and relationship counselling.
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