u/ellesthots

if you don’t, things can start to feel AWFUL as a neurodivergent therapist. during grad school I had a supervisor at my internship who made me doubt every single decision I made, insulted my work when I felt good about it, questioned and condemned every decision I made about care, critiqued the clothes I was comfortable wearing that didn’t give me a sensory nightmare, critiqued my facial expressions and hair, and regarded me as someone who was completely incompetent. it was absolutely miserable. i thought it was my fault and i must just have no clue what i was doing. despite getting great feedback from people at school, being in line with my peers, getting good grades.

when I finally realized it wasn’t me, I advocated for a new supervisor, and immediately the outcome was different. this supervisor is neurodivergent themselves and was immediately able to connect to me. when I wasn’t able to articulate the jargon of therapy correctly, but I could describe what I did, they would put into words ‘oh, so you did this ACT skill! so you did this Narrative skill! great!!’ and was truly supportive and validating how I show up with clients. they fought for me to wear what I wanted to wear, to prioritize my comfort, to lower risk of burnout. they gave feedback in ways that were super supportive and kind, and perfectly tailored to how my AuDHD can best receive it. nothing about my skill set changed. same clients, same work, but because i was seen by someone who was able and willing to see neurodivergent me, it was a completely different outcome and experience. i went from ‘awful therapist’ to doing ‘absolutely great work’. i went from ‘being way behind’ to ‘being exactly where i need to be as a student’ (now associate).

it might not be you. this field tries to make ND therapists NT, and punishes them for not masking enough. find someone who understands your brain and affirms it. find someone who speaks your same language. it can be so hard not to gaslight ourselves in this field as someone ND. the problem might not be you, it might be those around you and the oppressive systems of therapy.

hi all! sometimes I have a tendency to overthink because I always want to err on the ethical side, so I wanted to get some feedback! occasionally I will talk to my partner in generalities about my work. 'I saw a client who is dealing with a controlling partner and I had to talk them through x skill' 'a client is going through a hard breakup today, it was three years and super sudden, whew! took it out of me' 'I had a client I've been seeing for a while who I finally got to sit in their feelings!! they cried and said they trusted me!! it was so meaningful' those types of things. I never share names, exact workplaces, exact ages, locations, etc... it always stays to those examples above. should I stop doing that? is that a violation of HIPAA? anything reportable? want to make sure I'm not being accidentally harmful when coming out of my therapy days! thank you!!

I just got my MacBook Neo from the Apple Store last week. Today I noticed there is a dead pixel right in the middle of the screen. Is this something the limited warranty would cover? Online it keeps directing me to go to a Genius bar but there’s nothing specific to a dead pixel on the site to request as a support need.