Therapy with Melanie

Meet Melanie

Hey, I’m Melanie, an autistic therapist. Securing an autism identification can come with a lot of big thoughts and feelings. It can create an urge to figure out what the future ahead is like with this new information, and it can give us a chance to start reframing our past experiences. A question often hangs in the air, whether the feelings are positive or mixed: where do I go next?

I hope to be that helpful voice post-assessment that can help you discover out what your initial feelings are, what adjustments might be helpful for getting needs met, and where to go in the next steps of the self-knowledge and neuroaffirming journey.

I work with autistic and other neurodivergent people of all ages as well as their families. I myself am queer and familiar with the intersection between queerness and neuroqueerness. But regardless of your background, I am happy to join you in this phase of your journey where you can start to strategise how to implement and process this new information (or official confirmation, as the case may be).

As a humanistic integrative practitioner, I hold that the answers to your problems are within you, and my responsibility as a therapist is to facilitate an environment where they can start to emerge and you can find empowerment and answers. While I don’t know everything, I facilitate this environment from a place of firsthand understanding of autism.

I also invite adjustments to our communications for accessibility and comfort; this could be things like, having a weighted blanket, having camera break off, adjusting lighting, using a sketchpad, sitting on the ground, or using the chat or captions feature on the video call.  We can also meet by email instead of a video call. I myself will have a stim toy at hand and usually avoid looking at the camera.

If you’d like to work together in this life transition, please reach out over email and I will be happy to connect. I meet solely online.