individual online therapy
Neurodivergent Support in Ann Arbor
Online support for ADHD, autism, late diagnosis & more.
Online across Michigan. BCBS in-network.
Therapy That Fits How Your Brain Works.
Neurodivergence doesn’t always look like what people expect. It can look like a lifetime of being told you need to try harder, when the truth is you’ve been trying harder than most people realize. Focus more. Be less sensitive. Stop overthinking. Stay seated. Quit fidgeting. Don't do that with your hands. Be on time. Get organized. Why do you need a deadline extension? Why is fun before work? Participate in meetings. Be on task. And just try harder.
It doesn't always look like the kid who can't sit still.
Many might picture the kid with ADHD, but it can look like the adult who has held it together for decades through sheer force of will, burning through energy reserves they didn't know had a limit. It can look like someone who is brilliant at their job and completely wrecked by 6pm. Someone who didn't get a diagnosis until their 30s or 40s (or still hasn't) because they were too capable, too quiet, or too good at compensating for anyone to notice.
The hardest part is that the exhaustion is invisible. You can be high-functioning, even impressive to your peers, while internally you're doing ten times the work just to get through a normal day. That level of sustained effort takes a real toll, and the stress it creates doesn't just disappear when the day ends.
Neurodivergent-affirming therapy is not meant to fix you, but to help you understand how your brain actually works, build strategies that fit your wiring, and stop carrying the weight of being misunderstood or judged every time things get hard.
At Connecting Heals, we don't ask you to explain or defend yourself. We understand the masking, the misunderstandings, the late diagnoses, and the way anxiety, depression, or trauma often show up alongside neurodivergence.
No two people's experience of it looks exactly the same. Here's what often shows up in our work:
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ADHD in adults looks less like hyperactivity and more like chronic overwhelm, a to-do list you genuinely intended to start, and the exhausting sense that everyone else got an instruction manual that you didn't.
The hyperfocus is real, the misdirected priorities are real, and so is the crash that follows.
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Autism in adults can look like someone deeply perceptive and intensely passionate who is quietly exhausted. Exhausted by social environments that feel like communicating in a foreign language. By sensory experiences others don't seem to notice. By the disruption that comes with unexpected changes.
Many autistic adults spend years being told they're too much or not enough before anyone names what's actually happening.
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Asperger's now falls under the autism spectrum and is frequently missed or misdiagnosed, especially in adults. It often describes someone highly capable with a rich inner world who finds the unspoken rules of social life genuinely hard to identify.
The reactions and expectations of others can hurt. Employment, relationships, and the structure of daily life can stay surprisingly hard even when everything on paper looks fine.
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AuDHD, having a form of autism with ADHD, creates its own complexity. The two can pull in opposite directions: ADHD pushing toward novelty while autism craves routine.
The result is often someone who doesn't fit cleanly into either description and has spent years feeling like they almost belong everywhere and fully belong nowhere.
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Getting diagnosed as an adult brings two things at once: relief that something finally explains decades of experiences, and grief for the years spent struggling without support.
Late diagnosis isn't just a medical event, it can cause an identity reckoning. Therapy can help you actually process it rather than just move on.
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Executive dysfunction is the gap between knowing what you need to do and being able to do it — and it has nothing to do with intelligence or motivation. It's the paralysis in front of a task that should take twenty minutes.
It gets misread as laziness by others, and sometimes by yourself.
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For some neurodivergent people, sensory input doesn't filter the way it does for others. Sounds are louder, environments that most people find neutral can be genuinely overwhelming.
It often goes unnamed for years because it doesn't look like a problem until you're completely depleted.
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Masking is the learned behavior of suppressing neurodivergent traits to appear more neurotypical. It can work, right up until it doesn't.
Many people who mask well are not diagnosed in childhood or adolescence. They may spend years wondering why they're so much more exhausted than everyone around them. The performance is invisible. The cost isn't.
Work with your brain, not against it.
We work with how your brain is wired, not against it — so you can stop performing and start actually living.
how it shows up
How Do I Know if I'm Neurodivergent?
Most people expect neurodivergence to look like obvious struggle. It often shows up in the gap between how you appear to the world and how hard it feels to do what seems easy or natural for everyone else.
Sensory overwhelm in environments others seem to find normal.
Starting things you can't finish, or abandoning things you can't start.
Shame around productivity, follow-through, or tasks that feel like they should be simple.
Rejection sensitivity that hits harder than the situation warrants.
Performing "normal" so well that no one believes you're struggling.
Saying yes when you mean no because it's the fastest way out of the interaction.
Losing hours to something that should take twenty minutes.
Feeling a strong desire for social connection, but finding them incredibly challenging.
Struggling with being given unexpected tasks and expected to respond like it's no big deal.
Getting to the end of the day with nothing left, wondering how everyone else manages.
A lifelong sense that everyone else got instructions you didn't.
If any of these sound familiar, you're not imagining it, and you’re in the right place.
our approach
Therapy That Adapts to
Your Unique Wiring
A lot of neurodivergent people have had therapy before that didn't work because it wasn't designed for how you think. Standard approaches can feel frustrating when your brain processes differently, when sitting still and talking for fifty minutes isn't your natural mode, or when you've spent so long masking that even in a therapy room you're not sure how to stop.
We adapt. Depending on what fits you best, we might work on understanding your own patterns and wiring, building practical strategies for executive functioning and daily life, processing the grief or shame that often comes with late diagnosis, or addressing the anxiety, trauma, and burnout that frequently travel alongside neurodivergence.
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What is CBT?
CBT is a structured approach built on the connection between how you think, how you feel, and how you behave. It focuses on identifying & replacing unhelpful thought patterns.How Does CBT Help With Neurodivergent Support?
Neurodivergence often comes with a lifetime of internalized messages about being broken, lazy, or difficult.CBT helps identify where those beliefs came from, challenge the ones that aren't accurate, and help build more useful ways of understanding yourself and your experiences.
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What is DBT?
DBT is a skills-based therapy that balances change with acceptance. It focuses on building practical coping tools for managing intense emotions and navigating difficult situations.How Does DBT Help With Neurodivergent Support? Emotional intensity and dysregulation are common experiences for neurodivergent people. DBT gives you concrete skills to manage that intensity, navigate difficult interactions, and help build more consistency in your life.
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What is IFS?
Internal Family Systems is built on the idea that the mind is made up of distinct parts, each with its own protective role. Therapy involves getting to know these parts and helping your core Self lead rather than treating them as problems to eliminate.How Does IFS Help With Neurodivergent Support?
A lot of neurodivergent people carry parts of themselves that developed to cope with years of masking, criticism, and not fitting in. IFS helps you understand what those parts are protecting, reduce the internal conflict they create, and build a more compassionate relationship with yourself. -
What is Psychoeducation?
Psychoeducation helps you understand the why behind your psychological experiences.How Does Psychoeducation Help With Neurodivergent Support?
Understanding why your brain works the way it does changes everything. Psychoeducation replaces self-blame with self-knowledge, giving you a framework for making sense of your experiences. -
What is the Ziggurat Model?
The Ziggurat Model is a support planning framework that looks at what an autistic person needs at a foundational level, things like sensory environment, task structure, and daily demands, before deciding what kind of help actually makes sense.How Does the Ziggurat Model Help With Neurodivergent Support?
Rather than asking you to adapt to systems that weren't built for you, the Ziggurat Model starts with how your brain actually works and builds from there. It addresses sensory needs, task demands, and the foundational supports that make everything else more manageable.
Methods We Use to Help
the benefits
What Neurodivergent-Affirming Therapy Does For You
You stop running on empty.
When you're not spending your energy struggling through work, relationships, and demands that weren't built for you, that energy goes somewhere better.
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The shame starts to lift.
Internalizing years of "not trying hard enough" leaves a mark. Therapy won't erase the past, but it changes how much the past affects you now.
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You trust yourself more.
A lot of neurodivergent people spend years second-guessing their own perceptions. Therapy can help you rebuild trust in yourself.
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Relationships get easier.
When you understand your own wiring, you can communicate it and work with it. Boundaries can get clearer and relationships may become easier.
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Get support that actually fits.
A free 15-minute consultation is just a conversation. No commitment, no homework, no pressure. We'll figure out together if it's a good fit.
in-network for online therapy
BCBS In-Network Neurodivergent Therapy in Ann Arbor
Connecting Heals is in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and its affiliate companies. That means if you have BCBS coverage, your online therapy sessions are billed directly through your insurance at your in-network rate the same way you'd use insurance for any healthcare appointment.
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What does in-network mean?
It means you pay your copay or work toward your deductible rather than the full session fee. Most BCBS mental health benefits cover outpatient therapy, including online therapy.
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What about online therapy?
Blue Cross Blue Shield covers online therapy the same way it covers in-person therapy. You don't need to be in an office for your insurance to apply. As long as you're located in Michigan during your sessions, your BCBS benefits work.
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What if I don't have BCBS?
Our standard session fee is $170. We offer a sliding scale on a case by case basis for clients who need it, and we provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement if your plan allows for it.
frequently asked questions
Common Questions, Real Answers
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No, a formal diagnosis isn't necessary to get started. Your experience and what's actually making daily life hard matter far more to us than what's on paper.
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Neurodivergent-affirming therapy means we don't treat your brain as something to fix.
We work with how you're actually wired — building strategies that fit you, not ones designed for someone else's system.
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Yes. ADHD is one of the most common forms of neurodivergence, along with autism, dyslexia, and several other conditions that describe brains that process the world differently than the neurotypical majority.
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ADHD doesn't develop later in life, but it is very commonly diagnosed later in life. Many adults (especially women) spent years compensating well enough that no one noticed. The symptoms were always there. The recognition just took longer.
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Yes, therapy can help with executive dysfunction. We work on practical strategies for task initiation, time management, and follow-through that are realistic, concrete, and actually usable in your day-to-day life.
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Asperger's syndrome is no longer a separate diagnosis — it was folded into the autism spectrum in 2013. What was previously called Asperger's generally describes autistic people who are verbal, often highly intelligent, and don't have significant cognitive delays, but who struggle with social communication, sensory sensitivities, and the unspoken rules of everyday interaction.
Many people still identify with the Asperger's label, and we use it the way you do.
Proudly Based in Ann Arbor
We're a virtual practice rooted in Ann Arbor and serving clients across Michigan. Whether you're in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Traverse City, Flint, or anywhere in between, online neurodivergent support through Connecting Heals is available to you.
