You know that sting when someone is short with you, or doesn't reply, or you sense a shift in the room? For most people it is uncomfortable but manageable. For many people with ADHD, it can feel catastrophic: a wave of pain or shame that is completely disproportionate to what most would consider a minor social event. This is rejection sensitive dysphoria, or RSD, and it is one of the most significant and least understood aspects of the ADHD experience. What is RSD? Rejection

If you are neurodivergent, you may have spent years becoming very good at something that has no name in most people's lives: performing normality. Watching how other people behave, then calibrating your responses so that you appear to fit in. This is called masking, and while it can be a genuinely useful survival skill, it comes with a cost that is rarely talked about honestly. What masking actually is Masking refers to the way many autistic and ADHD people, and those with ot

Have you ever wondered why the same social situation that feels energising to one person leaves another completely depleted? Or why certain environments, like a busy open-plan office or a difficult conversation, seem to cost some people so much more than others? Part of the answer may lie less in personality or willpower and more in something more fundamental: the state of the nervous system. What is polyvagal theory? Developed by neuroscientist Stephen Porges, polyvagal theo

If you've ever been told you're too sensitive or too much in your head, or spent years trying to be more outgoing and more the kind of person the room seems to want, you'll recognise something in Susan Cain's work before you've finished the first chapter. Her 2012 book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking made a case that feels obvious once you hear it, and yet clearly needed saying: that somewhere between a third and a half of the population is w

A wooden star-shaped puzzle with interlocking pieces, representing the idea of a brain or mind that fits together differently. There's a particular kind of relief that comes from being in a room, or on a call, with someone who doesn't need you to mask. Who isn't quietly waiting for you to communicate in a way that feels easier for them. Who understands, without a lengthy explanation, why certain things feel impossibly hard while others that seem simple to everyone else come n

diverse group of people holding hands If you've ever sat in a therapist's room and felt like you had to explain yourself before you could even begin — justify who you are, translate your experience, soften the edges of your identity to make it easier for someone else to hold — you'll know how exhausting that is. And how much it gets in the way of the actual work. Inclusive counselling starts from a different place. It begins with the assumption that you are the expert on your

Relationships between neurodivergent and neurotypical partners can be incredibly rich, supportive and meaningful — but they can also come with unique challenges that neither person has been taught how to navigate. When two brains process information, emotions and sensory experiences differently, misunderstandings can arise even when both partners care deeply. This doesn’t mean the relationship is “wrong” or “too difficult.” More often, it means the couple needs better languag

Neurodivergent Burnout Is More Than “Being Tired” For many autistic and ADHD people, burnout can feel like hitting an invisible wall. Tasks that were once manageable suddenly feel impossible. Emotions become harder to regulate. Sensory tolerance drops. Even simple decisions feel overwhelming. Neurodivergent burnout is not a lack of resilience - it is a physiological and emotional response to prolonged stress, masking, sensory overload and expectations that don’t align with ho