Highly Sensitive People and Neurodivergence
What is neurodivergence?
Your brain has always worked a little differently, and for a long time, you may have been told that was a problem. Maybe you were the child who couldn't sit still, who felt everything too intensely, who hyperfocused on the things you loved and completely fell apart over everything else. As an adult, that might look like struggling to finish tasks you care about, feeling overwhelmed by environments others seem to navigate easily, or a persistent sense that you're always working twice as hard just to keep up.
In many contexts, neurodivergence is described as being somewhere on the spectrum of autism and ADHD. However, I feel it can include any individual’s brain anatomy that is not “typical” of society. This can include experiences like complex trauma, OCD, and bipolar disorder.
Some signs you might be neurodivergent:
You think in patterns, images or ideas rather than in a straight line
Deadlines, transitions or unexpected changes feel genuinely distressing, not just inconvenient
You mask a lot, performing "normal" at work or in social situations and crashing when you get home
You've been told you're too much, too sensitive, too intense, or not trying hard enough
You often feel like you're watching others live life with an instruction manual you never received
What is A highly sensitive person (HSP)?
If you've always felt things more deeply than the people around you -- joy, pain, beauty, other people's emotions, you might be a highly sensitive person (HSP). This isn't a diagnosis. It's a trait, present in roughly 15 to 20 percent of the population, that means your nervous system processes the world more deeply and thoroughly than most. That can be a profound gift. It can also be completely exhausting.
A lot of highly sensitive people spend years wondering why they can't just toughen up. Therapy can help you stop fighting your sensitivity and start understanding it as something worth working with.
Some signs you might be highly sensitive:
Crowded places, loud sounds or strong smells quickly overwhelm you
You pick up on the moods and emotions of people around you, even when nothing is said
You need more time alone to recover after socialising or stimulating environments
Criticism, conflict or harsh words stay with you long after the moment has passed
You feel things, like art, music, nature, other people's pain, at a depth others don't always understand
the overlap between neurodivergence and hSP
Neurodivergence and high sensitivity aren't the same thing, but they often travel together. Many people who are neurodivergent, whether that's ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or something else, are also highly sensitive, and vice versa. What they share is a nervous system that is doing more, processing more, and responding more intensely than what most of the world is designed for.
If you relate to both, you may have spent a lot of your life feeling like you were too much and not enough at the same time: too sensitive for certain spaces, not focused enough for others, always slightly out of step. That experience of not quite fitting is real, and it often carries grief with it. Therapy here isn't about fixing you. It's about helping you understand yourself more fully, so you can build a life that actually works for you.
My approach
Working with a neurodivergent or highly sensitive person isn't the same as working with anyone else and it shouldn't be. A lot of traditional therapy assumes a certain kind of mind: one that processes linearly, responds predictably to standard techniques, and can sit with discomfort in the same way session after session. If that's never quite been you, you may have left past therapy experiences feeling like you did it wrong, or like therapy simply wasn't for you.
Here, sessions are shaped around how you actually work. That might mean we slow things down when your nervous system is overwhelmed, or pick up pace when your mind needs to move. It might mean we use different entry points - your body, your patterns, your stories - rather than pushing through a fixed agenda. It might simply mean I take seriously the things you've been told to minimise about yourself.
Some of what we might work on together:
Understanding your own nervous system and what it needs, rather than constantly fighting it
Unpacking the stories you've built about yourself from years of not fitting in - the "too much," the "too sensitive," the "why can't you just"
Developing self-compassion that is grounded and practical, not just something you tell yourself and don't quite believe
Navigating relationships where your experience of the world differs significantly from the people around you
Finding ways to work with your sensitivity or your brain's wiring rather than against it - in your work, your relationships, your daily life
A note on burnout
If you've landed here completely depleted, you're not alone. Neurodivergent and highly sensitive people are at significantly higher risk of burnout because they've often been expending enormous energy just to function in environments that weren't built for them. Masking, overcompensating, pushing through - it works until it doesn't.
Burnout at this level isn't fixed by a holiday or a few early nights. It's a signal that something deeper needs attention. In therapy, we can work on understanding what led you here, what you've been carrying, and what a genuinely sustainable way of living might look like for you, not a version borrowed from someone else's life, but one that fits the person you actually are.
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