Therapy for Autistic & Neurodivergent Adults in Nashville and Across Tennessee
The problem may not be that your brain works differently. It may be how much of your life has required you to work against it.
Healing Umbrella provides therapy for autistic, ADHD, AuDHD, and other neurodivergent adults throughout Tennessee. We welcome people with a formal diagnosis, people who self-identify, those exploring whether neurodivergence fits their experience, and people who simply know that conventional ways of living and working have never worked well for them.
Read more about our approach
You may have spent years being described as lazy, difficult, too sensitive, disorganized, dramatic, or somehow not trying hard enough. Perhaps you became very good at appearing capable while privately using most of your energy to keep up.
Therapy should not train you to look more neurotypical. It can help you understand your patterns, recover from exhaustion, communicate what you need, and build a life that asks less of you in all the wrong ways.
- Online therapy throughout Tennessee
- In-person therapy in Nashville
You Do Not Need a Diagnosis to Begin Understanding Yourself
Some adults arrive with a diagnosis. Others recognize themselves after listening to another neurodivergent person, reading, researching, or watching someone they love go through an assessment.
You may still be unsure. That uncertainty is allowed here.
Formal diagnosis can provide language, access, and accommodations. It can also be expensive, inaccessible, or complicated by race, gender, class, immigration, age, and the narrow stereotypes many professionals still use when deciding what autism or ADHD is supposed to look like.
WHAT MIGHT BRING SOMEONE TO THERAPY?
Neurodivergent adults seek therapy for many reasons. Sometimes neurodivergence is central to what is happening. Sometimes it changes the context around anxiety, trauma, work, relationships, or simply trying to get through the day.
Therapy may offer support with:
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Your Brain Does Not Need to Become a Therapy Project
You may want help with grief, a breakup, family conflict, work, sex, trauma, or a major life decision.
A therapist should understand your neurodivergence without turning every experience into a symptom. You are allowed to receive care for the rest of your life too.
You Should Not Have to Perform Competence or Crisis to Be Believed
Many neurodivergent adults learn to hide how much effort daily life requires.
You may be able to work, speak clearly, make eye contact, maintain relationships, or appear organized in public. None of that reveals what happens afterward, how much preparation was involved, or which parts of life have quietly disappeared because there was no energy left.
People whose autism or ADHD does not match a familiar stereotype are often missed. Black and Brown people may be punished for traits that lead others toward support. Queer, trans, disabled, and femme people are frequently taught to mask before anyone thinks to ask what the masking is costing them.
Being identified later does not mean your needs appeared late.
At Healing Umbrella, we take the full pattern seriously: what other people see, what it takes to maintain that appearance, and what happens when you finally reach your limit.
Our Approach to Neurodivergent & Autistic Adult Therapy
Therapy for Late-Identified Autistic, ADHD & AuDHD Adults
Learning that you may be neurodivergent can rearrange the story of your life.
More about late identification
Old school reports, unfinished projects, friendship patterns, work problems, sensory memories, family conflict, or years of anxiety may begin to look different. Experiences once described as laziness, oversensitivity, defiance, or failure may make more sense within the conditions you were trying to survive.
That recognition can bring relief. It can also bring anger and grief.
You may wonder what would have been different if someone had noticed sooner, believed you, or offered support before you learned to blame yourself.
Therapy may help you:
- Revisit earlier experiences without repeating the old judgments
- Recognize masking and its effects
- Understand your sensory and communication needs
- Grieve missed support or lost time
- Work through anger toward family, schools, workplaces, or healthcare providers
- Decide whether formal assessment feels useful
- Talk with family, partners, or employers about what you are learning
- Build routines around your actual capacity
- Explore identity beyond productivity
- Find language for needs that were previously difficult to explain
Meet Our Therapists for Autistic & Neurodivergent Adults in Tennessee
The right therapist may depend on identity, communication style, lived experience, trauma history, relationships, cost, and whether you want therapy, ADHD coaching, or a mixture of practical and emotional support.
Explore the therapists below, or contact us for help finding the best current fit.
TROY MORROW, MSSW
He/Him
Queer, Black & Neurodivergent Therapist
Troy works with autistic and ADHD adults and teens, LGBTQ+ people, people of color, trauma survivors, and people living with chronic illness or disability.
As a Queer Black man living with ADHD and Type 1 diabetes, Troy understands what it can mean to move through systems that expect people to work against their own bodies, brains, identities, and needs.
He may be a good fit if you want to understand your brain beyond a diagnosis, process racial or identity-based harm, navigate chronic illness, or build a stronger sense of agency without separating yourself from the conditions shaping your life.
- Approaches:
- Narrative, cognitive, mindfulness-based, somatic, expressive, and exploratory therapy with EMDR training
- Available:
- Online across Tennessee
- Works with:
- Neurodivergent adults and teens, LGBTQ+ people, people of color, trauma survivors, and couples
- Cost:
- Deep sliding-scale availability
TARA WATSON, LCSW
She/They
LGBTQ+ Therapist, ADHD Coach & Clinical Supervisor
Tara offers therapy and ADHD coaching for neurodivergent adults navigating daily tasks, anxiety, burnout, identity, relationships, sex, and the strain of living in environments centered around neurotypical expectations.
After receiving an unexpected ADHD diagnosis as an adult, Tara became especially interested in creating support for people who had spent years trying to manage without options designed for them.
She may be a good fit if you want practical ADHD support alongside space to explore burnout, queer or trans identity, sexual health, relationships, or the emotional effects of constantly having to keep up.
- Services:
- Individual therapy, ADHD-focused therapy, and ADHD coaching
- Available:
- In person in Nashville and online across Tennessee
- Works with:
- Neurodivergent adults, LGBTQ+ people, trans and nonbinary adults, and people navigating anxiety or burnout
AMY ELLER, LPC-MHSP
She/Her
LGBTQ+ & Relationship Therapist
Amy brings more than 20 years of behavioral health experience to her work with adults navigating identity, trauma, anxiety, depression, family expectations, and relationships.
She may be a good fit for neurodivergent adults who want an experienced, person-centered therapist and do not need every session to revolve around a diagnosis. Her work can offer space to understand older patterns while responding to what is happening in life now.
Amy also works with couples and older adults, making her an option for people exploring how neurodivergence affects long-term relationships, changing needs, or identity later in life.
- Approach:
- Person-centered, relational, and trauma-informed therapy
- Available:
- Online across Tennessee
- Works with:
- Adults, older adults, LGBTQ+ people, and couples
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a formal autism or ADHD diagnosis?
No. You can begin therapy without a formal diagnosis.
You may be diagnosed, self-identified, questioning, or simply exploring whether neurodivergence helps explain your experiences. Your therapist can discuss what you are noticing without requiring you to prove that your needs are legitimate.
Do you provide autism or ADHD assessments?
Therapy and formal assessment are different services.
Healing Umbrella offers ADHD testing separately through its psychiatric services. If you are seeking an autism assessment, ADHD testing, or documentation for accommodations, contact the team to ask what is currently available and whether an outside referral may be needed.
Why does this page use “autistic person” rather than “person with autism”?
Many autistic adults prefer identity-first language because they experience autism as part of who they are rather than something separate that they carry.
Language preferences vary. We will follow the words you use for yourself.
Will therapy teach me to mask or behave more neurotypically?
That is not the goal of our work.
Therapy may help with communication, emotional regulation, relationships, or daily tasks, but those goals should serve your quality of life and agency. They should not be used to make your neurodivergence less visible for someone else’s comfort.
Can therapy help with autistic or ADHD burnout?
Therapy may help you understand what has been consuming your capacity, reduce unnecessary demands, identify accommodations, and create more room for recovery.
Burnout is not always solved by learning another coping skill. Workload, sensory conditions, financial pressure, caregiving, discrimination, and access to rest may all need to be part of the conversation.
Can sessions be adapted for my communication or sensory needs?
Yes. Tell your therapist what makes communication easier or more difficult.
Possible adjustments may include more direct questions, written notes, movement, fidgets, clearer agendas, additional processing time, or breaks. Specific options should be discussed with your therapist.
Do you work with queer and trans neurodivergent adults?
Yes. Healing Umbrella works extensively with LGBTQ+, trans, nonbinary, autistic, ADHD, and otherwise neurodivergent communities.
Therapy can explore how these identities overlap without treating one as the explanation for everything else.
What is the difference between ADHD coaching and therapy?
ADHD coaching often focuses on practical systems, planning, organization, accountability, and working with executive functioning.
Therapy can also address trauma, anxiety, relationships, identity, shame, grief, and emotional patterns. Tara offers both ADHD coaching and ADHD-focused therapy and can help determine which type of support fits your goals.
Is therapy available outside Nashville?
Yes. Online therapy is available throughout Tennessee as long as you are physically located within the state during the session.
In-person therapy is available in Nashville.
Do you accept insurance?
Therapy services are self-pay. Healing Umbrella can help clients seek possible reimbursement when their insurance includes out-of-network benefits. For psychiatric services, some insurance plans are accepted. Please contact us to confirm whether your plan is accepted.
Visit the Rates, Payment, and Financial Assistance page for current costs and lower-cost options.
Your Life Does Not Have to Be Organized Around Appearing Less Neurodivergent
You may have spent years building a version of yourself that could get through school, work, relationships, and public life without drawing too much attention.
That version of you may have been resourceful. It may also be exhausted.
Therapy can offer somewhere to sort through what still protects you, what has become too costly, and what kinds of support would let you live with more room around your actual brain and body.
You do not need to become more productive, independent, socially polished, or easy to understand before receiving care.