Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy in India

TL;DR

• Neurodiversity-affirming therapy treats autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental differences as natural variations in how brains work, and adapts therapy to you instead of training you to hide your traits.
• It helps with burnout, masking, anxiety, low mood, emotional regulation, executive functioning, relationships and making sense of a late diagnosis.
• You do not need a formal diagnosis to start. Self-identified and questioning clients are welcome.
• Five therapists on the Coach For Mind team work in a neurodiversity-affirming way, and our clinical psychologists carry out ADHD and autism assessments for adults.
• Sessions are online anywhere in India or in person in Gurgaon. In a crisis, call iCall on 9152987821.

What Is Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy?

Many neurodivergent adults have been through therapy that left them feeling misunderstood: advice to “just make eye contact”, homework that assumed a memory and routine they do not have, or a therapist who read directness as rudeness. An affirming therapist starts from a different place. Your traits are information about what you need, and much of the distress comes from years of adapting to settings that were not built for you.

Affirming does not mean avoiding hard topics. Anxiety, low mood, burnout, relationship strain and difficulties at work are all treated. They are treated with your neurotype in mind.

Is This You?

• You have spent years copying how other people behave, and you are exhausted from it.
• You are capable at work and then need the whole evening, or the whole weekend, to recover.
• Noise, lights, crowds or scratchy clothes drain you far more than they seem to drain others.
• You start ten things, finish two, and call yourself lazy for the other eight.
• A reel or an article about ADHD or autism in adults described your life a little too well.
• You were recently diagnosed, or think you might be, and are rethinking your whole history.
• Earlier therapy helped a little but never quite seemed to be about you.

You do not need a diagnosis, or to be sure, before reaching out.

What Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy Helps With

• Burnout and shutdown: recovering energy and reducing the load that caused it. Read neurodivergent burnout vs depression.
• Masking: noticing where you hide your traits, what it costs, and where it is safe to do less of it. Read autistic masking in adults.
• Anxiety and low mood: common alongside autism and ADHD, and treatable. See anxiety treatment and depression treatment.
• Executive functioning: starting, planning, time and follow-through, using systems that suit your brain. See ADHD therapy.
• Emotional regulation and rejection sensitivity: understanding strong reactions and recovering from them faster.
• Sensory needs: working out what overloads you and what settles you.
• Work and study: meetings, open offices, deadlines and asking for adjustments. See work stress and burnout counselling.
• Relationships and family: explaining your needs, handling conflict, and helping parents or partners understand.
• Late diagnosis and identity: making sense of the past with new information, including grief and relief.
• Self-worth: unlearning the “lazy”, “too sensitive” and “difficult” labels. See low self-esteem therapy.

Many of our neurodivergent clients are in their twenties and early thirties. See therapy for young adults.

How Sessions Are Adapted for You

• Clear and direct communication: your therapist says what they mean and checks what you mean.
• Structure where it helps: agendas, summaries and reminders if you want them.
• Sensory comfort: online from your own space, or a quiet room at our centre.
• Adapted methods: approaches such as CBT, ACT and compassion-focused work, adjusted for how you think and learn.
• Your pace: no pressure to make eye contact, fill silences or share before you are ready.

Our Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapists

• Dr Kudrat Sachdeva, Clinical Psychologist: trauma-informed work with individuals, couples and families.
• Ms. Bhavya Sekhri, Counselling Psychologist: adults, couples and parent coaching.
• Ms. Manan Agarwal, Psychologist and ADHD coach: ADHD coaching and executive functioning.
• Ms. Shreshtha Malhotra, Counselling Psychologist: children, adolescents and adults, with parent and family work.
• Ms. Vidhi Sharma, Psychotherapist: trauma-informed and queer-affirmative therapy.

You can meet the full team on our experts page.

ADHD and Autism Assessment for Adults

Read about ADHD assessment for adults and autism assessment in Gurgaon. Some people start with therapy and decide about assessment later. Others want the assessment first. Either order is fine.

Online Across India, or In Person in Gurgaon

For our centre, see therapists in Gurgaon. If you live outside India, see online therapy for Indians abroad.

What Your First Session Looks Like

1. Discovery call (15 minutes): message us on WhatsApp. Tell us as much or as little as you like, and we match you with a psychologist suited to what you need.
2. Your first session (50 minutes): online or in Gurgaon. You talk about what brought you here and what you would like to be different. You do not have to share everything at once.
3. A plan you understand: by the end you know how your therapist suggests working and how often to meet.
4. You decide: there is no obligation to continue, and you can ask to switch therapists if the fit is not right.

Please Read: Emergencies