New at Lighthouse Therapy Group
Neuro-Affirming Counselling
Counselling for people whose brains work differently, and who are tired of adjusting.
What neuro-affirming means
Affirming is a simple idea that a lot of support still gets wrong. It means we do not treat being autistic, ADHD, or otherwise neurodivergent as something to be fixed, managed, or trained out of you.
Most of what wears a neurodivergent person down is not the way their brain works. It is the daily effort of living in a world that expects something else. The masking. The sensory overload. The tiredness of being misread. The feeling that you are working twice as hard to do what seems to come easily to everyone around you.
We start somewhere different. Not what is wrong with you, but how do you actually work, and what would it take to build a life that fits that.
The picture in England right now
Neurodivergence is common. Getting diagnosed or supported often isn't.
Sources: NHS England ADHD management information, 2025; GP-records research published in The Lancet Regional Health Europe, 2025; National Autistic Society and NHS England autism waiting-time data, 2025.
Who this is for
This is for neurodivergent adults who are finding things hard. You might recognise yourself in one of these.
You have recently been diagnosed or identified, perhaps after a lifetime of not quite understanding yourself. You are somewhere between relief and grief, and you are not sure what to do with either.
You think you might be neurodivergent, but you have no diagnosis and you are stuck on a waiting list that stretches into years. You do not need a piece of paper to start making sense of yourself.
You have known for a long time, and you are tired. Tired of masking, tired of burning out, tired of being the one who has to translate yourself for everyone else.
How we work
Most therapy quietly asks you to fit its format. Sit still, hold eye contact, make small talk, process out loud on the spot. For a lot of neurodivergent people, that format is the barrier before the work has even started.
We build the sessions around you instead. In practice that looks like:
- No expectation of eye contact. Look wherever is comfortable.
- Plain, direct language. We say what we mean, and we do not expect you to decode us.
- Room to move, fidget, or stim. None of it is a problem here.
- Time to think. You do not have to have the answer in the moment. We can slow down, or pick it up next time.
- Space to go deep on what interests you. That is not going off track. It is often where the work is.
- Control over the sensory side. Lighting, sound, breaks, online or in person, whatever helps you feel settled enough to think.
- Written follow-ups if that suits you better than holding it all in your head.
The first session is different
It is not therapy in the usual sense. It is a conversation about how you work best. How you communicate, what helps and what gets in the way, and what you actually want from this. Everything after that is built on what we learn there.
On diagnosis and assessment
To be clear about what this is and is not: we do not carry out assessments, and we do not diagnose. That is a different kind of work, done by different professionals.
If a formal diagnosis is something you want or need, we can point you towards people worth trusting, including NHS routes and reputable private assessors. And you do not need a diagnosis to work with us. If you recognise yourself as neurodivergent, that is enough for us to start.
Who you will be working with
This service is led by Hermione, our neuro-affirming lead. She has worked with neurodivergent people and their families, and the way she works comes out of that. Understanding how a person thinks, communicates, and experiences the world, and meeting them there rather than asking them to adjust to us.
You would be working with Hermione directly, one person who knows this area well and who holds the relationship from the first conversation onwards. There is no being passed around.
The service sits within Lighthouse Therapy Group, with the supervision, insurance, and safeguarding that sit behind everything we do. So you get the focus of working with someone whose whole attention is on this, backed by the structure of an established practice.
Questions people often ask
Do I need a diagnosis to come?
No. If you recognise yourself as neurodivergent, that is enough for us to start. You do not need a piece of paper, and you do not need anyone else to have confirmed it first.
What if I only think I might be neurodivergent?
That is fine, and it is more common than you might expect. A lot of people come while they are still working out whether this is them. You do not have to have it all figured out to start talking it through.
Do you work with children or teenagers?
Not at the moment. This service is for adults, 18 and over. If you are looking for support for a younger person, get in touch anyway and we will point you towards someone who can help.
I have not had good experiences with therapy before. How is this different?
A lot of people arrive having been let down, or having found therapy hard to access in the first place. Often that is because the way it was done did not fit how they think.
Here, the sessions are built around you rather than the other way round. How you communicate, the pace you need, what helps and what gets in the way. If something has not worked for you before, that is worth saying, and we will work differently.
What if I find it hard to talk, or I communicate better in other ways?
That is completely fine. You do not have to have the words ready, or find them on the spot. We can slow down, take breaks, or pick something up next time.
If it helps to have things in writing, or to communicate in a way that suits you better than talking, we can work with that too.
Is it confidential?
Yes. What you talk about stays between you and Hermione. The only time that would change is if there was a serious risk to your safety or someone else's, and even then she would talk it through with you wherever possible. She will go over all of this properly at the start, so you know where you stand.
How do I get started?
Get in touch and we will arrange a first session. That first one is not therapy in the usual sense. It is a conversation about how you work best and what you are looking for. There is no fixed block of sessions to sign up to, and no pressure to carry on if it is not right for you.
