Neurodivergent-Affirming. Student-Centered. Individualized. Meaningful. Effective. Joyful.
As a student-centered practitioner, I intentionally work with fewer than 10 students in my private practice, allowing me to fully calibrate my energy and instruction to the strengths, interests, and needs of each student.
A Neurodivergent-Affirming Approach
Neurodivergence is not something to overcome. It is a way of being human. Whether a student is autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, gifted, twice-exceptional, or exploring their identity, our work centers:
Autonomy and agency
Sensory awareness and nervous system care
Flexible pacing
Strength-based assessment
Emotional safety
Authentic voice
Students are collaborators in their own education. Their insights matter. Their resistance is information. Their intensity is welcomed. Their light is not dimmed to make systems more comfortable.
Academic Support
I teach skills, but I don’t just teach skills. I support the whole child — their nervous system, their identity, their strengths, their learning profile, and their relationship to school and learning.
My work is grounded in both the science and the art of learning.
Whether a child is learning to read, reading to learn, building mathematical understanding, or navigating twice-exceptionality, we begin with this belief:
Their brain is not broken.
It is brilliant — and it deserves instruction that matches it.
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Pre K-12th Grade
Learning to Read: What if learning to read in a way that works best for your child could be effective AND fun? This is one of my favorite things in the entire world to teach! I teach foundational literacy skills such as phonological awareness, fluency, comprehension & vocabulary using systematic, structured, multisensory approaches.
Reading to Learn: Higher-level comprehension, vocabulary, passion & purpose as a reader.
Writing: Developing ideas, voice, word choice, organization, sentence fluency, writing conventions & handwriting.
I am a member of the International Dyslexia Association and have extensive training and experience as an Orton-Gillingham therapist.
I help students and families to understand the “why” behind what we are doing and to celebrate the ways that their brilliant brains approach literacy.
I also work with students and families to build confidence in assistive technology tools while continuing to build skills without them. Both are important… sort of like being bilingual in literacy!
With meaningful student-centered supports, it is possible for ALL students to embrace a positive identity as a reader and as a writer.
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PRE-K — 3rd GRADE CONTENT
Some mathematicians need to see and touch their math to do their best thinking and learning. Some mathematicians need to move at their own pace. Some mathematicians believe they are not good at math because they have never been taught math in a way that works best for them.
This was my own journey. I didn’t find out until I was an educator that I am actually good at math, I am just not great at memorizing rote math facts.
Through hands and play-based materials, I work with students to build foundational understandings of math AND find a positive identity as a mathematician.
Executive Function Coaching & Neurodivergent Wellness
Neurodivergent students do not just need academic support.
They need support in understanding themselves.
They need language for their experiences.
They need tools that work with their brains — not against them.
They need spaces where their intensity, sensitivity, creativity, and complexity are welcomed.
Executive function, self-awareness, identity development, self-advocacy, and social-emotional learning are not “extras.” They are foundational.
When we focus only on academic output and ignore identity, students may achieve — but at the cost of burnout, anxiety, masking, or self-doubt.
My work centers on the whole child. We build skills, but we also build self-understanding, self-trust, and self-advocacy.
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PRE-K — HIGH SCHOOL
As an Executive Function Coach, I help students develop their "brain's air traffic control system" by building skills in:
Organization and Planning: Structuring thoughts, materials, and time effectively to manage schoolwork and meet deadlines.
Focus and Task Management: Enhancing working memory, learning to harness and sustain “on demand” attention when the moment calls for it, and initiating/completing tasks.
Cognitive Flexibility and Problem-Solving: Fostering the ability to adapt to changes, manage emotions, and employ metacognition (thinking about their own thinking) to self-monitor progress.
My goal is to empower students to become independent, resilient, and confident learners who are proud of who they are and know how to reach their daily and lifelong goals.
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PRE-K — HIGH SCHOOL
Many neurodivergent children grow up feeling like they are broken or there is something wrong with them. What if it is possible to shift this narrative?
When children can see the value in themselves and others, it can lead to increased connections.
When children understand why and how their brain works best, and that schools may not be designed for them, it can release deeply held shame and anxiety.
I provide targeted sessions focused on helping students understand themselves, their neurodivergence, and how that all fits into the world around them. I also weave this work into every single session.
For their own well-being, it is essential that neurodivergent children and adults feel liberated and proud of who they are and who they are becoming.
For the well-being of the world, it is essential that the voices of neurodivergent children and adults are heard and valued.
I teach students to understand themselves, with all of their strengths and all of their struggles, and effectively communicate what they need with teachers, peers, and families.
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PRE-K — HIGH SCHOOL
Intrapersonal Connectivity (self):
Understanding yourself, cultivating a life that brings you joy, and building healthy habits of self-soothing and self-nourishing self-care are all essential parts of what it means to be human. It is a complex journey for all humans to fully become ourselves. It can be especially complex for neurodivergent individuals. These are skills that we learn either through inuition or through direct instruction.
Interpersonal Connectivity (Others):
Even though the dominant culture often sets expectations in school/work and social situations, that does not mean it is the right way of doing things or that it is the only way of doing things.
Neurodivergent individuals are often taught implicitly and explicitly to mask to assimilate into the dominant culture. This comes at a heartwrenching cost.
As humans, we can imperfectly and authentically hold true to ourselves, while also learning to navigate community with others.
In someways, it can be like visiting a foreign country. You can be fully yourself while also learning another culture and language to connect with others.
Student-Led Curriculum Design & Home School Collaboration
Every child deserves an education that feels like it was built with them, not for them.
I partner with neurodivergent, highly gifted, and twice-exceptional (2E) students and their families to design learning experiences that honor the whole child—their brilliance, their sensitivities, their passions, their nervous system, their pace, and their way of thinking.
Too often, bright and complex learners are asked to conform to rigid systems, rather than being allowed to thrive within them. They may be told they are “too much,” “not enough,” “unmotivated,” “disorganized,” or “inconsistent.” In reality, many of these students are deeply curious, intensely creative, highly perceptive, and wired for depth and meaning. When their needs are misunderstood, learning can become a source of stress rather than expansion.
Student-led curriculum design shifts that dynamic. Instead of starting with compliance, we start with curiosity. Instead of standardization, we start with strengths. Instead of fixing, we focus on understanding and collaboration.
I have supported students in co-creating curriculum for:
Passion Projects
Work Study
Neurodivergent Wellness
Writing for Social Change
Disabled and Neurodivergent Voices in Literature
Sometimes, a student is already engaged in a significant pursuit outside of school and needs a syllabus to document the work they are already doing. For example, I supported a competitive chess player in building out a syllabus to document their studies (3-4 hrs per day!!), so that they could receive high school credit and demonstrate the “validity” of their achievements in their college application process.
I also have experience co-creating hybrid homeschool programs. I am familiar with curriculum options, documentation, and educational partners that demystify the process of navigating a non-traditional school path for non-traditional learners.
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Together, we:
Identify the student’s passions, values, and cognitive strengths
Recognize executive functioning differences without pathologizing them
Design interdisciplinary, interest-driven units that meet academic goals
Build scaffolds that support regulation, initiation, and follow-through
Create rhythms that protect energy and prevent burnout
Integrate depth, complexity, creativity, and real-world impact
For 2E learners especially, we hold both truths at once: profound ability and real support needs. Accommodations are not lowered expectations—they are access tools. Challenge and compassion coexist.
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This work is especially supportive for students who:
Feel bored, under-challenged, or misunderstood in traditional settings
Experience asynchronous development
Struggle with motivation that disappears under pressure
Mask at school and unravel at home
Have big ideas but need help translating them into structure
Crave depth, complexity, and meaning
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When students help design their learning, something shifts.
They begin to trust themselves.
They see their differences as strengths.
They engage more deeply.
They develop sustainable systems that actually work for their brains.
Education becomes less about compliance—and more about growth, self-knowledge, and purpose.
Therapeutic Nature Journaling
Therapeutic nature journaling is a powerful practice that helps us to see ourselves as an interconnected part of the natural world. Inspired by neurodivergent educators like John Muir Laws, therapeutic nature journaling is the practice of intentionally noticing the living world through drawing, writing, wondering, and asking questions. There’s no “right way” to respond to what we see. Some people sketch in rich detail. Some people lean towards numbers or words to capture their observations. Every way of engaging is valid, and curiosity leads. Therapeutic nature journaling is not about drawing pretty pictures of nature (although that happens sometimes for some people). Therapeutic nature journaling is about shifting your way of seeing the world and your way of being in the world.
Research continues to confirm what many folks intuitively know: time spent in nature supports both learning and self-regulation. Time spent connected to the natural world gently replenishes focus and reduces cognitive fatigue. Outdoor play strengthens sensory integration, motor development, and emotional regulation. Even small chunks of time in nature have been linked to improved mood, reduced stress hormones, and increased readiness to learn.
When we combine these insights with nature journaling, we are building executive function through meaningful observation, strengthening attention through wonder, and regulating our nervous systems in an environment designed by nature itself.
When we mindfully set forth to cultivate curiosity, it helps us to stay curious about ourselves and others, reducing both internal and external conflict.
Many neurodivergent individuals thrive in nature. Nature does not judge you based on how well you can decode printed words. If you are someone with the extraordinary ability to pay attention to everything all at once, the rewards are rich in the natural world. If you need to move your body to do your best thinking, nature is expansive and welcomes all of you. Being in the natural world as a neurodivergent individual can flip the script; the very things that were your barriers in a traditional classroom setting become your assets. You also see the sheer abundance of diversity that nature has created for healthy ecosystems to thrive. It makes it clear that human diversity is essential for human beings to thrive.
Not for all, but for many, the result of being in nature and therapeutic nature journaling is calmer bodies, clearer thinking, and deeper connection—to self, family, and the living world.
