For neurodivergent adolescents and adults seeking thoughtful, clinically grounded support for mental health, sensory and emotional regulation, executive functioning, relationships, identity, trauma, and the demands of everyday life.

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You may be looking for more than a therapist who knows the right terminology.

Perhaps you have spent therapy sessions explaining why a supposedly simple task is not simple, why sensory overload affects the rest of your day, why one interaction can take hours to recover from, or why understanding a problem has not made it easier to change.

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You may have been described as avoidant, resistant, unmotivated, overly sensitive, rigid, dramatic, or unwilling to try—when the fuller picture involved overload, limited capacity, executive-functioning demands, trauma, communication differences, or an environment that did not fit.

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At the same time, neurodivergence is not the only part of your experience. You may also be living with anxiety, depression, grief, loneliness, burnout, relationship pain, trauma, or questions about identity following a diagnosis or a new understanding of lifelong patterns.

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At Samar, psychotherapy begins with neurodevelopmental context while taking the full complexity of your mental health and life seriously.

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Common reasons adolescents and adults seek therapy

• Anxiety, depression, chronic overwhelm, or emotional exhaustion

• Autistic burnout, ADHD burnout, masking, or a significant loss of capacity

• Trauma related to bullying, exclusion, restraint, coercion, repeated misunderstanding, or prior treatment experiences

• Shame, perfectionism, self-criticism, or a longstanding sense of being defective or “too much”

• Difficulty recognizing emotions, body signals, needs, or the point at which stress became overload

• Executive-functioning strain involving initiation, organization, time, prioritization, transitions, decision-making, and follow-through

• Relationship conflict, loneliness, rejection sensitivity, boundaries, intimacy, or communication differences

• Questions about identity following diagnosis, self-identification, or recognition of lifelong patterns

• The demands of work, school, parenting, caregiving, health changes, or major life transitions

 

What therapy may include

Therapy may be reflective, structured, practical, relational, or some combination of these. The work is adapted to the person and the clinical need rather than treating a standard therapy format as a test of whether you are participating correctly.

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Together, we may identify a recurring pattern, clarify what is maintaining a problem, practice communication, develop a regulation or recovery plan, examine shame, build executive-functioning supports, process grief or trauma, identify an environmental mismatch, or involve a partner or family member with your consent.

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You can ask for direct questions, greater specificity, more processing time, a pause, a written option, or a different way of approaching the work. Strategies are treated as collaborative experiments. When something does not help, we examine what made it ineffective rather than assuming you lacked motivation or effort.

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You will not be asked to perform neurotypicality​

Meaningful participation in therapy is not measured by eye contact, stillness, conventional posture, rapid verbal responses, or a socially expected emotional display.

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You may move, fidget, doodle, hold a pillow, sit differently, use writing, pause before answering, or take additional time to process. The goal is not to make you appear more typical. The goal is to make therapy more accessible, useful, and responsive to how you actually think, communicate, regulate, and engage.

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Formal diagnosis

A formal autism, ADHD, or other neurodevelopmental diagnosis is not required to receive psychotherapy at Samar Neurodivergent Therapy Center. Psychotherapy is not a substitute for a diagnostic evaluation, and Samar does not currently provide formal neurodevelopmental assessments.

 

Session options

In-person appointments are available in Pasadena, California. Secure telehealth appointments are available throughout California.

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Fees and Insurance

Individual psychotherapy sessions are $255. Couples, relationship, and family therapy sessions are $275.

Samar Neurodivergent Therapy Center is an out-of-network practice and does not participate directly with insurance plans. Upon request, we can provide a superbill that you may submit to your insurance company for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Coverage and reimbursement vary by plan. We recommend contacting your insurance provider directly to confirm your out-of-network mental health benefits.