07. What Neuro-affirming Care Looks Like In Real Life

You can do everything “right” and still feel like your brain is fighting you. That’s where neuro-affirming care changes the whole picture, and licensed professional counselor Nicolle Wargo-Boswell makes it tangible. 

We talk about autism, ADHD, nervous system regulation, and why so many neurodivergent adults get mislabeled as only anxious or depressed when the real driver is overload, masking, and burnout. 

Nicolle shares her own late diagnosis, her path from theology and trauma work into private practice, and the core idea she brings to clients and therapists alike: work with your brain and body, not against them.

We also get honest about neurodivergent motherhood and postpartum mental health. Nicolle describes how pregnancy and hormones can shift medication response, how nursing can complicate treatment choices, and why sensory overwhelm can make postpartum feel unbearable in ways that standard checklists never capture. We discuss traumatic birth, the shame so many moms carry, and why support should not start only when things fall apart, whether that support is talk therapy, somatic therapy, or other body-based care.

Finally, we dig into why diagnosis can still matter as an adult: not as a label, but as language, self-trust, and a roadmap to practical accommodations. 

Learn more about Nicolle and her work: https://www.pursuing-hope.com/

Connect with Nicolle on IG: https://www.instagram.com/pursuing_hope/ 

You can learn more about my work here: https://remotheringmamas.com/

Let's connect on IG: https://www.instagram.com/remotheringmamas

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome back to the podcast. Today we have Nicole Worgo Boswell, who's a licensed professional counselor, private practice owner, speaker, and business consultant based in Connecticut. She specializes in neuroaffirming care, supporting individuals and families, while also helping therapists build sustainable practices. As a neurodivergent mom and entrepreneur, Nicole is passionate about honest conversations around motherhood, nervous system regulation, balancing ambition with capacity, and creating success in ways that work with your brain. I am so excited to speak with Nicole today. Thank you for being here. From your perspective, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit about your journey that has gotten you into the work that you do today?

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Okay. Gear up for a wild race is all I'm gonna start with. So I do not have a traditional roadmap, we'll call it, as it came to be where I am today. So we're gonna go back many years. I originally went to school. So for those who know me or don't even know me, uh, I actually originally studied theology and English. My journey started with me doing my undergraduate career, um, studying to actually be a pastor, doing um a lot of missions work, lots of ministries. I've worked in churches

From Theology To Trauma Work

SPEAKER_02 1:41

and I would spend time overseas working with a lot of uh survivors of human trafficking. And I remember early on when I was doing all of that work, like that's what I wanted to do. And then you also have the English piece, just because, well, now we know I'm incredibly neurodivergent. Um, I love researching, I love studying, I love language. And I figured at the time, why not add on a second degree just so I can read more, even though my theology degree gave me plenty of time to research and read. Um, so part of that was right, just studying theology. I I lived in Israel, uh studying um, you know, everything to do with ancient crescentom. And as kind of time went on, um, that's where, you know, the whole piece started with like pastoral counseling and working with human trafficking survivors and going overseas. I work, I would, you know, do some work in like Cambodia. And I remember coming back stateside and I had an offer to work in a church. I just remember really honing in and, you know, this is what I wanted to do. But there was always like this disconnect, right? And I remember being in my pastoral counseling classes where I was lucky enough to have folks that I learned from where they were very clear where the line was, where it's like, okay, once it crosses this line into safety and risk, we have to invite, you know, outside clinical resources. And I had a situation pop up in one of the churches early on that I was working in, and um, that wasn't happening. And when I was really researching, okay, well, what can I do to get more into the realm of human trafficking survivors? Like, what can I do? And I kept hitting roadblocks because everywhere I looked, I had to either be a social worker or a licensed therapist. So again, I now know just how neurodivergent I am. I was like, well, I can do that, which is so funny because I remember very clearly at one point in my life saying the one job I would never do is be a therapist or psychologist or anything in that realm. And here we are today. So, fast forward some years, I ended up getting my master's degree in clinical mental health counseling. And it was one of those things where I felt like, oh my gosh, this is this is where I'm supposed to be. Like, this is it. And I started it off working in inner cities, doing in-home work. I've worked in schools, mainly starting off a lot with children and families. And I would just naturally end up getting paired with a lot of neurodiverse families. But I I only knew what I knew at the time. And unfortunately, when you're at that graduate school level, and I still even saw this back when I was teaching, you know, depending on the curriculum, when we're teaching neurodiversity, whether it's the autism, spectrum, ADHD, OCD, any of that, there's still a lot of these older ways of thinking and teaching. And when we, especially like ADHD, it's just so glossed over. And then it's like, okay, well, we're on to the next, right? And when I finally decided to get fully licensed in Connecticut, I made the switch for Massachusetts. Um, I continued just with, I figured, okay, well, I'm already working half of my caseload as kids and families. I might as well just make it my full caseload. Um, and it just kept happening. And I found myself doing so much work with parents and caregivers. And then I found myself in the world of trauma. I became certified in some evidence-based models for trauma. So, again, with a lot of those um modalities, not only are you working with the child, but you're also having to work with their caregiver or guardian. And again, a lot of neurodiversity was popping up in the intersect. And I was lucky enough, I think, once again, to have some brilliant minds around me where I was able to then learn and understand more about neurodiversity. And so, as kind of time went on, I just naturally started taking more trainings, studying under these people. I I now know it became a special interest of mine. Um and then I went into the realm of private practice. And while this is all going on, I actually skipped this piece when I was trying to figure out if I want to be a therapist. I did work in um corporate offices doing risk management. I've worked in back offices doing finance, working with processes and procedures. And that's important because it also leads up to what I do today. I have all of them intersecting today, which is absolutely wonderful. But I eventually opened up my own private practice. Again, I started with children and families, but I was like, eh, I want to work with adults because you know, working with parents and caregivers, I was really, I was really drawn to that. But at the same time, it also terrified me in a way because it can be really, I think, daunting because I wasn't a parent or caregiver at the time. And I used to think, okay, well, no big deal. I can do this. And now that I'm a parent, I understand why folks want the therapists to our parent or caregivers. I completely get it now. Because some of the things I reflect back on and I used to suggest and say, I'm like, oh my God, Nicole, no. God, no. But you live and learn. But, anyways, I digress. And so as I've continued on with my practice, I've added on, so I now specialize in religious trauma and harm. I've deconstructed and reconstructed. So I also put on workshops for that topic and um neurodiversity, neurofirming care. Because what do you know after all these years, for years back, I ended up, you know, as I'm working with this neurodiverse population, in the back of my head, there was like something whispering of just like, hey girlfriend, um, remember that workshop you were just sitting in, this book you were just reading, everything you were just reflecting on? Like, does that not resonate with you? And then I'm like looking at my family and learning about other folks. Cause you know, uh, what's really cool is as you we get to, you know, these generations of millennials, Gen Z, I think we're more comfortable with talking about diagnoses as we should be. And we just learn, I I learned just how completely neurodiverse my family is. So I ended up getting my own assessment done because I was I was curious, but I already know the writing was on the wall. So I'm autistic, I also have ADHD. And then um, yeah, so now I put on these workshops for these topics. I also do business consulting for therapists, specifically also for narrow affirming ways to run a business. Um, because again, these are things that they just don't teach us in grad school. And I had to learn the hard way while working in these corporate offices. And um, I get to now beautifully and wonderfully intersect all of this. And then you add in the other cool layer, which is I'm a mom now. And my beautiful daughter is autistic, and knowing what I know and having all of this knowledge, I was able to advocate like hell for her. And I still am. I mean, heck, we have her second PPT meeting this Thursday. And when I look at it, and it's like, okay, if I didn't have this knowledge, she would have slipped through the cracks just like me. Just like my family members that I know are very neurodiverse. My husband's family, a very neurodiverse family. But I now have the gift and the honor to have things put in place so she doesn't have to white knuckle it through life. Oh, I'm even getting emotional just thinking about it and talking about it because I think it's just so cool. Yes, it's hard work, it's a lot of emotional work, it's a lot of physical work and labor. But knowing that she gets to experience life in such a different way, I what more of a beautiful gift can I be given in life? So it's also led to even workshops with, like I just had one um a few weeks ago, actually it was last month, when um motherhood is neurodivergent. There might be some things down the line for this fall for parents and kids. And it's all honestly from I call it a special interest, but just real life intersecting with this clinical world that I I live and I work in and seeing that there is such a gap, not only for kids and families and parents and caregivers to be able to have access to, and you know, how do we navigate this world so that we aren't white knuckling? And it isn't that hard because it is a very neurotypical world that we live in, but also for therapists alike. Um, because so much is pathologized. And I've just come to find that, you know, if we look at things through a different lens, and one of the things a lot of clients and therapists who work with me could get kind of consultation or supervision for me, they will always hear me say, we work with our brains and bodies, not against them. Because I think we've been conditioned in this world to completely set aside our nervous system and do things just because someone told us to do them a certain way, you know? So that's kind of been like my life's mission and where it's gotten to me where I am today. So yeah, I'm doing talk therapy still. I do workshops for continuum education credits for therapists and providers. I'm a business consultant for wellness professionals and then um, you know, consultation supervision. Oh, and I'm also a low energy neurofeedback provider lens because again, I found a tool and something that I was able to access that completely helped my nervous system. And I was like, well, you know what? Why can't I give this to my clients too? So once again, I made a very last-minute decision that I'm like, all right, I'm so glad I did that to be able to offer that to my clients. So wild ride.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah, I love it. Thank you for sharing all of it. What a journey it has been. And yeah, yeah, a wild ride is the perfect way to put it. I'm curious for any of our listeners that may not know what neuroaffirming care is, can you provide some like tangible examples of what neuroaffirming care looks like?

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Oh, absolutely. So when thinking about neuroaffirming care, um, first of all, I'm always looking for what I would call like a neuroaffirming provider, meaning that we have educated in ourselves in such a way where we know when it comes to diagnoses such as autism, ADHD, OCD, which is all impacting that frontal lobe that we would call neurodiversity. Also, some learning disabilities are in there too, like dyslexia, dysgraphia.

Neuroaffirming Care Defined With Examples

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Um we're not pathologizing it. Meaning, right, we have these diagnoses and we're looking for cures. We are shutting down those, what we would call some people's symptoms. The way that I look at neuroaffirming care is like, okay, yes, we can call them symptoms, but you know, we have these things that pop up that the way that our brain and body functions. How can we work with that reaction, that symptomology, maybe that overstimulation, that sense of being overwhelmed, so that we can still function in this life without shutting down who we are, stopping those parts of ourselves. Now, granted, I say all of this full well knowing we live in a neurotypical world, right? Like uh there are certain things that I know if I were to actively stim by like rocking back and forth with my loops headphones on when I go to my daughter's PPT meeting on Thursday, that it would to others maybe look really wild. The work that I do is like, okay, how can we honor those parts of ourselves, become comfortable with those parts, and still actively soothe the nervous system, not necessarily not caring what other people are gonna think, because I think that that's always gonna be looming over us. But how can I do these things to take care of my nervous system, take care of my brain and body, and still be able to function and survive in this world? I don't even like the word survive, but live, right? Because that's the reality, is that we we live in this world. And I think we've kind of seen this with um in the mental health field a lot, right? Our DSM, right? We're on the DSM fibervised version. And when you look back on how it's evolved, science is always changing. These diagnoses are always evolving and changing. So what we do has to evolve and change. And I think humanity does as well. So that's kind of where I come into play when it comes to neuroaffirming care. What I really like to associate it with, right, is there's a huge intersect with this of the overlap, we'll call it of like when I work with my religious trauma and religious harm survivors. We those folks, I help them deconstruct and possibly reconstruct their faith, their identity. I argue we do the same thing with neurodivergence. We have to deconstruct this way, this view of living in this world, and then reconstruct that. I'm not necessarily saying, like, hey, we're just gonna completely delete and make new, but we're gonna figure out how I can live and function in this world with this brain and body that I have while accomplishing and doing some things, maybe it's job, school, motherhood, right? And not be completely burnt out. Because those are usually the women I see, the folks I see is um, they're just really burnt out. Maybe they've been given diagnoses of just being anxious or depressed. It's trauma. Yes, it can very well be those things, but when I dig even deeper, we look at family history, look at their childhood level of functioning, it's like, well, we have a whole other layer here. It's neurodivergence, right? We're we're just putting a band-aid on something that needs stitches. Like, we got to undo this and deconstruct and reconstruct this way of living. So long-winded answer, but that's kind of like what neurofirming care is. Is I would say in short, it's we are we're not pathologizing our nervous system. We're just okay, well, how do I work with it? How do I function with it?

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Which is hard. Yeah, it's hard, but to your point, I think it's so necessary in where the world is going today. Like so many of the clients that I work with come to me and they say, I've tried medication, right? I've tried and I don't like the way it makes me feel. I want to try something else. And this is your approach is something else for your clients to try that they likely have never heard of before.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

It well, and that and oh my gosh, I'm you're that's how that's where I was at one point, right? I when I had my daughter, and this happens with so many folks after they've become pregnant, they have baby, right? Hormones are just we're no, we know it's a wild ride. It's a wild thing, but pregnancy just makes things, you know, a little bit more lively, sometimes a lot more lively. And I remember being so desperate wanting to get back on my meds after I had my daughter, but I was nursing and the med provider, just even though I got the okay from her pediatrician, she didn't want to do it. So I ended up, you know, I stopped the whole nursing process a lot sooner than I wanted to

Postpartum Medication Changes And Neurofeedback

SPEAKER_02 17:39

because I was like, I need to function. Went back in my meds in Sarah. I was so sick. So they were no longer impacting me the way that they did prior to pregnancy. And then, you know, we had some, you know, I had a traumatic event happen, some some family stuff pop up. And then that's where I got introduced to low energy neurofeedback. Like I had to do something different, and that's why I'm also so passionate about that process and offering it to clients because I what was once the tool that was once working for me no longer was in my toolbox and was no longer available. And that was terrifying. As a postpartum mom, when I look back at it now, I was so scared. Cause I was like, how am I not only gonna function and take care of this baby, but I'm also supposed to be working now and seeing clients? Like, there's no way. And so I find that a lot of women, what that ends up happening, or a lot of parents and caregivers, they end up just shaming themselves because their body's no longer working or functioning the way that it used to. And not even just after pregnancy, right? Talk about like being perimenopausal. Or, you know, what if you're an empty nester and kids move out, you're no longer a caregiver, right? Because that can happen a lot with neurodiverse women, I find, is that being a caregiver becomes a special interest. Those things are no longer available. Our body chemistry, our hormones are constantly changing and shifting. So, like what once worked for us when we were maybe 19, 25, 30, it's no longer working later on in life. And I I think right now for me to say, and I think it takes a lot of privilege to be like, okay, well, it that's okay. Our body's changing, it functions differently. But when we're looking at, you know, your access to assistance, not just like what you're able to pay for, but like a tribe having assistance, like these are terrifying things to have to just function through. Never mind working, raising a family, having a home. Like, these are really, really scary things to have to kind of combat. And then it's like, well, it doesn't work. So, you know, that's why I I am so passionate about providing neuroaffirming care to say, okay, it it does not need to be the same experience. It doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Yeah, I love that. Can you speak more? You touched on right when you were postpartum nursing, you wanted to go back on your medication. Can you speak more about your diagnoses and motherhood and how that journey has been for you?

SPEAKER_02 20:28

So it's this is actually really interesting. So I was part of that group. So I'm late diagnosed, autistic ADHD, right? And I remember seeing a therapist at that point. So I have a very extensive trauma history. Complex PTSD, I know this. And when I would see therapists, everything was drawn up to be

Autism ADHD And Motherhood Overstimulation

SPEAKER_02 20:52

a part of my trauma history. And Sarah, you named the treatment, you name the medication, you name the talk. Like I've done it. And there was, and that's where my brain, like in the back of my head, was like, ooh, there's something else going on here. And I kind of always knew. And so it actually wasn't until I had, it was actually right before my daughter, and then continuing the process after she was born. So I didn't have my official diagnosis until she was born. And I I wish I had it for when I was pregnant because I feel like with what I know now, I could have advocated for myself in such a different way, even when it comes to the whole birth process. Now, I say this as somebody, right? Like I was advocating like hell for myself, right? With my trauma history. Like we're showing up to the hospital. We have an entire like self care bag. Like I'm bringing in my essential oils. I had an oil diffuser, I had my birthing combs, like you name it, we brought it. Like the massage guns. It I it is it's hilarious when I think about like all the stuff I brought, but it was necessary for me. And I went into it through this lens of all right, I need to soothe my nervous system throughout my pregnancy, during labor. My labor was pretty traumatic as well. So I'm glad I had access to those tools. But now that I know that I'm also autistic and ADHD, I'm like, okay, you know, I really could have looked at this again from a different perspective, from that sense of being so overwhelmed and overstimulated. I mean, birth in and of itself, being a mom is so overstimulating. And I remember having those moments, especially early on when she was born. Like, I hated nursing. Oh, did I hate it? But I know why now. Like, I know why it was like my skin. It wasn't just like, oh, this is part of postpartum anxiety or depression. Like, no, this was a very neurodiverse mom that I know I have issues with big lights, noises, touches, sensations, smells. And babies are the perfect mixture of all of that at once. So it's like I was so hyper-fixated and focused on the trauma piece and soothing my nervous system from that perspective that I wish I just had my diagnosis then, so that I could have advocated for myself in a different way. And when I say advocate, because I'm also even still, when I have this diagnosis, I am, I will caveat this with I am still cautious when telling providers about my diagnoses. Again, because we live in this very neurotypical world, even though I am neurodivergent women, we are far more likely to enter this uh perimetric pausal stage of our life a lot earlier than typical women. There is an inter larger intersect and a higher rate of diagnoses like PMDD, endometriosis, PCOS. Like I we know this. But unfortunately, when you talk to some providers, it's like they don't. And when I bring some things up, it's like, okay, I'm the crazy one here. Um, so I say I wish I had the diagnosis, just so I can add it's more so when I say advocate for myself, like be prepared going into that situation. I mean, my husband was great. Like I I was not, I was induced and I was not prepared for that. And so like there he was with like my essential oils. He knew like what scents and smells like would help calm and soothe me. So he's like there with like peppermint oil, making sure like I have that in between my nitrous oxide and just to like calm the office is playing in the background and helping me like compress parts of my body um to help self-soothe. I had my fidgets with me. Um, but I think just knowing would have helped me look at things through a different lens. So I didn't shame myself so much as with when it comes to the birth process or what came after, which was, hey, here's a little human. Now go take care of her.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

For any moms that also experienced a traumatic birth and maybe are feeling shame around their experience, do you have any words of wisdom on how they might be able to move through that experience or seek out support for that?

SPEAKER_02 25:18

Well, this is a good one. I would say the biggest thing is absolutely seek out support, right? When it comes to therapies, whether it's talk therapy, somatic therapy, I'm even going into like Reiki massage lens, right? Like we do not need to wait until the sky is falling. Right.

Healing After A Traumatic Birth

SPEAKER_02 25:38

We do not need to grant ourselves permission to access these things because, well, someone had a worse experience than me. No, if you're feeling some sort of way, if any sort of emotions or physical reactions are coming up, you take care of yourself because one, right, we're we're soothing the nervous system. But two, even if baby, toddler, kid or teenager doesn't recognize it, what you're still doing is you're you're being present in that room and modeling this behavior of no, I am going to take care of myself. Because so many of us grew up. I mean, it it's it's completely across the board on this Americanized ideology of like, right, I'm gonna pull myself by my bootstraps and keep going. And it's no, no. So absolutely seek support. You do not need to wait until you feel awful. But the other thing is too, is there is nothing that you could have done and say this to myself. There's nothing that you could have done to prepare for it, right? Like I remember, and I'll even catch myself sometimes looking back, going, oh my gosh, if I just studied inductions a little bit more, we could have avoided X, Y, and Z. That's not the case, no, right? I I'm I'm a very researchy, literal person, and I could have read everything under the sun until it's blue in the face. And I mean, I I had my birth plan memorized. The thing is, in the society that we live in, with the medical applications that we have access to, there really is a lot that is out of our control. And sometimes our bodies are just gonna do what they what they're gonna do. And just because we cognitively sit there and tell ourselves, well, I could have done something to make it different, that's not necessarily the case. It's not. And the only way that we can honestly process that is by going through the journey. Maybe it's talk therapy, maybe it's somatic movement therapy, maybe, you know, whatever honors your nervous system, but processing it, not holding that in. Because holding it in is just gonna let it fester. And at some point, it's gonna erupt. And we don't even know where it's going to erupt, but it is going to erupt. And if it doesn't erupt from an emotional dysregulation standpoint, guess what? Our body's gonna take over, and it might erupt through different diagnoses, right? So from more of a like I would say like at that physical perspective. Um, and that's no fun.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah, yeah, we have to take care of ourselves kind of as soon as we gain that awareness. Oh, I'm not feeling yeah, the best, right? Or I'm not feeling right, or like my usual self. Yeah, let me seek out so wild when we think about it, right?

SPEAKER_02 28:33

Like you get your what it's after your baby's born, you get checked, checked in with at like six weeks.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

What a disservice. What a disservice to women. Because the sad reality is like I remember going to that six-week checkup and being handed assessments, and I knew exactly how to answer them. And once my daughter's pediatrician appointments, right? That's great. I love, I love that they give assessments to the caregiver as well. But I knew how to answer them. And it's kind of like I think for doctors and providers. Luckily, I I chose the ones that I did for a reason because I knew that they're gonna look at the assessments and they're gonna talk through them with me. But the amount of women I've worked with where they're like, yeah, I just handed them in, they glanced at it and nothing was ever questioned. What a disservice to women. It's sad.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Yeah. And I even think about the ability to just mask, right? Like maybe you know how to felt the assessment, or you show up to that appointment and you can just mask how you're feeling, or maybe you're feeling okay, but at the three-month mark, oh yeah, you're not.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Well, and that was me. I was a hot mess express come month nine. And I remember specifically because I'm like, oh my gosh, no, no one's checking in on me. Luckily, I had made, I had already roped in like my own therapists, med providers, and everything. But even still, like I knew how to answer everything. I knew how to give responses. And there's this level of shame. And I say this as a therapist that does this work. There's this level of shame that comes in that goes, well, if I answer this truthfully, I'm gonna be looked at differently. I'm gonna be looked at, I'm gonna be judged, I'm not good enough, right? And I did that. I did that. And I know I'm not the only one. I'm definitely not the only one.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Yeah, yeah. I know so many moms that come forward and have similar stories, right? Of, oh, I knew what to put, or I didn't feel so comfortable answering it with that specific provider. Um, to your point before, it's really about having that support system and reaching out for help. Yeah. Is there anything else you want to share with our listeners today that you maybe haven't touched on or talked about?

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Um when it comes to I think just the whole neurodiverse perspective, um, I I'm saying all this as a neurodivergent mom, neurodivergent therapist who does neuroaffirming care. What also comes up a lot is, and I've I still work with these parents and caregivers where their kiddo is neurodivergent, and maybe when going through that process, it can bring up a lot of different emotions, right? Because they start processing, thinking, seeing some context clues of like, oh, there might be something going on here for myself. Don't

Why A Diagnosis Can Be Useful

SPEAKER_02 31:54

let that go. If your gut is telling you something you want to check it out, check it out. Because I often have people say, well, why is having a diagnosis so important? Now some folks need it, right? When we're talking about like ADA accommodations, maybe accommodations in grad school, college, elementary, middle high school. But when we're older and we've already gotten through life this far, I've gotten folks again, why is it so important? It can help build language to what you've been feeling your entire life. Right? You might not need accommodations, or you might think you don't need accommodations, but once we start peeling, you know, just peeling back those layers, we find, hey, like there are actual things here that you can do. Like it's okay if you go into your office and you say, hey, can we remove one of these light bulbs from these fluorescent lights that are above my desk? Because guess what? You're autistic. That's impacting your nervous system. You can request that. If you want, you know, an email of notes that were dictated during a meeting. You can heck, I'm requesting it on Thursday after my daughter's PPT meeting. I'm going in and I'm requesting, I want the notes from that meeting because I know that helps my brain and body. So now that I know these things, I will unabashedly request them. Because why should I have to white knuckle it through life faking it? I'm not making it. I am literally just faking it and then just falling to pieces where it's like, well, no, these are there's these simple things that I can ask for. So that's where like diagnosing can be, I think, really helpful and important. But again, I say that with a lot of privilege because for one, I know how incredibly expensive it is. Um, also, even if you're trying to rope an insurance, like wait lists are absolutely ridiculous. And then you're lucky if your insurance is even going to cover it if you're trying to use it. Um, and then also, too, I know, you know, with the state of the world, there are some folks who are looking into dual citizenship. And depending on where you want to go, it can be looked at as a pre-existing condition and visas can sometimes get denied. So I say all of that with, okay, so I understand why people don't want to access it. But for the folks who are like, well, why would I bother? It's that language building, realizing, like, hey, there's these things that I can do for myself to just help me in life. Why not? We're we're we're so quick to accept, okay, I need a moment to process that conversation that just happened. Okay, cool. What about needing a moment to regulate your nervous system? Because you were just realized you're overstimulated. Right? Like it's fine. It's just, you know, culture's changing. I wish it would change a little bit quicker. But here we are. I think the only way that it's going to continue to change and become more accepting of neuro neurodiversity is if we're more open about these things. So if you ever catch me, especially at a networking event where I'm like in the corner, sway this actually did happen this past February, like swaying and stimming in a corner, having to pop in some of my loops, headphones, and maybe smell some peppermint oil, that's fine. I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm just soothing my nervous system. It's okay. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

I love that. Working with your body and your brain, like you mentioned. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Where can everybody find you? Where can they get in contact with you? And do you have any upcoming offers that they can access?

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Ooh, yes. So you can find me at www.pursuing-hope.com. I'm also on Facebook for Pursuing Hope Counseling. I'm on Instagram at pursuing underscore hope. Um, and you can contact me by messenger, PMing me, DMing me on any of those. I actually have so four therapists on Friday, what is it, June 5th. I have this is one of my more businessy trainings. This is uh switching to

Where To Find Nicole And Upcoming Offers

SPEAKER_02 36:01

paper notes because some of us work with um, you know, high-risk populations and are wanting to learn about that process. So I'll be doing that. I have um a networking event. I'm gonna be holding at the Wicked Press in South Windsor, Connecticut, where anybody who loves books like I do, you can come. You get to honor your nervous system. You don't even have to talk to anybody. If we just bring a book, we're gonna bedazzle it. It's gonna be fun. So you can just sit there, stim, bedazzling books. And then I will also be at the um Connecticut Marriage and Family Um conference. I'm gonna be speaking again this year on June 26th at the water's edge, and we're gonna be talking about grief and religious trauma. And I have a whole series coming out this summer between religious trauma, um, business consulting. I actually have a neuroaffirming hacks for therapists coming out in July. I'm doing it again. I did it last uh last summer and it was really popular. And then for neuroaffirming care, possibly some things when it comes to families and interventions this fall. But any of my past trainings, you can purchase the recordings. Those are always available. I do supervision consultation, and I'm opening up my books this summer for that. Um, and then also opening up my books for low energy neurofeedback. So, right here in Summers, Connecticut, if anybody wants to try it, I'll be here. Beautiful. Thank you so much. Thank you, Sarah.