Sophie Longley Msc., PGDip

I coined the term ‘post-diagnostic becoming’ to frame the identity, selfhood, and transformation work at the heart of coaching late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults.

Most people think that receiving a later-in-life autism diagnosis is the finish line. In reality, it’s the beginning of a deep, disorienting, and often transformative process.

You’re handed a user manual for yourself, but it’s written in a language you’re still learning, and it doesn’t quite fit the future you imagined for yourself. A diagnostic report is a solid starting point. It isn’t enough.

Many neurodivergent adults, particularly those of us who appear highly capable and successful, want specialised support that looks towards the future. Support that helps us stop managing our lives and start building one, with intention.

That’s where my coaching comes in.

I’m Sophie – a coaching psychology practitioner (EMCC Accred) who just so happens to be autistic. I specialise in supporting late-diagnosed autistic and AuDHD professionals through post-diagnostic becoming: the identity-shifting terrain after the label arrives but before a new sense of self settles.

I’m one of the very few coaches who approaches neurodivergence as an identity question, not just a clinical one — with lived experience, academic research, and specialist training to go there properly.

Our work together centres on three questions: Who am I? Who do I want to become? How do I become that person?

Areas I’ve helped clients with:
→ Reconstructing and communicating their neurodivergent identity
→ Career transitions, pivots and promotions
→ Discovering their values and using them to make important decisions
→ Self-disclosure and self-advocacy
→ Reclaiming their strengths

Why I do this: I’m a late-diagnosed autistic woman, and I’ve lived the transition I now work with. My research focuses on the grief and relief that follows a late diagnosis, that in-between period after the label arrives but before a new identity settles. It’s disorienting and uncomfortable, and it’s also where the most profound identity work happens (Longley, Anns & Farsides, 2025).

If you’re neurodivergent and at a crossroads in work, in identity, in purpose I’d love to explore working together

📩 sophie@autisticallyuntangled.com
🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ LGBTQ+ affirming