Z. Hamilton Avery, LCSW • Neuroaffirming Psychotherapist, Coach, and Integrative Wellness Practitioner
I am a neurodivergent psychotherapist, clinical social worker, and coach who works with teens and adults from a neuroaffirming, person-centered perspective. I provide online psychotherapy to adolescents (13+) and adults in Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina, and Idaho. I also provide non-clinical coaching to teens and adults nationwide.
I work with Autistic people, ADHDers, AuDHD people, and people with other forms of neurodivergence. I welcome people who are formally diagnosed, self-identified, questioning, newly diagnosed, or beginning to reconsider their experiences through a neurodivergent lens. You do not need documentation or a particular label for your experiences to be taken seriously.
Neurodivergence may be central to what brings someone to therapy, but it does not have to be. I work with stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and PTSD, burnout, chronic illness and pain, grief and loss, identity-related concerns, major life transitions, suicidal thoughts, and other experiences that affect mental health and well-being. Sometimes the work specifically involves neurodivergence. Sometimes you happen to be a neurodivergent person who needs support with something else.
My approach begins with the understanding that neurodivergence is not a problem to eliminate and that appearing more neurotypical is not a meaningful measure of progress. I am interested in understanding how you actually experience the world. That can include the ways you think, communicate, process information, experience emotions, respond to sensory input, organize daily life, relate to other people, and navigate environments that may not have been designed with your needs in mind.
Therapy can provide space to examine the difference between something that is genuinely causing distress and something that has primarily been labeled a problem because it differs from a social expectation. We can explore what you want to change, what you want to understand, what you want support around, and what you have no interest in changing at all.
My therapeutic approach is humanistic, person-centered, strengths-based, trauma-informed, harm-reduction oriented, inclusive, and affirming. My clinical training includes CBT, DBT, ACT, motivational interviewing, compassion-focused therapy, EMDR, trauma-focused interventions, mindfulness, somatic approaches, and mind-body practices. I adapt these approaches to the individual rather than expecting the individual to conform to a particular therapy model.
That distinction matters. A strategy can be evidence-based and still be a poor fit for a particular person. A coping skill is not useful simply because it appears on a worksheet. We can experiment, pay attention to what actually helps, keep what works, modify what needs to be modified, and stop using approaches that do not fit.
Sessions are collaborative and flexible. You do not need to make eye contact, communicate in a particular way, sit still, suppress movement, hide sensory needs, or arrive knowing exactly what you want to discuss. You can ask for clarification, tell me that a question is too vague, take additional time to process, use notes, bring a list, change subjects, or ask for more structure. We can make expectations explicit rather than relying on unspoken rules.
I am also attentive to burnout, overwhelm, sensory and emotional demands, executive functioning, self-criticism, shame, boundaries, communication, relationships, and the cumulative exhaustion that can come from repeatedly trying to function according to expectations that do not fit. Therapy can involve developing practical supports as much as developing insight.
My practice is 2SLGBTQIA+ affirming and attentive to intersectionality. Neurodivergence can intersect with gender, sexuality, disability, chronic illness, race, culture, relationships, socioeconomic circumstances, and other aspects of lived experience. I do not assume that one part of someone’s identity explains everything else about them.
As a neurodivergent clinician myself, I bring lived experience into my perspective without assuming that my experience of neurodivergence is the same as yours. Neurodivergent people are not a single population with identical needs, strengths, challenges, communication styles, sensory experiences, or goals. I want to understand your experience rather than project mine onto it.
My broader professional background spans more than 15 years across psychotherapy, integrated healthcare, community mental health, crisis services, hospice and end-of-life care, education, and community-based settings. I also have extensive training in mindfulness, meditation, yoga, bodywork, and integrative mind-body practices. These experiences contribute to a broad understanding of the relationships among mental health, physical health, disability, stress, trauma, environment, and the body.
Beyond individual psychotherapy and coaching, I work as an educator, speaker, writer, and curriculum developer. My educational work includes mental health, neurodiversity, trauma, coping skills, mindfulness, self-compassion, chronic illness and pain, integrative wellness, and affirming care.
Ultimately, I am less interested in helping you become better at appearing “typical” and more interested in helping you understand how you function, identify what you need, recognize what already works for you, and build a life that makes more room for your actual brain, body, values, relationships, and circumstances.