Resources for
Neurodivergent Therapists
Running a practice means notes, credentialing, insurance, billing, and scheduling, all on top of the work in the room. That load can wear down any therapist. For neurodivergent therapists, it’s often the reason notes pile up, or why opening a private practice feels out of reach. This page is for you, and for any therapist who wants to understand autism more fully.
Everything here is something I use myself or recommend to other therapists. I chose Alma, Grow Therapy, and Headway partly because they let me keep my documentation in my own EHR. Even when a platform asks me to send in records, I’m not learning three different systems, and that one change removes a lot of friction. These tools have made running my own practice much easier, and I hope they do the same for you. Take what fits your practice and leave the rest.
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for THERAPISTS
Blueprint is how I get all of my documentation done, and it has saved my professional life from being behind on notes. As you complete a progress note, it creates the related documentation for you, like treatment plans, summaries, and letters, and you just edit what it drafts. You don’t have to use ambient listening. If you don’t have consent to record a session, you can spend two or three minutes afterward dictating or typing a short summary, and Blueprint does the rest. I can’t say enough about how much lighter documentation feels with it.
In my experience, Grow Therapy will fill your calendar, and I’ve heard the same from several other therapists who say Grow sent them many referrals when they were getting started. Grow handles your insurance credentialing and submits and follows up on claims, so you don’t have to chase payments. Its large directory helps people find you by insurance, specialty, and availability. It doesn’t charge a subscription and is paid through a share of insurance reimbursements instead.
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Alma has great reimbursement rates because it negotiates them for you. It also handles your credentialing, and I find its system easy to use. Alma charges a monthly membership, and members get free CE courses, workshops, and a large community of other therapists to connect and share referrals with.
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Headway will credential you with a long list of insurance companies, more than 70, at no cost. It handles billing and claims and pays you on a regular schedule, so you aren’t left waiting on insurance payments. There are no membership fees, because Headway keeps a small share of the negotiated rates instead. It also offers its own EHR, though you can keep your documentation in the system you already use.
RingCentral is the phone system I use for my practice. It’s HIPAA and HITECH compliant, which matters to me because I rely heavily on texting for administrative things like scheduling and reminders. Secure texting is built right in, and you can even set up AI auto-responders for your text messages, which is great when you can’t reply right away. It also keeps your work line separate from your personal phone.
My Amazon bookshelf has a section just for therapists. It includes books by and about neurodivergent therapists, plus books for any therapist who wants to understand autistic people more fully, especially adults who were missed earlier in life. I’ll keep adding to it as I find books worth sharing.
I’ll admit that I cried at the beginning of every chapter of this book. It felt like each therapist telling their story also knew mine, and it was so validating to see that other autistic therapists have experiences like my own. Edited by Max Marnau, the book collects chapters from 23 autistic counselors and psychotherapists. They write about how they experience the world, how they adapt their work, self-disclosure, working with autistic people, and training.
This companion guide is written for clinicians who make mental health diagnoses. It builds on Is This Autism? A Guide for Clinicians and Everyone Else and focuses on recognizing autism in people who are often missed, especially those who learned to camouflage. If you assess or diagnose, it’s a practical way to sharpen how you see autism in the adults sitting across from you.
IS THIS AUTISM? A GUIDE FOR CLINICIANS AND EVERYONE ELSE
- Donna Henderson, Sarah Wayland & Jamell White
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This book walks through the diagnostic criteria for autism using current research and the voices of more than 100 autistic contributors. It focuses on people who are often missed or misdiagnosed, and covers what the criteria leave out, including burnout, autistic strengths, different kinds of empathy, and less familiar sensory systems. It’s a good fit for any therapist who wants to understand autism more fully, whether or not you diagnose.
