Autistic Support

Lived Experience
Meets Affirming Science

Hi, I’m Sascha – Coach, Founder, & Autistic Adult.

My Background

I am a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBHWC). I am autistic and AuDHD. My practice is built on the understanding that standard wellness and productivity advice is designed for neurotypical brains and often harms autistic adults.

I work exclusively through a neurodiversity-affirming lens. This means:

• Autism is treated as a neurology, not a deficit
• Masking is recognized as a cost, not a skill
• Accommodation is the intervention, not a crutch
• The client’s autonomy and self-knowledge are central

For years, I lived in a state of perpetual exhaustion without knowing why. Like many autistic adults who go unassisted in youth, I relied heavily on social masking, suppressing natural stims, forcing eye contact, and exhausting my cognitive reserves to match neurotypical expectations just to get by.

From the outside, I appeared to be managing fine, often hearing the familiar line: “You don’t look autistic.”

Inside, however, the relentless demand to perform neurotypicality led to a cycle of severe, debilitating autistic burnout. When I sought help, traditional avenues felt like pushing a square peg into a round hole. Standard advice only made things worse because it was built on a fundamental misunderstanding of how my brain processed energy, communication, and executive demands.

Driven by a desire for real answers, I completed my studies through Duke University and became a credentialed National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBHWC). There, I discovered the root of the problem: conventional coaching, behavior modification, and therapy frameworks are overwhelmingly designed by and for neurotypical brains.

I founded Autistic Support to create the precise service I desperately needed: a practice grounded in lived autistic experience, backed by clinical rigor, and built specifically for neurodivergent processing.

My Commitment to You

As an NBHWC and an autistic adult, I don’t operate as a distant clinician or a neurotypical authority figure prescribing how you “should” live.

• No Judgment, No Performing: You never have to mask, hide your stims, smile for the camera, or apologize for executive dysfunction here.
  
• Evidence-Based Customization: We use your real energy levels, sensory needs, and personal values to design routines that are sustainable for life.
  
• Uncompromising Autonomy: You retain full control over your goals, your communication methods, and the pace of your journey.

Whether you are seeking recovery from deep burnout, trying to manage a chronic health condition, or wanting to navigate life under your terms, this space was built for you.

Why Standard Coaching Models Fail Autistic Adults: The Evidence

Traditional health and life coaching often relies on standard neurotypical behavioral models such as rigid SMART goals, high-frequency verbal check-ins, and generic “willpower” frameworks. Research consistently proves why these methods fall short for the neurodivergent community:

1. The Science of Autistic Burnout vs. General Depression

Autistic burnout is not standard stress or clinical depression. It is a distinct, systemic state of profound mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion caused by the cumulative load of navigating a neurotypical world (Raymaker et al., 2020).

Traditional coaching often prescribes “pushing through” or using intensive habit tracking, which accelerates burnout. Autistic Support prioritizes low-demand accommodation, sensory recovery, and energy pacing to restore function without forcing output.

2. The Mental Health Cost of Social Masking

Empirical studies demonstrate that prolonged social masking is directly correlated with elevated anxiety, clinical depression, and psychological distress in autistic adults (Pearson & Rose, 2021; Higgins et al., 2021).

Standard coaching models frequently (and unintentionally) encourage masking by teaching clients how to “appear more social” or fit organizational molds. At Autistic Support, the focus lies on safe unmasking, boundary setting, and self-trust, ensuring your goals never come at the expense of your mental well-being.

3. Sensory Processing & Executive Dysfunction Friction

Research in neuroscience highlights that autistic individuals process sensory data and manage executive dysfunction differently (Farran & Axia, 2007; Panagiotidi et al., 2018). Conventional health coaching often assumes linear goal planning and predictable sensory responses.

Autistic Support’s framework adapts directly to your executive bandwidth and sensory profile, translating medical and health guidance (such as chronic disease management for diabetes or metabolic health) into routines that work with your nervous system.

4. Communication Autonomy (Double Empathy Problem)

Damian Milton’s established Double Empathy Problem shows that communication breakdowns between autistic and non-autistic individuals are bidirectional. A mismatch of communication styles, not a deficit on the autistic person’s part (Milton, 2012).

Traditional therapy and coaching overwhelmingly force the client to adapt to the practitioner’s verbal, face-to-face style. Autistic Support removes this barrier entirely by offering synchronous text chat, audio-only calls, and ongoing asynchronous messaging, allowing you to communicate in the format where you process information best.

Acknowledging My Scope, Privilege, and Purpose

I am a board-certified coach. I do not diagnose or treat medical or mental health conditions. I work alongside your existing care team. If you do not have a care team, I can help you think through how to build one – if that is important to you.

I am fully aware of my privilege and where I land on the autism spectrum. Yet, even with that privilege, reaching out for support or setting boundaries only to hear “you don’t look autistic” remains a deep, invalidating sting.

Society often operates on a rigid script of what autism “should” look like. Typically expecting a young child displaying overt, physical stims, avoiding all eye contact, or demonstrating visible distress in public spaces. When an adult shows up who doesn’t fit that stereotypical image, someone who presents as polished, articulate, or socially adept, society resists acknowledging the reality of their internal experience.

This visual bias is a dangerous trap. Just as a person can look completely vibrant on the outside while fighting terminal cancer, or just as high-profile public figures and beloved actors can appear successful and happy right up until losing a silent battle with depression, autism does not have a look. What a person presents externally says nothing about the intense cognitive friction, sensory overload, and exhaustion happening internally. For years, I relied on intense social masking to blend in physically and socially, believing it would ease my struggles. It didn’t. In fact, suppressing my natural way of being often made things significantly worse, accelerating severe burnout.

My personal journey, combined with the academic and clinical research I completed at Duke University, exposed systemic, structural barriers that traditional care models completely ignore. That realization is why I founded Autistic Support.

While I do not claim to speak for the entire autism spectrum, my work is deeply committed to accessible, low-demand communication formats. In my practice, working with non-speaking autistic adults through text-only coaching, as well as offering adapted video options, has unlocked profound growth and autonomy that traditional verbal settings failed to provide. Specifically, these adapted formats have enabled clients to:

1. Eliminate Auditory & Expressive Fatigue: Communicate without the heavy cognitive load of processing spoken language or coordinating speech motor mechanics, leaving more energy for self-reflection.
   
2. Build Paced Processing Time: Formulate thoughts, reflect on health goals, and reply entirely on their own timeline without the pressure of real-time conversational pauses.
   
3. Establish Direct Self-Advocacy: Articulate their own boundaries, healthcare preferences, and daily needs independently, rather than relying on intermediaries or caregivers to translate for them.
   
4. Develop Sustainable Health & Daily Routines: Successfully design and stick to executive-functioning systems for chronic condition management, nutrition, and sensory regulation through written, visual action plans they can reference anytime.
   
5. Experience Mask-Free Video Connection Without Judgment: While text-only options provide vital accessibility, video calls offer a unique opportunity to build real-time rapport, allowing me to observe subtle cues that deepen the coaching process. In my practice, clients who opted for video calls reported an 89% higher rate of session enjoyment compared to past experiences in Telehealth. Knowing their coach is genuinely autistic changes everything. They realize they don’t have to perform. They can drop the mask, avoid forced small talk, pace across the room, get up and sit down anywhere, look away from the camera, use fidget tools, rock, or verbalize stims without fear. They experience a fluid, meaningful conversation that turns out to be far less daunting than anticipated. A stark contrast to previous experiences with neurotypical providers who failed to accommodate them, even after the exhausting step of explicitly asking for help.
   

I am realistic: as one person, I cannot fix the entire healthcare system alone. However, my long-term mission extends beyond standard 1-on-1 coaching. I am actively working to pioneer a nationally recognized, neurodiversity-affirming coaching framework designed for systemic integration. My goal is to bring this specialized model directly into healthcare infrastructure, advocating for recognition across government programs like CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), private insurance payors, and major health credentialing organizations such as the NBHWC (National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching), the ICF (International Coaching Federation), and the ICHWC (International Consortium for Health & Wellness Coaching).

The Phoenix & The Shed Feather

Carry what matters.
Release what doesn’t.
Move forward.

Your support is built on the belief that autistic adults deserve agency, respect, and zero judgment.

• The Soaring Phoenix: Symbolizes the opportunity to build a life with self-direction and purpose, even in a world built around neurotypical norms. It represents resilience, not as a requirement to endure struggle, but as the strength to step into your authentic identity on your own terms.
  
• The Falling Feather: Represents what becomes possible when unnecessary weight is lifted. It symbolizes creating room to reduce constant masking, step back from unhelpful expectations, and let go of the idea that there is only “one right way” to live, connect, or care for your health & wellbeing.

I don’t try to change who you are or promise life will become effortless. The goal is to help you carry what matters, release what doesn’t, and build sustainable routines that align with your genuine needs.