AuDHD Burnout goes beyond overwhelm felt from external forces in life and into an internal struggle of navigating the everyday tug-of-war needs and desires stemming from being both Autistic and ADHD.

In this episode, Patrick Casale talks with Atsede Scarseth, an AuDHD LPC, Coach, and Certified Yoga Teacher, about the complexities of AuDHD (Autistic + ADHD) burnout, masking, and the necessity of both self-acceptance and truly restorative rest, particularly as a neurodivergent entrepreneur.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

1. Burnout is Nuanced: It’s not just about overworking; neurodivergent people often burn out from sensory overload, masking, or pushing past personal limits—not simply job stress.
2. Integration is Key: Insight into your neurodivergence is only the beginning. Real transformation—and healing—happens when you learn to embody those insights and adjust your life accordingly.
3. The Power of Neurodivergent Community: Building spaces (like specialized retreats) where unmasking is welcomed and rest is prioritized can be transformative. It’s about community, not just survival.

More about Atsede:

Atsede (At-sed-uh) is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Coach, and Certified Yoga Teacher. Originally from New York, she’s lived in Colorado for 10+ years. Atsede completed her Masters of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Northwestern University. Her neurodivergence (Gifted, AuDHD), various life experiences, and unique worldview allows her to meet people where they are authentically. She enjoys music, nature, and intuitive movement as each one holds a significant place in her life and informs how she interacts and connects with those around her. Atsede spent much of her early years confused, overwhelmed, and anxious despite her ability to “successfully” navigate the majority of situations she was presented with. Her journey to understanding her needs and how to take care of herself included a holistic approach involving mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. She likes to balance evidence-based therapeutic modalities and spiritually aligned practices (yoga, psychedelic work, intuitive practices, etc.). She also enjoys traveling and experiencing different ways of living, which hosting retreats allows her to do while giving back to the communities she’s sharing space with.

1. Retreat Offer: Check out Neurodivergent by Nature: A Lush Getaway in Ireland. This is a retreat for the Neurodivergent, highly sensitive feelers to get together, unmask, reset, rest, learn, and connect. Use code PATRICK for $300 off the experience. Learn more: unearthingchoicecounseling.com/ireland
2. Instagram: instagram.com/atsedescarseth
3. YouTube: youtube.com/@atsedescarseth

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In this episode, Patrick Casale talks with Caroline Maguire, ACCG, PCC, M.Ed. Caroline is an award-winning author and coach whose work inspires crucial conversations around social skills, friendship, and belonging—especially for neurodivergent adults. Patrick and Caroline discuss everything from unmasking and authentic connection to the real-life struggles and victories of forming meaningful relationships as adults who think differently.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

1. Go with Your Gut: Whether you’re writing, working, or building friendships, trust your instincts. Embracing confidence in your own voice—even when it means not pleasing everyone—is essential for authenticity and fulfillment.
2. Friendship Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All: Forget “traditional” networking advice. For neurodivergent adults, it’s about finding high-interest, safe spaces and understanding your own sensory needs. Deep connection can happen outside the typical social settings—there’s no single path to friendship.
3. Honor Your Energy and Needs: Setting boundaries and being honest about what drains or energizes you is vital. The friends who respect your limits (whether it’s choosing not to be in social situations, preferring smaller gatherings, or picking shade over sun) are your people.

More about Caroline:

Caroline Maguire, ACCG, PCC, M.Ed., is an award-winning author, coach, teacher, and keynote speaker whose work has inspired important conversations about social skills, friendship, and belonging. Caroline has been a rock for thousands of people who struggle to make friends. Her book “Why Will No One Play With Me?” has won several awards, including the Best Book Award from American Book Fest, Mom’s Choice Award for Honoring Excellence, and Book Authority’s award for Best ADHD Books of All Time. Caroline’s next book for adults, Friendship Skills for the Neurodivergent: A Guide for the Quirky, Anxious, and Easily Distracted, will release in April 2026.

1. Website: carolinemaguireauthor.com
2. Facebook: facebook.com/AuthorCarolineM
3. Instagram: instagram.com/authorcarolinem
4. YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCnDmu0c8kr0co2ppXo3EC8A
5. Twitter: twitter.com/AuthorCarolineM
6. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/authorcarolinecm
7. TikTok: tiktok.com/@authorcarolinem
8. Pinterest:

In this episode, Patrick Casale talks with Mim Kempson, a neurodivergent therapist, relationship expert, and now, stand-up comedian making bold moves from Australia to Montreal.

Mim offers a raw take on embracing neurodivergence and designing life—and business—around personal strengths and values. Her journey is proof that our differences can become our superpowers, whether in the therapy room or on a comedy stage.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

1. Context is Everything: Success as a neurodivergent professional often depends less on “fixing” ourselves and more on finding (or creating) environments where we thrive.
2. Leaning Into Discomfort Spurs Growth: Mim’s willingness to embrace discomfort, navigate big moves, and take creative risks led to new fulfillment in both her clinical and comedic careers.
3. You Don’t Have to Fit Into One Box: Therapists (and all of us) are more than just one role—exploring multiple passions can lead to richer careers and lives.

“When you put a neurodivergent person in the right context, there’s very little we can’t face.” – Mim Kempson

More about Mim:

Mim Kempson (she/her) is an AuDHD Therapist and has run her private practice in Australia for over 6 years, specializing in sex and relationship therapy for neurodivergent adults and couples. As a multi-passionate AuDHDer herself, Mim recently moved to Montreal to pursue her dream in standup comedy. Mim now runs her therapy and coaching practice fully online, seeing clients internationally.

1. Mim is launching a private podcast (subscription-based) called “Therapy After Hours” which will be about honouring our own needs through navigating the transition from 2025 into a new year. Check out her Instagram for more information.
2. Instagram: instagram.com/mimkempsonofficial
3. Website: mimkempson.com

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In this episode, Patrick Casale talks with Thomas Kear and Lauren Sanderson, founders of neuroduo, about being in a mixed neurotype relationship, navigating ADHD and Autism, whether diagnosed or not. This conversation is packed with real-life reflections on neurodiversity, partnership, and communication.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

1. Understanding Yourself First is Crucial: Before you can support your partner, you need to understand and learn about your own neurodivergence—only then can you communicate your needs and work together.
2. Communication Styles Can Be Wildly Different: The “Thunderstorm and Turtle” analogy for mixed neurotype partnerships (ADHD and Autistic) is a powerful reminder that urgency and withdrawal can clash, but knowledge and compassion make repair possible.
3. Diagnosis Brings Validation, Not Instant Solutions: Getting an Autism or ADHD diagnosis doesn’t change who you are overnight, but it does give you the language and understanding you need to stop blaming yourself—and to ask for what you need.

More about Thomas and Lauren:

We’re Lauren and Tom, a neurodivergent couple living in Queenstown, New Zealand. After both receiving ADHD diagnoses as adults (Tom also with Autism and OCD a year prior), we launched neuroduo – a platform to share our lived experiences with ADHD and Autism. Through storytelling, humour, and real talk, we help others feel seen, understood, and empowered.

Our aim is to educate, empower, and advocate for neurodivergent people by sharing real, lived experiences and building more inclusive spaces — one conversation at a time.

1. Instagram: instagram.com/neuroduo

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In this episode, Patrick Casale and Dr. Tina Vitolo, founder of The Black Sheep Therapist® movement, talk about bringing non-traditional modalities and spiritual practices into clinical therapy settings and the service side of therapy. This conversation tackles the gray areas, legal myths, and shame therapists face when paving their own path to offer services like tarot card readings, crystal work, and past-life regression.

3 key takeaways:

1. You Can Integrate Spiritual/Energy Practices Ethically: Dr. Tina Vitolo shares her nationwide research into actual state laws and ethics codes—there is rarely black-and-white language forbidding innovative approaches. If you use clinical competence, appropriate training, and client consent, your practice can be both ethical and innovative.
2. Stop Letting Shame and Fear Lead Your Decisions: Therapists often get shamed online for using things like tarot or other unconventional methods. As Dr. Tina Vitolo says, "Shame doesn’t create change." If you’re transparent, informed, and focused on client values, there’s room to break the mold.
3. Your Authenticity is Your Niche: Patrick Casale and Dr. Tina Vitolo both emphasize that our niches are often versions of ourselves. By owning your background and therapeutic style—even if it’s unconventional—you’ll attract the clients who truly need you.

Dr. Tina Vitolo’s “The Black Sheep Therapist” movement is providing real support and proof that you can be both ethical and innovative. Whether you’re chasing integration or just tired of rigidity in the profession, this episode is your permission slip to show up as your whole self and try a new approach to therapy.

More about Tina:

Dr. Tina Vitolo is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, published researcher, and founder of The Black Sheep Therapist® movement—an online community of over 5,000 therapists redefining what ethical and innovative clinical practice looks like. Holding a Doctorate in Social Work from Florida Atlantic University and a Master’s from NYU, Dr. Vitolo is recognized as one of the only thought leaders in the mental health field developing tangible, legally grounded frameworks for integrating spiritual, energy-based, and unconventional practices into therapy.

Through her Black Sheep Therapist Academy, Tina provides nontraditional, CEU-approved trainings that translate complementary and alternative interventions into clinically compliant, theory-aligned practice. As the creator of the Innovative Practitioner Accelerator®, she helps therapists navigate the gray areas of law, regulation, and ethics with confidence and clarity—transforming fear and confusion into empowerment and informed innovation.

Dr. Vitolo’s work is built on the foundation of her doctoral research on the intersection of innovation, regulation, and ethical practice. She is the only clinician to have developed a comprehensive framework for ethical integration—rooted in a deep reading of state regulations, ethical codes, and informed consent standards—to support therapists in incorporating any and all nontraditional modalities into legitimate clinical work. Her mission is to dismantle outdated myths, elevate the profession, and prove that spirituality, intuition, and science can not only coexist—but thrive—within clinical practice.

Check out The Innovative Practitioner Accelerator®: Dr. Vitolo’s flagship program, The Innovative Practitioner Accelerator®, helps therapists confidently merge traditional clinical practice with their spiritual, intuitive, or energy-based approaches—without fear of crossing ethical or legal lines. The program includes personalized guidance, templates for informed...

In this episode, Patrick Casale talks with Sabrina Longley about what it means to truly build a fat-affirming therapy practice. This topic is especially important as we head into the new year, and toxic resolution/fitness culture starts ramping up.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

1. Assume Less, Listen More: Approaching clients from a place of curiosity rather than assumption is crucial. Don’t make judgments about health, habits, or desires based on body size.
2. Representation Matters: The resources, images, and stories we use in our practices should reflect the identities and lived experiences of all bodies—including larger bodies. Take the time to diversify your media, office environment, and marketing materials.
3. Challenge Industry Narratives: The weight loss industry cashes in on insecurity and shame—often with little focus on actual health. As providers, let's not become agents of these narratives. Instead, support every client’s autonomy, dignity, and humanity.

More about Sabrina:

Sabrina is passionate about offering lived and clinical experience support to both clients and other mental health providers related to topics including racial justice, neurodivergence, fat liberation, teen mental health, and DBT. She works to honor her own lived experience and the lived experiences of other marginalized folks to promote ethical and just mental health care.

1. Radical Insights Consulting Facebook: facebook.com/radicalinsightsconsulting
2. Radical Insights Consulting Instagram: instagram.com/radicalinsightsconsulting
3. Podcast Facebook: facebook.com/acesupyoursleevepod
4. Podcast Instagram: instagram.com/acesupyoursleevepod
5. Website: Radicalinsightsconsulting.com

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Making intentional pivots and facing the unknown can be daunting—especially as therapists and entrepreneurs.

In this episode, Patrick Casale talks with Yunetta Spring Smith about the evolution and burnout of entrepreneurship, as well as the importance of not defaulting to "factory settings" when faced with big transitions.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

1. Don’t just survive—seek sustainability. There’s a difference between what helps us survive and what actually builds a sustainable business and life. Sometimes survival habits served us in the past but are no longer a fit for who we’re becoming.
2. Your old ways got you here, but they won’t always take you forward. Restoring “factory settings”—going back to hustle and burnout—can feel tempting during uncertainty, but intentionality and mindfulness help us create with more ease, not just urgency.
3. Face the wave, don’t turn your back. When obstacles and change come, it’s natural to want to run to what’s familiar. But if we face the wave instead of turning away, we create opportunities to ride it consciously and learn from the process.

If you or anyone you know is navigating entrepreneurial pivots or feeling pulled between old habits and new growth, this conversation is for you.

More about Yunetta:

Yunetta Spring Smith is a thriving Therapreneur, blending her expertise as a therapist and entrepreneur. She is the owner of Spring Forth Counseling, Ground Breakers Coaching and Consulting, and the founder of the first BIPOC EMDR Therapy Directory.

Yunetta is a Licensed Professional Counselor, EMDR-certified therapist, approved consultant, trainer, and international speaker. Specializing in supporting the healing of resilient children residing in adult bodies, Yunetta helps clients navigate intersections of historical neglect, coupled with childhood, racial, and religious trauma. Passionate about BIPOC and marginalized communities, she emphasizes the importance of race, culture, and identity in her consultations, training, and overall therapeutic approach.

Nationally recognized as a mental health media expert, she spreads awareness through the “Talk It Out Tuesday” mental health segment on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show, her upcoming rebranded podcast “Rewired, From The Ground Up,” and her self-published self-care workbook, “Take the Struggle Out of Self-care: Six Weeks to Create Your Self-care Strategy.”

Yunetta is a groundbreaker, stigma breaker, and cycle breaker who plants seeds of encouragement with every encounter. She strives to cultivate spaces where individuals can realize they aren’t broken—they are breaking through

1. Instagram: instagram.com/yunettaspringsmith
2. Yunetta's Events and Trainings: groundbreakerstherapy.com/events
3. Aruba Cruise 2026: counselingcomm.kartra.com/page/aruba_cruise
4. Portland, Maine Summit 2026:

Navigating private practice as a neurodivergent therapist, parent, and business owner is complex—and sometimes, the most important growth comes in those moments when we allow ourselves to pause, reassess, and adapt.

In this episode, Patrick Casale talks with Amanda Losch, neurodivergent therapist and mother, about the choice to step away from direct client work to focus on family, health, and community impact, and how this shift has come with grief, relief, and a redefining of professional identity.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

1. Grief and Relief Can Coexist: Stepping back from a role you’ve worked hard to build may bring up conflicting emotions. Allow yourself to hold both the grief of letting go and the relief of honoring your needs without shame.
2. Redefining Impact: Our ability to help doesn’t end when we step away from direct practice. Supporting the neurodivergent community, advocating for accessibility, and sharing lived experiences creates ripple effects—sometimes bigger than one-on-one sessions.
3. Work with Your Energy, Not Against It: Accepting the natural ebb and flow of creativity, motivation, and energy can lead to better self-compassion. Instead of striving for an unrealistic “balance,” meet yourself where you are, appreciate your unique rhythms, and give yourself permission to rest.

If you’re in the thick of change or burnout, you’re not alone. Sometimes the best way forward is through curiosity, flexibility, and a little less self-judgment.

More about Amanda:

Amanda is an AuDHD therapist and private practice owner living in the Chicago suburbs, specializing in developmental trauma. Amanda recently took time away from direct practice to become a caregiver to her neurodivergent family. Between drop-offs and naps, she is building a resource network in her community for neurodivergent families, as well as providing education on safety, accessibility, and inclusion to local organizations. She enjoys exploring the intersection of neurodivergent parenting, chronic health, and developmental trauma. You can find content about the realities of parenting a neurodivergent family on Instagram @complex.motherhood, and you can find local resources (if in the Chicagoland area) on @ndfamilyguide.

1. Instagram: @complex.motherhood + @ndfamilyguide
2. Website: Ndfamilyguide.com

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