Neurodiversity-Affirming Coaching for Individuals and Families
Creative and collaborative approaches to learning, connection, communication, self-understanding, advocacy and growth.
Family Coaching • Academic Coaching • Expressive Arts • Educational Advocacy • Expansion Brainspotting
A warm hello!
A warm hello to my neurodivergent community, to individuals and families seeking educational or communication support, and to anyone who has found this space and is interested in growth!
My name is Michelle Desmond. I’m proudly a multiply neurodivergent practitioner who believes strongly in creating strength based support. I offer a variety of types of coaching for individuals and families centered on communication, learning, growth, educational advocacy, imagination, expansion, and empowerment.
This work explores how people can learn, think, relate, communicate, imagine, and build their lives with more clarity, expression, and possibility.
A core focus of my work is neurodivergent empowerment. I value the neurodiversity paradigm and view neurodivergence as a natural and meaningful part of human experience. I reject deficit based frameworks. I work collaboratively, honoring each person’s communication style, creativity, and ways of relating to the world.
~Offerings~
Family Coaching
Individualized, collaborative coaching with families, with family members of all ages listened to and valued.
Individual Coaching
Collaborative support for personal growth, learning, well being, advocacy, empowerment, and working toward goals that are meaningful and important to you.
Academic Coaching & Educational Advocacy
Individualized support around learning, educational experiences, advocacy, accommodations, and communicating needs within educational settings.
Expressive Arts
Creative approaches that offer more ways to communicate, reflect, explore and grow.
Expansion Brainspotting
A coaching based application of Brainspotting centered on creativity, awareness, imagination, reflection, and expansion.
If you choose to start working together, I can share more about each of these modalities, and you can decide which ones feel most supportive and interesting to you.
Examples of what this can actually look like
Working toward personally meaningful goals
Identifying something you would like to learn, create, change, experience, or move toward and exploring what support, ideas, resources, creativity, or possibilities might be useful along the way.
Having a voice in educational support
Exploring with a student what feels supportive to them, what they would like adults at school to understand, and what they would like included in their 504 plan, then putting their ideas into writing for their parents to bring to the meeting.
Growing independence while staying connected
Exploring with teenagers and their families what growing independence can look like, where a young person wants more freedom or responsibility, and what kinds of support they would still like from the people around them.
Understanding a wider variety of communication styles
Exploring how people within a family communicate, where misunderstandings may be happening, what each person is trying to express, and what could help family members understand one another more fully.
Making room for a young person’s perspective
Creating opportunities for children and teenagers to share their own experiences, ideas, preferences, concerns, and hopes when decisions are being made that affect them.
Exploring what support at school could look like
Talking with a student about their actual experience of school: what feels good, what feels difficult, what has helped, what has not, what they wish were different, and what possibilities they would like to explore.
Understanding yourself more deeply
Exploring identity, strengths, interests, experiences, ways of communicating and learning, personal goals, well-being, or questions someone has about themselves and their life.
Building confidence in self-advocacy
Exploring what you need, what matters to you, how you would like to communicate those things, and ways of advocating for yourself in educational settings, relationships, family life, or other parts of your world.
Exploring beyond words
Using art, movement, music, imagery, writing, play, or other forms of expression when creating or experiencing something offers an interesting way to explore an idea, feeling, goal, relationship, or possibility.
Imagining what else might be possible
Making room for curiosity and imagination: exploring possibilities, ideas, hopes, changes, or ways of doing things that someone may not yet have considered before.
These are examples of themes that have been explored by other individuals and families however our work together does not need to fit into one of these themes. What we explore is shaped by what feels meaningful, interesting, useful, or important to you!
All sessions are held virtually via Zoom. All sessions are held with confidentiality, empathy and care.
Experience and training
I’ve been blessed to have 15 years of direct experience working in educational, arts based, and coaching based settings and I have learned so much from the individuals and families I have had the honor of working with!
I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Expressive Arts. I am currently a Doctoral Candidate in Marriage and Family Therapy with an emphasis in Organizational Systems.
With the principles of disability justice and the values of healing-centered engagement as guiding lights! This work is informed by liberation psychology, and I’m committed to centering anti-oppressive and anti-racist values as part of an ongoing commitment to learning, equity, dignity, and relational care.
I’m trained in Brainspotting (Levels 1, 2, and 3) and Brainspotting with Kids (https://www.brainspotting-kids.com). For those who are interested in integrating this focused mindfulness tool in a collaborative and exploratory way. This can be done alongside expressive arts, metaphor, storytelling, and narrative based practices.
Making coaching more accessible
I believe support should be accessible, while also honoring the time, energy, knowledge, creativity, and care that this work requires. I value autonomy, honest communication, and trust-building. With this in mind, I invite coaching participants to choose their own payment tier with honesty and integrity.
Sliding Scale
Full Price Rate — $188 per session
This rate reflects the full value of sessions. If you are someone with financial stability, disposable income, or access to significant resources, you’re invited to choose this tier.
Mid Range Reduced Sliding Scale — $138 per session
This tier may feel right if you are financially stable but still thoughtful and intentional about your spending and budgeting.
Reduced Rate Sliding Scale — $88 per session
This rate is intended to support accessibility. You might choose this tier if paying more would create financial stress, or if you are navigating limited financial resources.
(All ending in 8 as a nod to infinity.)
Scholarship Spots
I hold a number of scholarship spots at the rate of $11.11. If you are experiencing financial instability, please feel welcome to reach out to ask if a scholarship spot is currently available.
Thank you for your care and integrity in choosing a tier that aligns with your current situation!
High Support Space
The standard sliding scale sessions work beautifully for many families, and I’d be happy to work with you in this way.
I also open up a couple of High Support Containers each quarter for families who feel they would benefit from more support for a while. These are designed around a 3-month arc and offer more continuous, steady support through regular Zoom sessions, daily voice and text support, individualized resources, and access to rapid-response calls when things feel particularly chaotic.
Our sessions can draw from the modalities listed throughout this site, chosen collaboratively and creatively together with your family based on what feels supportive and meaningful for you.
This is designed for when a family ecosystem is experiencing survival mode, burnout, overwhelming school transitions, frequent dysregulation, or simply a lot happening at once.
If this sounds like something that might feel helpful for your family right now, you’re welcome to ask about availability, and I’ll be happy to send you more information.
I look forward to the possibility of working together in whatever way you feel is best for your family.