Emily Schleich is a licensed marriage and family therapist and the owner of All Minds Counseling, a practice built on a single foundational belief: therapy should adapt to the person in the room, not the other way around.

She began specializing in neurodiversity in 2014, at a time when very few graduate programs or therapy models had a framework for it. Over the past decade, she has developed a person-centered, neuro-affirming approach that works for neurodivergent clients, people who have felt failed by previous therapy experiences, couples, and anyone who has ever been made to feel like they were the problem in their own healing process.

In this episode of Behind the Practice, Emily sits down with host Katie Brinkley to talk about what adaptive therapy actually looks like, why the concept of masking matters beyond the therapy room, and what she has learned about people after a decade of sitting across from them.

What We Cover:

● Why step-by-step therapy models fail most clients -- neurodivergent or not -- and what a flexible, adaptive approach looks like instead

● The damage done when clients internalize the message that they are bad at therapy, and how to counter it

● Masking: what it is, why neurodivergent individuals use it as a protective mechanism, and how therapy works to safely reduce it

● Why relational therapy is slow by design -- and why that slowness is not a failure, it's the point

● What people are really looking for when they come to therapy

Resources Mentioned:

● All Minds Counseling (individual, couples, and neurodiversity-affirming therapy)

● Relational therapy and person-centered models

● Masking in neurodivergent individuals

● Neurodiversity and self-diagnosis trends (recent study: 19% of adults self-identifying as neurodivergent)

Connect with Emily Schleich:

Website: www.allmindscounseling.com | Instagram: @allmindscounseling