Minds in Bloom is a community practice providing counseling services to neurodiverse people in Chicago and Denver.
Neurodivergence is a term used to describe people who are neurologically different. Most often, it refers to individuals who experience highly variable attention, energy, and motivation, as seen in ADHD and Autism. The scope of neurodiversity itself is vast, encompassing a wide range of visible and invisible differences in brain function and behavioral traits.
The traditional medical model conceptualizes Autism and ADHD as deficits, disorders, or dysfunctions. Yet many historical figures—Albert Einstein, Virginia Woolf, Ludwig van Beethoven, Vincent van Gogh, Sylvia Plath, Isaac Newton, Martin Luther King Jr., Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Emily Dickinson, Michelangelo, Temple Grandin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Andy Warhol—were regarded as strange or peculiar, suggesting that neurodivergence is a normal and natural variant of human diversity. It is a phenomenon to be valued, accepted, and integrated into society through accessibility.
Neurodivergent traits can include highly variable emotional experiences, a fundamentally different sense of time, and fluctuating abilities to focus on, prioritize, or complete tasks. They may also include an expanded spectrum of sensory perception, and either heightened or diminished attunement to sensation, thought, feeling, social dynamics, time, and space.
While being a neurological minority can certainly be disabling, there are also many strengths and talents found within neurodiversity. Using disorder-based language can be limiting, restrictive, and marginalizing.
Our mission is to work with our community to create a more understanding and tolerant world for neurodiversity.
In the counseling services we provide, we help neurodivergent individuals learn to meditate, build healthy self-esteem, work with the spectrum of emotions, communicate skillfully, and cultivate meaningful relationships.