What I’ve Learned from Thousands of Conversations with Autistic Women and My Own Autism Discovery by Julie Bjelland, LMFT

In this episode of The Sensitive and Neurodivergent Podcast, Julie Bjelland, LMFT, shares what she has learned from thousands of conversations with autistic women, her own late autism discovery, autism assessments, and her work writing Autistic Women: A Clinician’s Guide to Neurodiversity-Affirming Identification and Support.Julie explores common themes many autistic women recognize in themselves, including feeling different, deep empathy, sensory sensitivity, masking, burnout, chronic overwhelm, perfectionism, social exhaustion, uneven capacity, self-blame, and the healing shift that can happen through autism discovery. She also discusses why so many highly sensitive people later discover they are autistic and why lived experience is essential to understanding autism in women.This conversation offers a compassionate, affirming lens for anyone exploring autism, high sensitivity, neurodivergence, or late discovery. Julie reminds listeners that what may have been interpreted as failure may actually have been extraordinary effort that went unseen for years.Resources Mentioned:Forthcoming book Autistic Women: A Clinician’s Guide to Neurodiversity-Affirming Identification and Support Published by W. W. NortonYour website JulieBjelland.comFree autism quizExtensive resources and research about late-discovered autismThe Sensitive and Neurodivergent CommunityAdult self-assessments Formal autism assessments for womenAuthor BioJulie Bjelland, LMFT, is a psychotherapist, author, adult-discovered autistic woman, and founder of The Sensitive and Neurodivergent Community, Podcast, and Blog. She specializes in high sensitivity, autism assessments for late-discovered autistic women, and supporting sensitive and neurodivergent people in understanding their nervous systems with more self-compassion. Julie is the author of the forthcoming book Autistic Women: A Clinician’s Guide to Neurodiversity-Affirming Identification and Support, published by W. W. Norton. Learn more at JulieBjelland.com.