Filmed with Dr. Joel Schwartz, PsyD | Neurodivergent Pychological Consultant

An affirming perspective starts with acceptance of the person in front of you. It seeks to understand people in their own terms, in their own way, and collaborate with them to create interventions and to create a life that works for them instead of a prescriptive way of what I think is right. And so we start with affirming who they are, with understanding who they are from a non-judgmental perspective, from a perspective that looks at their strengths and weaknesses in a celebratory manner. I know it might sound weird to celebrate somebody’s difficulties, but these difficulties also make us who we are. And so instead of necessarily trying to change the difficulties, we accept them as they are and offer interventions and accommodations for those difficulties in a non-shaming way.