Susan's Specialties & Approach
Neurodivergence & Complex Trauma (ADHD + C-PTSD)
Neurodivergent women living with ADHD and complex trauma have often experienced chronic invalidation in relationships. This, paired with a brain that experiences the world intensely, can lead to mood challenges and difficulties with trusting others. Therapy can help with:
- Understanding ADHD as a nervous system difference, not a deficit
- Learning how complex trauma shapes attachment, identity, and self-worth
- Exploring the overlap between trauma responses and ADHD symptoms
- Building safety in the body before processing painful memories
Hormonal, Metabolism, & the ADHD Brain
Estrogen and dopamine are deeply connected — which means your menstrual cycle, stage of life, and metabolic health all shape how your ADHD shows up each day. I can help you learn more about:
- Navigating estrogen fluctuations and their impact on focus, mood, and energy
- The impact of perimenopause and menopause on ADHD
- The dopamine–progesterone connection across your cycle
- The need for nutrition, sleep, and metabolic supports for the ADHD brain
- Referrals to outside medical, dietician, or naturopathic medicine doctors may be needed to address areas outside the scope of a Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Rejection Sensitivity (RSD) & Emotional Regulation
If you feel rejection in your body before your mind works through it — that’s Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, and it’s one of the most painful parts of ADHD. Together we’ll build tools to ride the waves of emotions without being flooded by them, with a focus on:
- Understanding RSD as a nervous system response, not a flaw
- Changing your relationship to rejection triggers
- Building a toolkit for emotional flooding moments
- Healing root shame and critical self-talk
Narrative Trauma Recovery (NET)
Trauma scatters memories — leaving painful experiences stuck as raw fragments inside. Narrative Exposure Therapy helps you weave those fragments into a coherent life story, so the past stops intruding on your present. NET is a neurodivergent friendly, gentle, structured approach for layered trauma that includes:
- Mapping your life story with the lifeline method
- Processing traumatic memories at a safe, controlled pace
- Integrating difficult experiences alongside positive ones
- Creating a testimony of your resilience and growth
Neurographic Art & Somatic Self-Care for Burnout
Neurographic art and somatic practices work directly with the nervous system — offering a creative path to self-regulation without talk therapy. This type of approach is perfect when the body holds what the mind can’t yet say. Counseling for self-care and burnout helps with:
- Learning and practicing neurographic drawing to calm an overactive nervous system
- Using somatic practices for grounding and window-of-tolerance work
- Preparing for processing deep emotions without being re-traumatized
- Building a daily self-regulation practice that feels doable
Career & Work Burnout
Burnout is what happens when a nervous system has been asked to perform past its limits for too long. Especially for neurodivergent women who’ve often spent years masking in ways they never even realized, burnout is the body’s way of saying the current pace is unsustainable. Therapy can help you with:
- Recognizing signs of burnout in high-functioning, masking women
- Unpacking perfectionism, people-pleasing, and overwork patterns
- Rebuilding nervous system capacity and replenishing yourself when you’re depleted
- Creating boundaries and systems that protect your energy
my goal is to help you acheive emotional freedom
Somatic and sensory informed methods can help.
Therapy with Susan Gilliam, LCSW (CA 72288) is designed to help you breathe, slow down, and establish a healing routine.
You deserve to heal your burnout, not just vent about it. By engaging your senses, you can regulate your nervous system to create the mental space necessary for growth.
Susan Gilliam Counseling
Calm, body aware telehealth therapy for neurodivergent women navigating trauma and burnout across California.
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My home office location:
Peaceful and remote Joshua Tree, California