Candice Christiansen, LCMHC is an Autism Expert who provides Clinical Consultation, Training and Design Strategies to Medical and Mental Health Providers, Corporate Offices, Universities, and Organizations using a Neuro-Inclusive Approach. She is also well known for designing Neuro-Sensitive Settings that Support Autistic Adults in healing from trauma.

The picture of the room above is our Neuro-Inclusive Intensive room at our holistic therapy center, Namasté Center For Healing. Similar to this room, I have designed all of our therapy and healing rooms through a neuro-sensory lens. As an Autistic person, I have first-hand experience in being completely overloaded in a world that feels like a constant airport. It is too bright, too loud, overpopulated, and often incredibly overwhelming. This, along with feeling everyone else’s energy all day long (e.g., energy contagion) creates a dysregulated Autonomic Nervous System, making it difficult if not impossible for many Autistic adults to trust our intuition of people and our environment. This is especially problematic since so many of us are highly intuitive when we are regulated.

Environments that are overstimulating

are not conducive to healing.

In 2023, Candice Christiansen co-authored a chapter introducing her Neuro-Inclusive Approach to IFS in the Amazon best seller Altogether Us!

The importance of the “setting” is often discussed as an integral part in entheogenic (e.g., psychedelic assisted) therapy. However, for Autistic adults, it is rare that therapists and medical providers take into consideration their office settings to ensure that from the outset, their client feels safe, comfortable, and sensory soothed. Many Autistic adults have had negative experiences with providers as a result of implicit biases, assumptions about what Autism looks like, and microaggressions. In their chapter, Candice and her colleague Meg Martinez-Dettamanti, LCMHC discuss the importance of creating safety via tending to Autistic and Neurodifferent adults neuro-sensory needs at the beginning of therapy and throughout each session. This helps build a trusting relationship with the therapist or medical provider and allows clients to connect to the deeper IFS work.