Do you provide autism assessments?
No — I don’t provide formal autism evaluations. I offer therapy that is informed by autistic experience, masking, relational trauma, nervous system differences, and the complexity of adult identification. If you’re looking to be assessed, please email me at sarayu.meraki@merakicounseling.org, and I can provide a referral list.
I'm high-functioning-can I be autistic?
Many of my clients have careers, families, responsibilities, and competent outer lives while internally feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, ashamed, or chronically anxious. Part of that may be autistic masking and burnout. Even if you aren’t autistic, a lot of what resonates here is also experienced with relational trauma. Therapy can help make room for the self that has been carrying the cost of appearing okay.
Will therapy make me feel more broken?
That fear is welcome here.
Therapy shouldn’t be another place where you feel analyzed, corrected, exposed, or turned into a problem to solve. And if you have spent much of your life feeling too much, not enough, confusing, sensitive, intense, or hard to understand, it makes sense that therapy could feel risky. The intention is to build enough safety, honesty, and self-trust that more of you can exist without shame.
What if I’ve had therapy before?
Many of my clients come to therapy with a lot of insight already.
You may understand your patterns. You may have language for your trauma, attachment style, anxiety, masking, or nervous system. And still, something may not be shifting in the way you hoped.
In our work, we’re not only looking for more understanding. We’re paying attention to what happens in real time: the places you leave yourself, the survival strategies that come online, the shame that organizes the pattern, and the parts of you that are still trying to protect you.
Sometimes feeling stuck does not mean you need to try harder. It means we need to listen differently.
Do I have to have an autism diagnosis?
No — Many autistic women arrive with questions, hunches, self-recognition, or a complicated relationship with labels. Therapy can support exploration without making diagnosis the center of the work.
How do you help with relationships + masking?
If relationships feel challenging, being autistic adds more layers we aren’t always aware of. You may over-adapt, people-please, manage others’ emotions, suppress sensory needs, or struggle to know what you actually want. Therapy isn’t about becoming better at filling another role (this could look like trying to do therapy “right” or be a “good client”). It’s about building more honest connections with yourself and in your relationships.
How is my approach neurodivergent-affirming?
I don’t treat autistic traits as disabilities to correct. We get curious about what’s protective, what’s masking, what’s trauma, what’s sensory or nervous system need, and what supports more agency and self-trust.
Do you work with men?
Yes! While most of my energy moves toward women’s spaces, if something here resonates with you, please reach out.
Contact me today for a free consult.
Serving Southeast Wisconsin and Beyond
I offer in-person therapy from my Cedarburg office for clients in Cedarburg, Mequon, West Bend, and surrounding communities, as well as virtual therapy throughout Wisconsin and Florida.