Amy Lasen Counselling

Amy Lasen Counselling Person Centered Counsellor. Currently accepting new clients. Manchester, UK. LGBTQIA+ Ally 🏳️‍🌈

The planner. The reminders. The colour coded calendar. The second colour coded calendar because the first one wasn't wor...
20/08/2026

The planner. The reminders. The colour coded calendar. The second colour coded calendar because the first one wasn't working. The sticky notes. The app. The app you downloaded to replace the app you forgot to use.

And you still forgot the thing.

Here's what I want you to hear: that's not the systems failing. That's not you failing. That's being human with a brain that has to work harder than most to keep track of a world that produces an endless amount of things to keep track of.

ADHD doesn't mean you need a better system. It means you need to stop treating yourself like a machine that should be running without errors. Errors are part of the deal. For everyone. But especially for brains like yours.

The goal isn't a perfect system. It's a life with enough breathing room that forgetting one thing doesn't derail your whole sense of self.
That's something counselling can actually help with.

💬 Link in my bio if you'd like to find out more.
The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

ADHD systems organisation forgetting executive

17/08/2026

I want to say this as clearly as I can. Forgetting things is not laziness. Starting something and not finishing it is not a character flaw. Being late, being loud, being too much or not enough, none of that is a reflection of your worth as a person.

ADHD is a neurological difference. It affects executive function, emotional regulation, memory, and motivation. It is not evidence that you're bad, broken, or not trying hard enough.

Most people with ADHD have been trying harder than anyone around them for their entire lives. The exhaustion you're carrying isn't from failing. It's from years of masking a neurotype that nobody bothered to explain to you.

You are not your worst days. You are not your unfinished to-do lists. You are not the things you forgot.

💬 If you need support from someone who genuinely gets this, the link to book a free consultation is in my bio.

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

ADHD moral failing shame laziness neurodivergent support counselling

14/08/2026

This carousel shows a very similar chat to one me and a friend have had before whilst I was training to be a counsellor. What happens in your brain when I ask you to thin about a beach?

"Wait. You actually see it? Like a real image?"

That's the moment a lot of people discover aphantasia. Not in a clinic. Not through a diagnosis. In a chat with a friend who happens to describe something differently.
You weren't doing anything wrong. Your brain just works without the screen.

💬 If you've just had your own "wait, what?" moment I'd love to hear about it in the comments. And if you want to talk to someone who actually understands this, the link's in my bio.

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

aphantasia what is aphantasia no mental imagery neurodivergent therapy counselling

11/08/2026

The mistake itself is rarely the problem. It's what happens in the thirty seconds afterwards. The internal commentary that starts up. The spiral. The "I always do this." The "what is wrong with me."

For people with ADHD and AuDHD, that voice is often relentless. Because you've been told that your mistakes are more than just mistakes. That they're evidence of something. They're not.

Making mistakes is not a character flaw. It's not proof you're failing. It's just part of being a person with a brain that works differently in a world that wasn't built for it.
You're allowed to get things wrong. You're allowed to learn slowly. You're allowed to mess up the same thing twice.
Permission granted. 💛

💬 If you're carrying a lot of that weight, counselling might help you put some of it down. Link in my bio for a free consultation.

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

ADHD mistakes shame self compassion neurodivergent counselling

Your counsellor slides a feelings wheel across the screen and you think really? A colour coded circle is going to help m...
08/08/2026

Your counsellor slides a feelings wheel across the screen and you think really? A colour coded circle is going to help me?
Hear me out. 🙂

A lot of people especially those with ADHD, AuDHD, or a lifetime of masking and have spent so long monitoring how they appear to others that they've lost touch with how they actually feel. Not sad or happy. The real stuff underneath. The specific stuff.

Frustrated is different from humiliated. Anxious is different from overwhelmed. And when you can name the exact thing, you can actually start to work with it.
The feelings wheel isn't a gimmick. It's a way back to yourself when the words have gone quiet.

💬 If you're curious about what counselling actually looks like in practice, the link to book a free consultation is in my bio.

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

feelings wheel counselling ADHD emotions therapy neurodivergent

05/08/2026

ADHD in women often doesn't look like ADHD. And that's exactly the problem. 👀
The diagnostic criteria were built around how ADHD presents in young boys, hyperactive, disruptive, hard to miss. Women and girls are frequently none of those things.

We daydream instead of disrupting. We internalise instead of acting out. We develop coping strategies so effective that we look completely fine from the outside while running on empty on the inside.

We get told we're anxious. Sensitive. Scattered. We're handed a depression diagnosis, referred for CBT that doesn't quite work, and sent on our way.

You don't need a formal diagnosis to start making sense of how your brain works. And you don't need to have it all figured out before you ask for support.

💬 DM me or find the link in my bio. Free consultations available.

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

03/08/2026

This one's a bit different. Stick with me. 💬

There's a version of self-improvement that's quietly built on shame. The idea that if you just try harder, organise better, stop being so much — you'll eventually become a version of yourself that's finally acceptable.

For people with ADHD and AuDHD, that message starts early. And it goes deep.
Acceptance isn't giving up. It's not deciding that nothing needs to change or that everything's fine as it is. It's something more radical than that — and honestly, harder.
It's saying: this is how my brain works right now. Not as a failure. Not as a flaw. As information.

When you stop spending all your energy fighting what your brain is, you get that energy back. And you can actually start using it to build a life that works — rather than one that just looks okay from the outside.

Shame tells you that you are the problem. Acceptance starts to unpick that.
It's slow work. It's not linear. But it's some of the most important work I do with clients.

💬 If this landed somewhere, DM me or find the link in my bio.

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Most people have an inner soundtrack running constantly in the background. Songs that get stuck. A voice that narrates. ...
02/08/2026

Most people have an inner soundtrack running constantly in the background. Songs that get stuck. A voice that narrates. Music that plays in their head without being prompted.

For people with anauralia, that soundtrack is simply absent.

No inner music. No earworms. No involuntary replaying of the song you heard this morning. Just quiet.

It doesn't cause distress for everyone. But for some people, learning this about themselves reframes a lot. Why guided relaxation never quite landed. Why some emotional processing approaches just didn't connect in the way they were supposed to.

If you work with a therapist who doesn't know this about you or about anauralia at all some of the tools they reach for simply won't fit. This is why I ask questions before assuming. And why I adapt before I suggest.

💬 Had you heard of anauralia before this? Drop a comment

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

We talk a lot about ADHD and autism. And we should.But neurodiversity is a much bigger tent than most people realise. Sw...
30/07/2026

We talk a lot about ADHD and autism. And we should.

But neurodiversity is a much bigger tent than most people realise. Swipe through to meet a few of the neurotypes that rarely get airtime and that might explain something you've been trying to name for years.

SDAM. Aphantasia. Acquired brain injury. Dyscalculia. Dyspraxia. Anauralia. Each one a different way of being in the world. Each one still largely invisible in mental health spaces.

If you've always felt like your brain works differently, but ADHD and autism don't quite fit the whole picture, this one's for you. Because understanding how you're wired isn't just about having the right label. It's about finally having language for your experience. And that matters, whether or not a formal diagnosis ever follows.

I work with neurodivergent adults across a range of neurotypes, including some you might be discovering for the first time today.

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

28/07/2026

ADHD and perfectionism in the same sentence? Stick with me. 👀
Perfectionism in ADHD doesn't look like a colour-coded filing system and a spotless desk.

It looks like not starting the thing because if you can't do it perfectly, why start at all. It looks like spending three hours on the first paragraph of an email because the wording has to be exactly right. It looks like a half-finished project abandoned the moment it stopped being perfect in your head.

For many women with ADHD and AuDHD, perfectionism isn't about high standards it's about protection. If I never finish it, I can't fail at it. If I never send it, no one can judge it. If I stay in the planning phase forever, the dream stays intact.

That canyon between what you want to do and what your brain will let you do is exhausting. And it's something counselling can genuinely help with.

💬 DM me or find the link in my bio. Free consultations available.
The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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