Mental Health Glossary

ADHD

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. A neurodevelopmental pattern affecting attention, executive function, and self-regulation. Three presentations are recognized: inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive, and combined. ADHD is lifelong and frequently undiagnosed until adulthood, especially in women and gender-diverse people.

In practice: Affirming therapy frames ADHD as a different way the brain works, not a deficit. Work centers on executive function strategies, sensory regulation, and processing the experience of late diagnosis.

Anxiety

The nervous system's alarm response running louder or longer than the situation calls for. Shows up as persistent worry, racing thoughts, physical tension, avoidance, or panic. Anxiety is one of the most common mental health experiences and one of the most treatable.

In practice: Therapy helps identify triggers, shift the nervous system's baseline, and build skills that interrupt the anxiety cycle — without shaming the alarm itself.

Attachment Style

The pattern of relating in close relationships, shaped by early caregiving experiences. The four main styles — secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized — influence how we handle intimacy, conflict, and trust as adults. Attachment patterns are not fixed; they can shift with new relationships and with therapy.

In practice: Understanding your attachment style helps explain recurring relationship patterns — and opens the door to changing them.

Autism Spectrum

A neurodevelopmental profile characterized by differences in social communication, sensory processing, and often deep, pattern-based areas of interest. Not a disorder to overcome — an identity and a way of being in the world. Diagnosis is increasingly recognized in adults, particularly women and gender-diverse individuals who masked for years.

In practice: Affirming support focuses on self-understanding, reducing masking exhaustion, and building a life that fits how you actually are — not how you have been told to be.

CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)

A structured, evidence-based approach that explores the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. CBT helps identify distorted or unhelpful thinking patterns and practice more grounded responses. It is one of the most widely researched therapy modalities available.

In practice: CBT is often used for anxiety, depression, and OCD. It works best when practical skill-building is paired with deeper relational and somatic work.

Complex Trauma (C-PTSD)

Trauma resulting from repeated, prolonged harmful experiences — especially childhood abuse, neglect, or relationships with no clear exit. Complex trauma differs from single-incident PTSD in that it disrupts identity, emotional regulation, and the ability to feel safe in relationships over time.

In practice: Healing from complex trauma is relational and paced. It requires a stable, trusting therapeutic relationship before moving into deeper processing work.

DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy)

A skills-based therapy developed by Marsha Linehan, originally for borderline personality disorder and now widely used for emotional dysregulation, self-harm, and suicidality. DBT organizes skills into four areas: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

In practice: DBT skills are practical and teachable. They work well alongside other modalities and are useful for anyone who feels emotionally flooded or reactive in relationships.

Depression

Persistent low mood, loss of interest or pleasure, and physical changes in energy, sleep, and appetite lasting two weeks or more. Depression exists on a spectrum — from mild persistent dysthymia to major depressive episodes. It is a medical condition, not a character flaw, and highly treatable.

In practice: Therapy for depression often involves behavioral activation, exploring the beliefs that maintain it, and understanding the grief or numbness underneath. Coordination with a prescriber is available when medication is part of the picture.

Gender Dysphoria

The distress that can arise when a person's internal sense of gender does not align with the sex assigned at birth. The distress is not inherent to being transgender — it comes from the mismatch between inner experience and how the world responds. Affirmative care focuses on supporting gender exploration and reducing that distress.

In practice: Therapy works alongside medical providers, not as a gatekeeper. The goal is to help clients clarify their needs and access the support that fits.

HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996). The federal law governing how protected health information is stored, shared, and protected. In therapy, HIPAA sets the legal floor for confidentiality. There are narrow exceptions — mandated reporting, imminent danger — which are covered in informed consent.

In practice: All client records at this practice are handled in compliance with HIPAA. Your information is never shared without your written authorization except as required by law.

Informed Consent

The process of understanding your rights and what to expect before agreeing to begin therapy. Informed consent covers how sessions work, the limits of confidentiality, mandated reporting obligations, virtual session policies, and how to end care. It is an ongoing conversation, not just a form you sign once.

In practice: Questions about the therapy process are always welcome — before you start and throughout.

Intersectionality

A framework for understanding how overlapping identities — race, gender, class, sexuality, disability — interact with systems of power and produce distinct experiences of both privilege and oppression. Coined by scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how Black women's experiences were erased by frameworks that addressed race or gender separately, but not together.

In practice: An intersectional lens means understanding your experience in full context — not reducing it to one identity or one kind of stress.

Minority Stress

The excess chronic stress carried by members of stigmatized or marginalized groups as a result of prejudice, discrimination, microaggressions, and the constant vigilance required to navigate hostile environments. Minority stress is a documented driver of higher rates of depression, anxiety, and trauma in LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and disabled communities.

In practice: Understanding minority stress means not pathologizing a person's response to a harmful environment — while still offering real tools for managing it.

Neurodivergence

An umbrella term for cognitive profiles that differ from the statistical norm. Includes ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, sensory processing differences, Tourette's, and others. Neurodivergent is used both as a clinical descriptor and as an identity term. Affirming practice works from your actual brain, not a normative benchmark.

In practice: Neurodivergent clients often arrive with years of masking, late-diagnosis grief, or shame from being misunderstood. Therapy creates space to understand your brain without judgment.

PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

A stress response that persists after a traumatic event, marked by intrusive memories (flashbacks, nightmares), hypervigilance, emotional numbing, and avoidance of reminders. PTSD can follow a single event or accumulate through repeated exposure. Effective treatments include EMDR, trauma-focused CBT, and somatic approaches.

In practice: Trauma-informed care starts with stabilization and safety — not pushing directly into processing. Pace matters more than speed.

Sliding Scale Fees

A payment model where session fees are adjusted based on a client's income or financial situation. Sliding scale is a tool for making mental health care more accessible to people who cannot afford standard rates. At this practice, reduced-fee options may be available — ask during your initial consultation.

Somatic Therapy

Approaches to healing that work through the body alongside talk. Somatic methods pay attention to breath, physical sensation, movement, and the state of the nervous system. The underlying principle: trauma and stress are not stored only in memory — they live in the body, and the body is part of the healing.

In practice: Somatic awareness is woven throughout the work here — noticing what happens in the body as we talk, and using that information.

Telehealth

The delivery of therapy via secure video or phone rather than in person. Virtual therapy removes many access barriers — commute time, childcare, physical mobility, geographic distance. All sessions at this practice are currently virtual, available to clients anywhere in New York State.

Trauma

Any experience that overwhelms the nervous system's ability to process and integrate what happened. Trauma is defined by its effect on the person, not the severity of the event in isolation. Context, prior history, and the support available at the time all shape what becomes traumatic.

In practice: Trauma-informed care means starting with safety, moving at your pace, and never pathologizing the response to a real experience.

WPATH

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health. The international organization that publishes evidence-based Standards of Care (SOC) for transgender and gender-diverse individuals. WPATH SOC 8 (2022) is the current clinical guideline for gender-affirming care, including criteria for letters of support for gender-related surgical and medical procedures.

In practice: Meghan is trained in WPATH letter writing. The process is collaborative and affirming — not a gatekeeping evaluation.