Hi, I’m Jen Alt.
The love you feel for your children is real and everlasting. The reality of parenting them brings up fear, anger, grief, and exhaustion in ways that you never imagined. I'm Jen, parent to two amazing and complicated neurodivergent children, and I've been there — through the highs and the really low lows. I understand what it feels like to lay awake at night worrying about your kid, wondering if they will survive and thrive in a world that wasn't built with them in mind. To spend so much time learning about and trying to meet their sensory and emotional regulation needs that you forget about your own. To find yourself in the journey of learning about your Autistic or ADHD kid and feel the grief, validation and fear that comes with this new identity.
I am drawn to this work because our identity as parents of neurodivergent kids can be isolating. We don't see our reality often reflected on social media, in parenting books, in our friends from our PEPS group, or even, if applicable, our kid’s school community. This can make you feel like you're getting it wrong, you're making your exhaustion too big of a deal, or you're just not trying hard enough. I want you to know that your feelings and experience are valid. That you are not alone and that you deserve support. You may have tried therapy for this before, you’ve journaled, read self-help books, but your experience is tethered to something deeper inside you, and you may not know what that is. Your relationship with your child is not a problem to be solved. We do deeper work to uncover patterns that have been there for a while to create lasting change that allows you to find more balance and freedom in your life.
My Approach
I do depth work. Meaning that we bring awareness to the tip of the iceberg that’s showing above the water — the thoughts that play like cassette tapes on loop in your mind, the way your stomach clenches every time your kid has a meltdown in public, and then we dive below the surface to examine the giant mass that’s the rest of the iceberg. We work to uncover the beliefs, patterns, emotions, and experiences that create patterns that inform those tape loops and your clenching stomach. Before and always while we dive in, we bring attention to the systems and environments you are living within, assess your own nervous system and sensory needs, and work together to help you feel resourced and supported.
Education
Masters of Arts Counseling Psychology, Express Arts Therapy Emphasis | California Institute of Integral Studies | San Francisco, California
Expressive Arts and Guided Imagery Certification | California Pacific Medical Center’s Institute for Health and Healing | San Francisco, California