Twice Exceptional Therapy: Support for Gifted, Neurodivergent Adults
What is Twice Exceptionality?
Being twice exceptional means living with both high ability and real challenges at the same time. You may be insightful, creative, or highly capable—yet feel overwhelmed, misunderstood, or exhausted from constantly adapting to a world that doesn’t quite fit. Therapy offers a space where both your strengths and your struggles are taken seriously.
Twice exceptional (often called 2e) refers to individuals who are both gifted and neurodivergent. This can include ADHD, autism, learning differences, or other neurological variations alongside areas of high ability. While strengths are often visible, the internal effort required to manage daily life can be significant and frequently overlooked.
How Therapy Supports Twice Exceptional Clients
At The Keely Group, our team of therapists specializes in working with twice exceptional (2e) adults, which means people who are both gifted and neurodivergent. Many of our clients are highly insightful, creative, and capable, yet feel chronically misunderstood, overwhelmed, or exhausted from navigating a world that doesn’t quite fit how their minds work.
Twice exceptional clients are often used to relying on their strengths to compensate for challenges. They may be high achievers, people with high responsibility, deep thinkers, and effective problem-solvers who rarely ask for help, yet privately wonder why things feel harder than they “should.” We support clients in understanding their nervous systems, honoring both strengths and struggles, and building lives that feel more sustainable and aligned.
Whether you’re navigating burnout, anxiety, relationship strain, or a late realization about your neurodivergence, our goal is to help you feel understood, supported, and less alone.
Twice Exceptional Therapy for Adults
Living as a twice exceptional adult can feel like constantly translating yourself. Your intelligence and insight are visible, but your internal experience often isn’t. You may move through life appearing “high-functioning,” while quietly struggling with overwhelm, emotional regulation, executive functioning, or sensory sensitivity.
For many 2e adults, this disconnect leads to a persistent sense of self-doubt: If I’m capable, why am I struggling like this? You may have spent years pushing through, masking difficulties, or feeling pressure to meet expectations that don’t account for how your brain actually works.
Since the pandemic, these challenges have become more pronounced. The loss of structure, increased isolation, and blurred boundaries between work and rest have amplified burnout for many twice exceptional individuals. Without external scaffolding, anxiety, exhaustion, and feelings of being “stuck” may surface more clearly.
Understanding Burnout and Overwhelm in Twice Exceptional Adults
Burnout in twice exceptional clients often looks different from what it does for others. It may not come from lack of ability, but from prolonged overcompensation. Years of pushing through, managing internally, and adapting to environments that aren’t supportive can take a toll.
When the pace slows, many clients notice increased anxiety, restlessness, or emotional fatigue. The strategies that once worked, such as intellectually analyzing problems, staying busy, or striving for perfection, no longer provide relief. Instead, clients may feel disconnected from themselves, unsure how to rest, or frustrated that insight alone hasn’t resolved the distress.
Because twice exceptional adults are often used to being “the capable one,” it can feel especially vulnerable to acknowledge these struggles or ask for support.
The Isolation of Being Misunderstood
Many twice exceptional clients carry a long history of not being fully seen. Teachers, employers, or even previous therapists may have overlooked their struggles because of visible strengths. Over time, this can lead to minimizing needs, overexplaining experiences, or fearing that support won’t be taken seriously.
In relationships, this dynamic can create distance. Partners or family members may not understand why daily tasks feel draining or why stress responses seem intense. Clients may hold back their internal experience to avoid being seen as “too much,” which can lead to loneliness and disconnection.
At the same time, expectations—both internal and external—remain high. Being capable doesn’t stop the pressure to perform, and needing support can feel like a contradiction rather than a necessity.
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
Being twice exceptional can feel isolating, especially when your internal experience doesn’t match how others see you. Therapy offers a space to be fully understood, without having to perform, explain, or prove that you’re struggling “enough.”
With the right support, you can move toward greater clarity, self-compassion, and balance. At The Keely Group, we offer affirming, confidential online therapy for twice exceptional adults, available throughout New York State.
If you’re ready to explore therapy that honors your full experience—both brilliance and struggle—we’re here to help.
Schedule a consultation today and take the first step toward a life that works with who you are, not against it.
Find Relief and Understanding Through Twice Exceptional Therapy in NYC
You don't have to keep pushing through alone or explaining why capable feels so hard. If you're ready to feel truly understood and build a life that honors both your brilliance and your needs, Twice Exceptional Therapy in NYC can help. The Keely Group offers affirming, confidential online therapy for gifted, neurodivergent adults throughout New York State—schedule a consultation today. Follow these three simple steps to get started:
Review our FAQ page to learn more about Therapy at the Keely Group
Complete our online contact form to schedule a consultation
We'll follow up to match you with a therapist who understands your full experience
Additional Therapy Services Offered in New York
In addition to Twice Exceptional Therapy in NYC, our therapists work with individuals and couples seeking support around:
All services are offered virtually to clients located in New York State.
How Therapy for Twice Exceptional Clients Helps
Working with a therapist who understands twice exceptionality provides a space where complexity is welcomed, not simplified. Therapy offers a supportive, nonjudgmental environment to explore your experiences without needing to justify or minimize them.
Therapy for twice exceptional adults can help you:
Understand how your nervous system and neurodivergence shape your experience
Process burnout, anxiety, perfectionism, and internalized self-criticism
Develop regulation strategies that work with your brain, not against it
Strengthen communication and connection in relationships
Redefine success, productivity, and self-worth in more sustainable ways
Our therapists recognize that insight does not equal ease, and that being gifted does not protect against distress. Through online therapy, we work collaboratively to support both your strengths and your challenges, while accommodating your schedule and energy needs.
