I Changed My Photo On Psychologytoday.com To A Chicken Selfie

"I changed my Psychology Today profile picture to be a chicken selfie because I'm tired of pretending to be "professional" based on allistic standards...

When I started my private practice, I did it impulsively (thanks, ADHD) and I was fully masked (thanks, non-affirming society I was raised in!). I basically just copied the allistic-passing therapists around me who seemed successful. In fact, that is basically what I've done my entire life, copied those around me who seem to "get it" when I clearly never have.   

After learning I was Autistic, I was able to piece everything together and realized that I’d been torturing myself trying to fit in my whole life and career. And I am done. Not only am I done,  I want to help liberate others from an existence of forced assimilation into a society and culture that doesn’t seem our inherent worth. That also means, I don’t need to pretend to look “professional” to get more clients. 

They say to have all your advertising speak to your ideal client. Well, my ideal client is Autistic and will probably appreciate that I am showing my unfiltered, chicken-loving self on my professional pages. I am done looking at other therapists websites and trying to pattern recognize my way into “success.” I am not sure I even want the allistic version of success anyway. 

All I want my advertising to say is “Hey look, there is an Autistic therapist out there doing authentically autistic stuff and is unmasking outloud so that one day, being an Autistic therapist won’t be so controversial and we can all have weird chicken selfies on our professional pages or whatever type of photos you like and it’s all good because being free to be ourselves should be valued and the best way to showcase what we are capable of.”