When Feeling "Good" is Scary: Positive Valence Intolerance in Neurodivergent Clients

About this training

As practitioners, we often treat "feeling good" as the ultimate indicator of a successful session. But for many neurodivergent clients, positive emotions don’t feel like a relief—they feel like a threat. When joy, pride, or excitement triggers an immediate nervous system shutdown, or when a client seems unable to access "good" feelings at all, therapy can feel inexplicably "stuck." This isn't a failure of your modality; it is often the result of an invisible hurdle: Positive Affect Intolerance. This workshop is designed for therapists who want to uncover the hidden barriers that keep complex and neurodivergent clients from healing. We will explore why positive affect can be profoundly dysregulating and how to help your clients safely expand their window of tolerance to reclaim joy and build the capacity to sustain positive feelings. What We Will Cover: The Neurobiology of Positive Valence Intolerance: Why the ND nervous system may perceive joy as a lack of safety or a precursor to "the other shoe dropping." The "Success Swerve": Why ADHD clients bypass pride and how this protective pivot prevents them from building the emotional memory needed for future EF success. Befriending the Internal Guards: How to identify the protective parts that shut down positive affect and somatic techniques to help these systems feel safe enough to let joy in.