Hi, I’m Ashley!

Here’s my story.

After we got married, my partner and I noticed ourselves having the same argument over and over again. We couldn’t seem to stay on the same page. We knew we loved each other, so why weren’t we able to overcome our communication issues? I’m a therapist—my whole life was about healthy communication. Was it me? Did we make a mistake? What was going on?

Eventually, I suggested perhaps it was a brain thing. I read a book that had a self-assessment and had him complete it. Needless to say, autism was definitely playing a role. It made so much sense after we figured it out! He’d always struggled to read social cues, was accidentally rude to others, and spent a large part of our honeymoon talking about his personal hobby.

After the diagnosis, we really wanted to figure out how to make it work for us and make sure we were approaching it in a strengths-based perspective. We couldn’t find a single person in our area, or even our state, that was doing neurodivergent couples work. It blew my mind. About 1 in 54 children is autistic, and that statistic doesn’t even include adults in our situation who come across the diagnosis as an adult. How was no attention being given to teaching couples the skills they need to make their relationships work and become even more fulfilling?

That’s how Seaport Coaching was born! It has become my mission to help others in our situation so no couple is ever feeling like they have to navigate autism or ADHD alone.