Counselling & Therapy
Coaching, counselling and therapy for anyone who feels ready to understand themselves a little better. With a particular specialism in neurodivergent experience.
Book a free consultation
About the practice
Local Dialect was founded on a simple belief: everyone deserves support that truly understands how they think, communicate and experience the world.
Whatever brings you here - a specific diagnosis, a sense that something has always been a little harder than it should be, or simply a feeling that you're ready for change - this is a place where your experience is met with genuine understanding.
Alongside general counselling and therapy, Dan has a deep specialism in neurodivergent experience. If that's you, find out more below.
"I'm Dan, and I'm AuDHD myself. I know what it's like to spend decades not quite understanding why the world feels so much harder than it seems to for everyone else - and how much changes when you finally have a language for your experience." - Dan Pearson, FounderRead my full story
What I offer
Deeper exploratory work addressing anxiety, low mood, relationship difficulties, identity and emotional wellbeing. A safe, consistent space to process, understand and move at your own pace — with an approach that's adapted to how you think and communicate, not how therapy traditionally expects you to show up.
Learn moreCoaching specifically for neurodivergent adults — grounded in lived experience, not just training. Whether you're navigating a late diagnosis, burnout, masking, or trying to build a life that actually fits the way you're wired, this is a space where you won't need to explain yourself from scratch.
Learn moreAll services are available online, making support accessible wherever you are in the UK. In-person sessions are available in Lewes, East Sussex. Sessions run via a secure, easy-to-use video platform - no complicated setup required.
Learn moreNeurodivergent specialism
Alongside general counselling and therapy, Dan has a deep specialism in neurodivergent experience - grounded not just in training, but in lived experience. He is AuDHD himself, diagnosed with ADHD in 2020 and autism in 2025.
One thing he understands deeply is the sheer effort of it. The constant recalibrating, the scramble to read rooms and meet expectations that were never designed with you in mind. The way you can work twice as hard as everyone around you and still feel like you're falling behind. That exhaustion is real - and it rarely gets named.
Here, you won't need to explain yourself from scratch. Neurodivergence isn't something to work around - it's the starting point.
You don't need a diagnosis to access this support - if any of this resonates, you're welcome here.
"I know what it's like to spend decades not quite understanding why the world feels so much harder than it seems to for everyone else - and how much changes when you finally have a language for your experience."
What I work with
What to expect
Sessions are built around how you actually think and communicate - not how therapy traditionally expects you to show up.
We go at your speed. If you need to move around, take a break, or approach things indirectly - that's fine. There's no single right way to do this.
We work with how your mind naturally operates, not against it. Your neurodivergence is a difference, not a deficit.
Burnout, masking, late diagnosis grief, identity, relationships - all of it is welcome here, however it shows up.
How it works
My core methodology is Transactional Analysis (TA) - a humanistic, relational approach to therapy built on a simple but powerful idea: that you are fundamentally OK, and so am I. TA looks at how we communicate, how our early experiences shape the patterns we carry into adult life, and how we can rewrite those patterns when they no longer serve us. It's collaborative, transparent and deeply empowering - you'll always understand what we're doing and why.
A relaxed 30-minute chat to see if we're a good fit. No pressure, no commitment.
We explore what's brought you here and start to understand your experience together.
We agree an approach that works for you - pace, format and focus all shaped to your needs.
Regular sessions with flexibility built in. We review and adapt as you grow.
About me
My name is Dan Pearson. I'm a coach, counsellor and therapist - and I'm AuDHD.
I received my ADHD diagnosis in 2020. I'd just turned 40, and for a long time I'd carried the quiet, exhausting belief that I was simply failing at things other people found easy. Struggling to stay on top of things, difficulties at work and in relationships, never being able to get anything actually started. Feeling like I was always one step behind in a world that hadn't been designed with me in mind.
Getting that diagnosis didn't fix everything - but it gave me something I hadn't had before: a framework. A way of understanding why certain things had always been so hard, and permission to stop blaming myself for them.
My autism diagnosis came in 2025. By then I'd already done a lot of work on understanding myself, but that second piece felt like the final part of a picture I'd been trying to see clearly my whole life. So much suddenly made sense - the sensory overwhelm, the social exhaustion, the years spent masking in order to pass as someone I wasn't. The burnout that followed.
Masking is something I understand from the inside. The performance of it. The way it hollows you out. The grief that can come when you start to let it down - and the relief that follows.
One thing I understand deeply is the sheer effort of it. The constant recalibrating, the scramble to read rooms and meet expectations that were never designed with you in mind. The way you can work twice as hard as everyone around you and still feel like you're falling behind. That exhaustion is real - and it rarely gets named.
That journey is what brought me to this work. I wanted to offer what I hadn't always had: a space where neurodivergent people are genuinely understood, not just accommodated. Where your experience is the starting point, not an obstacle to work around. Where you don't have to explain yourself from scratch or mask just to be heard.
I can't promise I'll immediately understand everything you bring. But I can promise that I'll meet you with honesty, without judgement, and with a real understanding of what it means to move through the world the way we do.
Book a free consultationReady to begin?
No referral needed. No forms to fill in. Just a gentle, no-obligation conversation to see if Local Dialect feels like the right fit for you.
Email: hello@localdialect.co.uk