Welcome to Unconventional Minds Coaching! My name is Samantha Cooper, and I am a Professional Coach who works with neurodivergent adults (who have ADHD and/or are autistic) who lead unconventional lives to understand and embrace their personal wiring, so that they can effectively minimize stress and dramatically enhance their sense of well-being while meeting their goals and living their dreams.

Alongside my professional training, expertise, and 2000+ hours of coaching 250+ clients since 2018, I draw from a well-spring of lived experience as someone who realized (many years into adulthood) that I am neurodivergent in multiple ways. The people who I work with are not only neurodivergent (or “neurospicy” or whatever term du jour floats your boat); they are also, like me, unconventional and non-conforming in other aspects of their lives, e.g. identities, relationship styles, livelihoods, and life experiences.

At its core, my approach is non-pathologizing: what this means is that, ultimately, there is nothing wrong with you — there is nothing wrong with us. You are a whole human being, not a vehicle for myriad labels and diagnoses (however helpful you do or don’t find those). I hear you, I see you, and the challenges and struggles that you experience are valid. You deserve support to cultivate a life enriched with self-agency, joy, play, and fulfillment, and address the challenges you face.

My coaching practice is intersectional in its approach, and proudly affirming of humans who use labels / terms / phrases that include (but are not limited to): LGBTQIA2S+; Gender, Sex, and Relationship Diversities (GSRD); trans / transgender; nonbinary (agender, gender-fluid); gender-nonconforming (GNC); gender expansive; intersex; queer - lesbian - gay - bisexual - pansexual - asexual - aromantic; kink / BDSM; nonmonogamy / polyamory; sex worker (sex work is work); BLM; divorce / divorced; non-traditional families; family estrangement and/or alienation from their families of origin; undocumented migrants. *Note: I have lived experience in many of the aforementioned groups and identities.

My clientele includes people who have or had a variety of vocations or careers, including but not limited to: attorneys/lawyers, professors and other professionals working in academia, small business owners, entrepreneurs, medical doctors, psychotherapists, coaches, marketing directors, published authors, finance directors, policy wonks, fine artists, performers, software engineers, sex workers, management consultants, journalists and columnists, international aid and international development workers, entertainers, scientists, and researchers working across diverse fields and industries.

• Do you yearn to work toward your big goals and dreams - to finally make substantial changes and moves? Now, if only you could snap out of this overwhelming feeling of being so overwhelmed in your day-to-day, right?

• You feel exhausted, perhaps you are teetering on the brink of burnout, are in the throes of burnout, or are trying to figure out how to recover from burnout and what options are available beyond burnout.

• You long to figure out how to disrupt this lifelong procrastination cycle, so you can stop running around in circles and create meaningful progress.

• You value emotional expressiveness, so you’d like to figure out how to stop allowing your intense emotions to control you or harm your relationships.

• You know you need to learn how to work with your unique brain wiring and stop working against yourself. You’ve tried to do this on your own, and realized that you need support to do this successfully and effectively.

If you identify with any of the above, please know that right now, you are exactly where you need to be to get started. Together, we can co-create a supportive nonjudgmental accountability partnership through coaching, so that you can fully utilize your strengths, wholly understand and accept your amazing neurodivergent (unconventional!) brain, and cultivate the robust, healthy practices that are key to achieving your version of success.

Whatever your background and whatever path has led you here: you are welcome.