ND Affirming Sex & Intimacy Considerations

A rhythm-aware, neurodivergent-affirming approach to desire, connection, and intimacy

1 AASECT continuing education credits included

What looks like low desire, avoidance, or inconsistency may not be a lack of interest...but a difference in access

Neurodivergent Affirming Sex and Intimacy Considerations

$59

Core Features

1 hour class
Replay available
1 AASECT Continuing Education Credit
Part of the full ND Love Series

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The Problem. Many people experience challenges in sex and intimacy that are misunderstood as:

❌ low desire

❌ avoidance

❌ disinterest

❌ inconsistency

But often, these are not problems of desire. They are differences in:

✅ access

✅ regulation

✅ timing

✅ sensory experience

✅ arousal pathways

This training helps you understand:

✅ how ADHD and Autistic erotic rhythms shape access to desire, connection, and intimacy

✅ why access changes across context, state, and environment

✅ how differences in pacing, stimulation, and processing impact connection

✅ why inconsistency does not make lack of interest

Desire may be present -- even when access is not.

In this training, you'll learn how to:

✅ Understand erotic rhythms and how they shape access to intimacy

✅ Recognize how attunement, rupture, and repair show up in neurodivergent relationships

✅ Shift from interpreting behavior → understanding access

✅ Apply rhythm-aware interventions that support safety, consent, and co-regulation

✅ Support intimacy without requiring sameness or self-abandonment

A 4-Step Model:

✅ What is happening? (Rhythms → access)

✅ How it impacts relationships (attunement / rupture)

✅ What to do (interventions)

✅ How to hold it (values + framing)

Access is shaped by internal systems and relational conditions.

What Makes This Different:

❌ This is not about "fixing" desire.

✅ It’s about understanding access.

Instead of:

❌ Assuming disinterest

❌ Pushing through differences

❌ Expecting sameness

This approach focuses on:

✅ coordination instead of correction

✅ curiosity instead of assumption

✅ mutual regulation instead of self-sacrifice

WHO THIS IS FOR

✅ Clinicians and therapists working with neurodivergent clients

✅ Relational guides and educators

✅ Individuals and couples navigating intimacy across difference

By the end of this training, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how to:

✅ Recognize access patterns

✅ Respond to differences without misinterpretation

✅ Support connection without overriding needs

✅ Work with intimacy instead of against it

Core Philosophy:

Intimacy is not one rhythm.

It’s negotiated across difference.

Connection does not require sameness.

No one has to disappear for connection to happen.

A Look At What's Inside:

Core Models and Visual Frameworks:

✅ Relationship Rhythm & Integrity Pillars - a visual framework illustrating patterns of safety, rupture, and repair across green, yellow, and red zones, with examples of dialogue and action steps.
✅ The Rhythms of Shared Connection Model - a neuroscience-informed framework for understanding how different nervous systems connect, regulate, and repair through pacing, responsiveness, and co-regulation.

Practical Tools for Application:

✅ Internal Coherence Support Resource Packet - a structured guide to building regulation, pacing, and resilience through coherence-centered supports, with intervention options for individualized care.
✅ Up and Down-Regulation Visual - a practical visual to support energy regulation, pacing, and relational synchrony.

Training and Integration:

✅ Symbolic Emotional Tools video - a video using metaphor, imagery, and body-based awareness to support emotional expression and communication - especially for neurodivergent processing styles.

Dr. Stacey has incorporated variations of these presentations recently at the following professional trainings and speaking events:

Skowronski, S. (2025-2026). Reframing Neurodivergence: An 8-Week Course. Shifting From Deficit to Identity-Affirming Frameworks for Therapists, Educations, and Leaders who Support Neurodivergent People. [Recurrent Synchronous and Asynchronous Online Training Series].
Lourenco, B., Skowronski, S. & Tyer, H. (2026, June 5). AuDHD in Love: From Adversaries to Co-Imaginaries. [Conference presentation]. AASECT Annual Conference, San Juan, PR, United States.
Skowronski, S. (2025, Mar 27). Neurodivergent Considerations for Sex and Couples Therapy. AASECT IL & The Chicago Sex Therapist Network. [Wildflower Center for Learning training]. Synchronous Online Training.
Lourenco, B., Skowronski, S. & Tyer, H. (2026, Apr 24 and 2025, Nov 7). AuDHD in Love: From Adversaries to Co-Imaginaries. [Cascadia Training]. Synchronous Online Training.
Skowronski, S. & Spitlier, J. (2025, Sept 5). A Neurodivergent Approach to ADHD, Connection, and Sex. [Avid Intimacy Group In-Person Presentation]. Chicago, IL, United States.
Skowronski, S. (2025, June 8). Unmasked: From Moral Injury to Self-Alignment in High Masking ADHD’ers and Autistics. [Conference presentation]. AASECT Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV, United States.

Disclaimer: The Neurodivergent Affirming Considerations for Sex and Intimacy training is an educational and reflective tool. It is not therapy, clinical supervision, diagnosis, or a substitute for mental health care. Professionals are responsible for applying these materials within the scope of their own training, license, and ethics.