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David Bonanno
About
I’m Dr. David Bonanno, a licensed clinical psychologist who has been working in the mental health field since 1993. I especially identify with people who know they’re struggling but don’t quite understand why. Sometimes the hardest part isn’t the struggle itself—it’s not having an explanation for it. I want assessment to help people finally understand themselves and their experiences in a way that makes sense.
One of the biggest causes of my career has been helping people avoid spending years hating themselves for things they don’t understand. I know what that’s like personally. For a long time, I struggled without having answers, and I blamed myself for things that I eventually learned had an explanation.Helping people replace “What’s wrong with me?” with a genuine understanding of how their mind works has become an everyday part of my clinical work and a major theme in the books I’ve published. That’s a big part of what draws me to working with autistic and neurodivergent people: the right answers can completely change the story someone has been telling themselves about who they are.
I approach assessment from the perspective that we are trying to understand a whole person, not simply identify symptoms or deficits. I want to know what comes naturally to you, what takes more effort, how you’ve adapted over the years, and what strengths you may have developed along the way.I also believe people deserve to be taken seriously when describing their own experience. My job is to listen carefully, ask good questions, look for patterns, and integrate that information with the assessment findings. Ultimately, I want you to leave the process with a clearer and more compassionate understanding of how your mind works—and with information that is actually useful in your life.
