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Tijen Sumbul
About
Hello and welcome! I'm so glad you're here. My name is Tijen Sumbul, and I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) living in the San Francisco Bay Area and licensed in California. I specialize in trauma and in supporting neurodivergent adults, and I'm especially drawn to the moments when people begin to understand themselves in a new way — whether that's a late diagnosis, a difficult life transition, or the exhaustion of holding it all together for too long. I believe in creating a calm, genuine space where you feel understood rather than studied, with no pressure to mask or fit a mold. My goal is to partner with you — to make sense of where your patterns came from, honor the ways you've survived, and build a life that fits who you actually are.
This work is personal as well as professional for me. Before becoming a therapist, I spent more than 15 years in special education, working closely alongside autistic and neurodivergent people and their families — so neurodivergent minds aren't new to me; I've spent much of my career learning from them. As a late-diagnosed neurodivergent person myself, I also understand from the inside how tiring it can be to move through a world that wasn't built for you. I believe neurodivergent adults deserve care that affirms who they are. Together, we can work toward a life where you feel understood, supported, and able to thrive.
I start with who you already are. Many of the patterns that can feel like "too much" or "not enough" actually began as smart ways of coping with a world that asked you to mask — so rather than treating them as flaws, we look at the strengths and strategies that have carried you and build from there. I stay attuned to sensory, communication, and processing differences, I move at your pace, and I hold real experiences of being misunderstood as valid rather than something to reframe away. As a neurodivergent clinician, I aim to offer care that feels genuinely affirming from the inside out. My hope is that you leave our work feeling more understood, more self-trusting, and freer to live in a way that honors who you are and want to be in the world.
