The Neurodivergent Love Lab
A podcast for ADHD, autistic, and AuDHD adults navigating love, conflict, communication, and intimacy - with brains that work a little differently.
Hosted by Jenna Dalton - a psychologist who’s also AuDHD - The Neurodivergent Love Lab gives you the tools traditional couples therapy never quite delivered.
Because most relationship advice assumes things your brain has a tough time doing: like accessing feelings on demand, recovering from conflict in 20 minutes or less, and explaining yourself clearly while under pressure and in the moment. Your wonderfully unique brain has other plans.
Each week I'll share the science behind being neurodivergent in a way that's easy to understand and give you practical tools for things like:
🧠 Conflict, shutdown, and repair
🧠 Rejection sensitivity and demand avoidance in relation to love
🧠 Dopamine and the unique challenges it can create for neurodivergent lovers
🧠 Masking exhaustion and the link to intimacy mismatches
🧠 Executive function meltdowns that can create moments of disconnection
🧠 Communication missteps that are common in mixed-neurotype relationships
🧠 And so very much more ....
This is the podcast you wish you had found before you spent all that money on couples therapy. You didn't fail at couples therapy. Couples therapy failed to account for your neurology.
Your brain isn't broken. You don't need fixing. Let's build a relationship user manual that actually works for your wiring.
New episodes weekly. Cozy up in your burrow, take me on a walk, grab a fidget, plop yourself in front of your favourite doodle book.... However you like to listen, welcome to the community.
Episodes
7 episodes
How Rejection Sensitivity Hijacks Your Relationship (+ 4 Steps to Slow Its Roll)
Your partner says, "I'm tired. Can we talk later?"Neutral words. Maybe even kind ones. But they don't land that way. They land as a personal attack. Criticism. Rejection.They don't want to be around me.I'm too much.I...
The Uncomfortable Truth: Most Couples Therapy Wasn't Built for You
Can I be honest?Couples therapy may actually make your relationship worse.Not because the therapist isn't empathetic or skilled. Not because your partner isn't trying. But because every exercise you're given was likely designed wi...
Why You Shut Down In Fights (And What to Do About It)
You're in the middle of an argument, and then... you just go blank.The words are gone. Your thoughts won't line up. Your partner is still talking, still waiting, still looking at you for a response. And you're just… sitting there. Offlin...
“Too Much and Not Enough”: The Story of Your ND Life
"You're too sensitive.""Why can't you just relax?""You never pay attention.""You care too much about the wrong things."Too much. Not enough. At the same time. Sometimes in the same...
The Neuroscience Of Why You Fall Hard and Then Pull Away
You remember the beginning.You couldn't stop thinking about them. You checked your phone constantly and texted back instantly. You stayed up until 3 AM talking even though you had work at 7. You planned elaborate dates. You wrote little ...
The One Where Your Relationship History Suddenly Makes Sense
There's a moment that almost every late-diagnosed neurodivergent person describes the same way.It's like someone handed them a pair of glasses they didn't know they needed and suddenly every relationship they've squinted at for years sna...
Welcome to The Neurodivergent Love Lab
Have you ever sat across from a therapist, a partner, a friend - someone who was genuinely trying to help - and thought… they don't get it?Not because they weren't smart. Not because they didn't care. But because the advice they were giv...