Therapy for Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD)
How often do your well-intentioned bids for connection feel like they have completely and utterly backfired? Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) can make everyday interactions feel overwhelming, especially when even small moments of perceived criticism or rejection trigger intense emotional pain. Many people with RSD experience rapid shifts into shame, anxiety, or self-doubt, often leaving them feeling misunderstood or “too sensitive.” If this sounds familiar, you are not alone, and your reactions make sense in the context of your nervous system and lived experiences. Therapy for RSD focuses on helping you regulate these intense emotional responses, build resilience to perceived rejection, and develop a more stable sense of self-worth. Using evidence-based approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and skills for emotional regulation, you can learn how to respond to triggers with more flexibility and self-compassion. Over time, clients often find they can navigate relationships with less fear and feel more grounded in who they are. If you are ready to feel less controlled by rejection and more confident in yourself, therapy can help you get there.
My office is located at Hope Roots Collective 11515 Black Bob Rd, Olathe, KS 66062 in the heart of Johnson County, near Overland Park, providing a convenient and welcoming space for therapy. Click the button below to contact me and get started!
RSD, Religious Trauma, and Faith Deconstruction
For people recovering from religious trauma or navigating faith deconstruction, rejection sensitivity can feel especially intense. If you were taught that belonging depended on being “good,” agreeable, certain, obedient, or spiritually acceptable, even small moments of disapproval can trigger shame, fear, or panic. A delayed text, a tense conversation with family, criticism from a faith community, or the fear of disappointing others may feel like proof that you are unsafe, rejected, or morally wrong.
Therapy can help you separate present-day rejection sensitivity from old religious conditioning. Together, we work on calming the nervous system, reducing shame, rebuilding self-trust, and learning how to stay connected to your values without being controlled by fear, guilt, or approval-seeking.
RSD in ADHD, Autism, and Neurodivergent Adults
Many adults with ADHD, autism, and AuDHD experience rejection, criticism, or misunderstanding more intensely, especially after years of masking, being corrected, feeling “too much,” or being told they were not trying hard enough. Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria can show up as spiraling after feedback, replaying conversations, avoiding conflict, people-pleasing, shutting down, or feeling crushed by perceived abandonment.
Neurodivergent-affirming therapy for RSD focuses on helping you understand your nervous system rather than shaming your sensitivity. Instead of forcing you to “just not care,” therapy helps you build emotional regulation skills, practice self-compassion, communicate needs more clearly, and create relationships where you do not have to mask to feel accepted.
Start RSD Therapy in Olathe or Online in Kansas
If rejection, criticism, shame, or fear of disappointing others feels like it controls your relationships, therapy can help. Deconstruction Counseling provides therapy for adults with rejection sensitivity, ADHD, autism, religious trauma, faith deconstruction, OCD, anxiety, and depression. Sessions are available in person in Olathe, Kansas (in the Hope Roots Collective building), near Overland Park and the Kansas City metro, or online across Kansas.