The Kid Who's Ahead of Everyone and Behind Themselves

Your kid can explain how a volcano forms, correct your grammar mid-sentence, and then completely fall apart because the seam in their sock feels wrong. That gap between what their brain can do and what their body can handle is exhausting to live inside, and it's the part most parenting advice skips right over.

Welcome Home Family Therapy, owned by S. Abigail McCarrel, LCSW, DCSW, offers online therapy for parenting gifted and twice-exceptional children throughout California. I've spent more than thirty years working with children and families, and a large part of my caseload is parents of gifted and twice-exceptional kids, because a lot of therapists trained in typical child development have never studied what happens when a nine-year-old's vocabulary tests at a high school level while their capacity to handle disappointment is still years behind.

Why does my gifted child have such big emotional reactions?

Intensity is part of how a gifted child's brain and nervous system are built, not a behavior you can coach away with a sticker chart. Kids with strong verbal ability and high sensory intake tend to feel everything more and get overwhelmed faster than their peers, which shows up as meltdowns that seem wildly out of proportion to whatever just happened. The Child Mind Institute has a good breakdown of why this intensity gets so often mistaken for defiance or an attention problem, when it's really a nervous system taking in more than it can process in the moment.

Can a child be gifted and have ADHD or autism at the same time?

Yes, this combination is common enough that it has its own name: twice-exceptional, or 2e. A twice-exceptional child is gifted in one or more areas and also has a learning, developmental, or neurological difference, and the two can mask each other for years before anyone puts the pieces together. Signs worth paying attention to include:

• A child who's advanced in one subject and years behind in another
• Meltdowns that seem disconnected from how "smart" everyone says they are
• A kid who's bored and disruptive in class but intensely focused at home on their own interests
• Sensory reactions to things like clothing tags, textures, or noise that don't match their age

If that overlap sounds like your child, my page on counseling for parents of ADHD and neurodivergent children goes deeper into that layered picture, and family counseling for twice-exceptional and gifted children is built specifically for it.

What's the difference between parent therapy and family therapy for a gifted or 2e child?

Parent therapy works with you alone to change how you respond, while family therapy brings everyone into the room to work on the relationship directly, and either one can be the right starting point. Some parents want a space that's just theirs to understand their own nervous system first, which is what online parent therapy when parenting is hard and parent coaching grounded in brain science are built for. Other families want the whole household working on connection together, which is where online family therapy comes in.

Can therapy help if adoption, trauma, or divorce is part of our story too?

Yes, and naming that layer usually changes the work in ways worth talking about directly. If your family has been shaped by loss or a hard chapter, family trauma therapy addresses what's stored in the body, not just what gets talked about out loud. If your gifted or 2e child joined your family through adoption, post-adoption services speaks to that layered attachment story directly, and co-parenting therapy helps you and an ex stay aligned across two households.

Is online therapy effective for parenting a gifted or neurodivergent child in California?

Yes, and for a lot of parents it's easier than the alternative, since sessions happen from your own couch instead of a waiting room, with no drive time added to an already full week. If you want a feel for how I think about behavior before we ever talk, Robyn Gobbel's Baffling Behavior Show is the podcast I point people to most often.

Home should be the one place your kid's nervous system gets to rest instead of perform. That's the whole point of this work, one house, one relationship at a time.

Let's Talk First. No Pressure.

If you're still reading, maybe you're feeling a spark of hope. Or maybe you're skeptical, and that's okay too.

To get started, we'll have a brief screening phone call and if it feels right, we'll schedule an hour-long, free phone consultation to see if we are a good match for therapy. This is my offering to you, at a time when you are struggling the most.

My motto: Helping parents become the healers in the home

Book a free Discovery Call: Click here

FAQ

What does twice-exceptional or 2e mean?

Twice-exceptional, or 2e, describes a child who is gifted in one or more areas and also has a learning, developmental, or neurological difference such as ADHD, autism, or a learning disability.

Why does my brilliant kid struggle with things that seem simple?

This pattern is called asynchronous development, where a child's intellectual growth outpaces their emotional or physical maturity, so a kid who debates like an adult can still melt down over a shoelace.

Can therapy help if my gifted or 2e child refuses to attend sessions themselves?

Yes, working with just the parent is often where the biggest shift happens, since the parent is the one with the child every day and can change the pattern from their end.

Does insurance cover therapy for parenting a gifted child?

Welcome Home Family Therapy is a private pay practice, which means care stays confidential and fully customized rather than shaped by what an insurance company will approve.

How do I find a therapist near me who understands twice-exceptional kids?

Because Welcome Home Family Therapy is entirely online, "near me" isn't a limit. S. Abigail McCarrel, LCSW, DCSW, works with families anywhere in California, whether in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, or a small town hours from the nearest specialist.

Book a free Discovery Call: Click here

S. Abigail McCarrel, LCSW, DCSW is the founder of Welcome Home Family Therapy, a fully virtual private practice serving families throughout California. She specializes in parenting therapy, parent coaching, and family therapy for families navigating neurodiversity, giftedness, developmental trauma, and adoption. Welcome Home Family Therapy is a private-pay practice. To reach Abby directly: (626) 755-4059 or book a Discovery call.