About the Clinician
I’m Stasha Christian, a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner specializing in adult autism and AuDHD evaluation.
My work is grounded in careful, developmentally informed assessment. I focus on understanding patterns across a person’s history rather than relying on surface-level symptom checklists alone. This includes looking at how attention, sensory processing, environment, and life experience interact over time.
I practice what I call slow psychiatry. This is not about pace—it reflects how clinical decisions are made. Rather than starting with a diagnosis and adjusting treatment from there, I focus on identifying what is actually driving a person’s experience before determining next steps.
As an autistic adult myself, I bring both clinical training and lived insight to this work. I understand the complexity of masking, late identification, and the process of making sense of longstanding patterns in a new way.
Before becoming a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, I worked in multiple healthcare settings including inpatient psychiatry, emergency medical services (EMS), and the emergency department. This background informs a grounded, practical approach to care.
Inner Awareness Psychiatry (IAP) provides neurodivergent‑affirming psychiatric care for adults seeking clarity about autism and AuDHD patterns across the lifespan. Many adults pursue evaluation after years of feeling different, masking heavily, or struggling in ways that were never fully explained.
Evaluation at IAP is structured, comprehensive, and clinically rigorous. Some clients seek formal diagnostic evaluation for autism or AuDHD, while others are looking for professional insight, pattern recognition, and a clearer understanding of how their mind works. Evaluations are designed to provide clarity, meaningful feedback, and practical next steps.
Neurodivergence is not treated as pathology to be corrected. Care focuses on understanding how cognitive style, sensory processing, environment, and life history interact. When anxiety, depression, trauma, sleep disruption, or chronic overwhelm are present, those concerns are addressed directly while recognizing the strengths and capacities of neurodivergent individuals.
In addition to evaluation, ongoing psychiatric care may be offered, including thoughtful medication management when appropriate. Medication management is deliberate, conservative, and prioritizes functional benefit to support healing and improved quality of life.