About
A small, deliberate coaching practice — grounded in the science, plainly spoken.
In short
Brainy Day Coaching is a neurodivergent-affirming coaching practice for autistic and ADHD teens and adults, run by Lee Bess, Ph.D. — an evolutionary biologist turned coach. Sessions are by video, weekly or biweekly. Most clients arrive on referral. 2SLGBTQIA+ affirming. Currently taking new clients in OR, WA, and CA.
Founded 2018 | Solo Practice | 15-18 Active Clients | Based in Eastern Oregon
Brainy Day
The practice exists because the existing landscape is uneven. Coaching for neurodivergent adults skews wellness-y, productivity-y, and short on rigor. The therapeutic side is often excellent but isn’t always what’s needed — sometimes a person doesn’t need processing, they need a strategist who actually understands how their nervous system works.
Brainy Day sits in that gap. The work is academic in the best sense: serious without being sterile, precise without being cold. We use the language of the community — demand-avoidant, PDA-profile, sensory load, capacity — because that language is correct, not because it’s trendy.
Referral-led
Most clients arrive through a therapist, social worker, or other professional. The practice doesn’t advertise.
Refer-out culture
If coaching isn’t what you need, we’ll help you find the right person. A working list is maintained quarterly.
Small caseload
Fifteen to eighteen active clients at a time. The cap is deliberate; it makes thoughtful notes possible.
Quietly queer
2SLGBTQIA+ affirming as a baseline, not a feature. There when you need to see it; out of the way when you don’t.
Lee Bess, Ph.D. · they/them · founder
An evolutionary biologist turned coach — which is to say, a person who finds it hard to make claims without evidence.
Lee spent eight years in research — a Ph.D. on the evolution of social behavior in corvids, then a postdoc — before leaving to coach full-time. The throughline is the same: figuring out, plainly and patiently, how a particular kind of mind operates in a particular kind of environment.
They were diagnosed AuDHD in their late thirties, which informs the work but isn’t the whole of it. They live on a few acres in eastern Oregon with a partner, three goats, and a not-insignificant tomato problem.
Read more about Lee
The path to coaching was indirect. Late diagnosis put Lee inside the experience of being underestimated, mis-managed, and politely talked over by people who meant well; the science training meant they noticed how thin the literature on neurodivergent adult coaching actually was. Brainy Day started as a side practice in 2018 and went full-time in 2021.
The work draws on cognitive science, motivational interviewing, the PDA literature out of the UK, and the lived experience of a small number of long-standing clients who have generously let Lee learn alongside them.
Outside the practice: long walks, citation tracking as a hobby, a quietly maintained collection of field notebooks, and the goats.
Diagnose anything.
We’ll point you to people to can.
Use “superpowers” language.
Or talk about brains as gardens.
Run a packed schedule.
Sessions need recovery time on both ends.
Promise a timeframe.
Plans change; that’s part of the work.
Recruit.
The practice attracts. It does not advertise.
Pathologize joy.
Or the things that genuinely help.