In this powerful conversation, autistic therapist and author Jessica Penot, LPC-S, opens up about masking, conformity, and what it really means to thrive as an autistic adult. Jessica Penot, LPC-S is the founder of Tree of Life Behavioral Health and the Neuroaffirmative Autism Resource Center, as well as the author of "The Unmasking Workbook for Autistic Adults." She breaks down the hidden "taxes of conformity" that autistic people pay every day, the serious mental health toll of masking, and the eye-opening "double empathy problem" that reframes how we think about autistic and neurotypical communication.