Salena Justice l Mental Health
For Salena Justice, healing often starts with a moment of clarity.
In her work with autistic adults, she’s noticed something important. Many of her clients have spent years reflecting on their experiences. They understand themselves deeply and can clearly explain why certain situations feel overwhelming, or why specific patterns keep showing up. They’re usually not looking for more analysis. They’re looking for the next step.
Salena believes practical support is an essential part of good care, and that it should always be collaborative. Her work is grounded in respect for her clients’ self-awareness and lived experience, with a shared curiosity about what actually works in the context of their day-to-day lives. Sometimes, that starts with a simple, ‘here’s something we can try.’”
This approach shapes how Salena practices today. In her experience, healing isn’t only about feeling understood. It’s also about having something that you can carry with you into the world, like a strategy, a shift in perspective, or even a script to try. Something tangible that makes the path forward feel a little clearer.
Finding her path
Salena is a licensed psychologist based in North Carolina. With licensure in 43 states and Jane’s telehealth feature, she’s able to work with adults across most of the U.S., many of whom are seeking answers later in life about why certain things have always felt harder for them than for others.
Her path into psychology wasn’t driven by an ambition to open a private practice. While she was in graduate school in New Jersey, she trained in a combined school and clinical psychology program with the intention of working in schools, helping young people navigate systems that weren’t built for everyone equally.
After graduating, she spent several years working in a high school, supporting students through assessments, case management, and individualized education plans. It was meaningful, yet demanding work. When she began seeing clients privately on evenings and weekends, she came to realize that it was possible to build a more flexible and sustainable work life. One that could protect her energy in ways that helped her show up more fully for her clients, and made her a better clinician.
After four years in the school system, she made the shift to private practice full time.
Listening to what was missing
Salena’s early training focused on children with higher support needs. As her clinical experiences expanded, she began working with older adolescents and college students, many of whom were navigating academic demands successfully, but still struggling with organization, communication, and burnout.
By the time she transitioned fully into telehealth, she noticed that there were countless services for autistic children, but very few clinicians focused on adults, especially those who had spent years masking or struggling to understand their experiences.
At the same time, the field of psychology’s understanding of autism had shifted significantly over the past decade, particularly for women and gender diverse people. Salena found herself learning far beyond what she had been taught in school, following emerging research, listening to and learning from autistic communities, and adjusting her approach accordingly. Slowly, her practice began to take shape around a population whose needs had long gone unmet.
From insight to action
One of the most defining aspects of Salena’s work is her emphasis on skill-based therapy. It’s not a rejection of reflection or emotional processing, but a response to what she consistently sees in her practice. Many of her clients are highly self-aware. They understand their histories. They can explain why they respond the way they do. What they struggle with is translating that understanding into daily life. Traditional talk therapy often stops just short of what they need most.
Together, Salena and her clients get practical: they map out to-dos, break tasks into manageable steps, and plan for rest as intentionally as they can. That can look like role-playing conversations with partners or employers, or writing scripts they can rehearse so they feel more equipped for the tasks they want to complete, and more confident in the moments that matter.
Creating a space that feels human
For Salena, creating a sense of safety starts with how she shows up with clients. Sessions are relaxed. She wears T-shirts so her tattoos are visible, and swears when it fits the moment. Her hope is that her clients feel like they can be themselves, without needing to perform or “get it right.”
Many of her clients come to her after decades of feeling misunderstood or dismissed, sometimes even by professionals they went to for support. A more formal, clinical environment can unintentionally reinforce that distance, so Salena is intentional about removing those unnecessary barriers and creating a space that feels more human.
Witnessing recognition
In addition to therapy, Salena conducts autism assessments for adults. These evaluations are rarely a surprise for her clients, as many have already spent months or years learning, reflecting, and making sense of their experiences through online communities and shared stories.
For Salena, the assessment process isn’t just about gathering information. It often offers a moment of recognition. In feedback sessions, she reflects patterns back to her clients, connecting experiences from different parts of their lives so things that once felt random or confusing begin to make sense as part of a bigger picture.
More often than not, having a name for what they’ve been feeling and experiencing for so long brings them a sense of relief, not grief.
Making the move to Jane
Two years into full-time private practice, Salena realized she needed systems that could keep up with her growing client base, especially with the volume of assessments and intake paperwork that comes with her work. She’d been using an EMR that was confusing to navigate and didn’t quite fit how she worked. Moreover, the credit card processing fees were eating into her income in ways she couldn’t ignore.
When she switched to Jane, it was like things finally clicked into place. “The self scheduling has been kind of a lifesaver,” she says. “The fact that I can have it all auto set up to [send intake forms and consents] to them when they schedule an appointment is really nice.”
She also built out custom note templates with simple checkboxes that cut her documentation time in half. “I have a ton of new people coming in to do the assessments and there’s a lot of paperwork attached to that,” she explains. “Having all of that on the backend working automatically means I’m not manually creating that for every single person.” But what really stood out was the transition process itself. “I was really worried about transferring everything over from my previous EMR,” she recalls. “I was on a call with the Jane team for an hour, and someone walked me through everything. They pulled everything from my old system and set it all up for me. I probably wouldn’t have taken the leap without someone doing all that for me.”
With the right systems in place, Salena is able to focus more fully on the work itself. And that work continues to evolve through the communities she’s part of and learning from.
Learning through community
Since nearly all of Salena’s clients find her through Instagram, social media has become an important extension of Salena’s work. The platform allows her to speak directly to autistic adults and reach people she would never meet through traditional referral networks, especially given the geographic spread of her licensure.
Just as importantly, social media has become a space for her to learn, by following and engaging with autistic creators, and building relationships outside of the clinical dynamic. These connections deepen her understanding and keep her accountable to the communities she serves.
Holding a steady vision
Looking ahead, Salena hopes her work continues to expand access to understanding, one person at a time. Her goal is not to change who her clients are, but to help them navigate the world with clarity and support through assessments, therapy, and education.
At its core, her work is about meeting people where they are and helping them take the next step in a way that feels possible. Small, practical shifts that make daily life feel a little more manageable, and a little more aligned with who they are.
Her message to the practitioners reading along: “You do not have to do this the way it’s always been done. You can build something that fits.”
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