About Erin
Clients often reach out because something doesn't quite add up — clear strengths alongside persistent challenges that resist a tidy explanation.
Neurodivergent minds are frequently misread. Too sensitive. Too intense. Scattered. Social situations feel effortless until they don't — thriving in depth, lost in small talk, and not entirely sure what that means. The dismissal doesn't only come from clinicians — it comes from family, friends, colleagues, and a lifetime of being told that achievement speaks for itself. People are told their struggles aren't real because their grades were good, their career looks impressive, their life — from the outside — appears to be working. But accomplishment and self-understanding are not the same thing. Knowing how your mind works — why certain things come effortlessly and others do not — is worth pursuing on its own terms.
The result is that people spend years — sometimes decades — collecting diagnoses that describe their symptoms without ever illuminating who they actually are. The goal here is different: to get to the bottom of things, with curiosity and without assumptions.
Most people describe something unexpected at the end of this process: relief. Often for the first time, their full story has been gathered, honored, and understood as a whole.
Background & Training
Erin McCarthy Shaw is a board certified psychiatric nurse practitioner and assistant clinical professor at Yale University School of Nursing. She holds a master of science in advanced practice psychiatric nursing from Yale University School of Nursing and a bachelor of arts in psychology from the University at Buffalo. She also holds a bachelor of arts in Scottish Music (Piping) from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland — which, it turns out, is excellent preparation for working with people who think in patterns, feel things deeply, and rarely fit neatly into categories.
Her specialized training includes advanced certification in neuropsychiatric assessment for ADHD, autism, giftedness, twice-exceptionality, and related neurodevelopmental profiles. Prior clinical experience includes the Clinical Neurosciences Division at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Yale School of Medicine, Yale-New Haven Hospital, and the Yale Child Study Center.
Memberships
Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted
Licensure
New Mexico (88960) · New York (402324) · Connecticut (5414) · Vermont (101.0136434TELE)
Fun Facts
When not working, Erin can usually be found traveling the Southwest in a vintage RV with her husband and two dogs — and writing about what she finds there. Her essays on giftedness, exceptional minds, and the places where clinical understanding falls short are collected in Field Notes.