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You know your child is capable of incredible things—if only the system would stop getting in their way.

At Find YOUR Way, we help neurodivergent students and young adults navigate high school, college, and early career decisions with clarity, confidence, and care.

Find Your Way: Neuroaffirming College & Career Counseling

This isn’t just professional—it’s deeply personal.

We know what it’s like to feel misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or simply missed. That’s why Find YOUR Way is grounded in a neuroaffirming approach—one that values curiosity over conformity, support over mere survival, and self-trust over fitting in.

We’re here because every student and young adult deserves guidance that honors their unique wiring, pacing, and potential. This work is our calling, not just our career.

Meet Lara Schaeffer:

Advocate, Educator, Guide

Lara Schaeffer is a highly regarded international resource on neurodiversity.

Lara Schaeffer is a highly regarded international resource on neurodiversity. At Find YOUR Way, Lara blends the best of her long-standing professional expertise with the heightened compassion, care, and attention to detail that her own neurodivergence has gifted her with. She is especially attuned to the needs of neurodivergent students and career seekers and staunchly motivated in her support of them.

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Lara has held senior teaching and administrative positions at three well-regarded independent schools over her 28-year career in education and high school counseling. She was first the College Counselor and then Director of College Counseling at the Birch Wathen Lenox School (Manhattan); the Director of

Enrollment Management at Far Hills Country Day School (where she oversaw admissions for the entire school and managed all phases of admission for half of the school); and Head of the English Department and member of the Upper School Admissions Committee at Oak Knoll School. Still, twenty-eight years in the high school English classroom (teaching college-bound Seniors for 25 of those years)—reinforced by her strong relationships with her students—brought her the most joy in her successful and rewarding early career journey.

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Lara’s late identification as autistic, which followed her daughter’s own identification as neurodivergent at fifteen years old, made her determined to bring change and improvements to the quality of life for neurodivergent individuals, and she soon returned her focus to the high school and college settings that began her career. Extensive experience in widely-respected methods for working with young people, neurodivergent people, and in college and career counseling specifically, have positioned Lara as a sought-after resource for neurodivergent students and career seekers. 

Lara’s Experience and Training

 

  • ​28-year career as high school English teacher and counselor in independent school settings

  • Past College Counselor/Director of College Counseling at the Birch Wathen Lenox School (Manhattan)

  • Trained practitioner of the Greenwood System™, a comprehensive, holistic career counseling assessment process to help individuals determine their best-fit career options

  • Certified in both the Adolescent and Young Adult modules of PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) through the University of California, Los Angeles

Lara Schaeffer has a 28-year career as high school English teacher and counselor in independent school settings

  • Master’s in Education earned at Harvard University; B.A. in English Language and Literature earned through the Freshman and Sophomore honors program at Trinity College (CT) where Lara was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa society

  • Counseled five high school graduating classes at the Birch Wathen Lenox School in all aspects of the college process including interview skills and the personal transition to college life

  • ​Counseled hundreds of students over twenty-eight years in honing and improving their high school and college writing as well as their application essays (first trained at the esteemed Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric at Trinity College with skills reinforced at Harvard Graduate School of Education)

  • As Director of Enrollment Management at Far Hills Country Day School, served as both Supervisor of Institutional Admissions and Manager of Admissions for grades 4-8; member of the Upper School Admissions Committee at Oak Knoll School during six admissions rounds as English Department Head

  • Earned Certification as an Autism Specialist in 2022 through IBCCES, a renowned authority in autism training 

  • Member of ION Global (Institute of Neurodiversity) and Sole Presenter at ION Global Institute of Neurodiversity’s "Careers in the Humanities for Neurodivergent Students" (October 2022)

  • Passionately involved in advocating for neurodiversity awareness, acceptance, and the rights of neurodivergent individuals worldwide through written and spoken avenues (most active through LinkedIn at Lara Schaeffer’s profile page)

  • Selected as the Moderator for United Nations’ Autism Awareness Day 2024 for panel representing the North American and the Caribbean regions of the World

  • Keynote Presenter in Paris for International Women’s Day 2024 

  • Lead Panelist at "Nurturing Neurodivergent Talent in Schools," a LinkedIn Live event in January 2023

  • Lead Panelist at "The Neurodiversity Advantage" at DIFEST Global's Conference in October 2022

  • Member of ASAN (Autistic Self-Advocacy Network)

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