Support and resources for people living with Tourette Syndrome + tics
One-on-one coaching, family sessions, and group support to help you navigate tics and find greater ease
You’ve talked to countless specialists. Googled up, down, and sideways. Read lots of articles. But nothing seems to pull it all together for you.
Whether you’re recently diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, have been living with tics for decades, or are the parent or family member of someone living with tics, chances are you’ve looked everywhere for a resource that could offer some guidance or support.
“Nothing seemed to help.Nothing gave me answers.”
Navigating Tourette Syndrome can feel like being stuck in a dizzying web of specialists.
Each can speak to one piece of the puzzle – medications, emotional health, behavioral therapies – but none of them do it all.
And while treatment options do exist, they leave a lot to be desired in terms of effectiveness or potential side effects.
With so many different options, each with drawbacks, it can feel a lot like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.
But what if you could talk to someone who’s been where you are?
Hi, I’m Alan.
At the time, there were only two treatment options: to take heavy antipsychotic meds with big side effects, or to ignore the tics to the best of my ability.
I spent much of my young adult life trying to make tics go away, and I later understood that I also had the commonly co-occurring conditions of OCD and ADHD.
But then I discovered mindfulness. And it entirely changed the way I navigate my tics.
Not only did I learn practices that helped me settle my nervous system, but more importantly, I learned how to befriend instead of fight against the discomfort in my body.
In partnership with Mass General, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Bowdoin College, I’m co-developing MBIT* – a promising non-pharmacological treatment option for people with TS.
Because I know what it’s like to navigate Tourette Syndrome.
I understand how it feels to experience tics.
And I know the complicated web that is the medical world.
But the bottom line is this:
Since discovering the practices that have helped me manage my own tics, I want to help you find what supports and empowers you, too.
*MBIT is currently only available through an ongoing clinical trial. Learn more about participating here.
*Hi there - nice to see you down here! This is just a friendly disclaimer that even though I work very closely with a number of medical professionals, I myself am not one, and the information on this page should not be taken as (or in lieu of) medical advice from a licensed clinician. Please listen to your doctor’s recommendations when it comes to caring for your health! Similarly, I am not a workplace or educational attorney, and I do not give legal advice. I can, however, share best practices and accommodations that I have seen help others to serve as a starting point for you.
Learn more about my research
Webinar: TAA Virtual Conference
Webinar: TAA Virtual Conference
Interview: Movement Disorders Podcast
Interview: Movement Disorders Podcast
Research: Pilot Study
Research: Pilot Study
Research: Feasibility Study
Research: Feasibility Study
Get the support you need from someone who’s been there.
One-on-one coaching
Learn somatic practices for tics and strategies for working with discomfort.
Support for families
Develop tools for communication, personal care, and managing tics at home or school.
TAA support group
Experience community and support from others who understand.
How do we feel as parents? How are we? How can we move forward as a family? Sometimes we talk about very specific things like a very specific tic. We can talk about that, or different treatments we’ve heard about, and sometimes he is just listening, and he is just sharing from personal experience and able to really be there for us. He's an extraordinary human being.”
A mindfulness-based approach to tics and Tourette Syndrome
Many people with Tourette Syndrome and their families think of tics as the problem, and their treatment goal is to reduce or eliminate tics. But this can actually lead to more discomfort and exhaustion - not less.
So the goal of a mindfulness-based approach to tics isn’t to make the tics go away: it’s to learn how to live with - and navigate - the discomfort.
Here’s what that means.
If the urge is the itch, the tic is the scratch.
For most people, tics are actually an attempt to soothe a discomfort which precedes them — an experience that is clinically known as a “premonitory urge” (think premonition).
Practically, you might think of it as an itch which, if left unanswered, will only get more uncomfortable until you scratch it; the urge is the itch, the tic is the scratch.
That’s why focusing on the tics themselves without also focusing on the urges can miss where the real discomfort lies.
So how can you cultivate more comfort and ease?
Many of us have spent our lives trying to avoid paying attention to the discomfort that our urges and tics cause us, because it’s the only strategy we’ve ever had.
But a mindfulness-based approach to working with tics can help you or your loved one develop strategies to tolerate and soothe the discomfort that arises from urges.
It can also help you foster more self-compassionate and kind inner dialogue, which contributes to your overall wellbeing and helps your nervous system feel more at ease.
Try this: micro-practices for tics
At first, it can be very challenging to go toward the discomfort instead of away from it - but this is the only way we can deal with it and learn to work with it differently.
The next time you feel the urge to tic, try this before going ahead with it:
"With Alan’s help, my relationship to my tics has changed. Paying attention to frequency of the tics, paying attention to location, to duration - this has helped me see the fuller scope.
By turning everything into data that you're collecting and realizing there's more data to collect than you realize - you feel empowered. You feel stronger. And you're more in control of your own relationship to the disorder. And that's not nothing. In fact, that's a big something to me.”
“Meeting with Alan helped our family to be able to articulate the things that we then were able to openly speak about at home.
Sometimes we bring one of our kids to the support group, and sometimes we go just as a couple. And Alan is just amazing. He listens to everything we have to say. It's necessary to have support from somebody who understands. And Alan's group is probably the most valuable resource that we have.”
Here’s what we can work through together.
Popular coaching areas for people with TS or tics
Popular coaching areas for parents and loved ones
Still not sure? Let’s talk about it.
We’ll hop on a Zoom call
So we can get to know each other.
You talk, I’ll listen
So I can hear what you need.
We’ll talk about options
So you get specialized support.
When our family has a Tourette-specific question about a doctor, or whether a protocol or medication feels right for us, we always talk to him first. We were lucky to get involved with Alan at the very beginning of our journey.”
You deserve to feel more ease.
Here’s what you’ll never get from me:
You deserve more. And I want more for you. Things like:
