Meet Heather Haws

Heather uses coaching skills to work with with adults navigating self-identified or late-in-life diagnosed neurodivergence. Her work supports clients in unmasking, clarifying what they actually want, and building lives that fit how their minds and nervous systems truly operate—not how they were told they should.

She works from a simple premise: when something feels persistently wrong, confusing, or exhausting, it’s rarely a personal failure. More often, it’s a signal of misalignment—with roles, expectations, or systems that were never designed with that person in mind.

Heather spent 20 years in tech, primarily in product development. She specialized in the in-between spaces—bridging disciplines, translating across perspectives, and surfacing patterns others missed but many felt. That same skill now anchors her work: helping clients name what’s “off,” understand why it matters, and make changes that are both practical and humane.

Heather doesn’t offer scripts for fitting in or strategies for becoming more palatable. Instead, she helps clients recognize their own internal logic, reclaim suppressed preferences, and create structures that support authenticity rather than performance.

Her approach blends pattern recognition, deep listening, and honest inquiry. The work is thoughtful, grounded, and occasionally playful—designed to help people stop shrinking, trust themselves more fully, and move through the world with greater clarity and ease.

Based just north of Seattle in Lake Forest Park, Heather lives with her three children and an opinionated cat named Charlie. She enjoys running, yoga, reading, and is currently writing the first novel in her series An Autistic Woman’s Guide to Surviving WWIII—a speculative project often described as “Divergent for Millennials.”

Training & Background

Heather completed Coach Approach Institute’s Coaching Essentials, an intensive, 8-week course on basic coaching skills, methodology and ethics. This training includes live instruction, extensive practice with feedback and a comprehensive assessment.  This is Approved Coach-Specific Training per the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Her work is informed by this training alongside two decades of real-world experience working with complex systems, people, and organizations.

Her educational background includes Fine Art, Human-Centered Design, Front-End Development, and Product Leadership. She also completed yoga teacher training and mediation training earlier in her career, which continue to shape her emphasis on embodiment, nervous system awareness, and relational clarity.

Heather draws from a multidisciplinary background that blends systems thinking, creative inquiry, and deep listening—supporting clients in building lives that are both functional and authentic.

Identities & Positionality

I am a white, queer, cisgender woman, a parent, a divorced person, and an entrepreneur. I live just north of Seattle on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Duwamish Tribe.

I am a survivor of generational, childhood, and domestic trauma, and I bring lived experience of poverty, family instability, and late-identified neurodivergence into my work. These experiences shape my sensitivity to power, safety, and the ways people are asked to contort themselves in order to belong.

I am not a beneficiary of generational wealth. At the same time, I carry meaningful forms of privilege, including race, education, and citizenship, which influence my perspective and practice.

I actively acknowledge the impact of these identities and privileges on my work. I am committed to ongoing learning, to unlearning beliefs rooted in colonization and white supremacy, and to contributing to repair and accountability in my community. I welcome feedback and correction.