The Capacity Project
Understanding Capacity. Reducing Shame.
Practical Psychology | Everyday Tools | Sustainable Change
I'm Dr. Katie Carhart, a clinical psychologist, longtime educator, and neurodivergent mom of neurodivergent kids.
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I've spent the past 14 years working in clinical practice and teaching psychology at the university level. But my understanding of capacity, burnout, and neurodivergence comes from more than professional training. It's also shaped by lived experience.
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One of the things I'm most passionate about is making complicated psychology feel understandable, relevant, and actually useful.
My approach blends trauma-informed care, neurodivergent-affirming perspectives, and nervous system awareness. I'm particularly interested in why understanding our patterns doesn't always mean we can change them and how reconnecting with our bodies can help bridge that gap.
That's what The Capacity Project is about: making sense of how we work, letting go of shame, and finding more sustainable ways to live.
🪴 Work With Me Directly:
Through my private practice, Align & Empower Therapy, I offer online therapy to adults, couples, and families, as well as focused therapy intensives, and comprehensive adult ADHD, autism, and AuDHD evaluations. I specialize in working with adults navigating neurodivergence, trauma, depression, burnout, anxiety, and OCD. Telehealth services are available across PSYPACT-participating states.
📩 Subscribe to The Capacity Project :
The Capacity Project is an educational platform designed to make psychology, nervous system health, and sustainable change feel more accessible, practical, and human. It currently lives on Substack, where I share articles, tools, reflections, and resources related to burnout, neurodivergence, trauma, capacity, and emotional wellbeing.
When you sign up, you’ll receive a welcome email with a few free tools and resources to get started. From there, you’ll get updates whenever new articles, worksheets, or offerings are released, along with news about future expansions of the platform such as workshops, courses, and other educational content.
What You'll Receive When you Subscribe to
The Capacity Project
Subscribe to receive practical psychology-informed tools, including:
✓ Do I Need Active or Passive Rest?
✓ Nervous System Check
✓ Quick Capacity Check
✓ Polyvagal infographic
✓ Executive Functioning Planner Template (2026)
✓ And more!
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Delivered to your e-mail instantly when you subscribe to my Substack.​​​​
Tool Preview
Executive Function Planner: Designed for the neurodivergent mind. Tab for each week, which includes daily to-do lists, daily schedule, ongoing to-do list. You can check off tasks for a quick dopamine boost and copy/paste easily when plans change.
Polyvagal Theory Infographic: Quick reference guide to nervous system stages- fight/flight, fawn, freeze and connection. Includes updates after the 2026 published critique.
Do I Need Active or Passive Rest?
Learn what kind of rest your system may actually need.
Nervous System Check
A quick guide for noticing what state you're in and what may help.
Capacity Check
A simple check-in when everything
feels like too much.
What this project is...
A different way to understand yourself.
Much of the time we assume we should be able to push through, do more, or simply try harder. This is the message we've heard our whole lives and we tend to internalize it.
But many struggles make more sense when we understand capacity, what your brain, body, and nervous system are carrying, what they need, and how to build a more sustainable way forward.
The Capacity Project explores burnout, neurodivergence, nervous system health, psychology, and what it means to live in a way that feels more aligned.
Recent Media & Writing
On my blog and through the media, I also share reflections on mental health, social policy, burnout, neurodivergence, and nervous system regulation, especially for people who carry deep care for the world and community around them and are still trying to tend to themselves.​
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Recent Media Quotes...
I was recently consulted by Real Simple on whether canceling plans to stay home is always self-care or could be a sign of avoidance, and how to tell the difference.
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Recent Blog Articles...
Here's a recent article on late diagnosed ADHD and Autism in women, including discussion on masking, burnout and the signs you may have missed: Undiagnosed ADHD and Autism in Women.
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Recent Podcast Episodes...
In this episode of The Higher Self Hotline, I sit down with Zoey Greco to talk more about the current news cycle, empathy fatigue, burnout, alignment, polyvagal theory, nervous system regulation and more!
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🎙 Media Inquiries
Available for podcast interviews, expert commentary, and speaking requests.
Join The Capacity Project!
Get practical tools, thoughtful reflections, and psychology-informed insights delivered to your inbox.
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My approach to explaining mental health is rooted in evidence-informed psychology, nervous system awareness, and helping people better understand themselves with more compassion and less shame. It is neurodivergent-affirming and trauma-informed.​​​​​​​​​​​
If you're interested in working with me directly for therapy, intensives or ADHD, Autism or AuDHD evaluations...
Website Disclaimer
The information provided on this website, including blog posts, downloadable resources, and external links, is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute psychological treatment, diagnosis, or individualized clinical advice. Viewing this site, Subscribing to The Capacity Project Substack or contacting Align & Empower Therapy, PLLC does not establish a psychologist–client relationship. Clinical services are provided only after completion of appropriate intake procedures and mutual agreement to treatment. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please call 911 or 988, or go to your nearest emergency room. Services are offered via telehealth to adults located in PSYPACT-authorized states where Dr. Carhart is legally permitted to practice.​​​​​​​​
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Privacy Policy can be found here.
Accessibility Information can be found here.