Allyssa Ghans, LCSW
Allyssa Ghans, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker and neurodivergent clinician based in West Orange, New Jersey. With over five years of experience in behavioral health, Allyssa has built a diverse career spanning therapy, behavioral intervention, community outreach, research, and systems consulting. She specializes in supporting neurodivergent individuals and marginalized communities through person-centered planning, transition services, and capacity-aware support. Allyssa currently leads her private practice, LYSYN Collective, and provides structured clinical consultation to fellow clinicians, ensuring neurodiversity-affirming practices across care settings.
Allyssa’s professional journey began in anthropology, with aspirations in forensic anthropology, before she pivoted to social work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her lived experience as a neurodivergent Black woman informs her clinical philosophy, emphasizing inclusivity, equity, and celebrating individuals as they exist within their environments. Beyond direct clinical care, Allyssa is developing an innovative app designed to help individuals plan and engage within their personal capacity levels, highlighting accessibility, rest, and the strengths of neurodivergent and disabled populations.
Outside of her professional work, Allyssa enjoys spending time with her two cats, her boyfriend, and playing games. She is deeply committed to giving a voice to the voiceless—a mission that drives both her clinical practice and advocacy efforts. Looking ahead, Allyssa plans to pursue a doctorate, continuing her dedication to advancing equitable systems and neurodiversity-affirming services for underserved communities.
• MEAL Essentials Certificate (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning)
• Licensed Clinical Social Worker
• Seton Hall University - MSW
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my mission of giving a voice to the voiceless. This has been my main drive ever since I graduated. As a neurodivergent Black woman, going through grad school helped me understand just how important voices like mine are in this field. I realized that I needed to be able to connect with marginalized people and those with disabilities so that I can give them a voice. Even though my path into this field was topsy-turvy and somewhat accidental - switching from anthropology to social work during COVID - it turned out to be the best accidental oops. It was a phenomenal oops that allowed me to align my work with my core mission of helping people in a meaningful way.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would advise young women entering this industry to focus on truly seeing people for who they are. Approach every interaction with openness, empathy, and without preconceived judgments. By understanding individuals on a deeper level, you can build stronger relationships, foster trust, and make more meaningful contributions in your work.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are honesty, seeing people as they are in their environments, ethics, inclusivity, and celebration. I think seeing people as they are and being able to support them is very important - even though it isn't necessarily a traditional value, it's something I hold very highly. I hold my ethics very high and want to always be someone who has a high regard for those ethics in my clinical practice. Inclusivity is crucial to me. And celebration might sound like an interesting value, but I think it's essential. When people come to me clinically or personally, or even in myself, it took a long time to learn how to celebrate my own differences and the differences of others. We don't always live in a society that celebrates those differences, so I hold it very high within my own practice and in who I am as a person to celebrate what makes us unique and different. This allows me to show up in the way that I am today.