Bellevue-based Autism Chrysalis Receives $10,000 National Grant

A Bellevue coaching practice built from its founder’s own experience with autistic burnout has received national recognition — and $10,000 to help expand its reach.

Autism Chrysalis, founded by Bellevue resident Heather Cook, was selected by WomensNet as the May 2026 recipient of its Mental & Emotional Support Business Category Grant. The national program awards grants to women-owned businesses, with monthly winners also becoming eligible for a larger year-end award.

For Cook, the recognition carries significance beyond the money.

“Being recognized by a national organization, who decided this work was worth supporting, was so validating and meaningful,” Cook said. “The people I work with have been overlooked, complained about, dismissed, and treated as a problem for much of our lives, and this is recognition from a mainstream source that we matter, too.”

Cook didn’t initially plan on becoming a coach or starting a business.

Before Autism Chrysalis, she was a high school teacher. Eventually, she experienced burnout severe enough that she was unable to work for a year.

During that period, Cook came to understand that she was autistic — a discovery that, she said, put much of her life into a new perspective.

“Recovering from the burnout took years, but that new framework helped me to approach it differently this time,” Cook said.

As she recovered, other people began asking for her help. Some wanted to talk with her themselves; others had an autistic friend or relative who was struggling.

Cook discovered she was good at helping them.

What began informally gradually developed into Autism Chrysalis, an online coaching practice Cook started after moving to Bellevue to be closer to family and begin a new chapter with a support system nearby.

Today, Cook works primarily with adults who discover later in life that they are autistic or both autistic and have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, commonly referred to as AuDHD.

Her practice offers one-on-one coaching along with courses and workshops addressing topics including burnout recovery and anxiety. Clients generally range from their mid-20s to mid-60s.

Cook emphasizes that coaching is not therapy and that she does not diagnose autism.

Instead, she describes her role as helping clients better understand how they function and make changes that work for them.

“I help people understand how their brain works and build a life that works with it instead of against it,” Cook said.

Understanding autistic burnout

One of the most common reasons adults seek Cook’s help is autistic burnout.

Cook describes it as something considerably more serious than simply feeling exhausted after a difficult week. It can develop after years of continually pushing beyond personal limits and can significantly disrupt a person’s ability to function.

Masking can be part of that experience, she said.

For an autistic person, masking can include consciously or unconsciously copying the behavior of others, rehearsing conversations or suppressing reactions to uncomfortable sensory experiences in an effort to fit in.

“Masking helps us fit in and be accepted, which is part of why it’s so hard to spot, and to stop,” Cook said. “But it costs an enormous amount of energy, and eventually that energy runs out.”

Cook said her own experience growing up included being described as weird, strange, stubborn and a loner.

Learning she was autistic didn’t change those experiences, but it changed how she understood them.

“For a lot of people, the question shifts from ‘What’s wrong with me?’ to ‘What did I need that I never got?’” Cook said. “That often brings relief and grief at the same time.”

That perspective became central to Autism Chrysalis.

Cook said one of the persistent misconceptions about autism is that it has a single recognizable appearance or set of behaviors.

Adults who have careers and families, make eye contact or carry on conversations can still be autistic, she said. Some have simply spent years learning how to conceal their differences.

“Seeming fine and being fine aren’t the same thing,” Cook said. “Often the people who look the most ‘together’ are the ones spending the most energy on keeping it that way.”

She also pushes back against the idea that the growing number of adults identifying themselves as autistic or AuDHD is simply a trend.

“It’s not that more people are suddenly Autistic,” Cook said. “It’s that more adults finally have the language to recognize themselves. They aren’t looking for an excuse. They’re looking for an explanation.”

Growing a business from Bellevue

Autism Chrysalis has grown without a large national marketing operation.

Cook said about half of the new people who contact her find the practice through online searches. She publishes free material through her website, blog, YouTube and email newsletter. Much of the remainder of the practice’s growth has come through word of mouth.

That growth reflects what Cook sees as a gap in services available to autistic adults.

“When they go looking for help, they find that most autism services are designed for children,” she said.

Cook’s website describes Autism Chrysalis as serving adults who have discovered, often in adulthood, that they are autistic and are trying to understand what that means for their lives.

Cook is a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation and a Martha Beck-certified master coach. In an interview published by WomensNet after the award, she said she has logged more than 2,000 hours of one-on-one coaching and has developed online courses and workshops.

The $10,000 WomensNet grant will allow Cook to begin delegating some of the work involved in growing the business.

She plans to use the money for part-time help getting the word out about Autism Chrysalis and its services.

“Up to now, I’ve done almost all of the marketing myself, and every hour spent on marketing is an hour I’m not coaching or building courses,” Cook said. “With help, more people who need this support can actually find it, and I can focus on the work I’m trained to do.”

The WomensNet award is part of the organization’s national Amber Grant program for women-owned businesses. WomensNet awards three $10,000 grants each month, including a business-specific grant that rotates among industries throughout the year. Mental & Emotional Support was the designated business category for May.

Autism Chrysalis was selected as the May 2026 category winner.

Cook said the next stage of the Bellevue-based practice will include developing additional courses so the business can reach more people than she can serve individually through coaching.

For Cook, however, growth isn’t simply about reaching a larger number of clients.

It’s about helping adults understand themselves earlier than she was able to understand herself.

“What I hope for most is that fewer adults spend decades wondering what’s wrong with them before someone helps them see that nothing is.”