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AboutWilderness Rose
Finding Inspiration in Every Turn
Wilderness Rose is a trauma‑informed leader, interfaith chaplain, and neurodivergent coach whose journey defies expectation and honors transformation. After barely passing high school and repeatedly failing college courses, Wilderness was finally diagnosed in college with ADHD and multiple learning disorders, and later autism level one — revelations that reframed years of struggle and illuminated the neurodivergent patterns she had been navigating her entire life. Rather than retreat, she leaned into the challenge, developing adaptive strategies and a fierce commitment to equity in education, care, and leadership.
Wilderness Rose has lived experience but has also attained a Bachelor's degree in Youth and Family Psychology, two spiritual direction certifications, an interfaith ordination, and a Master of Arts in Social Change. Wilderness also raised her neurodivergent daughter, Autumn, and together they built a system of love, structure, and creative support that helped Autumn thrive academically and graduate from college directly after high school. Parenting, advocating for, and learning alongside her daughter became one of Wilderness' greatest teachers in neurodivergent life design.
Wilderness' work experience includes being a program manager for after-school care, fundraising coordinator, IT and operations analyst for a San Diego County organization, Case Manager, Residential Supervisor, Program Manager and Director for various homeless services agencies.
Wilderness' resilience has also been shaped by profound personal loss and transition. She has navigated a traumatic divorce, a late‑term miscarriage, the deconstruction of a conservative faith system, and, in November 2024, the devastating death of her daughter from brain cancer. These experiences give her a rare, embodied understanding of what it means to move through seismic change as a neurodivergent person — to rebuild identity, meaning, and stability while honoring grief, sensory needs, and nervous‑system realities.
Her professional path reflects this depth. Rose became a program director for homeless services in California, where she led interdisciplinary teams, designed trauma‑informed workflows, and advocated for dignified recognition of marginalized changemakers. Her leadership is rooted in deep systems awareness, neurodivergent insight, and a commitment to ethical innovation — especially in the intersection of homelessness, mental health, and faith‑based service delivery.
Their operations management was achieved by careful integration of their neurodivergence, understanding of systems, and learning what accommodations were helpful and when they were helpful. They have become fully engaged with website design, social media, accounting, project management, system consulting, programming, and more.
Her story is not just one of personal resilience — it’s a call to reimagine leadership, care, and recognition for all.
Why Soul Care?
For neurodivergent individuals, soul care is not a luxury — it's a lifeline. In a world that often misunderstands or pathologizes difference, tending to the soul becomes a radical act of self-recognition and restoration.
Soul care offers space to honor sensory needs, process nonlinear experiences, and reclaim narratives that have been distorted by stigma or exclusion. It allows neurodivergent people to engage with their inner wisdom, spiritual identity, and emotional rhythms on their own terms — beyond diagnostic labels or productivity metrics. By integrating ritual, reflection, and compassionate presence, soul care becomes a sanctuary where healing, dignity, and authentic expression can thrive.