Therapy for ADHD
Quick Facts
Who It’s For
- Children, teens, and adults with ADHD
- Individuals struggling with attention, impulsivity, or follow-through
- Families and individuals seeking structured support
Common Challenges Addressed
- Inattention and distractibility
- Impulsivity and emotional regulation difficulties
- Organization, planning, and task completion
- Relationship and communication challenges
Treatment Focus
- Skill-building and coping strategies
- Improving focus and follow-through
- Strengthening emotional and behavioral regulation
Sessions
- Individual therapy sessions
- Ongoing, collaborative treatment
- In-person or virtual options available
How Can ADHD Affect Relationships and Daily Life?
Many individuals with ADHD face challenges that affect their daily lives, such as difficulty focusing, impulsivity, and trouble maintaining relationships. These struggles can lead to misunderstandings and frustration, both for themselves and those around them. Fortunately, with targeted ADHD therapy, individuals can develop strategies to manage these difficulties, enhance their coping skills, and improve their overall quality of life.
What Does Inattention and Impulsivity Look Like in ADHD?
Someone with ADHD might display erratic behavior, such as starting tasks but not completing them or interrupting others without realizing it. They could become easily distracted during conversations or struggle to stay on task, which may lead to frequent mistakes or overlooked details.
Why Is Organization and Follow-Through Challenging With ADHD?
Another common issue is a noticeable struggle with organization and managing responsibilities. They might frequently forget appointments, misplace important items, or have trouble keeping track of deadlines. This can result in frustration and stress, both for them and those around them, as they try to juggle various demands.
How Can Therapy Help With ADHD?
Regardless of your struggles, you may be considering that it’s time to talk to a therapist.
How Common Is ADHD in Children and Adults?
According to the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), “Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) occurs in approximately 3-8 percent of the childhood population and 4-5 percent of adults.” [1] It is thought that genetics account for 65-75 percent of all clinical cases of ADHD. [2]
While each human brain develops and functions uniquely—meaning there isn’t one “normal” roadmap it follows—in general, most of us fall into the neurotypical category. At the same time, a smaller percentage of us are neurodivergent. For those with ADHD, the neurodivergent brain can be both a blessing and a curse. While we often struggle with impulsivity, inattention, and forgetfulness, we often make up for these deficits with above-average intelligence and innate artistic talents.
How Does ADHD Therapy Support Skill-Building and Goal Achievement?
For the neurodivergent brain, resisting urges that take you off task is more challenging. You might find that you or your child give into impulses automatically unless a huge effort is involved to delay or stop them. What’s more, making choices that benefit you in the long term, such as studying for a test or preparing for an interview, may take determination that seems elusive.
ADHD therapy is a safe environment to learn skills and strategies that help counter the impulses that lead to adverse outcomes. We offer ADD and ADHD counseling starting with pre-teens through adults. In therapy, you will learn how to pay closer attention to the present moment, make choices about what you want to attend to and cultivate your willingness to tackle challenging tasks. Working closely with a therapist who specializes in ADHD, you can experiment without judgment, identify where your limits are, and set realistic expectations for yourself. Ultimately, you can gain insight and acceptance into your urges and behaviors in order to work on changing them.
How ADHD Therapy Works
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Intake & Understanding Your Needs
Therapy begins with an intake process focused on understanding ADHD-related challenges, daily functioning, relationships, and goals. This initial step helps establish a clear picture of how ADHD is impacting your life or your child’s development. -
Assessment & Goal Setting
Your therapist works with you to identify patterns related to attention, impulsivity, organization, and emotional regulation. Together, you establish realistic, individualized goals that guide the therapy process. -
Skill-Based Treatment
Sessions focus on learning practical strategies to improve focus, follow-through, emotional regulation, and decision-making. Therapy is structured to support day-to-day challenges at school, work, and in relationships. -
Integration Into Daily Life
Skills learned in therapy are practiced and applied in real-life situations. This phase emphasizes building consistency, increasing self-awareness, and developing confidence in using new strategies outside of sessions. -
Ongoing Support & Progress Review
Therapy continues at a pace that supports long-term growth. Progress is reviewed regularly, goals are adjusted as needed, and therapy evolves to meet changing needs over time.
It's not uncommon to feel overwhelmed by the variety of advice available when dealing with ADHD.
Many strategies can seem contradictory, leaving you unsure of what will truly help. When conventional methods don’t seem to address the core issues, ADHD therapy can be a game-changer. It provides a deeper understanding of your unique challenges, offers new perspectives, and helps you develop customized approaches for managing symptoms effectively.
You May Have Some Questions About Therapy…
Initially, we will help you understand your current emotions, thoughts, urges, behaviors, and physical experiences so you can better discern the most effective and beneficial choices to make. ADHD therapy is a collaborative process that identifies your goals for treatment, as well as your long-term goals and values. We will then teach you the skills that allow you to meet these goals so you can craft a life worth living.
Mindfulness For ADHD
With ADHD, it’s hard to focus on the present moment and sustain attention without becoming distracted, especially tuning out external stimuli when working on something that requires a lot of focus. Mindfulness helps you nonjudgmentally observe the present moment. Being able to notice what’s happening around you and how your mind is reacting to it is the first step to meeting your treatment goals.
Mindfulness helps you choose what you want to attend to, catch your mind when it wanders—as all minds do—and then make the conscious choice to return your attention to whatever your task is. With time and practice in and out of sessions, this becomes easier to do.
Additionally, Attention Deficit Disorder counselingmay also incorporate other modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). While CBT helps you identify and challenge the common “thinking mistakes” that can get you stuck, DBT offers a variety of beneficial life skills for ADHD. For example, choosing to take the opposite action to what you feel compelled to do can help you break free from procrastination and distraction. DBT can also build up your distress tolerance so you can accept difficult situations you can’t change.
What makes the neurodivergent brain so unique is that you have been bestowed superpowers to compensate for whatever you struggle with, whether it’s impulsivity or becoming easily distracted. We feel confident that by practicing the skills learned in ADHD therapy and drawing upon your inherent strengths, you or your child can accomplish anything.
Many of our clients have tried other forms of therapy and determined they weren’t well-suited for meeting their goals. We tailor ADHD treatment to your needs and meet you where you are. CBT and DBT are skills-based therapies that can be taught at your own pace. We can also discuss what did and did not work in previous ADHD therapy to help improve your experience.
We don’t want you to be in ADHD counseling forever, either. Our therapy for ADHD is designed to be short-term and to focus on meeting your goals by learning skills and supporting you in taking important steps in your life. Once your goals have been met, we will collaboratively agree on ending ADHD treatment.
Understandably, you or your child may find paying attention for stretches of time difficult. Although we offer both in-person and virtual sessions, we’ve found that in-person ADHD treatment works best, particularly for kids. We can also break up your sessions and allow you to stretch, take walks, do a quick activity, or talk about something you’d prefer for a few minutes to help you refocus. We will go at your pace to ensure you take in the information.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Behavior therapy is an effective treatment for ADHD, helping children and adults develop skills to manage symptoms, improve functioning, and strengthen relationships.
https://www.cdc.gov/adhd/treatment/index.html
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
ADHD treatment often includes therapy focused on behavior, organization, emotional regulation, and coping strategies to support functioning across school, work, and relationships.
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd