ADHD Therapy for Adults and Teens

Attention deficit issues, often referred to by the well-known acronyms ADD & ADHD, affect many people in a myriad of ways. ADD/ADHD can involve numerous impacts to self-esteem, identity formation, and adjustment. While we typically work with clients who are teenagers and adults, the legacy of a childhood diagnosis of (or undiagnosed until adulthood) attention deficit disorder can be profound. Oftentimes negative interactions at school with teachers and peers, difficulty keeping up with schoolwork, pathology-based labels, social adjustment issues, and medication interactions and side effects can all impact a person’s sense of identity and self.

Thus, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults often involves ‘scars’ that have been carried from childhood into adulthood.  Even high functioning adults with ADHD have had to adjust to the lifelong symptoms of the disorder.  Many people don’t get psychological testing for ADHD and a proper diagnosis until they are adults.  Once you are properly diagnosed, it’s important to have integrative, comprehensive treatment.

We view therapeutic treatment for attention deficit disorder in adults and teens as having three major components:

Constructively address issues of focus and attention associated with Attention Deficit issues.

This could involve strategizing more efficient methods to attend to necessary cues and tasks. It could also involve therapeutic techniques/modalities that can be utilized toward effective focus and performance enhancement, such as mindfulness meditation and clinical hypnosis.

We also believe that there are strengths associated with ADD/ADHD! For example, many people who have this diagnosis may be excellent multi-taskers (even if they have difficulty completing the tasks), may be talented at hyper-focusing (even if they lose track of other tasks), and may thrive in high-stimulus environments where others might be overwhelmed. Part of our role is to help you identify where and how you perform optimally and either match you with those environments, or help you to transfer characteristics of those environments into your existing ones.

Improve organization and executive functioning.

We will collaboratively work with you to brainstorm new strategies for prioritizing and organizing tasks.  In this role, we work as a consultant/coach to help you develop more effective techniques that you can consistently implement in your life.

Therapeutically address issues of self-esteem.

We find that active and engaged treatment relationships tend to work well with attention deficit issues. We also believe that it can be important to address issues of shame where applicable. It is possible that you may have internalized negative messages through the years of having something ‘wrong’ with you. Thus, it is important to challenge these beliefs in thoughtful ways that can help you reframe and build new and enduring positive self-schemas. For more information on our general approach to therapy, we invite you to read the section on ‘Our Process’.