PROVIDING ONLINE COUNSELING TO SILVER SPRING, TAKOMA PARK, ROCKVILLE, BETHESDA, WASHINGTON DC, AND THE VIRGINIA AREA AND SURRONDING COMMUNTIES.
Do you struggle with procrastination, prioritizing, difficulty staying focused, difficulty completing tasks - or do you avoid tasks requiring mental energy? Regardless of whether you have ADHD or similar executive function issues, there are coping skills you can learn to help you function better in many areas of your life, perhaps including relationships.
My extensive ADHD experience enables me to work with you to develop coping skills for the issues you struggle with - so you can live a more productive, more enjoyable life. People with ADHD frequently have unique gifts, but that gift is often not recognized or valued. Let's find them, appreciate them and put them to good use.
First, we explore possible ADHD/ADD symptoms to assess if ADHD is the right diagnosis. If desired, we may consider a visit to a medical doctor to explore whether medication may help reduce the severity of difficulties.
Second, Then we work together to develop and prioritize goals: What issues need to be resolved? What skills improved? How could your life be better?
Third, We focus on achieving relief from any painful depression, anxiety, guilt, and shame which frequently accompany ADHD. This is especially important if many difficulties have been endured prior to recognizing the ADHD.
Fourth, Then we work on developing organizing skills and coping skills for task avoidance, procrastination, interpersonal skills, clutter, time management, etc.
Fifth, We focus on continuing support for maintaining good coping skills, decision-making, positive attitude, confidence, self esteem, and better relationships.
My organizational expertise is valuable as we discover and build upon strengths, and develop strategies to be more efficient and successful at home, at work, and in relationships.
My vocational expertise is useful in assessing skills, interests, and experience to explore new careers that may be a better fit, opening the door to more satisfaction and success! Choosing a career and friends wisely is key to success with ADHD.
Think you may have ADHD? Do you struggle with relationships, work, or school? Let's find some better coping strategies and work toward a better life.
Tips for ADHD
Adapted from Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. and John J. Ratey, M.D in their excellent “Delivered from Distraction.”
INSIGHT AND EDUCATION
1. Be sure of the diagnosis. Make sure you’re working with a professional who really understands ADHD and has excluded related or similar conditions such as anxiety states, agitated depression, hyperthyroidism, manic-depressive illness, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
2. Educate yourself. Perhaps the single most powerful treatment for ADHD is understanding ADHD in the first place. Read books. Talk with professionals. Talk with other adults who have ADHD. You’ll be able to design your own treatment to fit your own version of ADHD.
3. Get Coaching. It is useful for you to have a coach, for some person near you to keep after you, but always with humor. Your coach can help you get organized, stay on task, give you encouragement or remind you to get back to work. Friend, colleague, or therapist (it is possible, but risky for your coach to be your spouse), a coach is someone to stay on you to get things done, exhort you as coaches do, keep tabs on you, and in general be in your corner. A coach can be tremendously helpful in treating ADHD.
4. Find & accept encouragement. ADHD adults need lots of encouragement. This is in part due to their having many self-doubts that have accumulated over the years. But it goes beyond that. More than the average person, the ADHD adult withers without encouragement and positively lights up like a Christmas tree when given it. They will often work for another person in a way they won’t work for themselves. This is not “bad”, it just is. It should be recognized and taken advantage of.
5. Educate and involve others. Just as it is key for you to understand ADHD, it equally if not more important for those around you to understand it–family, job, school, friends. Once they get the concept they will be able to understand you much better and to help you as well.
6. Give up guilt over high-stimulus-seeking behavior. Understand that you are drawn to high stimuli. Try to choose them wisely, rather than brooding over the “bad” ones. 7. Listen to feedback from trusted others. Adults (and children, too) with ADHD are notoriously poor self-observers. They use a lot of what can appear to be denial.