ADHD therapy for adults is a core service I provide. I have seen people make incredible gains in overcoming barriers and realizing some of the positive attributes of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, particularly when they better manage challenges. Cognitive behavioral therapy for adult ADHD is my usual approach, but I also mix in other adult attention deficit treatments customized for each individual.
ADHD Therapy for Adults Overview
The following is a general overview of adult attention deficit treatments.
ADHD Therapy for Adults: Clinical Approaches
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adult ADHD helps people address problematic thoughts and behaviors, improve self-esteem, and develop skills to manage everyday tasks. Key components include learning time management and organizational skills, coping mechanisms for stress and frustration, and strategies to reduce procrastination and improve task completion. I will go over cognitive behavioral therapy for adult ADHD in depth in a later section.
Coaching and Support
Part of ADHD therapy for adults involves helping clients develop personalized strategies for managing daily life, improving organization, and achieving personal goals. I often assist people in creating structured environments at home and work to reduce distractions and increase productivity. My work includes helping people develop better time management, task prioritization, and effective communication.
Mindfulness and Lifestyle Approaches
I teach mindfulness practices, such as meditation, which can help improve focus, reduce stress, and increase overall well-being. Integrating mindfulness exercises can improve focus and awareness of the present moment. For some, meditation can reduce impulsivity and improve attention.
I also often review lifestyle modifications supporting adult attention deficit treatments, such as regular physical activity that can improve mood, focus, and cognitive function and a balanced diet with adequate nutrients to support brain health.
Technology and Apps to Support ADHD Therapy for Adults
Various apps are designed to help adults manage symptoms by setting reminders and alarms, organizing tasks and schedules, and tracking habits and progress. Apps can also provide education that enhances understanding and support. This involves learning about the disorder’s nature, its impact on daily life, and effective management strategies.
Adult Attention Deficit Treatments and Relapse Prevention
To maintain progress, I help clients develop strategies to preserve the gains made during therapy and prevent relapse. This may include creating plans to handle future setbacks or stressful situations.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adult ADHD
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a highly effective approach for managing ADHD in adults. It focuses on changing unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns and developing coping strategies for daily challenges. Here’s a detailed look at how cognitive behavioral therapy for adult ADHD works.
Core Components of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adult ADHD
- Psychoeducation: Educating individuals about ADHD, its symptoms, and how it affects their daily lives is key to helping them understand their symptoms and ways to manage them. This includes increasing awareness of how ADHD manifests in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The result is better communication and interpersonal skills to navigate social interactions and reduce misunderstandings.
- Cognitive Restructuring: The main goal of cognitive behavioral therapy for adult ADHD is to help clients recognize negative thought patterns contributing to frustration, failure, or low self-esteem. This is followed by teaching techniques to challenge and reframe these negative thoughts into more positive and realistic ones.
- Specific cognitive techniques such as “Thought Records,” which involve keeping a diary of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to identify patterns and triggers, and Socratic Questioning, which uses structured questioning to challenge and reframe negative thoughts, are helpful.
- Behavioral Interventions: Through cognitive behavioral therapy for adult ADHD, you will develop strategies to manage time effectively, such as breaking tasks into smaller steps, setting priorities, and using timers or alarms. You might also learn methods to organize physical spaces (e.g., home, office), tasks (e.g., to-do lists, calendars), and techniques to overcome procrastination, such as setting short-term goals and using rewards.
You’ll also learn to create and maintain daily routines to provide structure and reduce the likelihood of forgetting important tasks and techniques for developing positive habits and breaking negative ones.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adult ADHD provides practical tools and strategies for managing symptoms and improving quality of life. Individuals can better control their symptoms and lead more productive and fulfilling lives by changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and developing new skills.
Adjunctive Adult Attention Deficit Treatments
Methods such as deep breathing, mindfulness techniques, and relaxation exercises can help clients cope with stress and anxiety. Strategies to manage emotions and respond more calmly to frustrating situations are also used.
Effectiveness of ADHD Therapy for Adults
I have seen that ADHD therapy for adults has many benefits, including:
- Improved focus and attention
- Better organizational and time management skills
- Reduced procrastination and avoidance behaviors
- Enhanced emotional regulation and stress management
- Increased self-esteem and confidence
- Improved overall functioning and quality of life
Adult Attention Deficit Treatments in My Practice
Combining several approaches often yields the best results, and this is what I try to do with adult attention deficit treatments in my integrated practice. I work with each client to develop a comprehensive treatment plan tailored to their needs and preferences.
ADHD Therapy for Adults Example
Here is a fictitious example of therapy for adult ADHD, woven together from actual treatment courses in my practice
Assessment and Goal Setting
Jen is a 34-year-old concerned that her lack of focus, poor short-term memory, and disorganization affect her work. She works as a paralegal and has had excellent job reviews, but now she has been promoted to a more demanding position. It is a great opportunity for her, but she realizes the new job responsibilities could tap into her weaknesses more than her prior job. She is also concerned because, at home, she realizes that her symptoms make it hard for her to keep track of her children’s busy schedules and help them with their homework.
My first step is to do a comprehensive evaluation of Jen’s ADHD symptoms. We identify specific areas of difficulty, which include time management, organization, and a lack of focus. We create clear, measurable, achievable goals for therapy, including reducing procrastination, improving focus and working memory, and enhancing organizational skills.
ADHD Therapy for Adult ADHD Psychoeducation
Once we have developed the treatment plan, the next step is to educate Jen about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and its symptoms, how it affects daily life, and where it comes from. We’ll explore how symptoms impact work, relationships, and self-esteem in more detail.
We’ll discuss common myths and misconceptions about the diagnosis and go over its positive aspects, including increased energy, creativity, resilience, and hyper-focus on tasks she is most interested in.
Cognitive Restructuring
Next, we will identify negative thoughts that Jen has that come automatically but are irrational or distorted. These thoughts impact her self-esteem and create additional distractions that interfere with her focus. These distorted thinking patterns contribute to feelings of inadequacy or frustration. She realizes that she often has thoughts about failing due to her symptoms, being an “imposter” in her new role, and letting people down.
It will be important for Jen to challenge and replace these automatic thoughts. For homework, she’ll focus on noticing them as they occur and challenging them by replacing them with more realistic and positive ones. This will include replacing thoughts of how her attention deficit negatively impacts her with thoughts about how it can work in her favor, confronting her imposter thoughts with the fact that even before entering therapy for adult ADHD, she received very positive evaluations, and explaining how her treatment will successfully improve her organization skills.
Part of her homework will be to keep a journal to track negative thoughts and practice reframing them. This homework will help her work on challenging negative thoughts while providing an example of staying organized. Adult attention deficit treatments often include homework like this so you can practice skills in real-time.
Behavioral Interventions
Along with cognitive behavioral therapy for adult ADHD, Jen needs to work on skill development that will help her manage her symptoms. We break up this learning into three categories:
- Time Management: Jen will learn to create schedules, set priorities, use timers, and incorporate tools such as planners and task lists. She will use an app that helps organize all of these goals.
- Organization Skills: I teach Jen skills such as decluttering, developing better e-filing systems, using organizational apps, and staying organized through labeled storage and color-coding.
- Procrastination Reduction: Jen will break tasks into smaller steps, setting deadlines, using self-rewards (she only gets Starbucks the next day if she completes the tasks she had assigned herself, for example), and using task breakdown charts.
Skills Training
As part of therapy for adult ADHD, we will also work on specific skills in three categories:
- Problem-Solving Skills: Jen will learn to proactively identify short- and long-term challenges she may face in her new professional role, generate solutions, and evaluate outcomes.
- Social Skills Training: Jen realizes that sometimes she talks fast and interrupts people when excited about expressing an idea. We work on enhancing her communication skills.
- Impulse Control: Jen wants to work on jumping from one task to another or one topic to another before she has successfully completed the one prior. We talk about delay strategies (e.g., counting to 10 before moving on) and using physical reminders of what she needs to get done.
Stress Management and Relaxation Techniques
Jen decides to learn mindfulness and relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and guided imagery. I help with some of this and point her toward meditation apps, yoga classes, and relaxation recordings. She also decides to engage in regular physical activity, which reduces her symptoms.
Adult attention deficit treatments like the one described above are structured and goal-oriented, focusing on building practical skills and strategies to manage symptoms and improve daily functioning. Regular practice and reinforcement of these skills can significantly improve quality of life. That example was general, and we can work on developing a plan that fits your unique needs.
Please feel free to contact me or schedule a consultation to discuss ADHD therapy for adults or any aspect of my practice further.
