What ADHD means for you is a deeply personal question, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. But it can help to talk to someone who faces similar struggles.

I’m a self-identified ADHD person, though if I’m honest I have mixed feelings about the term. I ask myself questions like ‘Is it really a disorder? What is a disorder, anyway?’ and ‘Where does the ADHD stop, and just being me begin?’. Like everything in life, it’s complicated.

As a therapist, I’m there to help you find our own answers to these difficult questions, and your own sense of what ADHD means for who you are and how best for you to live.

In my experience working with ADHD clients, and in my own journey of self-understanding, I have found several useful ways to approach some of the common difficulties that ADHD people face.

The most important of all has been to cultivate self-acceptance. This often means letting go of the damaging messages we may have absorbed about who we are while growing up or at work, such as being seen as ‘lazy’, ‘scatter-brained’ or ‘emotional’. If we are at peace with ourselves as we are, then all kinds of changes become possible.

Another common theme is that finding the right metaphors for ADHD life can be useful and freeing. One I like is the sailing metaphor set out in this article by Matilda Boseley. She likens ADHD to having an ‘ocean brain’, with currents, waves and winds that we need to learn to navigate. Sometimes the wind is in our sails and we can achieve great things, and other times we need to wait out a storm.

A third theme is that we must learn to play to our strengths in life. Many ADHD people thrive under time pressure, or are wildly creative, or can solve even the most complex problems in ways no one else would think to try. Finding a niche in the world that lets you use these strengths can make life far more manageable.

The truth is that therapy helps ADHD people the same way it helps everyone else, by giving them space to express themselves, to be themselves, and to grow towards the right life for them. But it can help to set out on that journey with someone who has sailed in a similar boat.

If you would like to work with me, please get in touch here.