Adults with ADHD
Comprehensive ADHD-Informed Care for Adults
Our specialized services recognize that ADHD doesn't disappear with age—it evolves, presenting unique challenges as you navigate adult responsibilities, relationships, and aspirations. We offer evidence-based treatment that works with your neurobiological differences rather than against them, helping you develop strategies that fit your adult life while honoring your authentic self and values.
The Reality of Adult ADHD: More Than Childhood Struggles
Adult ADHD presents complex challenges that extend far beyond the hyperactivity and attention difficulties typically associated with childhood presentations. As an adult with ADHD, you may struggle with time management in professional settings, maintaining organized systems at home, following through on personal goals, or managing the emotional intensity that comes with executive functioning challenges.
The transition to adult responsibilities often reveals ADHD symptoms that were previously managed through external structure or compensatory strategies. College, career demands, parenting, or managing a household can overwhelm coping mechanisms that worked in more structured environments, leading to feelings of failure or inadequacy despite genuine effort and capability.
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We provide comprehensive ADHD assessments specifically designed to capture the complex ways this condition can impact adult life. Our evaluation process goes beyond symptom checklists to understand how ADHD affects your specific life domains, relationships, and goal pursuit patterns, with particular attention to presentations that may have been previously overlooked.
Assessment Includes:
Detailed clinical interview focusing on ADHD's impact across your lifespan, including childhood symptoms that may have been missed
Evaluation of executive functioning challenges and their practical effects
Assessment of co-occurring conditions commonly seen with ADHD, particularly those that may have led to previous misdiagnoses
Consideration of hormonal factors and their impact on symptom presentation
Values clarification and analysis of the values-action gap
Relationship and family functioning evaluation
Review of previous diagnoses and treatment history to identify patterns consistent with ADHD
Comprehensive treatment planning based on your unique presentation
Our assessment process ensures that treatment recommendations are tailored to your specific needs, presentation patterns, and life circumstances, while addressing any previous diagnostic confusion or incomplete understanding of your symptoms.
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Our individual therapy approach combines specialized ADHD expertise with personalized treatment planning that addresses your unique presentation and life goals. We focus on helping you understand how ADHD affects your daily functioning, relationships, and ability to pursue what matters most to you, with particular attention to the ways your presentation may have been previously overlooked or misunderstood.
What We Address:
Executive functioning challenges and their impact on goal pursuit
The values-action gap that creates feelings of "self-sabotage"
Emotional dysregulation and mood-related difficulties, including hormonal influences
Relationship patterns affected by ADHD symptoms
Professional challenges and workplace accommodations
Self-esteem issues stemming from years of misunderstood struggles
Processing experiences of misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis
Understanding how masking behaviors may have protected but also exhausted you
Through weekly sessions, we develop ADHD-compatible strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, helping you build confidence in your ability to create meaningful change while honoring your authentic self.
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Our innovative Accountability-Assisted Therapy program provides additional support for translating therapeutic insights into consistent behavioral change—often the biggest challenge for individuals with ADHD. This evidence-based enhancement works alongside your primary therapy to address executive functioning barriers to progress.
How It Works:
Skills and exercises are assigned by your primary therapist based on your treatment goals
Trained accountability partners provide structured support between therapy sessions
Lower-cost skill practice sessions bridge the gap between weekly therapy and daily life
Regular check-ins help maintain momentum on therapeutic homework and goal implementation
Integration with your primary therapy ensures all support remains aligned with your treatment plan
This program is available as an enhancement to individual, group, couples, or family therapy services and provides the additional scaffolding many ADHD clients need for successful treatment outcomes.
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ADHD significantly impacts intimate relationships, often creating patterns of misunderstanding, frustration, and disconnection. Our couples therapy approach addresses how ADHD symptoms affect relationship dynamics while helping both partners develop strategies for improved communication, emotional connection, and mutual support.
We Focus On:
Communication patterns affected by ADHD symptoms (interrupting, distractibility, emotional intensity)
How executive functioning challenges impact household responsibilities and shared goals
Managing the parent-child dynamic that can develop when one partner has ADHD
Developing understanding and empathy for neurobiological differences, particularly when ADHD was previously undiagnosed or misdiagnosed
Creating relationship structures that support both partners' needs
Addressing intimacy and emotional connection challenges
Understanding how years of masking or compensating may have affected relationship patterns
Our approach helps couples move from conflict and misunderstanding toward collaboration and mutual support, recognizing that ADHD affects the relationship system, not just the individual.
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When one family member has ADHD, the entire family system is impacted. Our family therapy services help all family members understand ADHD's effects and develop strategies for healthier family functioning, improved communication, and mutual support.
Family Therapy Addresses:
How ADHD symptoms affect family roles and responsibilities
Communication patterns that may have developed around ADHD-related challenges
Sibling dynamics when one child or parent has ADHD
Parenting strategies that work effectively with ADHD presentations
Reducing blame and increasing understanding across family members, particularly when diagnosis is new or was delayed
Creating family structures that support everyone's wellbeing
Processing how undiagnosed ADHD may have affected family dynamics over time
We work with families to develop systems that honor neurobiological differences while maintaining appropriate boundaries and expectations for all family members.
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While our clinical team specializes in ADHD-informed therapy and treatment, we recognize that comprehensive care often requires formal diagnostic evaluation and medication management. We have carefully cultivated a curated network of psychiatrists and psychologists who have been personally vetted by Lauren to ensure their understanding of ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions in women reflects the latest research and clinical best practices.
Our Community Partners Provide:
Up-to-date diagnostic evaluations that recognize the unique ways ADHD presents in women
Comprehensive psychological testing when indicated
Medication management with understanding of hormonal factors and women-specific considerations
Affirming, trauma-informed approaches that honor your lived experience
Clinically sound assessments that avoid common diagnostic pitfalls and biases
When we provide a warm handoff to one of our community partners, you can trust that you'll receive an evaluation or medication consultation that is both clinically excellent and deeply informed about the complexities of neurodivergent presentations in women. This collaborative approach ensures continuity of care and understanding across all aspects of your treatment journey.
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…my own life story. For years before that diagnosis, I had been filling journal after journal, trying desperately to figure out why I couldn't seem to follow through on goals that mattered deeply to me. The word 'self-sabotage' appeared over and over in my writing—I was convinced that something was fundamentally wrong with my character or willpower.
After my diagnosis, I went back and read through those old journals with new eyes. What struck me most was how repetitive they were—the same struggles, the same self-criticism, the same confusion about why I couldn't just 'make myself' do the things I knew I should do. I could see the threads of undiagnosed ADHD woven throughout every entry, just wrapped around different topics: relationships, career goals, daily routines, creative projects.
Understanding that neurobiological differences—not personal failings—were interfering with my ability to live according to my values was transformative. It wasn't that I lacked motivation or discipline; my brain simply processed attention, time, and goal-directed behavior differently than the strategies I'd been trying to force myself to use.
This personal experience drives everything we do at Brilla. I know intimately what it feels like to spend years believing you're somehow broken, only to discover that you've been trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. My mission is to help other women skip years of that unnecessary suffering by providing the specialized, ADHD-informed care that actually works with how their brains function—not against it."
Two Distinct ADHD Journeys in Adulthood
Adults seeking ADHD-informed care typically fall into two primary categories, each requiring different therapeutic approaches and understanding:
Childhood Diagnosis, Adult Challenges: You may have been diagnosed as a child but find that strategies that worked in school don't translate to adult responsibilities. The structured environment of childhood—with external accountability from parents and teachers—no longer exists, leaving you to create your own systems while managing complex adult demands. You understand you have ADHD but struggle to apply this knowledge to current challenges like career advancement, relationship maintenance, or independent living skills.
Late Diagnosis Discovery: You may have recently learned that ADHD explains decades of struggles with organization, follow-through, emotional regulation, or interpersonal relationships. This discovery often brings both relief and grief—relief at finally understanding your challenges, and grief for years of self-criticism and missed opportunities. You're working to reframe your life story while simultaneously learning new strategies for managing ADHD symptoms you never knew you had.
The Unique Complexity of ADHD in Adult Life
Adult ADHD affects multiple life domains simultaneously in ways that childhood presentations rarely capture. You may excel professionally while struggling with personal organization, maintain successful relationships while battling internal chaos, or demonstrate remarkable creativity while feeling constantly overwhelmed by daily tasks.
The masking and compensatory strategies many adults develop can create additional complexity, as these approaches often become unsustainable under increased adult stress. High-achieving adults with ADHD frequently experience burnout when their sophisticated coping mechanisms can no longer keep pace with mounting responsibilities and expectations.
Adult ADHD also intersects with life transitions in unique ways—career changes, relationship developments, parenting responsibilities, or aging parents can all disrupt established coping systems and reveal ADHD challenges that were previously manageable. Understanding these intersections is crucial for developing effective treatment approaches that address your current life context rather than generic ADHD management strategies.