The Role of Therapy
Therapy is a critical part of treating ADHD. Therapeutic interventions focus on the following aspects of ADHD.
- Acceptance of ADHD. That this makes them who they are. Building awareness that since there is no concrete cure for ADHD the importance of working with ADHD rather than against it.
- Building awareness of symptoms in a way that allows clients to anticipate and recognise when ADHD might interfere with their life.
- Identifying the parts of the executive function difficulties the clients want to let go of.
- Working on increasing focus and concentration through strategies to prevent interference with academic goals.
- Awareness of rejection sensitivity, emotional arousal and developing strategies to avoid interference in interpersonal relationships.
- Involving school and family and increasing their awareness so that the there is a shared sense of responsibility between the client, school and family.
- Brainstorming ways in which energy can be channelised.
- Discussing future career/ professional goals which align with ADHD rather than making the client change a big part of themselves.
- Externalizing the difficulties caused by ADHD so that the client can keep the parts they want to and see what they want to do with the parts of ADHD that don’t serve them any longer.
Communicating with your Therapist
Before starting therapy, we always do a parent orientation when we
- Ask you for your specific goals from therapy and
- Share with you what we understand about your child thus far, and according to that, what approach we will be taking and
- Will also talk about things that you can do at home to support your child.
During the process of therapy, depending on the needs of the family, we can devote one or more appointments in a month to engage directly with the parents. This decision can be made by the clinical team or can be brought on by the parents as well. The goal is to improve overall functioning and understanding of ADD and handling/managing it.