Hey There

I was a terrible student. I didn’t want to be terrible, and I certainly tried to do all of the things as expected, but it seemed that I could not stop the mistakes from happening. I received low grades on tests, despite studying. I forgot homework, regularly. I didn’t remember anything I read, I couldn’t seem to follow all the directions on writing assignments, ever. Stupid mistakes were always around.

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I could feel it. My brain was different. “I guess I'm just stupid.” It was the only logical conclusion. There was a real need to keep this a secret. After all kids are mean to the stupid kids, and teachers have no patience for them too. Yikes.

 

Hiding an internal belief like that, takes a toll. Emotions were tricky. I found myself constantly broken hearted for no apparent reason, angry for no apparent reason, and annoying to other people with no idea why. My struggle wasn’t just tricky for me though. I drove my mother through the inevitable roller coaster of intense pride to frustrating confusion. Depression, anger, and anxiety were regular household guests, visiting each of us in the family throughout my childhood. A child’s struggle affects everyone, and I was not the only struggling child in the house.

 

Somehow my mother managed to provide us a balance to our struggle. Creativity, determination and a whole lot of unconditional love were also regularly weaved into my childhood days. My mother believed in me. She refused to stop believing. So, I refused to stop believing too. Diagnosed with ADHD in my 20’s, I started to get answers. It turned out that I wasn’t an “airhead” (as I was called in my elementary years). Like most ADHDers, given the right circumstances, brilliance comes out of me. Who knew!? My mom… My mom knew.

 

Let us fast forward through 5 years as a teacher, 4 years in public behavioral health service, 2 years in juvenile corrections, and 9 years in private practice specializing in ADHD. This self proclaimed “stupid” student, became a reasonably successful human. Boom!

 

Like many ADHDers, I put my pain to work. Armed with my experience in education and mental health, I set out to innovate solutions to the same problems that plagued me. I spent many years witnessing the systems fail our struggling students with brilliant minds. After watching society lose brilliant children to drug abuse, criminality, and suicide, I decided to stop hiding, and start fixing. I have decided to be bravely ADHD.

 

In 2015 I began my practice and I was on a mission. I would find an approach that would meet the unique needs of ADHD youth, in the ways that I witnessed the systems fail them. I became focused on executive functions, and I was seeing positive results.

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Adding to my professional experience, I am an ADHD mom, raising ADHD kids. The learning, discovering, and innovating never stops. After years of working almost exclusively with ADHD youth and other struggling students with brilliant minds. I was able to create an approach that produced positive results for both struggling students AND their loved ones.