ADHD Therapy for Women in Arizona

Is this you?

• Your mind runs a dozen conversations at once, and your to-do list lives in six different places.
• You can hyperfocus for hours on something interesting and cannot start a five-minute task you hate.
• You are chronically late, or chronically early because being late is unbearable.
• Small criticism lands like a physical blow, and you replay it for days.
• You have built elaborate systems to cope, and they collapse every time life gets busy.
• You were recently diagnosed, or you suspect it, and you are angry that nobody caught it sooner.

Why it got missed

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was described first in boys who could not sit still, and the picture stuck. Girls with ADHD are more likely to daydream than bounce, more likely to be called sensitive or disorganized than disruptive, and more likely to work twice as hard to hide it. By adulthood the hiding is exhausting and the label is still wrong.

What therapy does that medication does not

Medication, for the people it helps, turns down the noise. It does not build the systems, undo the shame, or repair the twenty years of being told you were the problem. That is therapy’s job, and it splits into a few pieces.

Systems that survive a bad week. Most ADHD advice assumes you will be consistent, which is exactly what ADHD makes hard. We build routines around how your brain actually works, with external structure instead of willpower, and we plan for the weeks when everything falls apart, because they will come.

The shame. Years of missed deadlines, forgotten birthdays, and “you are so smart, why can’t you just” leave a story behind about what kind of person you are. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps you examine that story and rewrite it with evidence instead of positive thinking, and it is direct and practical.

Rejection sensitivity. Many people with ADHD feel criticism and rejection far more intensely than the situation warrants, a pattern sometimes called rejection sensitive dysphoria. It is not a formal diagnosis, but it is real, and it wrecks relationships and jobs. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) teaches you how to ride out an emotional surge without acting on it, which is exactly what those moments need.

Boundaries. ADHD and people-pleasing travel together, partly because saying yes fast is easier than thinking it through, and partly because you have spent years apologizing.

The grief. A late diagnosis reorganizes your whole past. The relief is real, and so are the anger and the sadness for the version of your life that might have been. That deserves room, and most people do not give it any.

What sessions look like

Sessions with me are structured, because unstructured therapy is hard for ADHD brains. We set an agenda at the start, we end with one or two concrete things to try, and I do not take it personally when you forget them. I use CBT and DBT skills most, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which helps older painful memories lose their charge, when there is something underneath.

Video works well for this. There is nothing to drive to, nothing to forget on the way, and you can do a session from wherever you are in Arizona. You only have to be in Arizona during the session. If you live close enough to Goodyear, you can also come to the office on the weeks you want to be in the room.

Fees and insurance

Sessions are 50–55 minutes and cost $100 without insurance. I am in-network with Aetna/Banner, Cigna, Curative, and United Healthcare, and I take Cigna and United Healthcare employee assistance program (EAP) sessions, which are the free sessions some employers cover. The full details are on the insurance and fees page, and if your plan is not listed, ask me on the free call and I will tell you what your options are.

Questions people ask