ADHD & Executive Functioning
Understand how your brain works, instead of constantly feeling like you need to work harder.
Living with ADHD can feel like knowing exactly what you need to do but struggling to consistently make it happen. You might have great intentions and plenty of motivation one day, only to feel completely overwhelmed or unable to get started the next. Tasks pile up, routines are difficult to maintain, emotions can feel intense, and you may find yourself wondering why things that seem easy for everyone else require so much effort.
Over time, these experiences can affect more than productivity. They can shape how you see yourself. You may have spent years believing you are lazy, disorganized, too emotional, inconsistent, or simply not trying hard enough. Therapy can help you understand these experiences differently while developing strategies that actually work with the way your brain functions.
ADHD is about more than attention
ADHD is often reduced to difficulties with focus, but its impact can extend much further into everyday life. Emotional regulation difficulties are also frequently experienced by adults with ADHD and can significantly affect relationships, work, self-esteem, and overall quality of life.
Task initiation and procrastination
Getting started on tasks even when they are important, and feeling overwhelmed by seemingly simple responsibilities.
Time and consistency
Underestimating how long things will take, struggling to maintain routines, forgetfulness, and difficulty keeping track of responsibilities.
Attention that swings
Becoming intensely focused on one thing and struggling to shift, or feeling mentally restless and constantly overstimulated.
Emotional intensity
Difficulty regulating emotions, impulsive decisions, and feeling easily frustrated or overwhelmed.
The pressure underneath
Chronic self-criticism, perfectionism that makes it hard to begin or finish, and burnout from constantly trying to keep up.
This might sound familiar
- Getting started on tasks, even the important ones, feels impossible.
- Time slips, routines fade, and consistency never quite holds.
- Emotions arrive quickly and intensely, then linger.
- You've been carrying chronic self-criticism and the sense you should be doing more.
When ADHD starts to affect how you see yourself
One of the most overlooked parts of ADHD is what can happen to your self-esteem after years of struggling with things you feel you should be able to manage. Maybe you were told you were not applying yourself, or described as messy, forgetful, overly sensitive, impulsive, or difficult. Or perhaps you became very good at compensating. Therapy is not simply about becoming more productive; it is also about understanding the emotional impact of living with ADHD and separating who you are from the difficulties you have experienced.
- You learned to work harder, always.
- You became a perfectionist.
- You started people-pleasing.
- You developed elaborate systems to stay organized.
- You pushed yourself until you were exhausted, because slowing down felt like falling behind.
How we work together
There is no single strategy that works for every person with ADHD. My approach combines psychotherapy with practical executive functioning support while considering the broader factors affecting your mental health.
With a background in psychology, nutrition, and holistic wellness, I take a whole-person perspective that considers the relationship between your thoughts, emotions, nervous system, physical well-being, relationships, routines, environment, and everyday habits. Depending on your needs, our work may draw from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Internal Family Systems-informed approaches, attachment-based therapy, mindfulness, nervous system regulation, behavioural strategies, and practical executive functioning tools.
Rather than trying to force yourself into systems that have repeatedly failed you, we work together to understand what gets in the way and develop approaches that fit your life.
What we can work on together
The goal is not to turn you into the most organized or productive version of yourself. It is to help you understand yourself better, reduce the shame and pressure you have been carrying, and build strategies that make everyday life feel more manageable.
- Executive functioning, organization, task initiation, and follow-through.
- Emotional regulation, overwhelm, and overstimulation.
- Perfectionism, fear of failure, self-esteem, and chronic self-criticism.
- People-pleasing, boundaries, stress, burnout, and relationships.
- ADHD-related eating patterns and body image concerns.
- Strategies built around your individual strengths, not someone else's system.
Sessions
Sessions are 50 minutes, virtual across Alberta and Ontario or in-person in Calgary.
Common questions
Is there a connection between ADHD and eating disorders?
Research has identified an association between ADHD and eating disorders and disordered eating, particularly eating patterns involving impulsivity or loss of control. This does not mean ADHD causes an eating disorder, and the relationship is different for every person. Executive functioning and emotional regulation can also shape everyday eating in subtler ways: forgetting to eat until you're extremely hungry, struggling to plan or prepare meals, eating in response to boredom or emotional overwhelm, becoming highly focused on particular foods or routines, or finding consistency around eating difficult. For people also experiencing an eating disorder or body image concerns, these factors can make the relationship with food even more complicated. My background in both psychotherapy and holistic nutrition allows us to explore this intersection from an integrative perspective, rather than reducing it to willpower or a list of what you should be eating.
How does therapy help with emotional regulation and ADHD?
For many people with ADHD, emotions arrive quickly and intensely. Frustration, rejection, criticism, disappointment, or overwhelm can be hard to move through. Rather than viewing these responses as personal shortcomings, we work to understand what is happening underneath them: recognizing triggers, understanding patterns of overstimulation, regulating your nervous system, and creating more space between what you feel and how you respond. The goal is not to eliminate emotion; it is to feel more capable of navigating it.
Do I need a formal ADHD diagnosis to start?
No. Many people begin therapy while still exploring whether ADHD fits their experience. If executive functioning, emotional regulation, or chronic overwhelm are shaping your daily life, that is enough to start.
I've tried planners, apps, and routines that never stick. Will this be different?
If you've tried countless strategies that worked for two weeks and then disappeared, you may have started believing you are the problem. Therapy offers something different: we explore both the practical challenges in front of you and the deeper patterns that have developed around them, so the strategies we build fit the way your brain actually works.
Do you offer ADHD therapy outside Calgary?
Yes. Sessions are virtual across Alberta and Ontario, or in person in Calgary.
The next step
Start with a free 15-minute consult.
A relaxed, no-obligation call to tell me a little about what's bringing you in and to see whether working together feels right. Virtual across Alberta and Ontario, or in person in Calgary.