Looking for training and events with me, Gina Pera? Look no further!
Finally, my training programs clinicians and consumers are online—and changing expectations of the medical and therapy professions when it comes to Adult ADHD.
The training is not limited to couples. It’s based on principles of Adult ADHD treatment, merged with evidence-based principles of couple therapy.
ADHD-Focused Couple Therapy
I have spent the last four years researching, conceptualizing, writing, and editing the first empirically based guide to ADHD-Focused Couple Therapy. The book is called Adult ADHD-Focused Couple Therapy: Clinical Interventions. Veteran ADHD expert Arthur L. Robin, PhD partnered with me on this daunting project. And we recruited help from valued contributors who are experts in their specialties.
The professional endorsements have bowled me over. Detailed and glowing, they come from leaders in the fields of both couple therapy (e.g. Harville Hendrix, PhD) and Adult ADHD treatment (e.g. Russell Barkley, PhD).
With this book, therapists gain a new tool to guide ADHD-challenged couples in a way that is fair to both partners—and healing to the relationship. Moreover, we tackled what no other book has attempted: How best to co-parent when one or both partners have ADHD.
Speaking of both partners having ADHD, we covered that scenario, too. It’s not enough to assign the “partner of” with logistical tasks and assuming the “Executive Function” for the couple. For one reason, there are dual-ADHD couples! For another, the goal should be an equitable arrangement!
The Problem with Most Adult ADHD Therapy—Individual and C0uple
Our Adult ADHD couple therapy model merges the best of what we know works for Adult ADHD with what works for couple therapy. It’s a flexible model that acknowledges all level of conflict/harmony in relationships, from the practical to the emotional.
Briefly, here are some of the long-running problems that Dr. Robin and I worked to solve:
- Couple therapists (and their clients) finding that standard couple-therapy principles go only so far when ADHD is involved—and sometimes can make matters worse.
- Individual ADHD therapists (and their clients) facing ethical and practical dilemmas when attempting to include the partner in therapy that is more clearly designed for the ADHD partner alone, not both partners. Moreover, the fact that not enough individual ADHD therapists train clients in the practical skills so necessary to getting traction.
- Therapists of any type who simply don’t know what to do with Adult ADHD-challenged individuals or couples.
The Help I Wish My Husband and I Had!
Basically, we are creating the type of in-depth training that I wish had been available years ago to my husband and me—as well the parade of flummoxed therapists from which we sought help.
Drawing from both of my books and our combined fifty years experience, we cover the essentials in Solving Your Adult ADHD Puzzle:
- Psychological education: Solid, and even entertaining, information about what ADHD is—and is not; the predictable patterns and solutions [available now in Course 1: Foundations]
- Examining, and dismantling, the Dysfunctional Interaction Cycle: Understanding how poor coping responses, born of not realizing that ADHD is part of the equation, can further compound the confusion for both partners [Available now in Course 1!]
- Medication: How medication works, why it might not work as well as it could, and why couples absolutely must be pro-active in working with the physician (and how therapists can assist) [Available now in Course 2, on sleep and medication]
- Practical strategies: How to “get things done” and cooperate at home and with parenting the children. [Executive Functions covered in-depth in Course 1, with upcoming Course 3 taking you by the hand to learn to use a calendar, to-do-lists, and make and meet short/long-term goals.
- Communications techniques: Helping help each partner feel heard—and cared for, using structured dialogues. [Upcoming in Course 4]
Format and Organization
The format: narrated videos that you can watch again and again on your computer or mobile device. Most no longer than 10 minutes. Materials include: electronic workbooks with exercises to personalize the lessons, tip sheets, and cheat sheets.
Option: Zoom Q&A Meetings with course participants, facilitated by Gina.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to bring this instruction to the comfort of your home or office, around the world. Let’s hear it for technology!
I’ll be posting on the ADHD Roller Coaster as the courses come online. So, please subscribe if you want to be notified.
You Have Questions? I Have Answers
Check out Q&A Solving Your Adult ADHD Puzzle
Also feel free to send a note via the contact form at the top of this page.
Gina Pera
