Best Types of Therapy for Individuals With ADHD

If you or your child have been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you’re not alone. Roughly 6 million children in the U.S. have been diagnosed with ADHD, and while it’s usually diagnosed during childhood, adults can also be diagnosed with this disorder. 

ADHD can make it hard to focus and maintain impulse control. This, along with several symptoms of this disorder (like frequently forgetting things or having trouble doing tasks), may even lead to challenges in school, at work, and in your personal life. 

Therapy is often part of an effective treatment plan for addressing the symptoms of ADHD. Let’s explore why therapy may be beneficial for ADHD and the different types of therapy used to treat it.  

Why is therapy beneficial for ADHD?

Psychotherapy, or “talk therapy,” has been shown to be effective in managing ADHD. It doesn’t change the way your brain works like medication does, but it can give you practical lifelong skills and benefits, including:

Skill development 

Those with ADHD may struggle with disorganization or time management, resulting in last-minute rushing, missing deadlines, or being late for appointments. 

You can build time management and organizational skills with the help of a therapist. For example, you might learn to break large tasks into smaller ones, divide your time into blocks, or establish a routine. You might also learn to use visual organizational strategies, such as labeling or color coding. 

Individualized approach 

Therapy doesn’t provide a one-size-fits-all approach to ADHD — and that’s a huge benefit. Each person with ADHD has their own unique challenges and needs, and therapy offers an individualized approach to address them.

Therapists use effective interventions and techniques for each client’s specific goals and circumstances. For example, if your symptoms mainly involve inattention, such as frequent daydreaming, a therapist would tailor interventions to help you stay focused. Your therapist might also work with you on creating routines and minimizing distractions to help reduce inattentive symptoms. 

Coping strategies 

Therapy provides coping strategies that can help with a wide range of ADHD symptoms, like trouble concentrating and managing impulsive behavior. Some coping skills you might learn in therapy (depending on your needs) include:

• Mindfulness and strategies for improving impulse control
• Motivating yourself to reduce procrastination
• Setting boundaries to better manage relationships 
• Managing your time, like identifying your most productive time of day
• Using reminders to help improve your memory
• Organization strategies like decluttering 
• Techniques and tips for increasing concentration, such as giving yourself breaks and removing distractions 

Increased self-esteem

Having ADHD can affect your self-esteem. Other people might blame you for forgetting things or being late. You might hear someone say you “just aren’t trying hard enough” as you struggle to work on and finish tasks. This can understandably be frustrating and hurtful and may lead you to be hard on yourself.

Therapy offers an effective way to turn this around and improve your self-esteem. As you develop skills and learn coping strategies, you can manage ADHD with greater self-confidence. Increasing your self-esteem may make it easier to focus on managing ADHD symptoms. It may also help lower your risk of developing depression, anxiety, or other mental health conditions linked to low self-esteem.

Improved relationships 

ADHD may impact your relationships. You might have frequent misunderstandings with loved ones that strain these relationships. Or you might have trouble actively listening to others or following conversations. 

Therapy can help you build social skills that improve your relationships. These skills can also help you with everyday interactions, such as talking to coworkers. During therapy, you might develop active listening skills, improve your non-verbal communication skills, and practice social scripts to boost your conversation skills. Building these social skills helps you connect with others and strengthen your relationships. 

Emotional regulation 

When you have ADHD, you might experience intense emotions. Managing or regulating these emotions is an important skill — but it might not come naturally, and it might not be easy to learn on your own. 

Emotional regulation helps you handle strong emotions in adaptive ways so they don’t overwhelm you or cause problems in your interactions with others. 

You can learn to regulate your emotions — even the most intense ones — with therapy. Therapists can teach you how to manage frustration, stress, and anger so you can learn to recognize your emotions and give yourself the space to feel them without letting them affect your behavior. 

Common forms of therapy for ADHD 

There are several approaches that therapists commonly employ, including some upcoming experimental therapies that have shown success. However, the therapeutic approaches that work best for you will depend on your particular circumstances, needs, and goals. 

Below, we’ll help you learn more about some of the common types of therapy for ADHD your therapist may use during treatment. Note that this list isn’t exhaustive; these are just a few of the available options, and your therapist will work with you to determine what works best for you.

1.  Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on the connections between feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. CBT helps you learn how certain thought patterns and emotions affect your behaviors, like making it harder to avoid distractions. It also teaches you how to organize and plan, regulate your emotions, and change your thought patterns. 

For example, you might work on identifying the thoughts you typically have while procrastinating. Let’s say you’re worried you won’t do a task well. You’ll then learn to adapt those thoughts in ways that motivate you to get things done, like working on adaptive or positive self-talk.

2.  Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)

This is a modified form of CBT that focuses on mindfulness. Being mindful has been shown to help improve memory and learning, reduce stress responses in the brain’s amygdala, and boost the ability to plan, problem-solve, and regulate emotions — all areas that may be challenging when living with ADHD.

MBCT techniques (like mindfulness meditation, where you focus on the present) may help you learn to observe and manage your emotions. It may also help improve your attention and executive functioning and reduce distractibility. 

3.  Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)

DBT focuses on helping you learn to understand and accept intense emotions, regulate them, and change unhelpful or maladaptive behaviors. For example, DBT can help you work on impulse control so that you’re less likely to engage in risky behaviors. 

DBT teaches you several skills that can help you manage ADHD, including mindfulness and emotion regulation. It also helps you learn distress tolerance, or being able to handle unpleasant or intense emotions instead of avoiding them. 

4.  Interpersonal therapy (IPT)

IPT offers an effective way to improve your communication skills and interpersonal relationships. This type of talk therapy for ADHD focuses on the challenges you might face while navigating social interactions or conflicts. For example, being forgetful might be putting a strain on your relationships with family members. 

IPT can help you understand how your behavior might affect loved ones and other people in your life. It can help you learn how to handle conflicts in adaptive ways and how to communicate better with others to reduce misunderstandings.  

5.  Narrative therapy 

The difficulties you experience due to ADHD symptoms might cause you to blame or chastise yourself for not trying hard enough. Narrative therapy helps you change the perspective you have about yourself as someone living with ADHD.

This type of therapy involves storytelling or narrative techniques, like reframing experiences more positively. You can learn to separate your identity from your diagnosis; in other words, seeing your symptoms as external problems rather than seeing yourself as a problem. This can empower you to take control and find solutions for handling ADHD symptoms. 

6.  Group therapy 

Knowing that you’re not alone can be a powerful way to make progress in managing ADHD symptoms. Group therapy provides this opportunity. You can hear from others who share similar challenges, including those who have overcome them. 

Group therapy also usually involves group activities to help you learn planning, organizing, and communication skills. These therapy sessions give you valuable peer support that can encourage you and give you the confidence to tackle ADHD-related challenges. 

7.  Other helpful therapies for ADHD 

Other kinds of therapies may provide support and effective strategies for managing ADHD. These aren’t the evidence-based first line of therapy used for ADHD treatment. But they may be useful for handling ADHD challenges. These therapies include:

• Art therapy: Art therapy involves using visual arts to help address ADHD issues. You can work through emotions as you express yourself through painting, sculpting, or creating another work of art. Art therapy may also help you focus your attention and follow through a series of steps to make art.
• Music therapy: Music therapy involves listening to or making music to improve focus and reduce stress. Research finds that music may increase chemicals in the brain that help regulate attention and improve memory.
• Play therapy: Play therapy, typically only used with children, involves playtime activities that help kids with ADHD express themselves. This helps improve social and communication skills, ease stress, and boost self-confidence. 

Therapeutic considerations for children diagnosed with ADHD 

If you’re seeking help for a child diagnosed with ADHD, there are a few things to keep in mind. Therapeutic approaches also need to be tailored to your child's unique developmental stages and needs. A few of these considerations and challenges include:

• Confidentiality concerns: Your child needs to understand that therapists may be required to share things with you as their guardian, depending on your child’s age and state laws.
• Family therapy: This type of therapy is often recommended for all family members, not just the child. 
• Proper therapy and skill building: These are crucial for kids with ADHD since they help them develop tools they can use as adults. Learning emotion regulation, time management, organization, and other skills during childhood can help them thrive as adults. 

Connect with a therapist through SonderMind 

Trying to navigate ADHD challenges on your own may lead to more stress and frustration. However, working with a licensed therapist can give you the valuable skills you need to improve your personal and professional lives — and boost your well-being overall. 

SonderMind makes it easy for you to connect with a therapist who can help you address your specific needs and goals. Our virtual and local mental health care services make therapy more accessible, so you can meet with your therapist online or in person, depending on your preferences. 

Connect with a therapist through SonderMind today to start building the skills you need to navigate ADHD-related challenges.