Sarah

Diagnosed Combined ADHD

ADHD COUNSELLOR & CBT THERAPIST, ADHD COACH, MENTOR

Sarah was diagnosed Combined ADHD at the age of 51.  If it hadn’t been for her counsellor urging her to get a diagnosis after recognising the ADHD traits in her, she would have probably spent the rest of her life struggling against them!

Sarah has spent the past 20 years helping people.  She started out as a Mentor with The Big Issue helping London’s homeless.  She loved the challenge of working with people who had given up hope and had nothing.  Her passion for life and compassion for anyone struggling meant after 7 years, she was given an even tougher group to mentor – ex-offenders.  Sarah thrived on the challenge and kept a prolific offender out of prison for 12 months – the first time he had seen the light of day since the age of 19.   He was 31.

Sarah then volunteered at HMP The Mount for 18 months.  She was elevated to Tutor when the prison realised she was capable of working alone with 16 soon to be released men.  Every Monday afternoon Sarah did her best to prepare the boys and men for release – CV preparation, interview technique, setting up in small business and running a franchise.  But what the men also wanted was someone to talk to, someone normal, who didn’t work for the prison.  It was at this point Sarah decided to formalise her one to one chats – she decided to train as a Counsellor.

Since then she has worked as a Trainee Counsellor with young offenders at HMP Aylesbury and set up and ran the entire counselling service at HMP Portland.  Sarah could never quite understand how she related so well to offenders, never having broken the law herself!  Her ADHD diagnosis in 2015 explained that.  A huge amount of prison inmates are diagnosed – and undiagnosed – ADHD.  Their risk-taking and boundary-breaking tendencies made perfect sense to her.

Whilst busy running Headstuff Therapy, Sarah has never forgotten her roots and still volunteers at an addiction charity as many hours as she can find.

Her passion is helping newly diagnosed ADHD people make sense of their diagnosis.

She also specialises in working with young ADHD (usually) boys who are getting into trouble with the law.  Keeping them out of prison is her goal!

Currently Studying Working with Addiction & Complex Needs, Level 3

Lynda

Mother of 2 ADHD Sons now aged 20+

ADHD COUNSELLOR & CBT THERAPIST, ADHD COACH

Lynda is a vastly experienced counsellor who brought up not one, but two ADHD sons!  One diagnosed Inattentive, one Hyperactive.  She guided them through some pretty hairy teenage years but they are both now in their 20’s and both starting out on their careers and so far doing well!

Lynda is also the reason Headstuff Therapy exists at all ….. for it was her who was counselling Sarah when she spotted ADHD traits in her.  It was Lynda who felt so strongly that Sarah was ADHD, even when a private, supposed ADHD specialist psychiatrist told Sarah she was not ADHD, Lynda encouraged her to not give up and to go somewhere else, so sure was she Sarah was ADHD.

Lynda’s knowledge of ADHD comes not only from bringing up two ADHD sons, but also from working with ADHD teenager and adults for many years.  Both male and female.

Lynda is a highly experienced counsellor with 25+ years’ experience.  She has worked as a Diploma Level Counselling Tutor and is a qualified Counselling Supervisor.

Lynda is passionate about helping people with ADHD and she believes the best part of someone finally finding out they are ADHD is that everything suddenly makes sense.

Qualifications

Trained in Humanistic Counselling integrating Transactional Analysis, Gestalt and Person-Centred Theories

Advanced Diploma in Humanistic Counselling (University of Wolverhampton)

Certificate in Transactional Analysis 101 (Institute of Transactional Analysis)

Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CPCAB)

Certificate in Supervision (CPCAB)

Certificate in Education (University of Southampton)

Life Coaching & Personality Testing (JCA)

DID Training with PODS

Diploma in Life Coaching

E.F.T.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

Member of the BACP, The British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy, Registration Number 051281

Sam

Mother of ADHD Son & Daughter

BA COUNSELLOR & ADHD COACH

Samantha is a fully qualified BACP registered counsellor and life coach.

Samantha has an 18-year-old son with ADHD/ODD and a 28-year-old daughter awaiting diagnosis of ADHD. She herself is awaiting diagnosis of combined ADHD. Although Samantha had recognised a difference in her son, when a primary school teacher pointed out there may be an issue with his behaviour, Samantha was not happy! At first not wanting to think there was anything “wrong” with her son, she was reluctant to take things further. However, she agreed to a referral and he was very quickly diagnosed ADHD/ODD.

At this time Samantha was studying a Counselling Degree. It was then that she started to study ADHD in detail. Samantha wrote a dissertation on why Counsellors should receive training in ADHD. She could see mental health services in her area were letting her son down. He was getting no ADHD help from his Doctor, CAMHS, the education system or schools’ counsellors.

Samantha is passionate about raising ADHD awareness in Wales. Also educating and supporting clients with ADHD and families of children with ADHD. Samantha and her son had no help and no support, and she is working hard to change this. There was no adult ADHD support in Wales so she has started a local support group and wants to reach as wide an area as possible.

It was during her Counselling training that Samantha started to realise she too had many symptoms of ADHD. With her extensive research and knowledge of ADHD she believes she is ADHD Combined type. As we know there is a strong genetic link for ADHD. Samantha is currently awaiting her diagnosis. With much research and by coaching herself, Samantha managed to leave University with a Foundation Degree in Counselling and went on to study for a BA (Hons) in Counselling, covering Neurobiology, CBT and Children and Young People.

Having been through some very distressing years with an adolescent ADHD boy and dealing with her adult daughter, suffering from anxiety and overthinking due to her undiagnosed ADHD, Samantha has a great understanding and first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to live with ADHD at its worse. This makes her an empathetic and kind counsellor. She can relate with her clients as she has personal experience of ADHD.

Qualifications

Introduction to Counselling Skills level 2 2015

Counselling Skills level 3 2016

SEREN – Understanding the Impact of Sexual Abuse and Working Safely and Sensitively with Survivors 2016

Certificate – Understanding Depression and Anxiety 2016

Crisis Negotiation Training 2016

Certificate – Understanding and Working Safely with the Effects of Trauma 2016

Certificate – Trauma and Vicarious Trauma 2017

Foundation Degree in Counselling 2018

Coaching Young People 2018

Coaching for Mental Health 2019

Certificate Working On-Line 2019

BA (Hons) Degree Counselling – including Neurobiology, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy & Children and Young People (Graduates June 2019)

Anita

Mother of ADHD daughter

CHILD & ADOLESCENT SUPPORT WORKER, MENTAL HEALTH MENTOR, COACH

Anita has over 25 years’ experience working with children, teens & adults with communication difficulties and in the past 15 years has developed a pro-active enthusiasm in the field of ADHD. Anita is passionate about an individual’s right to fair education and life experiences. She believes awareness leads to opportunity, with neurodiversity being an asset to be embraced.

Anita feels that due to the challenging nature of ADHD, a child or adult may have experienced mainly negative messages – conditions of worth, which can hugely impact on the individual, leading to crippling, negative beliefs about themselves, in not feeling good enough, valued or accepted for who they really are. The conditions of worth taken on from others expectations are NOT our own and she understands how these can leave an individual feeling worthless and lost with no hopes, no dreams and in a state of alertness to react defensively, a horrible place for anyone to be, but yet a way of survival.

Anita believes that through building a safe, trusting relationship a more resilient, positive way of looking at daily struggles can be adopted, bringing a more flowing, balanced approach which can make life feel less difficult, with YOU feeling in control.

She is a great believer in self-care, so how you respect, treat and take care of yourself is a priority in working together.

Anita has experience working with children aged 2-18 yrs with a range of speech, language, communication difficulties, along with offering family and school support. She has also worked with young offenders and supported young adults with mental health needs.

Anita will qualify as an integrative counsellor in 2019. She very much works from a person centred philosophy, where she offers trust and empowerment in believing the client has the inner ability for developing their own solutions. She will also be trained in CBT and psychodynamic approaches, which she believes can be hugely worthwhile in assisting a person to gain acceptance, understanding and self-management at challenging & difficult periods in life.

Anita is available to see clients in the West Midlands, Worcestershire and Staffordshire areas.

She also works nationally by telephone and online.

Qualifications

N.N.E.B (CACHE Diploma), 1988

Mental Health First Aid, 2015

NOCN Mentoring Practice & Skills Certificate, 2015

NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills, 2015

NCFE Level 3 Counselling Diploma, 2016

EDEXCEL Level 5 Therapeutic Counselling Diploma, graduate 2019

Member of the BACP, The British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy, Registration Number 00919711

Child protection & Adult safeguarding training

Conflict resolution

Resilience training

CPR Life Support training

Deaf awareness

ASD awareness

Equality & Diversity training

Niall

HUMANISTIC THERAPEUTIC COUNSELLOR

Niall was diagnosed with ADHD in 2005 at the age of 25. He had struggled with every aspect of life up until that point and has dramatically turned his life around through gaining knowledge and understanding of his condition.

Once he identified the lack of services for Adults with ADHD in Northern Ireland he became a founder of Adult ADHD NI. Through this, he has over six years’ experience supporting and counselling adults impacted by ADHD including parents.

Through specialised integrative ADHD counselling Niall has enabled those affected by ADHD to become more aware of their condition, learn how it affects them and to not only accept it but to embrace their ADHD. Through counselling he has supported people back to education, helping them to overcome procrastination or engaging in behaviours that hindered their quality of life. In line with this, Niall’s counselling has supported people gain improved social skills, reduced anxiety; deal with addictions and negative self-image.

Niall provides a safe, non-judgmental therapeutic environment that enables the individual to explore and reflect on their struggles; to develop a better understanding and acceptance of themselves and others. He uses a humanistic and integrative approach to counselling which encourages people to make positive transformations and achieve optimum levels of well-being. Niall believes in building a trusting and supportive therapeutic relationship in which one can discover or build on their inner resources.

Niall works with a broad range of issues such as depression, stress and anxiety, grief and loss, attachment issues, self-esteem, isolation and trauma.

Niall specialises in ADHD, ASD and addictions such as substance misuse, gambling and internet gaming disorder.

Qualifications

Niall has been trained in Humanistic Therapeutic counselling, Existential approaches to counselling, Psychodynamic psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Certificate in Person-centred Counselling

Diploma Counselling and Psychotherapy

BSc Honours Counselling and Psychotherapy

Niall and is a member of IACP (Irish Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy).