ADHD Therapy for Late-Diagnosed Adults in Chicago & Illinois
“There’s no such thing as laziness. There’s only barriers to motivation.” - Unknown
ADHD Therapy, Not Executive Function Coaching
You won’t get a worksheet, you won’t get a morning routine, you won’t get a thought record. There is no perfect system standing between you and a functional life.
What you will get is a therapist who knows the terrain and understands that the reason nothing sticks isn’t that you need better tools. It’s that shame has been running the show.
We start with the self-concept built from years of being misunderstood. The grief of late diagnosis. The exhaustion of masking. We address the things that are actually keeping you stuck. The skills come after. They always work better that way.
What Shame-First ADHD Therapy Means
Shame-first ADHD therapy treats internalized shame as the primary clinical target rather than a side effect of ADHD symptoms. The shame work comes before the skill-building, because executive function strategies don't hold on a nervous system that has already decided it's going to fail.
Most ADHD treatment runs the opposite order. It starts with systems, planners, and accountability structures, and treats the self-blame underneath as something that will resolve once the systems are working. For late-diagnosed adults, that order is backwards. The self-concept was built first, over decades, and it filters every tool you try before you get a chance to use it.
In practice that means the first thing we do is not build you a better system. It's take apart the one you've been running on.
Online ADHD Therapy for Adults Across Illinois
Whether you’re in Chicago or in the suburbs.
All sessions are online, no commute, no waiting room, no performing okayness in a parking lot before you walk in.
The Practical Stuff
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Adults 18+ anywhere in Illinois with ADHD, suspected ADHD, or AuDHD. No formal diagnosis required.
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Virtual only, statewide. Chicago-based practice.
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50 minutes, weekly or biweekly.
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Shame-first, skills-second. IFS-informed parts work, somatic and nervous system work, RSD-specific interventions.
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Samantha Skvaril, LCPC, ADHD-CCSP. Licensed in Illinois.
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BlueCross and BlueShield, UnitedHealthcare UHC | UBH, Cigna and Evernorth
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$160 per session. Superbills available for out-of-network reimbursement.
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Free 20 minutes.
Questions People Ask Before Booking
I've tried therapy before and it didn't help. Why would this be different?
Most therapy treats ADHD as a side note. You end up working on the anxiety, the relationship problems, or the burnout without anyone naming the thing underneath them. If you've spent years in therapy that never quite landed, that's usually why. I start from the ADHD and the shame built on top of it, not from the symptoms it produced.
What if I'm not sure I actually have ADHD?
That's fine, and it's common. A lot of people arrive here after a year of reading, relating to everything, and not being able to afford or access a formal evaluation. You don't need a diagnosis to start, and you don't need to prove anything to me. If a formal assessment would be useful, we'll talk about how to get one.
Do you work with autistic and AuDHD adults?
Yes. A lot of late-diagnosed ADHD adults turn out to be autistic too, often figuring it out well after the ADHD piece. Masking, burnout, and sensory overwhelm are central to that experience and central to how I work. I'm neurodivergent-affirming, which means the goal is never to help you mask more efficiently.
Can therapy help if I'm already on medication?
Medication can change what your brain is capable of in a given moment. It doesn't touch what you believe about yourself after thirty years of falling short. Most people find meds handle the attention and therapy handles everything the attention problems cost them. They do different jobs.
Feel Familiar?
🪫 THE EMPTY THAT DOESN'T FILL
you’re not running low. you’re running on a deficit that’s been accumulating for years. masking takes energy. performing okayness takes energy. doing everything twice as hard to look like you’re keeping up takes energy. at some point the tank just stays empty.
🌀 THE LIST YOU REWROTE TWELVE TIMES
you didn’t forget the task. you rewrote it on four different lists. you just couldn’t start it. that’s not laziness. that’s executive dysfunction. and no planner has ever fixed it because the planner was never the problem.
🔄 THE WORDS THAT WERE RIGHT THERE
you had them. you knew exactly what you wanted to say. someone interrupted you and now they’re gone. and the things that’s hardest to explain is that it doesn’t feel like losing a thought. it feels like losing yourself mid-sentence.
⚡ THE REST THAT DOESN'T WORK
you finally sit down. you’re not doing anything. and somehow you feel guilty for every second of it. your body is still. your brain has seventeen tabs open and three of them are frozen.
🫥 THE SOCIAL MATH THAT NEVER ADDS UP
you’re either completely in or completely gone. texting everyone back immediately or ghosting for three weeks and spiraling about it. there’s no casual. there’s no in-between. and every time you disappear you write another entry in the evidence file about what’s wrong with you.
I say the quiet part out loud.
Most ADHD content stops at symptoms and strategies. I don’t.
I talk about shame, late diagnosis, grief, rejection sensitivity, and why the planner industry is a predatory feedback loop.
I talk about what clinicians get wrong and what the neurodivergence movement still hasn’t said out loud.
WORTHY MOTHER PODCAST — ADHD IN MOTHERHOOD
NEWSWEEK — BATHROOM HABITS AS SIGNS OF ADHD IN WOMEN
🎧 Podcast interviews
📰 Article features
🎤 Panels & events
You don’t have to have it together to reach out.
If you’re in Illinois and you’re tired of the gap between knowing and doing — this is where that starts to close.
