It was never a character flaw. It was your brain trying to survive.
Most late-diagnosed ADHD adults don’t end up in therapy because life is “a little busy.” They come in because something finally breaks. The mask slips. The burnout hits. The shame gets too loud to outrun.
I work with adults who’ve spent a lifetime feeling “too much.” Too distracted. Too sensitive. Too intense. I get it. I was also late diagnosed and I’m still in it. I know what changes when someone finally stops asking what’s wrong with them.
About Samantha Skvaril, LCPC, ADHD-CCSP
I’m not a regulated expert who has it all together.
I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 30 years old. So, I am still in the work, not above it.
This matters because the version of therapy you’ve probably had before required you to do most of the translation. You probably had to explain what your brain does, convince someone it wasn’t laziness, and do the emotional labor of educating the person you were paying to help you.
You don’t have to do that here. I already get it. & not just because I read about it. Because I live it.
I also don’t perform neutrality. I’m not a blank slate. I name harm when I see it, including the harm done by systems that were built without your nervous systems in mind. That’s not separate from the clinical work. It is the clinical work.
MY APPROACHWhat therapy with me looks like
We start with the shame. Not the symptoms. Not the planner. Not the routine. The shame is the operating system running underneath every failed attempt. Skills don’t stick until that gets touched.
You might come in because you can't start tasks. Or because RSD is running every decision you think you're making freely. Or because you just got diagnosed and you're somewhere between relief and grief and you don't know who you are anymore. All of that belongs here.
We'll work on the nervous system stuff. The regulation, the executive function, the masking, the burnout. But we'll also work on the part of you that's been calling yourself a fuck-up for thirty years. That's the part that has to soften before anything else moves.
You won't get worksheets you'll forget to print. You won't get scripted meditations you’re too dysregulated to do. You won't get someone who needs you to perform progress to feel like a good therapist.
You'll get someone direct. Someone who swears when it's the right word. Someone who doesn't mistake your exhaustion for resistance. Someone who already gets it.
If you’re interested in the longer version of how I think about shame and ADHD, it's here.
License & Qualifications
M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Roosevelt University
Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), Illinois (#180015350)
Applying Internal Family Systems to Complex Clinical Issues (4-Part Series with Richard Schwartz, PhD) - NICABM
Direct Access in IFS: A Practical Clinical Deep Dive (2/25/26)
ADHD-CCSP Certification - advanced training in ADHD treatment for adults
Brainspotting Phase 1 - Somatic therapy for trauma healing and regulation
Ready When You Are.
You don’t have to have it together to reach out. That’s kind of the point.
