Couples and ADHD: Making Your Family’s Life Better - Online

This 5-week program, given by ADHD Embrace and relationship experts Ashley Paradise, Senior Consultant, ADHD & Marriage Consulting and Melissa Orlov, Founder of ADHDmarriage.com provides the information and strategies couples need to strengthen their bonds and their family’s happiness.

Session 1: Introduction to How ADHD Impacts Couples

This session provides an overview of how ADHD is likely impacting both of you and your relationship. The presence of symptoms – and responses to those symptoms – encourage specific patterns that can stress your love for each other. We’ll cover:

· How different you are from each other, and why

· An overview of the most important ‘ADHD Effect’ patterns

· Identifying negative interactive cycles that hurt your love for each other

· A top-level overview of what optimized treatment for ADHD looks like

· The importance of emotional dysregulation for ADHD-impacted couples

Session 2: Parent-Child Dynamics and What To Do About Them

The most important negative pattern that most ADHD-impacted couples face is Parent-Child Dynamics. In this pattern, one partner is inconsistent while the other over-functions to compensate for that inconsistency. This leads to resentment and anger that poisons your interactions. But it’s a hard pattern to get away from. We’ll cover:

· What Parent-Child Dynamics are, and why you are experiencing them

· Why the coping strategies you have in place don’t work

· The best approach to moving out of this cycle

Session 3: Communication Techniques that Work

Communication in neuro-diverse couples brings its own challenges. In this session we will discuss and practice three different communication strategies shown to improve your relationship.

· Verbal cues

· Learning Conversations

· Repair techniques

Session 4: Tasks and Chores

Chances are good that the two of you are in what we call the ‘Chore Wars.’ This fighting over who does what, how it’s done, and when it’s done are typical of ADHD-impacted relationships. We will provide a path to tackle the issue. You’ll learn:

· Why the chore wars are going on

· The underlying emotions that feed the chore wars

· Various structures to support better ADHD task management

· The importance of coordinating tasks vs. delegating

· Task accountability

Session 5: Family Dynamics

ADHD is highly heritable. Since ADHD Embrace largely works with families, we are dedicating this session to issues that come up across generations in families impacted by ADHD. We’ll discuss:

· Heritability and delayed EF development – what it means for parents

· Emotional regulation in parents and kids (aka ‘your job is to stay calm’)

· Discipline with ADHD on board

· Keeping parents with different parenting styles and risk tolerance aligned

· Role models around ADHD

When: 16th September, 2024 to 14th October, 2024 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM

These sessions will be interactive and will NOT be recorded.

Event Fee: £120 per couple 

Melissa Orlov

Founder of ADHDmarriage.com and ADHD & Marriage Consulting, Melissa Orlov (she/her) is a top expert in how ADHD affects relationships. She has been writing and speaking about ADHD and couples since 2007, and she teaches couples, therapists, counselors and coaches about how ADHD impacts relationships. She offers private counseling to couples who wish to improve their ADHD-impacted relationships. Her very popular couples seminar has helped many struggling couples turn their relationships around. Melissa is the author of two award-winning books, The ADHD Effect on Marriage, and The Couple's Guide to Thriving with ADHD and contributor to several others. She has been interviewed frequently on the topic of ADHD and marriage by organizations as diverse as the New York Times, CNN, the American Psychological Association Monitor, as well as many podcasts.

Ashley Paradise

Ashley Paradise (she/her) is a senior consultant with ADHD & Marriage Consulting, specializing in working with couples impacted by ADHD. She has been a mental health professional for over 20 years. Ashley’s approach pulls from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based and psychodynamic therapies, and ADHD & Marriage practices. Her passion centers around helping those that struggle with ADHD in their professional, academic, and personal/relational life. Those closest to her say it is her warm, comp

Pricing & Assisted Places 

We charge a modest amount for our courses in order to help us cover our costs, yet we also want them to be affordable to as many people as possible. We have a limited number of assisted places for those suffering financial hardship. To apply for an assisted place, please get in touch with us ​outlining your circumstances at [email protected]