ADHD therapy and coaching with Carl Argent in Southend-on-Sea and online across the UK
What would it mean
to flourish with ADHD?
I offer counselling and coaching for ADHD, depending on your needs. Whether you are coming to terms with a diagnosis or exploring experiences that may relate to ADHD, there is room to make sense of your story. Counselling can help you revisit the past with more compassion, while coaching supports practical steps towards the life you want. For adults and couples in Southend-on-Sea and online across the UK.
Free introductory conversation · No obligation to continue.
Understanding yourself. Finding your way forward.
You may be making sense of a recent diagnosis, wondering whether ADHD relates to your experiences, or looking for support with the everyday things that feel harder than they seem to for other people.
Counselling offers space for the feelings, relationships and past experiences you bring. Coaching helps you turn what you learn about yourself into practical steps. We can talk about which approach fits your needs and agree how we will work together.
I work with adults individually and with couples, in Shoeburyness, Southend-on-Sea, and online across the UK. You do not need a diagnosis to begin.
Making sense of your past with more compassion.
An ADHD diagnosis can bring relief. It can also leave you wondering what might have been different if someone had understood sooner. You may feel grief, anger, uncertainty or a mixture of all of these.
Counselling gives you room to talk about what the diagnosis means to you, at your pace. We can revisit school, work and relationships, and the things you learned to believe about yourself. Experiences you once described as laziness, carelessness or failure may begin to look different when you consider your needs, circumstances and the support you had.
Reframing the past does not mean explaining everything through ADHD or dismissing the impact on others. It means finding a fuller, kinder understanding of what happened, making room for repair where it matters, and deciding what you need now.
You are more than a diagnosis. There is space to reconnect with your strengths, values and the parts of yourself that may have been hidden by years of trying to fit in.
More to your story than the things you find difficult.
When so much attention has gone to what you struggle with, it can be hard to recognise what matters to you and the qualities you already bring. We can explore your strengths and values alongside masking, old criticism and the support you need, without minimising difficulty.
Explore your strengths
Reflect on the qualities you draw on across your life, including those you may overlook or find harder to express.
Explore your values
Use the Schwartz values assessment to notice your priorities and where different things you care about pull in different directions.
I can help you make sense of your results in a conversation shaped by what you need. You can begin without completing either tool.
Explore what this means for youFree introductory conversation, with no obligation to continue. These are reflective tools, not diagnoses. Reports include automatic reflections and are sent to you and me.ADHD-informed support, grounded in counselling.
I am an ADHD-informed therapist and understand how ADHD can affect individuals and couples. I have completed the UK Adult ADHD Network’s (UKAAN) Diagnosis and Assessment course, which has developed my understanding of how specialist assessments work and what assessors explore.
This informs how I help you talk through experiences that may relate to ADHD, consider whether you would like to pursue a specialist assessment, and make sense of a diagnosis. We can reflect on the examples and questions you may want to bring to an assessor.
I do not have the clinical training and experience needed to assess whether ADHD-like symptoms are better explained by other mental health conditions. That part of a diagnostic assessment needs an appropriately qualified specialist healthcare professional, such as a psychiatrist or another clinician trained and experienced in ADHD assessment. My UKAAN course does not qualify me to provide a formal diagnosis.
My role is to offer counselling and coaching. My counselling is grounded in a person-centred approach and also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), helping you make room for difficult thoughts and feelings and choose steps guided by what matters to you.
You do not need to have it all worked out.
If you have an ADHD diagnosis
We can explore what it means for your identity, confidence and relationships. There is room for relief and difficult feelings, alongside finding ways of coping that fit your life.
If you are wondering about ADHD
We can talk through potential symptoms and the experiences behind them without assuming ADHD is the explanation. You can consider whether you want a specialist assessment and what you hope it might help you understand.
If ADHD affects your relationship
We can explore misunderstandings around attention, memory, responsibilities and emotional reactions. Couples counselling makes room for both people’s experiences, helping you communicate, repair hurt and agree supportive changes without blame.
Less self-criticism. More understanding and choice.
We can look at overwhelm, masking, emotional intensity, relationships and the effort of meeting everyday demands. You may feel exhausted by trying to keep up or worry that letting people see your difficulties will change how they feel about you.
Together we can notice what happens before you become overwhelmed, withdraw or react. Understanding these patterns can help you recognise your limits, communicate what you need and create a little more space for a different response.
We will take your circumstances seriously too. Work expectations, family demands and environments that do not fit your needs can all affect how you cope. The aim is to find support and adjustments that help you live more comfortably as yourself.
Room for the difficulties that can come alongside ADHD.
For some people, living with ADHD also involves difficulties with eating, managing anger or using alcohol or other substances. These experiences are not inevitable, and we will not assume ADHD explains everything. Counselling gives you space to understand what is happening for you, without judgement.
Eating, weight and body image
We can explore emotional eating, your relationship with food and feelings about your body. If you are living with obesity, there is room to talk about its emotional impact, stigma and self-criticism, and what support you need. Your weight does not define your worth.
Anger and strong emotions
We can look at what happens before anger builds, how you express it and its effect on you and others. Together we can explore ways to pause, communicate your needs and repair relationships, while taking responsibility for your behaviour.
Alcohol and substance use
If you are concerned about your use of alcohol or other substances, we can explore the role it plays in your life, what you may be trying to cope with and the changes you would like to make.
We will agree what falls within my counselling training and experience. Where needed, I can support you alongside your GP, a dietitian or specialist eating disorder or addiction services. Counselling here does not replace medical care, specialist treatment or support with withdrawal.
Start with the life
you want to grow towards.
Positive Psychology brings an exciting focus to ADHD coaching: what helps you flourish. We begin with what already works for you: interests that draw you in, strengths you use naturally and conditions that help you follow through. We build on these as you grow towards the life you want.
Careful listening gives us room to understand your experience and consider new possibilities. I offer presence, honest conversation and respectful challenge so you can feel heard, question familiar assumptions and discover your own way forward. We adapt practical support to your attention, energy and circumstances.
Meaning and motivation
Explore what you care about, what interests you and what makes an aim worth pursuing. We make room for your own priorities and the realities of your life.
Your individual strengths
Strengths are your ways of thinking, acting and relating that help you put what matters into practice. Curiosity might draw you into learning, creativity help you find a route into a task, or kindness shape a conversation. We explore your own strengths and the conditions in which they help you.
Connection and self-trust
Consider the relationships and shared agreements that support you. Use realistic experiments and honest reflection to develop confidence in your own decisions.
Wellbeing and sustainable progress
Include enjoyment, energy, recovery and life beyond achievement. Useful progress can involve changing the environment, asking for support or reducing a demand.
This is the same Positive Psychology approach that runs through all my coaching, adapted to your experience of ADHD. We make room for frustration and uncertainty as well as possibility.
Think together.
Find what works for you.
A genuine coaching relationship gives you someone to think alongside you. I listen closely, notice what supports you and adapt the conversation to what helps you think, choose and act.
Notice your patterns
We explore the interests, routines and surroundings that already help you. Noticing when things go well gives us something useful to build on.
Find a fit for you
We can slow down, use a visual explanation, capture a thought or rehearse a conversation. We choose the approach together, according to what helps you think and follow through.
Learn from what works
Bring back what you tried and what you noticed. We explore what helped, make adjustments and develop support that fits your attention, energy and everyday life.
What would you like more room for?
Coaching can support your chosen direction at home, in relationships and at work. Select an area to explore.
Meaningful work and learningProjects, career choices and support at work.
Develop a project, explore a career direction or make room for a strength you want to use. Consider priorities, task structure and the support around your work.
Interests and everyday lifeInterests, routines and a useful starting point.
Give attention to an interest, a home project or a routine you value. Explore ways of making intentions visible and finding a manageable starting point.
Relationships and shared understandingConversations, needs and shared agreements.
Clarify responsibilities, needs and expectations. Prepare conversations that help you and the people around you build workable agreements.
A week with room to liveTime, transitions, commitments and recovery.
Consider time, transitions, rest and recovery alongside commitments. Test a rhythm that supports what matters without expecting every day to be the same.
Explore your experience.
Experiment with what helps.
We agree a personally meaningful focus and adapt the work to your needs, interests and surroundings.
Create a useful map
Explore what you want, what already helps and how attention, energy and context shape your day. We can develop a practical plan together as part of our sessions.
Choose a small experiment
We might make time more visible, capture an intention, change the first step of a task or prepare a conversation. We choose a change because it serves your goal.
Review and adapt
Notice what happened to engagement, progress and wellbeing. Keep what helps, adjust what does not fit and consider where other support or a change in demands is needed.
Making room for an interest you value.
Suppose you want to develop a creative project alongside work and everyday responsibilities.
We could explore what draws you to it, when engagement comes more naturally and what would count as a satisfying amount of progress.
You might make the materials easier to reach, begin with a short voice note, choose a visible cue or arrange a check-in with someone. We would test one idea that fits your life.
We then review your experience, including enjoyment and energy. The conversation helps us learn what makes room for the project and what needs adapting.
This is an illustration of the process, not a client case study or a guaranteed result.
Curiosity, presence
and a practical partnership.
I hold a Positive Psychology Coaching Diploma from the Positive Psychology Guild and am an Association for Coaching Accredited Coach. We explore your own definition of a worthwhile life and the support that helps you move towards it.
You can expect attentive listening, thoughtful questions and exercises chosen for their usefulness to you. We review the work together and adapt the pace, practical steps and support to your attention, energy and everyday circumstances.
A conversation, then a way forward together.
Tell me what brings you here
A free introductory conversation gives you space to ask questions and see whether working with me feels right. You do not need a clear explanation or a plan.
Agree what you need
We discuss whether counselling, coaching or relationship work best fits your priorities, and agree the focus, session arrangements and fees.
Work at a manageable pace
We make time for understanding and reflection, try practical changes where useful, and review what is helping. You have a say in the pace and direction throughout.
Knowing when other support is needed.
I offer counselling and coaching, not formal ADHD diagnosis, prescribing or medical treatment. Our work can sit alongside care from your GP or specialist. Questions about medication belong with your prescribing clinician.
If your needs fall outside my training and experience, we can discuss more appropriate support. This service is not an emergency or crisis service; you can find information on the crisis support page.
An optional programme for a working life you value.
If you would like continuity around a work-related goal, we can work together over six sessions. Your first session is 90 minutes at £90, followed by five 60-minute sessions at £70 each: £440 in total, using the same session rates as individual therapy.
There is no additional initial consultation or planning fee. We explore your goals and strengths, try practical changes and review what helps you. The programme is optional; you can also work session by session.
Discuss ADHD supportBook the six-session ADHD programme
For employer or Access to Work funding, we will agree the arrangements first. Funding depends on eligibility and approval.
The same fees, however we work together.
Individual ADHD therapy and coaching use the same fees as my individual counselling practice. The first paid session costs the same as any other session of that length. There is no separate initial consultation or planning fee.
We can begin with a free introductory conversation, without obligation, to discuss what you need and whether working together feels right.
50-minute session
ADHD therapy or coaching, online or in person.
60-minute session
ADHD therapy or coaching, online or in person.
90-minute session
More time for ADHD therapy or coaching, online or in person.
Existing clients keep their agreed rate. For work together as a couple, please see the relationship counselling fees.
Individual counselling consultations are free 20-minute telephone calls. Coaching and relationship consultations are free 30-minute video calls.
Book a free conversationA few questions you may have.
Do I need an ADHD diagnosis?
No. We can work with your experiences and difficulties whether you have a diagnosis, are waiting for assessment or are simply wondering about ADHD.
Can you assess or diagnose ADHD?
I do not offer a diagnostic assessment. My UKAAN training helps me understand the process and support you in exploring your experiences and questions. A formal diagnosis requires assessment by an appropriately qualified specialist clinician.
Can counselling help after a diagnosis?
It can offer space to process the feelings a diagnosis brings, reconsider old self-judgements and explore what it means for your relationships and future. We start with what matters to you.
How is coaching different?
Coaching focuses on goals and practical changes in your current life. Counselling gives more space to emotional experiences, identity and relationship patterns. We can discuss which fits what you need.
Can we talk about other difficulties too?
Yes. Anxiety, low mood, grief, stress and relationship difficulties can be part of our counselling conversations. We do not need to attribute everything to ADHD, and we will discuss additional specialist support if needed.
Finding support that feels right for you
You can read about my approach, training and professional registrations, or see my Shoeburyness room and access information. The free introductory conversation is a chance to ask questions and decide whether we might work well together.
Reading for understanding ADHD.
Explore intense emotions, shame and a more compassionate understanding of your experience.
Holding it all togetherADHD Masking: Why Fighting Your Own Brain Backfires
Why your own mind can start to feel like a risk, what holding it down costs in energy and trust, and what changes when you stop fighting it.
Read the article
Understanding intense feelingsADHD Emotional Regulation: Feelings Can Get Overwhelming
Explore emotional intensity and rejection sensitivity, and ways to create a pause between a feeling and your response.
Read the article
Understanding without judgementADHD Is Not Laziness: Start with Understanding
Consider attention, motivation and shame, and why understanding your experience is more useful than judging it as laziness.
Read the articleWhat would flourishing with ADHD
mean for you?
Bring a hope, an interest or a question about your life. We can make space for where you have been and explore what you want to grow towards.