ADHD screening consultation with Carl Argent in Southend-on-Sea and online across the UK
Adult ADHD screening.
Understand your next step.
A two-hour adult ADHD screening consultation in Southend-on-Sea or online, with a personalised written summary. Explore how difficulties affect your life and whether further support or a specialist diagnostic assessment would be useful.
Free no-obligation call · 20 minutes.
£175 · Two hours · Written summary
This consultation does not provide an ADHD diagnosis.
A diagnosis describes a pattern. It does not explain your whole life.
ADHD is described clinically as a pattern that begins during development and can affect attention, activity and impulse control. That description is unhelpful because it does not tell you what is causing or maintaining the patterns in a particular person. This consultation asks a more relevant question.
A social questionADHD can also be understood as a social issue. Attention, movement, impulse control and motivation become a problem when they prevent somebody from functioning within the framework we call society. Schools, workplaces and services reward particular ways of sitting, concentrating, organising time and producing results. The question is not only why the person struggles to fit that framework. It is also whether the framework is failing to accommodate ordinary human diversity.
The starting pointThere is nothing wrong with you. The problem is fitting into social systems you did not design.
This matters because repeated messages that you are lazy, unworthy or incapable can become shame. Feeling rejected may lead to despondency, emotional overwhelm, distraction, withdrawal or acting out as ways of escaping the pain. Yet what human beings often need is connection, acceptance and the freedom to live authentically.
What would the label offer?
A diagnosis may bring relief and access to medication but we explore what you hope will change and whether formal assessment is necessary to reach that outcome.
What is shaping the pattern?
We consider development and physical health alongside emotions, relationships, education, work, stress, sleep, habits, devices, sensory demands and the environments in which you are expected to function.
What could change?
Changing your environment or behaviour may reduce some difficulties. Counselling or coaching can start with small, manageable changes. Any practical techniques are introduced and practised within sessions, at a manageable pace. Assessment and medication remain valid options when useful.
More than looking for symptoms.
This consultation brings together questionnaires and a structured conversation about the whole person. We explore attention, impulsivity and restlessness, but also ask what a label would mean to you, what is happening around the difficulties, and whether change is possible before you commit to diagnostic assessment. Questionnaires are supporting tools only. They cannot diagnose or rule out ADHD.
The important distinctionThe aim is clarity, not a diagnosis.
This independent consultation does not provide a diagnosis and cannot confirm or exclude ADHD. Diagnosis requires a full assessment by a suitably qualified healthcare professional. The aim is to help you decide whether to seek assessment, make practical changes, speak with your GP, explore counselling or coaching, or take more time before choosing.
Questionnaires and priorities
Before we meet, you’ll complete short questionnaires about attention, impulsivity and restlessness. You’ll also reflect on what you want help with. The questionnaires guide our conversation. They do not diagnose ADHD.
Your life, not just symptoms
We’ll look at childhood, education, work, relationships, health and life now. We’ll notice where patterns appear, where they do not, and what changes when you feel safe, interested, supported or under pressure.
What affects the patterns
We’ll explore how the difficulties affect daily life and what may intensify them, including stress, sleep, shame, sensory demands, devices, routines and your environment. Any concerns needing further professional input will be noted without trying to diagnose them.
Your summary and options
You’ll receive a personalised written summary covering the main concerns, their impact and practical options. It will consider whether assessment may be useful, or whether counselling, coaching or environmental changes could help more directly.
What this consultation can help you decide.
This consultation creates space to question the need for a label before you commit to a full diagnostic assessment. For £175, it can help you understand what is happening, why it matters, what might be changeable, and whether assessment is necessary for the support or choices you want. It does not predict or influence the outcome of a later assessment.
Support after consultation
Work on the difficulties whether or not you pursue a label.
Whatever you decide about assessment, you may choose separate counselling support. Counselling can explore emotions, relationships, shame and environmental pressures while helping you learn practical skills that help you cope, create space and change how you see or respond to situations and support deeper change. It does not confirm ADHD or replace diagnostic assessment or medical treatment.
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Explore present and childhood experiences without assuming ADHD is the only explanation.
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Understand how biology, experience, relationships and environment may interact in your life.
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Work through the relief, grief, anger or uncertainty that can come with a new understanding of yourself.
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Develop practical, personalised ways to change behaviours or environments that are causing difficulty.
A clearer basis for deciding what you actually need.
Your summary will record the concerns discussed, relevant examples, questionnaire scores and limitations, areas of impact, biopsychosocial influences, possible changes and whether seeking specialist assessment appears useful for your aims. It will not state that you have or do not have ADHD.
You are paying £175 for this separate screening service. It is not a deposit or part payment towards a diagnostic assessment. A GP or diagnostic provider decides whether to accept or use the summary, may request further information and may charge its usual assessment fee.
Download the fictitious sample report ↓Question the need for a label before pursuing one.
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Explore what you hope a diagnosis or label would change.
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Understand how attention, motivation, impulsivity or restlessness appear in your particular life.
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Consider the emotional, relational, social, physical and developmental context of the difficulties.
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Identify environments, expectations, habits or behaviours that may intensify the difficulties.
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Consider changes that may reduce distress or impairment without waiting for a diagnosis.
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Decide whether assessment, counselling, coaching, environmental change, medical advice or more time is the most useful next step.
Diagnose ADHD or make medical decisions.
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Give you a formal ADHD diagnosis.
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Prove that a label or diagnostic assessment is necessary or unnecessary.
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Replace the full clinical, psychosocial and developmental assessment required for diagnosis.
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Decide whether medication is suitable for you.
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Diagnose or rule out another physical or mental health condition.
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Provide medical advice, prescribe medication or replace care from your GP.
Assessment knowledge combined with a biopsychosocial counselling perspective.
I am undertaking UKAAN Adult ADHD Diagnosis and Assessment training (October 2026) alongside my professional counselling training. The assessment knowledge helps me understand what a diagnostic process considers. My counselling background allows us to question whether diagnosis is the only or most useful response to the difficulties you describe. I do not provide an independent ADHD diagnosis.
UK Adult ADHD NetworkProfessional education about adult ADHD assessment.
UKAAN is a professional network supporting the development and delivery of high-quality services for adults with ADHD. Its training is designed for professionals working with adults where ADHD assessment, recognition and support are relevant.
The training informs how I structure the consultation, including attention to developmental history, functional impact and difficulties that may have been masked or compensated for. It does not turn questionnaire results or our conversation into a diagnosis.
An important distinctionCompleting UKAAN training does not make me an ADHD diagnostician, and UKAAN has not accredited or endorsed this screening service. If the information discussed suggests that specialist assessment may be reasonable, I can explain possible next steps, but the diagnostic decision belongs to the assessing healthcare professional.
Your consultation practitionerA consultation with a qualified counsellor.
ADHD characteristics do not exist separately from the rest of your life. My counselling background means our conversation considers your body, emotions, relationships, experiences, surroundings and the meaning you have made of the difficulties, not only whether your behaviour resembles a diagnostic description.
01Qualified counsellor
Professionally trained to explore your experiences, relationships, emotions and the meaning you have made from them.
02BACP registered
My registrations relate to my counselling practice. They do not constitute accreditation or endorsement of this screening service. I work within the limits of my training and competence.
03ADHD-informed practice
I offer counselling informed by experience of working with adults who report ADHD related difficulties. Counselling does not establish whether those difficulties are caused by ADHD.
The differenceA consultation that questions as well as screens.
The aim is not to interpret a questionnaire score as a diagnosis or to direct everybody towards assessment. It is to understand the difficulties in context and ask what would genuinely help. Specialist assessment may be the right next step. Environmental change, counselling, medical advice or simply a different understanding of yourself may sometimes be more useful.
Decide what you need before committing to assessment.
If you are wondering whether you might have ADHD, you do not have to begin by assuming that diagnosis is necessary. This consultation helps you examine the label, the difficulties and the wider context before deciding whether specialist assessment is worth the cost and commitment.
Your consultationAdult ADHD Screening
Questionnaires before we meet
Completed before we meet, the questionnaires cover attention, impulsivity and restlessness. They are supporting tools, not diagnostic tests. They help identify areas to explore while leaving room for other explanations and for the wider context of your life.
✓Two hour biopsychosocial consultation
Time to explore the characteristics you report, why you are seeking a label, your developmental history, current circumstances, the effect on your life, and what might change if your environment or behaviour changed.
✓Personalised written screening summary
A written summary of the information discussed, questionnaire limitations, areas of impact, biopsychosocial context, changes you could consider, and whether assessment, counselling or coaching appears most useful for what you want to achieve. It is not a diagnosis.
✓Clear next steps
We’ll consider whether specialist assessment, counselling, coaching, environmental or behavioural change, a conversation with your GP, further information or more time would best serve you.
Two hours + written summary £175 A separate first stepAsk whether a label or assessment will add something useful.
A comprehensive ADHD assessment can be a substantial commitment. This independent £175 consultation helps you ask what you want from a label, how the difficulties manifest in your life, how much impairment they cause, and whether changes to your environment or behaviour might reduce them. It cannot estimate the likelihood of diagnosis or predict a later assessment. It can help you decide whether assessment is necessary or useful for the outcome you want.
You do not need to arrive convinced that ADHD is the answer. Curiosity about what is happening and what might help is enough.
Book an ADHD Consultation Ask me a questionAdult ADHD Screening Consultation is an independent, non diagnostic service. It does not provide a diagnosis, medical advice or treatment. It helps you decide whether assessment by an appropriately qualified healthcare professional is necessary or useful for you.
Support after consultationYou can work on current difficulties whether or not you pursue specialist assessment.
Ongoing counselling is optional, separate from the consultation and not included in the £175 fee. It can focus on the difficulties, behaviours and environmental pressures you want to change. It does not depend on an ADHD diagnosis and is charged at my usual counselling rates.
ADHD informed counselling and fees In person Southend-on-Sea Online Across the UK Appointment 2 hours Consultation fee £175Common questions about Adult ADHD Screening.
This consultation is designed to help you question, understand and decide, rather than simply move towards a diagnosis. These are some of the questions people often have before booking.
Will the screening diagnose ADHD?
No. Adult ADHD Screening does not provide a diagnosis and is not a substitute for a comprehensive diagnostic assessment.
Its purpose is to understand how the difficulties manifest, what affects them, what a label would offer, and whether a full specialist assessment is necessary or useful. Only an appropriately qualified assessing healthcare professional can diagnose ADHD.
Why question whether I need a label?
A label can offer relief, understanding, access to adjustments or the option of medication. It can also become the main explanation through which every difficulty is viewed. The important question is what the label would make possible for you.
We can consider what else may be contributing, what could change without a diagnosis, and whether formal assessment is needed to access the support you want. We are not arguing against assessment or medication. We are making sure that pursuing them is a considered choice rather than an automatic destination.
Can I take the written summary to my GP or an ADHD assessment provider?
Yes. You are welcome to share your screening summary with your GP or a diagnostic assessment provider if you decide to pursue formal assessment.
The summary may help explain why you are seeking further assessment. It is not a referral, medical report or diagnostic opinion. Your GP or another provider decides what weight to give it and may carry out its own screening and assessment process.
Do I need school reports or someone who knew me as a child?
Not necessarily. Developmental history is an important part of understanding possible ADHD, so any information from childhood can be helpful, including school reports or memories from parents, siblings or other people who knew you well.
Many adults no longer have access to this information, and its absence does not prevent screening. We can still explore what you remember about childhood and education. The summary will record when independent childhood information was unavailable, as this may limit what a later diagnostic provider can conclude.
Can we work on the difficulties without a formal diagnosis?
Yes. You do not need a formal diagnosis to begin working on the difficulties affecting your life.
Counselling can address current difficulties whether or not you decide to seek specialist assessment. It remains separate from this consultation, does not establish a diagnosis and is charged at my usual counselling rates.
Should I book screening if I already know I want a full ADHD assessment?
You may not need this separate screening. If you have already decided to seek a full diagnostic assessment, it may be more direct to approach your GP or an appropriately qualified specialist provider. Check the provider’s qualifications, scope, fees and terms before booking.
This separate consultation is intended for people who want to understand the difficulties in context and decide whether assessment is necessary or useful before committing to it.
Can I have the screening online?
Yes. Adult ADHD Screening is available online across the UK as well as in person in Southend-on-Sea.
The same non diagnostic scope and written summary apply whether we meet online or in person.
Screening, diagnosis or support: choosing your next step
You may want a clearer account of your experiences before deciding what to do. This consultation offers reflection and a written summary; it cannot confirm or rule out ADHD. It is not a required step before seeking a specialist assessment, and you can speak to your GP directly. The NHS guide to adult ADHD assessment explains that route.
If you already know you want support, you can explore ADHD therapy or ADHD coaching without booking screening first. Read my qualifications and the practical arrangements for meeting before deciding. If ADHD is affecting your working day, coaching may be fundable through an Access to Work grant subject to DWP eligibility and approval.
Reading while exploring ADHD.
Understand experiences you may want to discuss. These articles cannot confirm or rule out ADHD.
Noticing everyday patternsWhy Living with ADHD Can Feel So Exhausting
Reflect on masking, mental effort and exhaustion, and which experiences you would like to explore in a consultation.
Read the article
Understanding differenceADHD Is Not Laziness: Start with Understanding
Explore why attention, motivation and organisation difficulties deserve curiosity rather than a judgement about character.
Read the articleYou don’t need the whole story.
Just a place to begin.
We can talk about what brings you here, what you might need and whether working together feels right for you.