ADHD therapy with Carl Argent in Southend-on-Sea and online across the UK
ADHD therapy.
Room to be understood.
If you grew up trying to fit in, you may still carry the feeling that you are too much, not enough or somehow getting life wrong. ADHD therapy offers space to understand those experiences, explore their emotional and relationship impact, and develop a more accepting relationship with yourself. For adults and couples, with or without a diagnosis, in Southend-on-Sea and online across the UK.
Free no-obligation call · 20 minutes.
Therapy for the emotional and relational impact of ADHD.
You deserve understanding, including from yourself.
You may have grown up hearing “try harder” when you were already trying. Hiding difficulties or working for approval can leave a lasting sense of being too much, not enough or somehow wrong.
A mistake or someone’s disappointment may still touch those old judgements. You might apologise, withdraw or push yourself harder, while the effort remains unseen.
Therapy offers space to understand what it was like to be you. We can explore hurt, grief, anger or shame at your pace, alongside the environments and relationships that shaped your experience.
You do not have to earn acceptance by fitting in. We begin with your needs, feelings and strengths, and explore how you want to relate to yourself and others.
Medication can help manage ADHD symptoms when prescribed and monitored by qualified clinicians. My role is different: I offer understanding and support, not diagnosis, prescribing or medical treatment. Our work can sit alongside medical care; decisions about medication remain between you and your prescribing clinician.
Human behaviour is diverse, not deficient. Your needs, strengths, values and challenges are part of your humanity. Together we explore what needs compassion, what can change, and what support or adjustment may help you live with greater connection, agency and authenticity.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.Explore the feelings, meanings and relationships beneath the pattern.
An ADHD label cannot tell your whole story. We explore what attention, emotion and relationships mean in your life, alongside past experiences and present pressures.
Masking, avoidance or perfectionism may once have helped you cope, yet now leave you exhausted.
Therapy makes room to understand these patterns without judgement and explore different choices. Practical support can sit alongside the emotional and relationship work.
Our conversations may include:
Make sense of your story and reduce shame
We explore what you learned about yourself while growing up, the effort of trying to fit in and the feelings that remain. Recognition or diagnosis may bring relief, grief or anger. There is room for each of these experiences.
Understand what keeps repeating emotionally
We notice what happens before avoidance, shutdown or conflict, including worry, shame, tiredness and uncertainty. Understanding the pattern creates room for compassion and different choices.
Create more space before reacting
In sessions, you can learn practical ways to steady yourself, create space before reacting and strengthen attentiveness. We start with manageable steps and build only when you are ready.
Understand conflict around memory and follow-through
We explore how missed tasks, reminders and unequal responsibility affect trust and connection, then agree supportive changes without blame, nagging or parent–child roles.
Create more choice
ACT helps you notice difficult thoughts and feelings without letting them decide what happens next, so you can act according to your values.
Recognise strengths without minimising difficulty
We make room for creativity, energy, curiosity, humour and resilience while staying honest about impairment and impact. Strengths are resources to work with, not reasons to dismiss the support you need.
Who is ADHD therapy for?
ADHD patterns differ. With or without a diagnosis, therapy explores the biological, psychological, relational and social influences on your life.
Adults with an ADHD diagnosis
Diagnosis can bring relief, grief or anger. Therapy helps you explore what it means, loosen shame and understand your experience.
You suspect you have ADHD
You do not need a diagnosis, or to believe ADHD is the only explanation, before starting. We explore your patterns, what contributes to them and what could help.
Please note: This is a counselling service, not an ADHD diagnostic assessment, coaching service or medical service. If your main question is whether an assessment is necessary or useful, the ADHD screening consultation may be a better starting point.Couples navigating ADHD
ADHD can affect communication, responsibilities and connection. Relationship therapy explores the interaction without blame, rebuilding empathy, clarity and shared responsibility.
ADHD can leave an emotional and relational mark.
Feeling misunderstood can affect your confidence and relationships. We can explore shame, rejection, burnout or the effort of masking, starting with what matters to you.
ACT, practical ADHD support and positive psychology can inform the work where they fit your needs.
Your experiences and choices guide the pace. There is room for strengths and difficulties without expecting you to become someone else.
Emotional Intensity & Rejection Sensitivity
Strong feelings or sensitivity to criticism can make it hard to stay in a conversation. We explore what happens for you and between you.
Masking & Relationship Strain
Keeping difficulties hidden can be exhausting. Shared responsibilities may also become a source of strain; both experiences deserve understanding.
More Space Before Reacting
Notice thoughts, feelings and impulses, and explore space for a response that fits your values.
Self-Awareness & Strengths
Make room for your needs and strengths without forcing stillness or masking.
A collaborative therapeutic process for individuals and couples.
ADHD therapy is not about conforming. It addresses shame, emotion, identity and relationships through ACT, ADHD informed practice and positive psychology.
You want to understand and heal from the inside out
- You want to process past grief, unhook from self-blame, and stop the burnout of constant masking.
- You are a couple wanting to break out of exhausting parent–child dynamics, rebuild empathy, and resolve communication hotspots.
- You want to explore the ADHD-informed understanding behind executive function, working memory, and emotional dysregulation.
- You want support that goes beyond quick fixes and helps you understand yourself, your needs and the changes that would genuinely make life easier.
- You want to develop more choice in how you respond to challenges, while building practical supports that fit your life and relationships.
Your immediate needs fall outside outpatient therapy
- You require a formal medical ADHD assessment, official diagnosis, or medication prescription service.
- You are currently experiencing an acute psychiatric emergency or immediate mental health crisis.
- Your main need is practical goal setting, routines, systems and accountability rather than emotional or relationship processing. In that case, ADHD coaching may be the more suitable service.
- You want an approach that relies on external pressure, shame, or forced accountability to push progress.
What to expect when we work together.
You can begin without a clear explanation or plan. We take time to understand your experience and agree a pace that feels manageable.
Initial Consultation
We begin with a free conversation about what brings you to therapy and whether working together feels right.
Therapeutic Exploration & Formulation
Early sessions explore your priorities, everyday patterns and relationships. There is room for recognition or diagnosis, the feelings it brings and misunderstandings you want to work through.
Ongoing Weekly Therapy
Regular sessions combine ACT, practical ADHD support and positive psychology to address shame, impulsive reactions, structure and communication.
Why ADHD-informed therapy can feel different.
Practical strategies can help, but they may be difficult to use when shame, grief, rejection or relationship strain are taking up space. Therapy slows the process down so these experiences can be understood rather than pushed aside.
If emotional pain or repeated relationship patterns are getting in the way, therapy offers space to understand them and find a more compassionate way forward.
May miss the emotional and relationship impact of ADHD
A useful system may still be hard to follow when it touches old criticism, fear of failure or relationship conflict. Therapy explores what gets activated and what the pattern means.
- Focuses primarily on planners, hacks, or forced external accountability.
- Can trigger rejection sensitivity if systems inevitably collapse.
- Overlooks partner burnout and exhausting parent–child relationship cycles.
- Leaves couples feeling stuck when willpower and standard advice fail.
Brings emotional understanding and practical support together
Person-centred therapy and ACT create space for difficult thoughts, feelings and relationship patterns. Practical support can be included, but the main work is emotional, relational and grounded in your values.
- Untangles self worth from old lazy labels and heals diagnosis grief.
- Uses ACT to create distance from harsh self-criticism and make choices guided by what matters to you.
- Explores ADHD-informed understanding to resolve relationship hotspots.
- Rebuilds partner empathy and replaces conflict with shared scaffolding.
One fee structure, shaped around how you want to work.
Format and length depend on whether you attend alone or as a couple. A limited sliding scale for financial difficulty can be discussed during the initial conversation.
Adult ADHD TherapyFor adults attending therapy individually
Relationship TherapyFor couples, partners, and relationship work
Healthcare & EAP Providers: I am a registered provider for WPA, Aviva, and VitalityHealth. All engagements of this type must be pre authorised by your provider.
Sessions are always weekly unless approaching the ending, and the fee is payable in advance of the session.
Standard Session
50 Minutes
Schedule friendly
- In Person
- Online
Extended Session
60 Minutes
More time to settle
- In Person
- Online
Standard Session
90 Minutes
Two people
- In Person
- Online
Extended Session
120 Minutes
Two or three people
- In Person
- Online
Common questions about ADHD therapy.
Clear answers about diagnosis, sessions, couples work and how to begin.
Still have a question?
Book a free consultation and we can talk through what you need. Individual consultations are 20 minutes by telephone; relationship consultations are 30 minutes by video call.
What is ADHD therapy?
ADHD therapy considers attention, memory, emotions, identity and relationships. I combine person centred counselling, ACT and practical ADHD support.
Do I need a formal ADHD diagnosis?
No. You may have a diagnosis, be waiting for an assessment or be exploring whether ADHD fits your experience. Therapy focuses on your lived difficulties and does not require you to prove a diagnosis.
Can you diagnose ADHD or prescribe medication?
No. This is counselling, not diagnosis or medical care. We can explore what diagnosis or medication means for you, but only a qualified medical professional can diagnose or advise on medication.
Can ADHD therapy help couples?
Yes. Relationship therapy explores responsibilities, communication, intimacy and trust. ADHD may explain a pattern, but boundaries, repair and shared responsibility still matter.
What happens in the free introductory call?
Individual consultations are free 20 minute telephone calls. Relationship consultations are free 30 minute Google Meet calls. You can explain what brings you, ask questions and decide whether to work together, with no obligation.
How long are sessions and what do they cost?
Individual sessions are available in different lengths, with some reduced-fee places. Please see the current individual counselling fees and relationship counselling fees for session lengths and prices. We can discuss which format fits your needs during the free introductory conversation.
Do you offer online and in-person ADHD therapy?
Yes. I work in-person from Shoeburyness, Southend-on-Sea, and online with adults and couples across the UK.
Can we also work with anxiety, low mood or burnout?
Yes. Anxiety, low mood, stress, grief and burnout may accompany ADHD or masking. We explore how they interact without blaming everything on ADHD.
Choosing an ADHD therapist who fits you
You might want to ask how a therapist understands masking, shame or a late diagnosis, and whether there is room for your experience beyond a list of symptoms. My work has a person-centred foundation and draws on ACT: we can explore difficult feelings, your values and the choices available to you. You can read about my approach, training and professional registrations before we speak.
If your main priority is planning, task initiation or practical systems, ADHD coaching may be a useful alternative. For in-person therapy, see my Shoeburyness room and access information. We can discuss online sessions if that is a better fit. Where the difficulty is mainly at work, Access to Work can fund ADHD coaching subject to DWP eligibility and approval.
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 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.