Adult ADHD Therapy in Los Angeles for People Diagnosed Late
An adult ADHD therapist is most often needed not at the point of diagnosis but at the point the compensations fail. School was manageable. A parent ran the calendar. The job was structured enough that nothing visibly broke. Then a promotion, a second child, a relocation or a bereavement arrived, and the workarounds stopped covering the gap.
Michael Nee, M.A., LMFT (#89379) works with adult ADHD from an office at 13101 W. Washington Boulevard, Suite 454, Los Angeles, CA 90066 in Mar Vista, and by telehealth throughout California.
Why It Gets Missed and Misdiagnosed
Without the hyperactive presentation, ADHD is considerably harder to identify, and rumination tends to be worse. That combination gets read as an anxiety or depressive disorder. Both may genuinely be present. Treating only those, though, leaves the mechanism underneath running.
Emotional dysregulation is usually the symptom doing the real damage, not inattention. It is also the one least often addressed by a prescription alone.
What Adult ADHD Therapy Involves
Practical systems for the parts of life ADHD reliably degrades — time, follow-through, task initiation, transitions — built around how your attention actually behaves rather than how it is supposed to. Alongside that, work on the accumulated shame of years of being told you were careless, lazy or inconsiderate.
Medication was once the first and often only intervention. Current practice combines behavioural strategy with psychoeducation, and some people prefer to work without it entirely. Coordination with a prescribing psychiatrist is straightforward where it helps.
ADHD in Relationships and at Work
Inside a couple, ADHD often becomes the engine of the argument. Forgotten dates read as indifference. The partner with ADHD may never have connected the two. Naming it is not an excuse; it is the beginning of being accountable for the effect. This work can be done individually or in couples therapy.
At work, the usual presentations are projects stalled at ninety percent, an inbox used as a to-do list, and an appraisal that says “inconsistent” every year.
Book a Free Consultation
See the full ADHD therapy page, or call (310) 927-1755 for a free 15 to 40 minute consultation. Related: anxiety and depression.