Welcome Home to Yourself: Parenting ADHD with Curiosity and Compassion
Understanding Your Own Wiring While Parenting a Neurodivergent Child
There’s a moment I often witness in parent therapy—sometimes it's quiet, sometimes tearful, sometimes said with nervous laughter. A parent comes in seeking support for their child with ADHD. We're working on regulation tools, supporting their child's big emotions, improving routines—and then it happens: "I think this might be me too."
The realization that ADHD may not just live in the child, but may echo through the parent’s own nervous system, life experience, and internal dialogue. It doesn’t mean the parent has a diagnosis or needs one—but it does mean we pause, get curious, and reflect on how these patterns live in the entire family system.
And for me, this is one of the most sacred moments in the therapy journey—because it’s the moment a parent begins to come home to themselves.
Coming Home to Yourself
At Welcome Home Family Therapy, I don’t just help families manage behavior. I help them find their way back to each other, and back to the version of themselves that feels safe, connected, and whole.
When a child is diagnosed with ADHD, it often shines a light on hidden family patterns—chronic overwhelm, emotional reactivity, perfectionism, or masking. Parents start to recognize the ways they've had to push through, carry too much, or quietly believe they were just “bad at life.” They realize they've been in survival mode, sometimes for decades.
In online parent therapy in California, we slow things down. We notice what's underneath the surface. We reconnect you not just to your child, but to yourself.
This isn’t about pathologizing—it’s about understanding. When you see yourself clearly, with compassion, it changes how you parent, how you relate to your own parents, and how you move through your daily life.
ADHD Isn't the Problem—Disconnection Is
I’ve worked with parents who spent years doubting themselves: forgetting appointments, interrupting conversations, losing track of time, or reacting more strongly than they wanted to. They labeled themselves as disorganized or scattered—or were labeled that way by their own families.
But when they learn how ADHD or neurodivergent traits show up in real life—not just the stereotypes—there’s often a mix of grief and relief.
Together, we explore:
- The emotional labor of masking.
- Why certain environments always felt overwhelming.
- What self-regulation looks like in a neurodivergent adult.
- How these patterns might have shaped your parenting style.
You don’t need a diagnosis to begin this work. And you don’t need to go it alone.
Supporting the Whole Family System
ADHD doesn’t live in a vacuum. It exists within a dynamic family system—and when one part of the system is seen, the whole system begins to heal.
- If you're raising a child with a formal diagnosis, or one who struggles with attention, impulsivity, or emotional intensity, I invite you to explore Family Counseling for Parents of ADHD and Neurodiversity.
- If your child is exceptionally bright, sensitive, or deeply emotional, and their needs seem both “too much” and “not enough” for typical systems, Family Counseling for Gifted/2e might be a better fit.
- If your child is adopted and their diagnosis brings up layered attachment dynamics or questions from extended family, you may find support through Post-Adoption Services.
- If you’re trying to co-parent with someone who doesn’t share your understanding of neurodivergence or ADHD, I offer Co-parenting Therapy Near Me for separated or divorced parents.
- If your family story includes trauma, chronic stress, or generational patterns that leave you feeling reactive, depleted, or overwhelmed, Online Family Trauma Therapy creates space to heal the nervous system from the inside out.
- And if you feel like your daily life is just too much—you’re tired, resentful, snapping at the people you love—Parent Coaching Grounded in Brain Science can help you learn to regulate first, so connection becomes possible again.
A Welcome Home for Parents, Too
In therapy, the goal isn’t perfection. It’s reconnection.
When a parent begins to feel safer in their own body, clearer about their needs, and more compassionate with their own wiring, it changes everything. The home gets calmer. Repair becomes easier. And parenting feels less like a series of meltdowns and more like an unfolding relationship.
I believe that every parent deserves to feel welcome in their own nervous system. To feel like they’re not “too much,” “too messy,” or “too emotional.” To be able to say, “I didn’t know this about myself before. Now I do. And I want to grow with it.”
Because when parents feel welcomed home to themselves, they can create a home where their children feel that too.
My motto: I help parents become the healers in the home.
How Do I Get Started?
We will have a brief screening phone call and if it feels right, we will schedule an hour-long, free phone consultation to see if we are a good match for therapy. This is my offering to you, at a time when you are struggling the most.
Book a free Discovery Call
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FAQs
What if I don’t have a formal ADHD diagnosis—can I still benefit from therapy?
Yes. Many parents I work with start noticing ADHD traits during our sessions, even without a diagnosis. You don’t need a label to start understanding yourself more deeply.
Can understanding my own traits really help my child?
Absolutely. When you understand your own wiring, you’re better able to regulate, model emotional safety, and meet your child with empathy instead of reactivity.
What if my co-parent doesn’t believe in ADHD or therapy? That’s okay. You can still make powerful changes in your home. When one parent shifts, it often ripples outward. If needed, Co-parenting Therapy Near Me offers support for navigating those differences.
What if I feel shame for missing signs in myself or my child?
That’s a very human response. We work with that shame gently and compassionately—because your insight today is the beginning of something new. Not a failure of the past.
What can I do while I am waiting for therapy to start?
My mentor, Robyn Gobbel, has a podcast called, "The Baffling Behavior Show." I invite you to list to this episode on having a vulnerable nervous system to get a flavor of how we would be working together. You can find the podcast here.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes, when we come to therapy hoping to “fix” something in our child, we realize that it’s about finding our way home. Home to our child. Home to our nervous system. Home to ourselves.
At Welcome Home Family Therapy, that’s the work I love most—helping parents become the steady, compassionate anchor in their family. Not through more control, but through more connection.
Because connection is the real intervention. And feeling safe in who you are is the beginning of everything.
You Deserve Support
We will have a brief screening phone call and if it feels right, we will schedule an hour-long, free phone consultation to see if we are a good match for therapy. This is my offering to you, at a time when you are struggling the most.
Book a free Discovery Call