From Overwhelmed To Embodied: What's The Body Got To Do With ADHD?

Image: a person floats in water as the sun sets.

If you live with ADHD, you have probably tried every productivity hack on the internet and still end your day feeling scattered, stressed, and exhausted. Many adults with ADHD struggle not just with focus and follow‑through, but with intense emotions, self‑criticism, and relationship stress that most “tips and tricks” completely ignore.

In fact, most approaches to ADHD completely ignore the rest of the body below the neck!

This is a huge oversight. Emotions are often called "feelings" for a reason - we feel them. In our twisting guts, in our tense shoulders, in our shallow breathing, in our sweaty palms.

So what?

With recent research, emotion dysregulation is now recognized as a core driver of impairment in adult ADHD. It affects self‑esteem, work, relationships, and even our life satisfaction.

If we take a look at the deeper mechanics of ADHD struggles, it's no wonder emotion regulation is so crucial.

• Think about the last time you felt unbearably flooded with emotions and sent a text or email that wasn't super helpful to your cause.

• Or, the last time you got so overwhelmed with a project, demand, or deadline that you avoided it - and you're still avoiding it.

• Or, the last time you felt so utterly guilty, ashamed, and frustrated with yourself that you shut down, or even had a melt down?

These aren't signs that there is something wrong with you, and they're not just the symptoms of ADHD that we all have to live with. They're signs that you haven't been taught a very useful model to understand  your emotions, leading you to feel out of touch with them until they're too big to deal with.

When we don't have a way to feel, understand, interpret, and relate with our emotions, it's like living in a body full of unwelcome, disruptive strangers. Our feelings come out of the blue - too fast, too strong. They feel "wrong" and "inappropriate" for the situation. They knock us off our game for hours, if not days and weeks.

And then? We try to manage our feelings. We try to stuff them down or numb them out. We try to express them. We get furious at them for only getting bigger and messier.

When we don't have a way to feel, understand, interpret, and relate with our emotions, it's like living in a body full of unwelcome, disruptive strangers.

This is a cycle of suffering. As a therapist, I see this cycle constantly. I know it intimately - I used to be stuck in it. Now, I have the incredible job of teaching skills to slow it down and even reverse the cycle's course. We can get to know our emotions so well that they start to become helpful friends - not frightening strangers.

I've taken my years of experience applying DBT emotion regulation approaches and body-based exercises to adult ADHD and packed it into live, 6-week group courses. I'm ready to launch my groups again in January 2026 because it's more efficient to get much-needed tools to 15 people at a time rather than 1-1. Plus, groups can offer much more affordable rates than 1-1 therapy.

I've seen how groups are magical - they erase stigma and ease loneliness. They take learning to the next level by allowing participants to integrate, experience, and discuss the learning in real-time.

And, they're a great way to package so much content into a structured format - delivering the tools in concrete sheets and worksheets, slides, audio recordings, and classroom time.

ADHD Reset is designed for people who are ready to move beyond surface‑level hacks and into deeper change.

This course could be a good fit if:

• You are an adult with ADHD (diagnosed or strongly suspected) who feels stuck in cycles of overwhelm, shutdown, or self‑blame, even after trying multiple productivity tools.​
  

• You care about healing your relationship with yourself and others, not just “fixing” your to‑do list. Research highlights that ADHD‑related emotion dysregulation can significantly affect relationships, self‑esteem, and life satisfaction, making this a crucial target.​
  

• You are queer, trans, or an ally and want a space where your identities are respected and central to the work, rather than treated as an afterthought.​

If you are looking for a structured, research‑informed course that blends body‑based practices, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and DBT‑informed skills to focus on what truly matters to you, this group may be a great next step.​

If you are interested, you can:

Find out more here.

Click here to schedule a brief consultation to meet me and see if the group is the right fit for you.

Or, join the waitlist for future ADHD group cohorts and receive occasional psychoeducational emails on ADHD, DBT tools, and ACT‑based coping.