ADHD & AuDHD Counselling for Adults & Older Teens (16+)
Virtual counselling in Alberta

You may have been recently diagnosed with ADHD or AuDHD. Or you’re starting to wonder if it’s been there all along. At first, it can feel like things are finally making sense. But at the same time… it can open up a whole new layer of confusion. You start looking back and seeing things differently. The burnout. The overwhelm. The constant feeling of being behind. And that question keeps coming up: “Why has this always felt harder for me?”

This page is for adults and older teens who are looking for ADHD or AuDHD counselling with a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) and trying to understand what they’re experiencing.

When It Starts to Become Noticeable 

For a lot of people, ADHD or AuDHD becomes more noticeable during times when life is already demanding more. It might show up when:

• stress keeps building and doesn’t ease up

• your usual ways of coping stop working

• your focus, memory, or patience feels different from how it used to

• your body is going through changes (including mid-life or hormonal shifts)

• grief, loss, or past experiences start to surface in new ways

It’s not always something new. It’s often something that’s been there for a long time - just harder to ignore now. 

It’s Not Just About Focus

ADHD and AuDHD are often talked about as attention or concentration issues. But most people quickly realize it’s much more than that. It can affect:

• how you keep track of time

• how you start or finish things

• how you handle stress or pressure

• how your emotions build and settle (Dawson & Guare, 2016)

• how your energy comes and goes

• how you manage everyday tasks, even simple ones

So, it’s not just about “paying attention.” It’s about how everything connects and moves together - your thoughts, your energy, your emotions, and your day-to-day life.

What ADHD and AuDHD Mean

ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) is not just about being distracted or hyper. It affects how your brain manages attention, energy, emotions, and everyday tasks (Pond et al., 2019). It can show up as difficulty focusing, starting or finishing things, feeling restless, or having your thoughts move quickly from one thing to the next.

Autism (often called being on the spectrum) relates more to how a person experiences and responds to the world. This can include differences in communication, sensory sensitivity (like noise, light, or touch), routines, and how social interactions feel or are understood (Grandin & Panek, 2013).

AuDHD is a term people use when both ADHD and autistic traits are present. This can feel like a mix of both:

• needing structure, but struggling to keep it

• wanting things to make practical, clear sense, but also feeling mentally overloaded

• having strong focus at times, and completely shutting down at others

It’s not one or the other - it’s how both sets of patterns interact in your day-to-day life (Prizant & Fields-Meyer, 2015). 

Why It Can Feel So Frustrating

You may have already tried:

• planners, routines, or systems that didn’t last

• pushing yourself harder to stay on track

• telling yourself to “just get it together”

And when those things didn’t work, it may have felt like a personal failure.

But often, it’s not about a lack of effort, it’s about trying to use strategies that don’t match how your brain actually works. Over time, using things that don’t fit how your brain works can lead to:

• stress that keeps building in the background

• feeling scattered, stuck, or unsure where to start

• second-guessing yourself more often

• burnout that doesn’t fully go away, no matter how much you rest (Stibbe et al., 2020)

Looking at the Full Picture

ADHD and AuDHD rarely show up on their own. They often overlap with things like:

• long-term stress or burnout

• anxiety or low mood

• grief that hasn’t fully been worked through

• trauma responses or patterns in the body (like shutting down emotionally, overreacting, people-pleasing, always being on edge, muscle tension, trouble sleeping, or restlessness) 

• big life changes that can shift your sense of identity (such as graduation, starting, losing, or retiring from a job, relationship changes, parenting, health changes, or mid-life hormonal shifts)

When everything is layered together, it can be hard to tell what’s coming from where. 

How Shelley Works With ADHD / AuDHD

I bring both professional insight and personal experience into this work.

We don’t rush into solutions. We start by taking a step back - or “zooming out” - and gently sorting through those layers. We’re not trying to fix something broken or deal with everything all at once. As the layers become clearly separated, they can start to feel clearer and more manageable.

Together, we:

• notice patterns without jumping to conclusions (like where things tend to stall, when overwhelm builds, or what drains your energy the fastest)

• make sense of what you’ve been dealing with

• look at what might be ADHD or AuDHD, and what might be stress, grief, or something else

• figure out what’s been helping, and what hasn’t

From there, we begin building ways of doing things that actually fit your life. That might include:

• finding simpler ways to start and follow through on tasks

• creating structure that doesn’t feel rigid or overwhelming

• working with your natural energy instead of against it

• building steadier ways to handle stress and emotional build-up

We aren’t looking for perfect systems or creating rigid routines. Just practical ways forward that feel possible and realistic.

What ADHD & AuDHD Counselling Can Help With

Neurodivergent counselling can help you make sense of how patterns are showing up in your daily life. The focus is not on ignoring what is happening or simply “coping” your way through it. It’s about understanding what is going on, untangling what may be connected, and finding ways forward that feel more manageable and natural.

It can help with:

• feeling constantly overwhelmed or mentally “full” - by breaking things down into clearer, more manageable steps

• difficulty starting, finishing, or keeping up with tasks - by finding approaches that actually fit how you function

• emotional build-up that feels hard to manage - by learning to notice it sooner and respond in more helpful ways

• ongoing burnout or exhaustion - by finding what is draining you and where change may help

• life changes that feel hard to keep up with - by creating steadier ways to move through change

• grief, loss, or unresolved stress - by making space to understand and process it instead of carrying it alone

• trying to understand a late ADHD or AuDHD diagnosis - by connecting the dots in a way that feels clearer and less overwhelming

• finding ways to work with your brain instead of against it — so daily life can start to feel less like a constant push

You don’t have to have everything figured out before starting counselling.

The goal isn’t to fix you or turn you into someone else. It’s to help things make more sense.

To help you find a place where: you’re not constantly pushing against yourself, your days feel a little more manageable, the pressure starts to ease, and you can move forward in a way that actually works for you. 

If you’re starting to question whether ADHD or AuDHD might be part of your story, you don’t have to sort it out on your own. I'm here for you.

If you don’t have a formal diagnosis but you’re interested in getting one, I can connect you with a psychologist I work closely with who specializes in ADHD and AuDHD testing and diagnosis. You don’t have to navigate that process alone either.