Women & ADHD

Episode 212 with Caroline Maguire “All the kids I worked with were like, 'I would love to have a friend.' All the adults were like, 'Something's wrong with me, I don't have friends.' And I was like — no, no, no. Nothing's wrong with you.” Caroline Maguire is an ADHD coach, friendship expert, and author of the new book, “Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults: A Gui...

Episode 211 with Tory Berry & Chele Morony “People say DBT is for borderline personality disorder. I’m like, what are you talking about? DBT is for everyone. One of the most common refrains that we hear in the group is ‘Where has this been? I needed this in high school!’” This episode combines two of my favorite topics: ADHD coaching and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)! Tory and Chele are a...

Episode 210 with Dani Donovan “I either get 30 minutes worth of work done in 8 hours or 8 hours worth of work done in 30 minutes — those are the only two options.” Dani is an ADHD content creator, speaker, and the celebrated author of “The Anti-Planner: How to Get Sh*t Done When You Don't Feel Like It.” Dani became an overnight sensation when a flowchart she drew mapping out her winding, ADHD...

Episode 209 with Jenna Free “I think the biggest issue is with the current ADHD narrative. People are confusing ‘fight or flight’ and ADHD; they're putting it in a bundle and calling it ADHD. Then people believe, ‘Well, this is how hard it needs to be.’” Jenna is a therapist living in Calgary, Alberta, who not only specializes in ADHD but also has ADHD herself.  Jenna was diagnosed with ADHD a...

Episode 208 with Alex Bellitter “People can feel like, ‘I don’t think this is an internal thing I’m trying to work through. I feel like I’m trying to navigate my environment, and I don’t have the tools, education, and resources to do it.’” Alex is the Senior Manager of Coaching at Shimmer, an ADHD community and coaching platform that’s redefining what support can look like for ADHD brains. Alex do...

Episode 207 with Roberta Dombrowski “Work is one of the only socially acceptable forms of addiction. We get rewarded for not having boundaries and for always taking on more and more things.” Roberta is an executive coach and founder of Learn Mindfully, where she helps leaders and teams thrive from the inside out. After rising quickly through leadership roles to become a VP in the tech world at age...

Episode 206 with Madeline Grace Matthews & Karla Pretorius “I'm learning more and more how to be myself.” Madeline is 23, and she was diagnosed with autism and a mild cognitive disability as a child. Originally from the U.S., she currently lives with her missionary family in Thailand. She is also the author of the recent book “Nineteen Letters to Myself: Guided Reflections and Prompts for...

Episode 205 with Jen Fry. “I like to tell people that I’m not nice. I’m kind, but I’m not nice. I think niceness is weaponized way too much against people.” Jen is an educator, speaker, and author of the book “I Said No: How to Have Boundaries and Backbone While Not Being a Jerk.” Saying no is supposed to be simple — but for so many women with ADHD, it feels loaded with guilt, overthinking, and th...

Episode 204 with Rae Jacobson. “There is a difference between traits and impairment. If we dilute the idea of ADHD into something that just seems familiar, we risk shutting out the people who really need help.” Rae is a journalist, an ADHD and learning disorders expert, and the Lead of Insight at Understood, where she also hosts the podcast Hyperfocus . Rae has spent over 20 years digging into the...

Episode 203 with Dr. Anupriya Gonge. “For mothers, the executive functioning demands keep shifting. Just as you find your rhythm, everything changes again.” Dr. Anupriya Gogne is a board-certified addiction psychiatrist who specializes in women’s mental health, She is also the Division Director of Outpatient Psychiatry at Brown University Health in Rhode Island. Over the past eight years, she has...

Episode 202 with Laura Kerbey. “Masking is bloody exhausting. Then again, not masking is scary because we worry people won’t like us or accept us.” Laura is an educator, consultant, and author who has been working with autistic children and young people for nearly 25 years. Laura is the founder of PAST, which stands for Positive Assessments Support and Training, and co-founder of KITE Therapeutic...

Episode 201 with Lindsey Buchanan. “ADHD doesn’t always feel like you’re the abnormal one — often it just feels like everyone else isn’t cooperating.” Lindsey is an ADHD and executive functioning coach and a member of our Women & ADHD coaching team. We talk about the surprising way she got diagnosed (spoiler: her psychiatrist sister broke it to her), the relief she felt after finally finding h...

Episode 200 with Katy and Team Women & ADHD. “Before any of us knew we had ADHD, we were all asking the same frustrated question: ‘What’s wrong with me??’” Episode 200! 🎉 In this special milestone episode, I’m taking a moment to reflect on what I’ve learned after nearly five years of hosting this podcast and talking with hundreds of brilliant women and adults socialized as girls with ADHD.  I...

Episode 199 with Shannan Palma. “Sometimes I know exactly what to do — but I just can’t make my body do it. And then comes the shame spiral, the anger, the anxiety.” Shannan is the founder and CEO of ITI Assistive Technologies and co-leader of the Autistic Self-Reliance Support Network (ASR). Shannan is autistic and has ADHD, and she’s building the kinds of tools she wished had existed when she wa...

Episode 198 with Raquel Devillé. “The idea of just sitting still to meditate was always terrifying. I need movement — something active — otherwise I can’t calm down.” Raquel is a therapist, yoga teacher, and the author of It’s Not Your Period! Beyond Moods and Myths: Understanding Unexplainable Emotions and the Hidden Roots of Pain, Stress, and Anxiety . Originally from Portugal and now based in B...

Episode 197 with Danielle Elliot. “I would love to see the conversation move towards less questioning of women when they talk about having ADHD.” Danielle is a health and science journalist, documentarian, and creator and host of Climbing the Walls , a new 6-part podcast series produced by Understood.org that releases April 9 (in 2 days!).  Danielle was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 36 amid a...

Episode 196 with Lisa Dee. “ADHD girls deserve to be healthy and happy. I refuse to subscribe to the doom-and-gloom narrative. I wanted something better, and I knew others did, too.” Lisa is an Irish health and fitness coach based in London, and the founder of “Healthy Happy ADHD.” After building a successful fitness enterprise, Lisa's ADHD diagnosis at 31 sparked a personal health and nutriti...

Episode 195 with Natalie Baker. “Neurofeedback is really about identifying maladaptive brain waves, then training the brain to correct them.” Natalie is a licensed psychotherapist, a certified brain health coach, and a dedicated Buddhist practitioner and teacher based in New York City. Given her Western training in psychology and psychotherapy and her Eastern training in meditation, Natalie brings...

Episode 194 with Unami Magwenzi. “I always felt like something didn’t quite click for me. I was capable and doing all these things professionally, but I never felt on top of anything.” Unami is a clinical psychologist, a pastor, a wife, and the mother of 4 children — 3 teenagers and a 5 year old. She is originally from Botswana in Southern Africa and now lives with her family in Perth, Western Aus...

Episode 193 with Drew Turner. “I was doing everything to make others happy, and then I wasn’t happy. A lot of that comes from ADHD and being empathetic, but ultimately it does a real disservice.” Drew Turner lives near Austin, Texas, and was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 29. Drew’s diagnosis completely changed her understanding of herself and gave her an opportunity to rewrite her personal nar...

Episode 192 with Charlotte Hastings. “I used to pray as a girl: ‘Please, let me sit in my seat. Please, don’t let me shoot my mouth off. Please, just let me be a good girl. I just want to be like everybody else.’” Charlotte is a trained psychodynamic counselor, a nutrition and cookery instructor, and a former head of drama at a boarding school for dyslexic, autistic spectrum, and ADHD students in...

Episode 191 with Christal Wang. “Everyone shimmers differently. It’s all about figuring out what is the unabashed, unapologetic, sparkling version of you.” Christal is the co-founder and CEO of Shimmer, the first-ever comprehensive behavioral tech platform for adults with ADHD. Chris started Shimmer after she was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and she is now on a mission to create a more neuro-i...

Episode 190 with Ella Fielding. “My thoughts are like sneezes.” Ella is a distinguished sculptor based in Surrey and London, with over 15 years of expertise in chainsaw carving. She has created monumental installations at events like Glastonbury Festival, and she is one of the featured master-crafters on “The Woodland Workshop,” which airs on Discovery Plus.  Ella and I talk about her diagnosis of...

Episode 189 with Jackie Schuld. “We need more time for things to work through our brains. Art helps with that and gives an outlet for all the intense emotions and thoughts we have.” Jackie is an expressive arts therapist who runs a private practice specializing in late-identified Autism & ADHD. As a late-identified autistic and ADHDer herself, she loves to connect with her clients through writ...

Episode 188 with Jes Hagan. “The first study on women and ADHD was done in 1979, but there wasn’t a study on the menstrual cycle and ADHD until 2017.” Jes is a nutritional therapist and board-certified integrative menstrual health educator and coach. She is the founder of Her Mood Mentor, a virtual premenstrual clinic. Her own experience of living with misdiagnosed and undiagnosed Premenstrual Dys...