How Can Therapy Help Women with Late-Diagnosed ADHD in Bend, Oregon?
If you are a woman in Bend, Oregon who was recently diagnosed with ADHD, or you think you may have it, you are not alone. And you are not broken. You are living in a world that was never designed for the way your mind works.
Many women with late-diagnosed ADHD spent years masking their struggles, working harder than everyone else, and blaming themselves. They often believed they were the problem when really the problem was that their needs were unseen and unsupported. Therapy can be a turning point. It can be the beginning of reclaiming who you truly are, beyond all the ways you learned to survive.
Photo by Brooke Cagle via Unsplash
Why Is ADHD So Often Missed in Women?
Most people still picture ADHD as a hyperactive young boy bouncing off the walls. Because of that, generations of women have been misdiagnosed, overlooked, and misunderstood.
Women’s ADHD often looks different. It shows up as high sensitivity mistaken for anxiety. It looks like perfectionism hiding struggles with organization. It feels like exhaustion from years of over-committing, people-pleasing, and trying to keep up. It can even look like depression when the real issue is an unmet need for structure and nervous system care.
Instead of support, many women heard messages like, "You are too sensitive," or "You just need to try harder," or "You are too emotional." Over time, these messages create deep shame, self-doubt, and silent suffering.
Therapy can help unravel these old stories and offer you a new way forward.
How Therapy Helps Women with Late-Diagnosed ADHD
Healing is not about fixing you. It is about unmasking the real you. It is about shedding the survival strategies you needed to get by and learning to live in a way that supports your natural strengths.
In therapy, you can expect to:
Understand Your Patterns: You will learn how you have masked your true self and where you still carry outdated survival strategies.
Reclaim Your Natural Rhythms: You will discover ways to work with your attention, energy, creativity, and rest instead of against them.
Repair Self-Trust: You will begin to heal from the shame that told you something was wrong with you.
Build Somatic Safety: You will practice body-based tools that help regulate your nervous system without shutting you down.
Reconnect to Joy: You will move beyond surviving into a life that actually feels good to live.
The goal is not to force yourself to be more productive. The goal is to build a life where you feel free.
What Kind of Therapy Works Best?
If you are living with ADHD, you deserve therapy that understands the full picture. Therapy should be trauma-informed, because many women with ADHD have experienced trauma around relationships, work, school, and even self-worth. Therapy should be neurodivergence-affirming, meaning it supports your unique way of thinking and being, rather than trying to make you "fit" a standard mold. Therapy should also be integrative, as many neurodivergent women and highly sensitive women benefit from a multifaceted approach that offers options and flexibility.
Somatic based (aka body-oriented) therapies are also super beneficial, so you are not just talking about change, but actually feeling and living it in your body. Therapy should be flexible, allowing room for the natural flow of your energy and attention.
In my practice in Bend, Oregon, I offer a blend of somatic therapy, EMDR, Brainspotting, IFS (Internal Family Systems), and mindfulness-based practices. I specialize in working with sensitive, intuitive, cycle-breaking women who are ready to reclaim their lives on their own terms.
Healing is not linear. It is sacred. And you deserve a healing space that honors that.
I offer somatic, trauma-informed therapy and consulting for sensitive, neurodivergent women and femme cycle breakers who are ready to realign with their rhythm, reclaim sacred embodiment, and live in alignment with who they truly are.
✨ You’re invited to book a session, subscribe at the bottom of this page to stay up to date on other offerings, or join the Sacred Becoming community on Substack for reflections, resources, and ritual support.
ways to work with me:
Online counseling and EMDR/Brainspotting for clients located in Bend, Oregon and the state of Oregon. Click here to schedule a free consultation.
Read more about sacred self therapy here and my approach to working with women with ADHD here.
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