Our latest episode on Red Beard Embodiment Podcast featured esteemed guest Kelly Allen Pickens, a family nurse practitioner specializing in ADHD diagnosis and treatment for women and girls. This conversation revolved around the profound impacts of ADHD, its link to trauma, her unique approach to coaching, and the importance of understanding oneself.
Kelly operates from a trauma-informed perspective and engages her clients in a process involving learning about ADHD, finding personal rhythms, creating systems, and learning self-love. The personalized treatment plan she develops, which may include medication if necessary, helps individuals understand their symptoms not as personal flaws but as signs of a neurodevelopmental disability.
Kelly accentuates that trauma work is often intertwined with ADHD coaching. The Aces study she cites highlights that adverse childhood experiences play a significant role in long-term health conditions. How ADHD often co-occurs with trauma underscores the importance of an approach that combines neurobiology, internal family systems, and healthcare providers' education about ADHD's potential effects on life expectancy.
While Kelly's practice sees men and boys, there is a particular focus on women and girls who often struggle to find compassionate approaches and expertise in handling hormone transitions and mental health. Kelly emphasized that men often find it easier to get an ADHD diagnosis than women, making this focus critical to ensuring women and girls have access to necessary care.
Kelly uses cutting edge technology for ADHD testing, leveraging CREYOS for third-party testing of attention, response inhibition, and working memory. She also employs diverse resources like ADDitudemag.com and Chad.org for material on neurodivergence. Treatments have been diversified, with stimulants being extensively researched and widely used for ADHD, and more holistic approaches like breathwork, somatic experiencing, and Safe and Sound Listening Protocol showing great promise.
Kelly underscored the empowering effect of understanding oneself and the development of self-compassion in managing ADHD. She shed light on the pivotal role of self-care and daily check-ins in her framework of managing ADHD. Equipped with these self-awareness tools, individuals can embrace ADHD, not as a deficit, but as an aspect of one's identity that requires special attention and care.
This episode provided invaluable insights into ADHD, its complex relationship with trauma, and potential strategies for individuals living with the condition. As Kelly says, "Self-understanding is power," and this episode undoubtedly empowers those grappling with ADHD, healthcare professionals, and indeed, any interested listener.
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