30 Aug Adult ADHD: Relationships & Sex, How to Treat Both Partners to Help Re-Balance the Relationship
One out of eleven couples has one partner with ADHD. One partner’s ADHD can exacerbate the universal challenges that every couple needs to manage. These couples are likely to show up in your office. Unfortunately, if the one partner’s ADHD isn’t addressed directly, therapists might get stuck in the same traps as the partners do. Hence, it is important for the therapists to know how to:
- help partners negotiate different preferences and ways of doing things while still enjoying each other, and
- prevent certain relationship dynamics that are problematic.
In this course, the internationally recognised Adult ADHD expert, Dr Ari Tuckman, will share strategies to help these couples break free of the disempowering tug of war. We will learn effective strategies you will be able to use in order to assist couples in creating more balanced and satisfying relationships. There will be a special focus on rebuilding trust and hope because many of these couples are worn down when they enter therapy.
Medication is often a beneficial part of treatment, so it’s helpful for the therapists to be able to discuss what to expect and help the client make an informed decision. Whether seeing the adult with ADHD individually or as part of the couple, an important part of the work involves helping both partners better understand how ADHD impacts the individual and also the partner, and then teaching better ways of managing its day to day impact.
Dr Ari Tuckman will also discuss how ADHD impacts a couple’s sex life and their ability to have fun together. He will show you how to get couples out of the mud so they can enjoy each other again and make yet another area of discontent into a shared activity that adds energy to the relationship.
Although grounded in theory and research, this presentation is all about practical strategies and interventions. Learning how to work more effectively with these couples will benefit your work with all clients including individuals who are addressing relationship matters.
Introduction (30 minutes)
- ADHD is an individual condition. . . with relationship dynamics
Medication (30 minutes)
- What does it mean to take medication? And would it be good for me?
- Commonly used medications for ADHD
Individual treatment to support the couples therapy (90 minutes)
- Both partners benefit from learning more about ADHD
- Change what you can, but also accept the rest
- Your partner definitely notices when you don’t do what you should—strategies to improve productivity
- Help clients bring their best—reduce the ADHD impact on sleep habits
Couples therapy (150 minutes)
- ADHD casts a long shadow on relationships
- What to expect from each other regarding treatment
- Re-balance the relationship
- Get the partner with ADHD to step up—and also the partner without ADHD to step down
- Work better as a team of equals, not as a boss and employee
- How to create better agreements and then actually see them through
- Help partners figure out what changes to push for and which are better to accept
- Re-building trust and hope
- The inconsistency and unpredictability of ADHD undermines both partners
- How to break those repeating cycles that neither partner wants but can’t escape
- Negotiate in good faith—balance assertiveness with generosity
Sex and having fun together (45 minutes)
- Help your couples enjoy each other again—isn’t that why they’re together?
- What the research says.
Ari Tuckman, PsyD is a psychologist, international presenter, author, and ADHD thought leader. He has given more than 800 presentations and podcast interviews and routinely earns excellent reviews for his ability to make complicated information understandable and useful. Over the course of twenty-five years of private practice, he has done more than 40,000 client hours, specializing in ADHD in teens, adults, families, and couples.
He is the author of five books, including his newest, The ADHD Productivity Manual. An active volunteer, he is a co-chair of CHADD’s conference committee and was awarded the 2023 Hall of Fame award for his significant contributions to the field. A popular expert and advocate, he has been widely quoted in national media such as The New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, and Boston Globe, and serves as an expert for Understood.org. He is in private practice in West Chester, PA, USA.
This online workshop will give you instant access to 3 hours of video content, accessible via streaming on our website. You can view the course content in your own time, there is no time limit on access.
The duration of this workshop is 3 learning hours. A certificate of completion will be generated upon finishing the course and completing a short evaluation quiz. Please consult your professional organisation/association to confirm whether you are able to claim any CPD points/hours for this online workshop.
