Harnessing Your Strengths to Work Through Challenges
For kids, teens, and adults who have attentional difficulties, including the most common form – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), focusing on and completing even the simplest tasks can be a real challenge. Like other forms of results-oriented therapy, counseling services for those with attentional difficulties will focus on helping individuals, their families, and other support systems (including educational resources) to develop methods of utilizing the individual’s strengths to offset and overcome the potential deficits connected with attentional difficulties. At Stokes Counseling Services, we work with individuals struggling with ADHD and other attentional difficulties in our Naugatuck office, virtually using telehealth tools, and in person for those families participating in our FAM Program.
What are Attentional Difficulties?
It’s important to remember that attentional difficulties aren’t simply not paying attention and not all attentional difficulties are ADHD. Instead, attentional difficulties and ADHD are conditions that make it difficult for individuals to process and prioritize information, especially in situations where there may be competing information streams. To determine whether or not you, your child, a family member, or even a student in your class is struggling with attentional difficulties, you’ll need to consider three areas – mental energy, processing, and production.
Mental Energy
Those with attentional difficulties may lack both mental and physical energy. This may result in the individual displaying difficulties concentrating, appearing constantly tired, complaining of exhaustion or boredom, as well as fidgeting or unrest.
Processing
Those with attentional difficulties may show a number of symptoms that indicate difficulty processing information. This doesn’t necessarily mean the person isn’t paying attention. Instead, processing issues usually indicate a difficulty determining what information is relevant. They may focus too closely on a superficial or unimportant detail, have difficulty connecting new information to information they already know, focus for only short periods of time, or struggle to shift focus.
Production
Individuals with attentional difficulties also experience struggles with productivity. This can include failure to predict the outcomes of specific behaviors, difficulty developing effective strategies to complete tasks, inability to monitor the quality of work, struggle to apply past results to present situations, and are likely to struggle with time management.
When Should I Consider Counseling for Attentional Difficulties?
You should consider seeking professional guidance for attentional difficulties if these difficulties adversely impact one or more aspects of daily life. For young people, this may include assessment and diagnosis in partnership with school systems to ensure that kids or teens have the resources they need to be successful. Adults with these attentional difficulties will want to work with counselors to ensure they have the necessary skills to maintain employment, care for families, and perform other daily tasks as necessary. Essentially, you should consider professional guidance for attentional difficulties to avoid unnecessary challenges to your daily life.
What Happens During Therapy for Attentional Difficulties?
During therapy for attentional difficulties, your skilled counselor may utilize a number of methods to help you develop coping strategies and skills to harness your strengths and work through challenges that occur due to attentional difficulties. For school-aged children, counseling for attentional difficulties may also include partnering with educators to ensure the child receives appropriate educational resources to be academically successful. Like other solutions-focused therapy, counseling sessions for those with attentional difficulties will be geared toward examining specific cases of attentional struggles and trying to determine strategies to help you address these issues. In some cases, we may need to work with a prescribing physician to receive medications to help with some of the symptoms of attentional difficulties.
How do I Get Started?
To get started, simply give the Stokes Counseling Services team a call or complete our request form. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have and schedule a first session for you in our Naugatuck office. We are also proud to offer telehealth counseling services online, if you would prefer to conduct your sessions virtually.