(November 2025) ADHD Empowerment: Top Down and Bottom Up Support for ADHD

Course overview

Is ADHD a disorder, a difference, or a gift? And how does our response to that question inform our clinical work with clients presenting with different attentional and executive functioning? Best fit intervention for brain differences like ADHD may include behavioral change on the part of the client. And sometimes the better course of action to identify meaningful environmental changes or schedule changes, or to request change and accommodation on the part of those who work and live and learn with the neurodiverse client. In this session we will begin to unpack our language around brain differences and consider "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches to ADHD support and intervention, recognizing that success and well-being for our clients with these brain differences may include environmental/workplace/classroom accommodations as well as mindfully chosen efforts to fit in with a largely neurotypical population. We review research which supports movement-based interventions as facilitating self-regulation and executive functioning and problem-solving, and we identify tools to help our clients identify and manage nervous system overstimulation. And we connect the dots among mindfulness practices, heart rate variability, and breathwork all "top down" tools for managing dysregulation and increasing our clients' capacity for focus and problem solving.