Meet Our Specialized ADHD Therapists
Three clinicians who have built their entire practice around ADHD relationships, not as a niche within a broader caseload, but as the only work they do.
Meet Our ADHD-Specialized Therapists
Most couples therapists have little to no training in ADHD. That gap matters more than it might seem. When a therapist misreads ADHD-driven withdrawal as stonewalling, or frames the non-ADHD partner’s frustration as controlling behavior, the interventions they recommend make things worse. Specialist training isn’t a credential flourish, it changes what the therapist actually sees in the room.
Travis Atkinson, LCSW
Founder & Director
Travis has spent 30 years doing one thing: helping couples navigate the specific, layered realities of ADHD in relationships. Three decades is a long time to specialize in one population. By now, he’s seen nearly every variation of how ADHD shows up in a partnership, the over-functioning and under-functioning split that assembles itself slowly over years, the shame dynamics that run the conflict from below the surface, the cycles that both partners are trapped in but neither chose. He doesn’t need those patterns explained to him.
As Founder of the Schema Therapy Training Center of New York, Travis has trained therapists internationally in Schema Therapy practice and is recognized as a global mentor in the field. His adaptations of Schema Therapy for the ADHD population, developed across thousands of clinical hours, represent a significant methodological contribution to the field. Triple-certified in Schema Therapy, EFT for Couples, and the Gottman Method, he integrates these evidence-based approaches into care calibrated for how the ADHD brain actually works.
Paul Chiariello, LMSW
Senior Clinician
Paul is a Columbia-trained social worker whose clinical focus centers on the specific challenges ADHD creates in adult life and partnership. His work with men reflects both a clinical conviction and something he sees consistently in practice: men are significantly underserved in therapy, the barriers to genuine engagement are real and specific, and the depth of work that becomes possible when those barriers come down is among the most meaningful in the field.
In couples work, Paul draws on Schema Therapy, EFT, CBT, and the Gottman Method, with ADHD kept explicitly in clinical view throughout. He is particularly attuned to the ADHD partner’s internal experience: the cycle of trying and falling short, the shame that accumulates across years of that cycle, and the ways that shame drives reactivity and withdrawal. His advanced training through the Schema Therapy Training Center of New York sits alongside his natural clinical warmth in creating a space where real work, not just symptom management, becomes possible.
Tiffany Goldberg, LMSW
Couples Therapist
Tiffany is a Columbia-trained social worker whose clinical work is shaped above all by the quality of the therapeutic relationship she builds. Couples who work with Tiffany describe a consistent experience: feeling genuinely seen and understood, often for the first time in a therapy context. That felt sense of safety is not incidental to the clinical work. Without it, the deeper interventions don’t land.
Her ADHD couples work holds both partners fully, validating the non-ADHD partner’s exhaustion and grief while simultaneously creating space for the ADHD partner’s shame and genuine effort. She has particular expertise with women navigating ADHD, a population that is systematically underdiagnosed and frequently arrives carrying years of self-blame for struggles that had a neurological explanation all along. Blending strength-based, trauma-informed care with practical strategies for executive function and emotional regulation, Tiffany treats each partner as a whole person, and each relationship as its own clinical territory.
Why Specialization Changes the Work
Most couples therapists have little to no specific ADHD training. What shifts clinically when your therapist genuinely specializes, not just sees ADHD occasionally.
CBT FOR ADHD RELATIONSHIPS
“Standard CBT assumes you can catch a thought before reacting. ADHD changes that equation entirely.”
CBT is adapted for the ADHD brain, shorter loops, external structure, and tools that work with impulsivity rather than against it. A fundamentally different approach, not a minor modification.
THE GOTTMAN METHOD & ADHD
“The Four Horsemen hit differently in ADHD couples, contempt often masks grief, not cruelty.”
A generalist may not recognize that ADHD-driven withdrawal isn’t stonewalling, it’s nervous system shutdown. Misreading that pattern leads to the wrong intervention, reliably.
EFT FOR COUPLES WITH ADHD
“Emotional dysregulation in ADHD isn’t a character flaw. It’s a neurological reality, and EFT can reach it.”
EFT works by accessing attachment needs beneath reactive cycles. In ADHD couples, those cycles move faster and run deeper. Tracking both the emotion and the neurology simultaneously is a distinct clinical skill.
SCHEMA THERAPY & ADHD IDENTITY
“Years of being ‘too much’ or ‘not enough’ leave a mark. Schema Therapy reaches those wounds directly.”
Many adults with ADHD carry schemas of defectiveness, failure, and shame, often long before they understood ADHD was the reason. Healing the relationship requires addressing the story each partner carries about themselves.
FOR THE NON-ADHD PARTNER
“Caretaker fatigue and resentment are real, and they deserve as much clinical attention as the ADHD itself.”
The non-ADHD partner often arrives exhausted, grieving the relationship they expected. Specialist therapy holds space for both partners equally, that’s not a platitude, it’s a clinical commitment.
WHY GENERALISTS FALL SHORT
“A therapist who sees two ADHD couples a year is not equipped for what you’re navigating.”
ADHD relationships are the entire focus of this practice. Every framework, every session plan, every tool is built for how the ADHD brain works, not borrowed from neurotypical templates and loosely adapted.