ADHD Counseling in Northern Virginia

Adult working with an ADHD counselor in Northern Virginia

ADHD is rarely just about attention. It shows up as a project started at 11pm because that is when the pressure finally became real, a calendar that works for three weeks and then stops, a reputation for being careless that never matched how hard you were trying. For children it often looks like behaviour. For adults it often looks like character.

Life Enrichment Counseling Center provides ADHD counseling for children, adolescents, and adults across Northern Virginia — in Gainesville, Alexandria, and Haymarket, and by secure video anywhere in the Commonwealth.

ADHD in adults

Most adults we see were not diagnosed as children. They arrive after a promotion made the workarounds stop working, or after a child’s diagnosis made something click. Common reasons people reach out:

Starting well and stalling — projects at 80% that never close out
Time that does not behave: chronic lateness, underestimating how long things take
A calendar, a system, an app — none of which survive contact with a busy week
Difficulty starting tasks that are important but not urgent
Emotional intensity and a short fuse that arrive faster than you can catch them
Years of feeling lazy or careless when you were working harder than anyone knew
Relationships strained by forgotten commitments and uneven follow-through

Therapy for adult ADHD is practical. It works on the systems that fit how your attention actually operates rather than the ones that are supposed to work, and on the beliefs that build up over years of being told to just try harder.

ADHD in children and teens

Children are often identified earlier, but a diagnosis on its own changes very little at home. Therapy focuses on what to do next:

Skills the child can actually use — starting tasks, breaking work down, managing frustration
Coaching for parents on structure, routines, and follow-through that hold up on hard days
Support for the self-esteem damage that accumulates when a child is corrected all day
Social skills work where impulsivity has made friendships harder
Help with school demands, homework battles, and the transition into more independent years

For adolescents, the work usually shifts toward independence — building systems the teen owns rather than ones enforced by parents, before college or work removes the scaffolding.

How we treat ADHD

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — the best-evidenced talk therapy for ADHD, particularly for the avoidance and self-criticism that grow around it.
Executive-function skills work — planning, prioritising, task initiation, and time estimation, built around your actual life rather than an ideal one.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) — for the shame and self-judgment that often do more damage than the symptoms.
Motivational Interviewing — where the difficulty is not knowing what to do but consistently doing it.
Family systems work — because ADHD is rarely only one person’s problem to manage, and household patterns either help or hinder.
Parent coaching and psychoeducation — practical structure for families, and a clearer understanding of what is symptom and what is choice.

Evaluations and medication

Therapists at Life Enrichment Counseling Center do not prescribe medication. Nadia Lassic, MSN, NP, APRN is a licensed psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner who provides evaluations and medication management, and we coordinate with primary care physicians and outside psychiatrists where that makes more sense.

You do not need a diagnosis in hand to start therapy. Many clients begin while they are still working out whether ADHD is the right explanation.

Your ADHD clinicians

These clinicians name ADHD among the areas they work in. We will help you find the right fit for the age of the client and the kind of support you are after.

Kent Jensen, LCSW, MSW, MPA — specializes in helping individuals and families navigate ADHD, executive functioning challenges, anxiety, depression, emotional regulation, and relationship conflict. He has particular expertise with adolescents and adults whose ADHD affects school, work, self-esteem, relationships, and daily functioning, and also helps couples and families understand how ADHD shapes communication and connection. Draws on CBT, ACT, Motivational Interviewing, and family systems. Fluent in Japanese and conversational in Mandarin Chinese. Gainesville and online.
Nadia Lassic, MSN, NP, APRN — licensed psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Works with adolescents, young adults, professionals, and parents navigating anxiety disorders, ADHD, mood disorders, and high-functioning stress, integrating therapy-informed care, medication management, and lifestyle considerations. Online evaluations and medication management.
Dr. Courtney Shaughnessy, PsyD., MA, LPC — experience with adjustment and transition issues, family conflict, LGBTQ clients, depression, anxiety, OCD, and ADHD. Trained in CBT, DBT, solution-focused short-term therapy, and psychodynamic therapy. Gainesville and online.
Chris Bradshaw, LPC — outpatient experience with anger management, anxiety, depression, ADHD, substance abuse, and adjustment disorders, drawing on CBT, person-centered therapy, family systems, and existential humanism. Previously worked for many years with children and adolescents at risk of out-of-home placement due to behavioral issues. Gainesville and online.
Heather Gilley, M.Ed., Resident in Counseling — experience with children on the autism spectrum and with ADHD, PTSD, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and peer conflict. A former high school teacher, she blends psychoeducation, Motivational Interviewing, CBT, and solution-focused brief therapy. Haymarket and online.

You can read every clinician’s full background on our therapists page.

Insurance and fees

Life Enrichment Counseling Center is a participating provider with all Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO and HMO plans, including Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield, Anthem, and CareFirst. Cigna, Aetna, and Optum are accepted by select therapists, so coverage can depend on which clinician you see — tell us your plan when you reach out and we will match you with someone in network.

Verifying benefits is ultimately the client’s responsibility, but our office staff will check them for you as a courtesy. Without insurance, sessions are $160 per hour and we provide a superbill you can submit to your carrier yourself. Sessions run 35 to 60 minutes. Full details are on our costs and payments page.

Getting started

You can request an appointment online, call (703) 754-0636, or email info@leccinc.com. Appointments can be booked up to three weeks ahead — if you need to be seen sooner than 24 hours, call the office and we will check clinician availability.

We see clients in Gainesville, Alexandria, and Haymarket, at our Port St. Lucie, Florida office, and by secure video anywhere in Virginia. Tell us which works best and whether you are asking for yourself, your child, or both — that is usually enough for us to match you with the right clinician.

Frequently asked questions

Do you diagnose ADHD?

Psychiatric evaluations are available through Nadia Lassic, our licensed psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, who also provides medication management. Therapy with one of our counselors does not require a formal diagnosis to begin — many clients start while they are still working out whether ADHD explains what they are experiencing.

Can I get ADHD medication through your practice?

Our therapists do not prescribe. Nadia Lassic, APRN is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and provides evaluations and medication management, and we also coordinate with primary care physicians and outside psychiatrists. Many clients see a counselor and a prescriber in parallel — the two work better together than either alone.

I was diagnosed as an adult. Is therapy still worth it?

Often more so. Adults diagnosed later in life are usually managing years of accumulated workarounds, missed deadlines, and beliefs about themselves formed before anyone knew why things were harder. Kent Jensen works specifically with adults whose ADHD affects work, self-esteem, relationships, and daily functioning.

My child was diagnosed at school. What does therapy add?

A school evaluation tells you what is happening; therapy works on what to do about it. That usually means practical skills for the child, coaching for parents on structure and follow-through, and support for the frustration and low self-esteem that often build up before anyone understands the cause.

Does ADHD therapy work over video?

Yes, and many clients prefer it — no travel means fewer missed sessions, which matters when scheduling is part of what you are working on. All of the clinicians on this page offer secure video sessions across Virginia.

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