In this short video, I explain why ADHD strategies so often collapse after a few weeks, and what we work on instead when we meet by video.
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Online ADHD psychotherapy helps adults who live with ADHD, or strongly suspect it, to understand the shame, overwhelm and inner pressure that so often grow around it. We meet one to one by video, in English, in 1-hour sessions with 50 minutes of therapy, at a time that suits your time zone.
I help you see how attention, energy, emotion and an old story about not trying hard enough fit together, then change what keeps you stuck. This is the ADHD strand of online neurodiverse psychotherapy, within my online psychotherapy. When a crisis has hit, acute online ADHD psychotherapy is the faster route, and when autistic traits are part of the picture too, online AuDHD psychotherapy fits more closely.
You can have a free 30-minute call, pick a session time, look at my client policy or get in touch by message.
Online ADHD psychotherapy is for English-speaking adults, anywhere in the world, whose ADHD has left them tired of being told they could do better if they tried. You want to understand yourself, not just manage your calendar, with a therapist you can reach from home.
ADHD often travels with other difficulties, and some of them need a different starting point. If one of these lines fits you better, follow the link.
You can also send me an email
These reviews describe clients’ experiences of working with me. They come from my wider practice and do not all relate to online sessions. Each person’s experience is their own, and a review does not promise a particular outcome.
“Of all the people who find me online, the ones who change most with ADHD are the ones who stop searching for the perfect system. Systems are not the problem. Most of them are built on a quiet belief that you are lazy, so each failure confirms it. Underneath the to-do lists I hear ‘Are you disappointed in me again?’ and, just as often, ‘Leave it, I will sort it out myself, please stop checking.’ Many people say both in one breath: ‘Help me, only do not watch me struggle.’ My strong view is that the shame needs attention before the strategies. When you stop treating your mind as an enemy to outwit, the practical changes come much more easily.”
Mark Colclough, MA, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
I am Mark Colclough, MA. I have practised since 2004 and offer online psychotherapy and couples therapy in English.
My training brings together your emotions, your thoughts and your relationships. My deep passion is the moment when what happens between you finally makes sense, to each of you and to each other. I have lived and worked in nine countries, so I know something of life across languages, cultures and borders.
Read about my background, or explore online psychotherapy and online couples therapy.
I meet regularly with experienced psychotherapists to reflect on my work, question my understanding and develop my skills. Supervision is part of the professional care I bring to individual and couples work, including online sessions.
My focus is thoughtful practice, integrity and responsibility.
You are welcome to ask about the kind of support you need.
Tell me where you are based and your time zone. We can then consider whether online sessions together are suitable.
Leonie is 34, grew up in Melbourne and works as a UX designer in Berlin. Her presentations are admired, and most of them are finished at 3 in the morning. A drawer in her flat holds 6 months of unopened post. She was diagnosed at 32, and medication helps her focus, but she still lies awake rehearsing every mistake. Her partner has started asking, carefully, whether she has paid the rent.
I would start with the shame rather than the post, because the drawer is only the visible part. In a first video session Leonie would probably notice how much of her energy goes into hiding effort from people, and how old that habit is.
I have presented this clinical example as a compound of 22 years of clinical practice.
You have tried harder, tried smarter and tried every tool, and you still end most days feeling behind.
There is no correct moment to begin, and no threshold you need to reach. A sense that the gap between what you can do and what gets done is costing you too much is reason enough. You do not need a diagnosis, a tidy explanation or a breakdown first. In 22 years of practice I have listened to many adults with ADHD describe themselves harshly, and I can tell when the difficulty has hardened into a pattern that deserves real attention.
I will help you see what happens on a hard day, what keeps the cycle going and what needs to change first. These 6 questions may help you decide whether to get in touch.
If they do, that tiredness is real, not a sign of weakness. Starting a task feels like pushing a car uphill, so you circle it, tidy something else and finally do it in a rush. Paying bills, answering messages and booking appointments eat energy that other people seem to have spare.
I would look at where your energy goes on a normal day, and how much is spent on effort nobody can see. That tells us whether this is a hard season or a pattern you have carried for years. If that sounds familiar, book a session with me and we can begin to untangle it.
Both responses make sense. One part of you knows routine would help and feels calmer with a plan. Another part feels caged by the same plan within days, because boredom is physically hard for you to bear. You end up building systems and then abandoning them.
I do not treat either side as the problem. The wish for order and the need for novelty both protect something important. I help you understand what each is guarding, so you can design structure that leaves room to move, rather than structure you have to break out of.
A short reply from your manager or a sigh from your partner can land like a verdict. You go over it again and again, look for hidden meanings and may rush to fix things before anyone has asked. Sometimes you send an apology for something nobody noticed.
Your sensitivity to how people see you is not foolish. It often grew from years of being corrected, reminded and misunderstood. I help you calm the alarm that expects to have disappointed someone, check what is actually happening and ask directly when you need to know where you stand.
Yes, this happens often, and it is painful for everyone involved. When everything piles up, you want someone beside you. Then their questions or suggestions feel like supervision, and you snap or go cold. Afterwards you feel guilty and confused about which you really wanted.
In sessions I slow this cycle down, so we can see the moment help starts to feel like being managed. There is usually a precise trigger, such as being reminded of something you already know. I have compassion for the protective move, and I will ask you to take responsibility for the sharp edges that hurt people close to you.
Many people with ADHD retreat when demands become overwhelming. You scroll, game or dive into an absorbing project, and the unanswered messages multiply. When someone raises it, you become vague or minimise it. The retreat gives relief, but the pile grows.
My view is that needing an escape is understandable, and I will not shame it. I help you see what the retreat protects you from, often a sense of failing, and how to stay present for a little longer. You learn to say “I need an hour off before I can look at this” before the silence becomes a wall.
Years of compensating can blur your sense of self. You may know yourself mostly as the disorganised one, the funny one or the one who always pulls it off at the end. Under those roles there may be a quieter question about what you actually want. Asking it means you have worked very hard, not that you are damaged.
I help you separate the roles you took on to survive from the qualities that are genuinely yours, including your curiosity, energy and depth. I will push back when you talk yourself down, and I will not impose a new identity. The aim is to know more clearly who you are and what kind of life suits you.
If you saw yourself here, book a free call to ask your questions, or choose a session time if you are ready to begin.
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Tell me briefly what kind of support you are looking for.
Include your country and time zone so we can discuss whether online work together is possible and find a suitable time.
You do not need to explain your whole story in your first message.
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Knowing how your mind works is a relief, but therapy also has to change how you plan, rest, speak up and treat yourself.
Working with me will help you see what happens when you get stuck, recognise the patterns that keep it going and change the parts of daily life you can actually change. Understanding ADHD without changing how you respond to yourself tends to fade within weeks.
Over 22 years of practice I have noticed that ADHD work gathers pace when I stay active and keep us on track. I will guide you, name what I see and challenge stories that keep you small. The 6 questions below describe what we work towards.
Related reading: Why does ADHD keep pulling us into the same fight? and Why do I care about my research but cannot start?.
I help you separate the core difficulty from its consequences. Late payments, unfinished projects and arguments matter, yet they often grow from something underneath: fear of failure, a habit of hiding effort, or a conviction that you are fundamentally unreliable.
I offer you my reading of what deserves attention first and challenge explanations that keep you stuck, including the ones that blame everything on willpower. When you are ready, book a session with me and we can trace it together.
By learning its early signs. There is usually a chain: a task that feels vague, a flicker of dread, a sudden urge to check your phone or start something new. Once you can see the first link, you have a moment to choose another step.
I help you slow that chain down and look at what triggers it and what it protects you from. Seeing it is not enough on its own. We practise a different first move, on screen and during the week, until you can use it on an ordinary morning.
Calming down does not mean pushing feelings away or pretending you are fine. It means staying present enough to know what is happening and choose your response. Emotions with ADHD can rise very fast, and that speed is not a moral failing.
I help you notice the rise earlier, understand what you are reacting to and find ways to slow it that suit your body, such as movement, pausing or stepping away. I will also ask you to practise between sessions, because change happens in the moments when I am not there.
Clear communication begins with knowing what you feel and what you need. After years of being told you were too much, too late or too scattered, you may apologise first, explain at length or say nothing and resent it later.
We look for short, honest sentences that say exactly what you need and no more. I challenge you when you go silent and also when you expect others to read your mind. We often rehearse real requests, such as asking a manager for written instructions or a partner for a different kind of help.
Decisions get easier once you separate impulse, fear and other people’s expectations from what you actually want. With ADHD, you may jump at a new idea in an evening or postpone a dull choice for months, and both cost you.
I help you look at your options and what each would ask of you, slowly enough that excitement and dread both get a hearing. You will hear my honest view, and I will name avoidance when I see it, but the decision stays with you.
Change has to reach beyond our sessions, into your mornings, your work and your closest relationships. You may need different routines, clearer agreements at home, support you are no longer ashamed to ask for, or work that uses your strengths rather than fighting your weak spots.
I help you sort the habits worth changing from the traits worth keeping. Your speed, your curiosity and your intensity are not the problem. The aim is a life that matches how your mind actually works, with less self-blame and more deliberate choice.
You can also send me an email
You do not need a diagnosis, a neat timeline or the right words. We start with what is hard now.
When you begin, I listen closely, help you name the central difficulty and give our work a clear direction early on. I adapt the pace and structure, and you are welcome to move, fidget or ask me to repeat something.
This is one focused strand of my online psychotherapy, structured individual work on your inner life and relationships. If ADHD is straining your partnership and your partner is willing, online couples therapy offers long-term relational development and healing. When you expect the work to take a while, a therapy bundle brings real savings and a plan you do not have to remember to renew.
In the first session I ask what has brought you now, what a hard week looks like, what you have already tried and what you most want to be different. You do not need to tell me your whole life story.
Before we finish, I share my first understanding and suggest a direction, and you decide whether this way of working feels useful. If you want to talk first, book a free 30-minute call.
Individual work is right when the main focus is your own experience: your energy, emotions, history, self-image and the way you handle work and relationships. We can look closely at your relationships without anyone else joining the call.
Week by week I give you direction, continuity and honest challenge. If you are unsure whether to focus on ADHD or your life more widely, online psychotherapy describes my structured individual work as a whole.
Couples therapy is the better step when the relationship itself has become the main strain. If you feel nagged and your partner feels alone, if the same argument about chores keeps returning, or if trust has worn thin, working together usually helps more.
In couples work I help you both see the cycle between you and build fairer, warmer ways of sharing life. Online couples therapy is long-term relational development and healing, and online neurodiverse couples therapy focuses on relationships where one or both partners are neurodivergent.
That depends on how much is going on, how much room your life has and how quickly things slip between sessions. With ADHD, long gaps can make it hard to keep the thread.
I usually suggest weekly sessions at first, because regular contact helps the work hold. I will tell you honestly if we need to meet more often for a while, or when we can safely space sessions out. If weekly rhythm keeps failing, we can consider a block of sessions close together.
A bundle makes sense when you know the work will take a number of sessions and you would rather not decide again after every one. For many people with ADHD, removing a repeated decision is genuinely helpful.
A bundle lowers the price of each session and gives you a structure agreed in advance. I will help you judge whether it fits. The details are on therapy discounts and bundles and in the cards below.
Therapy has done its job when you treat yourself with more understanding, catch the familiar slide earlier and have ways of living that hold up on a bad week. ADHD remains part of you, but it no longer defines your worth.
We check together, out loud, how far things have moved, and I have no interest in keeping you in therapy for its own sake. Sessions can thin out, pause or stop when the work has achieved its purpose. Coming back later with a new question is a sign of good sense, not of failure.
Wondering whether this is the right page for you? These are the 3 neighbouring options people with ADHD most often consider.
| Option | Choose it when | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| Online ADHD psychotherapy (this page) | Attention, time and the shame around them shape your daily life. | Weekly 1-hour video sessions at first |
| Online neurodiverse psychotherapy | You want to explore neurodivergence more broadly, without a single label. | 1-hour video sessions at a pace you choose |
| Acute online ADHD psychotherapy | A crisis linked to ADHD has hit, and you need help within days. | Video sessions soon and close together |
| Online AuDHD psychotherapy | You recognise both ADHD and autism, and they pull in different directions. | Weekly 1-hour video sessions |
Online ADHD psychotherapy with me is individual psychotherapy by video, in English, for adults whose ADHD has brought shame, overwhelm or repeated setbacks into their lives. It goes beyond time management, helping you understand how your mind works, what the years of coping have cost and what needs to change.
I work in depth with the whole person, including your history, relationships and inner critic. I do not diagnose or prescribe. It is part of my online neurodiverse psychotherapy.
Come when ADHD is costing you sleep, money, relationships or self-respect, or when the effort of keeping up has become exhausting. If part of you knows something needs to change, trust that.
I look at how long the strain has been building, what you have tried and what you have quietly given up on. When the same struggle keeps returning despite real effort, it deserves proper attention rather than another resolution.
Psychotherapy can help with a great deal that medication does not touch: shame, self-criticism, emotional intensity, relationships and the habits you built to cope. I do not prescribe, and if medication is a question for you, that is something to discuss with a doctor where you live.
In my clinical experience, many adults find that medication helps their focus while the old story about being lazy or careless stays exactly where it was. That story is where I would focus with you.
Yes. You do not need a diagnosis or proof of anything. Many people come with a strong suspicion, a recent discovery or a feeling that the usual advice never fitted them.
I do not diagnose or test. I work with what you actually live with. If a formal assessment would help you, I will say so, and you can arrange it with a qualified assessor in your own country.
Both are ways of trying to feel safe again. Some people rush to repair, explain and apologise. Others go quiet and wait for the storm to pass. After years of being corrected, either response makes sense.
I help you notice which way you move under pressure, what it is trying to achieve and what it costs. Then we build steadier options: owning a mistake without collapsing, and taking space without disappearing.
We begin with the present: what a typical week looks like, where it falls apart and what you would like to change. By the end you will have my first impressions and a suggested focus.
There is nothing to prepare and no need to arrive organised. If you forget what you meant to say, that is fine, we will find it. You can reserve a first session now, or try a free 30-minute call to see how video feels.
Plan for a course of sessions over a few months, not one conversation. That is usually enough to understand your pattern and begin changing it. If ADHD has been tangled with years of shame or other painful experiences, the work often takes longer.
In 22 years of practice I have seen that a clear first stretch, reviewed honestly, works far better than drifting along. At each review we choose together whether to continue, meet less often or end.
Most people concentrate better than they expect, because they are in their own space. You can sit how you like, keep a fidget object nearby or stand up and walk around for a moment. I will keep the session structured enough that you do not lose the thread.
You need a private room, headphones, a stable connection and a laptop or tablet, ideally with notifications switched off. The booking calendar shows times in your own time zone. If you have doubts, ask on a free call.
Individual psychotherapy is booked as 1-hour online sessions, each with 50 minutes of therapy. You can see current fees in US dollars on my prices page.
If you expect a longer course, a therapy bundle saves you 10 per cent and means you do not have to keep rebooking. The bundle choices are listed under therapy discounts and bundles.
Book your first session today, or ask for a free 30-minute call if you prefer to talk first. All times appear in your own local time zone.
If no time fits, or you are in the middle of a crisis, send me a message. I hold some room for acute cases, usually a time within days, and acute online ADHD psychotherapy explains how that works. Book the session while the intention is fresh.
You can also send me an email
I want therapy to help you understand your experience and make choices you can use in everyday life. We pay attention to feelings, needs and the responses that happen before you have time to think.
Our online room should offer enough trust and honesty to explore what is difficult. I bring attention and professional judgement. You bring your experience, questions and the right to say when something does not fit.
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P.S. I’ll call you in a bit!
