Identify and Treat the Adults with ADHD Already in Your Caseload
You have treated the anxiety. The formulation was sound, the client turned up, and several months in the picture has barely moved. They still miss appointments. They still arrive with the between-session task undone and an apology that sounds sincere, because it is. Something does not add up.
Ari Tuckman’s argument is that adults with ADHD are already in your caseload, whatever you specialise in. Population prevalence sits around four to five per cent, but the people who seek therapy are not a random sample. Reverse comorbidity analysis puts ADHD at close to one in ten of adults being treated for major depression, and closer to one in five for dysthymia and bipolar. The client often does not know. Neither does the clinician, because it is not what they came in for.
This course is about finding those clients and knowing what to do next. Tuckman spends the first part on the model he uses in session, built on time horizon and temporal discounting, or as he puts it, too much present and not enough future. It explains procrastination, chronic lateness and the sharp reply to a partner better than the diagnostic criteria do, and clients tend to recognise themselves in it straight away.
From there, the harder diagnostic questions. How to separate ADHD from the depression or anxiety sitting on top of it when the client has both. Why hyperfocus supports the diagnosis rather than ruling it out. What a therapist who does not prescribe still needs to understand about stimulant medication, including how to answer the dependency question clients raise. Then the therapy itself: excuses versus explanations, the good enough threshold, and the reason a client says an alarm does not work for them when the alarm worked perfectly.
If you have ever finished a session wondering whether you are treating the right thing, this is the training that answers it.
You’ll walk away with
- A way to recognise the adults with ADHD already in your caseload from how they behave in session, rather than from a symptom checklist
- The three qualifiers that decide whether a symptom actually counts towards a diagnosis, and how to test each one in a diagnostic interview
- Questions that separate ADHD from anxiety, depression and trauma when a client clearly has both
- A model of time horizon and temporal discounting you can explain in plain language, so a client’s own history finally makes sense to them
- Five ways to restructure consequences so a deadline that is still days away starts driving behaviour today
- A method for bringing the future into the present with a client who knows what to do and cannot get started
- Enough working knowledge of stimulant and non-stimulant medication to hold a useful conversation and prepare a client for a short prescriber appointment
- An evidence-based answer to the addiction and dependency concern clients raise about stimulants
- The excuses versus explanations distinction, used to keep agency with the client without adding shame
- Scheduling and to-do list work that accounts for the feelings these tools bring up, including what to say when a client tells you the strategy does not work for them
Watch the course trailer
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Course Duration: 3.5 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
When your adult clients with ADHD struggle to follow through on treatment plans, or when ADHD strains a couple's intimacy and communication, you need strategies that work in real-world practice. Ari Tuckman, PsyD, MBA has spent more than 25 years translating ADHD science into practical tools that help clinicians support adults, couples, and families navigating attention challenges, executive function gaps, and relationship friction.
A frequent presenter, Dr. Tuckman's teaching emphasises psychoeducation and skill-building that clinicians can apply immediately. He has delivered more than 850 presentations and podcast interviews for professionals and the public across the United States and internationally in Sweden, Turkey, Greece, Mexico, England, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and Iceland.
Dr. Tuckman is the author of five books on ADHD, including ADHD After Dark (2019) and The ADHD Productivity Manual (2025), and was inducted into the CHADD Hall of Fame in 2023 for his significant contributions to the field. He has served as conference committee co-chair for CHADD's annual International Conference on ADHD, the largest ADHD conference in the US. His work has reached audiences on CNN and National Public Radio and has been cited in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. He contributes regularly to ADDitude Magazine and Attention Magazine, keeping the ADHD clinical community informed on emerging research and practical innovations.
In his West Chester, Pennsylvania, private practice, Dr. Tuckman works with teens and adults living with ADHD, as well as couples and families affected by attention and executive function challenges. His clinical focus spans ADHD diagnosis and treatment, executive function coaching, couples therapy, and sex therapy — including how ADHD shapes intimacy, desire, and relationship dynamics. His approach is grounded in helping clients understand their brains first, then build systems that match how ADHD brains actually work, rather than fighting against them.
Whether you're refining your assessment protocols, coaching clients on productivity, or helping couples navigate ADHD-related conflict, Dr. Tuckman's frameworks offer clear, evidence-informed steps you can teach and adapt.
For clinicians, his courses and materials provide concrete intervention strategies, language for psychoeducation, and tools to address the executive function deficits that undermine treatment gains. You'll learn how to support clients in managing time, organising tasks, sustaining attention, and regulating emotions — and how to help couples repair trust and intimacy when one or both partners have ADHD.
Qualifications
- Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
- Master of Business Administration (MBA)
- Licensed psychologist in private practice
Selected Books
- The ADHD Productivity Manual (2025)
- ADHD After Dark: Better Sex Life, Better Relationship (2019)
- Understand Your Brain, Get More Done: The ADHD Executive Functions Workbook (2012)
- More Attention, Less Deficit: Success Strategies for Adults with ADHD (2009)
- Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD: A Practical, Easy-to-Use Guide for Clinicians (2007)
Teaching & Roles
- Conference committee co-chair, CHADD International Conference on ADHD
- Former board member, CHADD
- Former vice president, Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA)
- Frequent international speaker (850+ presentations and podcast interviews across nine countries)
- Faculty, Coach Approach Training Institute
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 3
- Topics 0
- Duration 3.5 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English