ADHD Counselling for Children & Teens

Neurodiversity-Affirming ADHD Care

We don't try to "fix" ADHD. We aim to understand how your child's unique brain works and help them build an environment that supports it. Combining clinical counselling with behaviour intervention strategies, our support focuses on:

• Executive functioning skills (planning, organizing, initiating tasks)
• Rebuilding self-esteem damaged by school struggles or peer conflicts
• Managing the intense emotional dysregulation and impulsivity common with ADHD
• Advocating for neurodiversity-affirming school accommodations

For teens navigating ADHD alongside school stress, friendships, or identity, youth and teen counselling in Port Coquitlam offers a warm, neurodivergent-affirming space to build confidence and coping skills.

Parents and caregivers may also need a space for their own emotional wellbeing while navigating advocacy, appointments, school systems, and the work of creating affirming support. Learn about counselling for mothers and caregivers. When ADHD support needs to extend across home and school, Sheila can also collaborate with educators and school teams. You can also read more about executive functioning support and the main FAQ for fees and availability.

ADHD Support That Looks Beyond Behaviour

ADHD is not simply a matter of trying harder, paying closer attention, or making better choices. Children and teens with ADHD may be working incredibly hard while managing executive-functioning differences, emotional intensity, sensory overwhelm, inconsistent attention, time blindness, or difficulty beginning and completing tasks. At Sunny Spot, support begins with curiosity rather than criticism. The goal is to understand what is making life harder and help each young person discover strategies that fit the way their brain works.

How ADHD May Show Up

ADHD can look different from one child or teen to another. It may appear as forgetfulness, impulsivity, difficulty with transitions, emotional outbursts, procrastination, perfectionism, school avoidance, low frustration tolerance, or becoming overwhelmed by multi-step tasks. Some young people mask their struggles at school and release their emotions once they feel safe at home. Others begin to believe they are lazy, difficult, or incapable when they have repeatedly struggled to meet expectations that were not designed for them.

What ADHD Counselling Can Support

Counselling can help children and teens better understand their brains, recognize patterns, build emotional-regulation skills, strengthen self-advocacy, and develop practical approaches to organization, task initiation, transitions, and problem-solving. Sessions also make room for the anxiety, shame, frustration, friendship challenges, and confidence difficulties that can accompany ADHD.

This work overlaps with child counselling for younger children and youth and teen counselling for adolescents, and it pairs naturally with our emotional regulation and anxiety counselling support. Many young people with ADHD also benefit from self-esteem and confidence work, and behaviour intervention can help when daily routines and transitions feel stuck.

Support for Parents and Caregivers

Parents and caregivers can receive support in understanding ADHD-related needs, responding to dysregulation, reducing unhelpful power struggles, creating realistic routines, and strengthening connection. Parent coaching offers a dedicated space to build practical strategies you can carry into real moments at home. When appropriate and consented to, counselling may also include collaboration with schools and other members of the child or teen’s support system.

Sunny Spot provides in-person ADHD counselling in Port Coquitlam and welcomes children, teens, and families from Coquitlam, Port Moody, and throughout the Tri-Cities.