How your brain actually works
ADHD shapes attention, executive functioning, time, motivation, and emotional intensity. Those differences are real, not a character flaw, and they deserve an accurate description of how they show up for you.
Adult ADHD therapy
For adults with ADHD who are tired of being told to try harder.
I'm Dr. Val Camarano, a licensed psychologist seeing adults across New York City and Long Island. I work with bright, creative, and high-achieving adults with ADHD, including many diagnosed later in life, and with the shame, perfectionism, anxiety, and overwhelm that so often come along with it.
Telehealth available throughout New York State. Also licensed in Connecticut.
This might sound familiar.
- You know exactly what you should be doing. Knowing has never been the problem.
- You were diagnosed later in life, or you are still wondering, and a lot of your history is being quietly reinterpreted.
- You swing between weeks of brilliant, intense output and stretches where the simplest email sits unanswered.
- People see someone capable. You see the scaffolding it takes to look that way, and how tired you are of holding it up.
- You procrastinate on the things you care about most, and then feel ashamed that you did.
- Somewhere along the way you absorbed words like lazy, careless, scattered, too much, or "so much potential." Some of them still run the show.
- Perfectionism and avoidance take turns. Either it has to be flawless or it cannot be started.
- You over-function until you burn out, recover, and start the cycle again.
ADHD is rarely just ADHD by the time you reach adulthood.
Most adults I see with ADHD have spent years compensating. They have built impressive systems, relied on adrenaline and deadlines, and developed a real talent for looking more organized than they feel. It often works, until it costs too much.
So I don't treat ADHD as a list of inconvenient behaviors to correct. I'm interested in the whole configuration: the neurology, the strategies you built around it, and what those strategies are protecting.
What years of being misunderstood leave behind
When a brain is misread for decades, many people build protection, often some mix of anxiety that keeps you on guard, perfectionism that guards against criticism, avoidance that keeps you from failing in public, and a steady hum of shame.
The patterns those protections create
Overwhelm, burnout, self-doubt, inconsistent capacity, and relationships shaped by the effort of hiding how hard things are. Often trauma, depression, or relational wounds are part of the picture too.
Where the work goes
We understand the neurology and the protection together. Then we build practical capacity, make room for the feelings those protections were holding back, work on the shame, and make deliberate choices about how you want to work, love, and live.
How IFS and AEDP fit in.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is useful for the inner arguments ADHD tends to create. The part that makes elaborate plans, the part that shuts down, the part that criticizes you for both. Instead of trying to overpower them, we get to know what each one is doing and why. That usually lowers the internal noise enough to make real change possible.
AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) focuses on emotional experience inside a real relationship. For people who have felt judged for how their minds work, it matters to have an experience of being understood as it happens, and to notice what shifts when that shame softens.
Alongside that, we get practical. Executive functioning, time, energy, routines, work, and relationships. Some environments need to change. Some capacities are worth building. Usually both.
You can read more about my overall approach, my training and background, or the broader therapy I offer adults.
Practical details.
- Who I am
- Dr. Val Camarano, PsyD. Licensed psychologist in New York and Connecticut. Trained in IFS (IFS Institute Level 1) and AEDP, with the ADHD-CCSP credential.
- Where
- New York City and Long Island, with telehealth for adults anywhere in New York State. Connecticut clients are welcome too, where I'm also licensed.
- Who it's for
- Adults with diagnosed or suspected ADHD, including late-diagnosed adults, often alongside anxiety, depression, trauma, perfectionism, or burnout.
- Deeper options
- For some clients, therapy intensives or Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy may be appropriate after screening.
I'm a psychologist, not a medical doctor, and I don't prescribe medication.
Curious whether we'd be a good fit?
Send a short note about what's going on. It isn't a commitment. We'll figure out together whether this is the right place to start.
Start a conversation