I became a Clinical Psychologist because I wanted to help people, and because I did well enough in psychology at A-level that it felt like the obvious path. I am not sure I had the originality to consider anything else. My doctorate, nominally a three-year qualification, took me four years, largely due to a complete lack of organisational skills that I look back on now with a mixture of recognition and mild horror.
I started my first CAMHS post in 2013 and was told on day one that ADHD assessment was going to be a core part of my job. I did not have much say in it. But once I started, once I began to understand what it actually meant to people when they finally had an answer, I did not want to do anything else. I have dedicated my working life since then to becoming genuinely expert in this area. Over 900 assessments across more than 12 years, across the NHS, local authority settings, and now through ADHD Resolve. I still do some local authority work alongside this because I think it matters to keep a broader perspective, to not see everything through the single lens of ADHD, and to remember that there is a great deal of variety in how people present and what they need.
I hated school. I was not built for how it worked and would have avoided it at all costs wherever possible, which was made considerably more difficult by the fact that my mum worked there and my dad was a governor. In primary school I spent a lot of time doing lessons in the corridor. Not because I was naughty. I was not. I just could not stay on task and apparently made it harder for others to either. By secondary school I had worked out how to coast on being bright enough, which served me reasonably well until it did not. If you are reading this and questioning whether you might have ADHD, some of what my teachers wrote about me will probably sound familiar.
I still find plenty of things difficult. Getting everything done. Switching off at the end of the day. Being fully present with my family when my head is still full of work. The cost of keeping everything running is real, and some days it gets close to burnout. I am not immune to any of it. What I have learned, from my own experience and from working with hundreds of people who understand exactly what that feels like, is that none of this has to be the ceiling. I built ADHD Resolve with systems specifically designed to work with how my brain operates rather than against it. The process runs smoothly and efficiently not by accident, but because I know what it feels like when it does not.
Outside of work I have two young children who keep me very busy. I get out on the mountain bike when I can, and I watch and occasionally play football, though at 42 and with the exercise habits of someone who could definitely do more, the playing side of things can be quite challenging. I try to stay healthy, be present, and do the best version of myself that circumstances allow. Some days that goes better than others.
The assessments we carry out here are the same assessments I have always carried out: thorough, honest, and evidence-based. Not designed to confirm what you already think, but to answer the question properly using all of the information available, whatever the answer turns out to be. People put their trust in you when they come for an assessment. I take that seriously. Getting it right is always the whole point.
ADHD Resolve was set up to offer the very best of clinical rigour and personal expertise, without the waiting times, and at a price that makes it as accessible as we can manage. I am proud of what we have built and proud of the work we do.
