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ADHD & Executive Functioning Therapy in Los Angeles

You're not lazy. You're not careless. You're not "just not trying hard enough." You have a brain that works differently — and you've been white-knuckling your way through life trying to keep up with systems that weren't built for how you think.

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I'm Dr. Jené Verchick, a licensed clinical psychologist with over 26 years of experience. I work with adults and teens in Los Angeles and Bay Area who are struggling with ADHD, executive functioning challenges, or both. Sessions are via secure video.

How I Work

I'm not going to hand you a planner and tell you to make lists. If that worked, you wouldn't be here.

My approach is clinical and direct. I help you understand how your brain actually operates — not the version you've been pretending to have — and build strategies that work with your wiring instead of against it. We also address the emotional damage that years of struggling have caused: the shame, the anxiety, the imposter syndrome, the relationships strained by missed deadlines and forgotten promises.

ADHD isn't just an attention problem. It's an everything problem — and it deserves a therapist who treats the whole picture.

Adults with ADHD

Most of my adult ADHD clients weren't diagnosed as kids. They powered through school on intelligence and anxiety, built successful careers through sheer force of will, and now they're hitting a wall. The strategies that got you here — hyperfocus, last-minute adrenaline, overcommitting to prove you're capable — are breaking down.

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What I see most often in adults:

• High-performing professionals — engineers, executives, entrepreneurs — who are crushing it at work but their personal life is chaos. Bills unpaid, relationships neglected, health ignored. The cognitive load of managing a career leaves nothing for everything else.

• The late diagnosis. You're 35 or 45 and just found out you have ADHD. Suddenly your entire history makes sense — the underachievement, the job-hopping, the relationships that fell apart. Now you need to figure out what to do with that information.

• Emotional dysregulation that nobody warned you about. The irritability, the rejection sensitivity, the overwhelm that hits without warning. ADHD isn't just about focus — it's about managing the intensity of your own internal experience.

• Relationship strain. Your partner is exhausted by your forgetfulness, your inability to follow through, your tendency to check out mid-conversation. They think you don't care. You do — you just can't make your brain cooperate.

• Burnout and anxiety. You've been compensating for ADHD your entire life without knowing it. The mental energy required to appear normal is unsustainable. You're tired in a way that sleep doesn't fix.

Teens and Young Adults with ADHD

Parents usually come to me when the wheels are coming off — grades dropping, assignments missing, conflicts at home escalating, and a kid who seems capable but can't seem to get it together.

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Here's what I want parents to understand: your teen isn't choosing to fail. Their brain literally processes time, priorities, and task initiation differently than yours does. Yelling louder, taking away the phone, and adding more structure only works until it doesn't — and by the time you're calling me, it doesn't.

 

What I work on with teens:

• Executive functioning skills — not as a lecture, but as a practical toolkit built around how their specific brain works. Planning, prioritization, time estimation, task initiation, emotional regulation.

• The shame spiral. By the time most teens get to me, they've internalized the message that they're lazy or stupid. That belief is more damaging than the ADHD itself. I help them separate their identity from their diagnosis.

• School strategy — working with the reality of their brain, not against it. This includes conversations about accommodations, study approaches, and how to communicate with teachers without feeling broken.

• Family dynamics. ADHD doesn't just affect the teen — it affects the whole household. I work with parents on how to support without enabling, hold standards without shaming, and stop the nightly homework war. ​​

ADHD vs. Executive Functioning — What's the Difference?

ADHD is a neurological condition. Executive functioning is a set of cognitive skills — planning, organizing, prioritizing, managing time, regulating emotions, initiating tasks. Most people with ADHD have executive functioning deficits, but you can struggle with executive functioning without having ADHD.

I work with both. The treatment approach is similar — understanding your brain, building systems that match how you actually think, and addressing the emotional fallout. Whether you have a formal ADHD diagnosis or just know that your brain doesn't work the way everyone assumes it should, I can help.

What I Don't Do

I don't prescribe medication. I'm a psychologist, not a psychiatrist. If medication would help — and for many people with ADHD it's a game-changer — I coordinate with psychiatrists and can refer you to someone I trust. Therapy and medication together is often the most effective combination.

I also don't do neuropsychological testing. If you need a formal ADHD assessment, I can refer you to a colleague who specializes in that. If you already have a diagnosis, we skip that step and start working.

26+ Years of Experience

I've worked with ADHD clients for over two decades — adults who built entire careers before they understood their own brain, and teens who are trying to survive a school system that punishes the way they think. The common thread: ADHD is never just about attention. It's about shame, relationships, identity, and learning to work with yourself instead of against yourself. 

What Clients Say

"I'm a senior engineer at a tech company. I got diagnosed with ADHD at 38. My whole career suddenly made sense — the hyperfocus that made me great at coding, the inability to respond to emails, the meetings I zoned out of, the promotions I missed because I couldn't play the organizational game. Dr. Verchick helped me stop treating my ADHD as a character flaw and start treating it as the operating system I've been running on my whole life. Now I work with it instead of hiding it." — Engineer, Los Angeles

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"My son was failing 10th grade and we'd tried everything — tutors, extra time, taking away his phone, grounding him. Nothing worked because we were treating the symptoms, not the problem. Dr. Verchick helped us understand that his brain processes tasks differently. She worked with him on practical strategies and worked with us on how to stop making it worse. His grades are up. More importantly, he doesn't hate himself anymore." — Parents, Beverly Hills

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"I'm an executive who was secretly drowning. On the outside I ran a team of forty people. On the inside I couldn't keep track of my own calendar without three systems and a full-time assistant. Dr. Verchick helped me understand that my compensating mechanisms were both keeping me alive and burning me out. We rebuilt my approach from the ground up. I still have ADHD. I just don't have the panic anymore." — Executive, Brentwood

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"My daughter was diagnosed in 8th grade and it was actually a relief — finally an explanation. But knowing didn't fix it. Dr. Verchick helped her build real skills — not the generic 'use a planner' advice she'd gotten from every school counselor. Actual strategies for how her brain works. She's thriving now." — Mother, Calabasas

Frequently asked questions about ADHD therapy

I think I have ADHD but I've never been diagnosed. Can you help?

Yes. We can work together whether or not you have a formal diagnosis. If we determine that an assessment would be useful, I'll refer you to a colleague who specializes in neuropsychological testing. But a diagnosis isn't required to start addressing the patterns that are making your life harder.

 

How is therapy for ADHD different from just getting medication?

Medication helps with focus and impulse control. Therapy helps with everything medication doesn't touch — the shame, the relationship damage, the identity questions, the emotional dysregulation, the practical strategies for managing your life. Most people benefit from both.

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My teen has accommodations at school but is still struggling. Can therapy help?

Yes. Accommodations remove barriers but they don't build skills. Therapy helps your teen develop the executive functioning toolkit they'll need for college, work, and life — not just for getting through high school.

 

I'm high-functioning. I don't look like I have ADHD.

That's exactly who I work with. High-functioning ADHD is exhausting precisely because no one sees the effort behind the performance. You're not struggling less — you're just hiding it better. Therapy is where you stop hiding.