You forgot your anniversary again, even though weeks leading up to it, you planned on making arrangements. You can’t help zoning out mid-conversation, or saying something impulsive and watching as your partner shuts down. For adults with Attention Deficient/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the toll on relationships can feel relentless. You genuinely want to connect with your partner, but despite your best intentions, ADHD always seems to get in the way.
If that sounds like you, you might be carrying a lot of shame, feeling like you’re always letting your partner down and wondering if you’re even capable of being in a healthy relationship.
As an ADHD-focused clinician, I can confidently say you’re not alone. But when you’re surrounded by neurotypical couples (they have their own issues, by the way!), it can start feeling that way.
Unfortunately, no one ever taught us how to be in relationships. So when you’re navigating relational challenges in addition to executive functioning, communication, and Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria struggles related to ADHD, it can altogether feel too overwhelming.
The good news is that relational skills, including emotional regulation, handling conflict, and communication fundamentals can be developed. If you’re ready to start building stronger relationships, The ATTN Center is offering an 8-week virtual group starting at the end of this month to help clients develop the necessary skillset to co-create more rewarding relationships.
Learning together in group therapy
“Build Stronger Relationships with ADHD” is a group focused on supporting you in your romantic relationships. Over the course of the program, we will practice various skills that will empower you to be your most authentic self and cultivate greater emotional intimacy with the people who matter most to you.
This group is for you if you’re tired of feeling misunderstood or sense a growing disconnect between the partner you are and the partner you aspire to be. In a shame-free supportive environment, we’ll unpack how ADHD may be affecting your relationships and what you can do about it. With a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ADHD coaching, and group discussion and activities, we’ll champion each other to get to the root cause of your relationship issues and equip you with the tools to address them head-on. By the end of the 8 weeks, you’ll feel more hopeful and confident in your relationships.
Below is a general itinerary of what we’ll cover in the group:
Week 1: Understanding ADHD relationships
Together we’ll learn how time blindness, emotional dysregulation, hyperfocus, distraction, and Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, defined as intense emotional distress caused by perceived or actual rejection or criticism, show up in relationships. We’ll identify our personal ADHD patterns in past or current relationships, distinguish ADHD-driven behaviors from character flaws, and build initial group trust and shared language.
Week 2: Communicating in Relationships with ADHD
Week 2’s session focuses on the specific ways ADHD disrupts communication, including internal and external distractions, interrupting, thought-dumping, and difficulty staying present. You’ll learn and practice ADHD-adapted techniques for listening and expressing themselves more effectively.
Week 3: Time Blindness in Relationships
Time blindness is one of the most relationship-damaging ADHD symptoms; not because it signals a lack of caring, but because it so often reads that way to partners and loved ones. This session focuses on the real impact of time-related challenges and offers practical, ADHD-friendly systems for managing commitments.
Week 4: Emotional Regulation in Relationships with ADHD
ADHD brains experience emotions faster and more intensely, which means conflict can escalate quickly and repair can feel out of reach. This session builds skills for recognizing early signs of flooding, slowing down in heated moments, and repairing after ruptures.
Week 5: Attention and Presence
Maintaining emotional and physical intimacy with ADHD is its own challenge. The same brain that hyperfocuses intensely at the start of a relationship can later struggle to stay present. This session addresses the attention-intimacy gap and helps members build connection rituals that actually work for ADHD brains.
Week 6: Rejection Sensitivity and Self-Worth with ADHD
Rejection sensitive dysphoria can quietly run relationships. This session gives members language for what RSD is, how it distorts perception, and how to begin separating real threat from perceived threat in relational contexts.
Week 7: Working as a Team
This session shifts the lens from internal work to relational partnership. Members will explore how to disclose their ADHD productively, advocate for their needs without excusing behavior, and build structures with partners that make relationships more sustainable for everyone involved.
Week 8: Moving Forward
We’ll reflect on our biggest takeaways, create a personal relationship action plan, share wins from the 8 weeks, and close the group with intention. The goal is to leave with clarity, momentum, and a realistic plan for sustaining growth.
Ready to get started with ADHD relationship group therapy?
One of the most powerful benefits of group therapy is the relief that comes from realizing you’re not alone. Many adults with ADHD carry years of shame and exhaustion from being misunderstood. They feel awful when they show up late to an event their partner said was important to them for the umpteenth time, when they interrupt the person they love out of excitement, even though their partner said it makes them feel unheard, or when they made a promise they intended to keep at the time, yet completely forgot about weeks later.
Sometimes they don’t actually voice their concerns at all because they’re fearful of rejection or because they want to avoid conflict. All the while resentment brews inside.
Whether you already have a solid sense of how ADHD is impacting your relationships but don’t feel you have the tools to make a change yourself or you’ve recently been diagnosed and are trying to better understand how that affects the way you relate to your partner, this group is designed to help you get the answers and resources you need.
You’ve always had the heart for relationships. Now let’s give you the tools to match it.
If you’re interested in learning more or signing up, please reach out to The ATTN Center or me directly at gwen.aviles@attncenter.nyc for next steps.
Get Help at The ATTN Center
Our team knows that you may experience more than one mental health concern as a result of ADHD symptoms. This is why we are happy to also offer ADHD-focused therapy for anxiety, depression, and couples. We also provide services including neurofeedback, group therapy, and ADHD testing options. At the ATTN Center of NYC, we do everything in our power to treat ADHD without the use of medication, but we understand in some severe cases additional measures may be needed. As a result, we also maintain close relationships with many of NYC’s best psychiatrists. Feel free to visit our articles page for more helpful information today!
About the Author
Gwen is a writer and graduate intern who assists clients in rewriting their life stories and breaking out of limiting thought patterns. Outside of work, she’s an avid runner, proud caretaker to her labradoodle, Paloma, and a fried chicken sandwich fiend.