ADHD therapy for women in Denver
For the woman who read one article about ADHD in women and felt thirty years of her life click into place.
Girls learn early to hide the chaos: to mask, overwork, and apologize. That's why so many women aren't diagnosed until their thirties or forties, often right after a big life change breaks the systems that were holding everything up. I'm Mariana Vivas, LCSW, and this is a large part of my Denver practice, by telehealth across Colorado, in English o en español.
ADHD therapy at a glance
- Who it's for
- Adult women with ADHD: diagnosed, late-diagnosed, or strongly suspecting
- What we work on
- Burnout cycles, shame, perfectionism, emotion regulation, systems that fit your actual brain
- What this isn't
- Not medication management or formal testing; I refer well for both
- Format
- Telehealth anywhere in Colorado, or walk-and-talk in Denver
- Cost & insurance
- Insurance billing through Headway; estimated cost shown before booking
- How to start
- A free consultation call; schedule through Headway
Diagnosed late, or not yet
A late ADHD diagnosis can come with two feelings at once: relief that there was actually a reason things felt harder, and grief for all the years you thought the reason was you.
Maybe you were told you weren't living up to your potential. Maybe you learned to call yourself lazy, dramatic, disorganized, too sensitive, or too much. Maybe you became really, really good at hiding how hard you were working just to keep up.
Therapy here is part unlearning and part rebuilding. We look at the story you learned about yourself and start creating systems that actually work for your brain.
ADHD burnout
ADHD burnout can look like sprinting on deadline adrenaline, getting everything done, completely crashing, feeling guilty for crashing, and then doing the whole thing again because apparently we learned nothing.
Except you did. The problem usually isn't that you don't know you need rest. It's that you've built a life that requires you to constantly override what your brain and body are telling you.
We work on breaking that cycle without requiring you to become a completely different person first.
The high-functioning disguise
From the outside, you're the reliable one. You get things done. People probably have no idea how many alarms, lists, last-minute adrenaline rushes, forgotten tasks, and internal negotiations it took to get there.
Perfectionism and people-pleasing can become ways women with ADHD compensate for feeling disorganized or afraid of letting people down. They might work really well for a while. They're also exhausting.
The goal isn't to lower your standards. It's to stop sacrificing yourself to meet them.
ADHD after having a baby
Motherhood has a way of taking every executive functioning strategy you've carefully built and throwing it directly out the window. Sleep changes. Routines disappear. There are approximately 400 things to remember at all times, and another human now depends on you remembering at least some of them.
For some women, postpartum is when ADHD becomes impossible to ignore. For others, an existing diagnosis suddenly feels completely different. Either way, struggling with the transition doesn't mean you're failing at motherhood. It may mean the systems that worked before no longer fit the life you have now.
This sits at the intersection of two areas I work with often: ADHD in women and the transition into motherhood.
What therapy does here, and what it doesn't
I'm a therapist, not a prescriber, so I don't prescribe medication or provide formal ADHD testing. If either would be helpful, I can help connect you with someone who does. Therapy can work alongside medication, but medication isn't a requirement to work with me.
In therapy, we can work on emotional regulation, shame, perfectionism, burnout, relationships, boundaries, executive functioning, and the mental load that somehow keeps multiplying when nobody is looking.
Common questions
I don't have a formal diagnosis. Can I still come? expand_more
Yes. You don't need to arrive with paperwork proving you're “ADHD enough” to talk about what you're experiencing.
I don't provide formal ADHD testing, so if an evaluation becomes important, I'll help you identify appropriate resources.
Do you prescribe ADHD medication? expand_more
No. I'm an LCSW, not a medication prescriber. If you'd like to explore medication, I can help you connect with an appropriate medical provider.
Isn't ADHD coaching enough? Why therapy? expand_more
Coaching can be really useful for organization, accountability and practical systems.
Therapy becomes especially helpful when ADHD is tangled up with anxiety, shame, perfectionism, trauma, relationships, burnout or years of believing your struggles were character flaws.
Do you take insurance? expand_more
Yes, through Headway. You see your estimated cost before booking. For out-of-network plans, there's a benefits checker on the insurance FAQ.
Other areas of focus
You've been compensating long enough.
Start with a free consultation call. Bring the suspicion, the diagnosis, or the burnout, whichever arrived first.
Mariana Vivas, LCSW · Licensed in Colorado · Page reviewed August 2026