Therapy for neurodivergent & gifted teens: Rockville, MD & online across Maryland

Your teen isn't broken. They're carrying more than anyone can see.

Therapy for teenagers with ADHD, gifted and high-achieving teens, and teens weighed down by anxiety, perfectionism, and expectations from themselves and everyone else. For families in Rockville and across Maryland.

If you're the parent

The kid everyone calls "so bright" is quietly struggling.

Maybe it looks like a smart kid whose grades do not match their ability: assignments started brilliantly and never turned in. Maybe it's the straight-A student who melts down over a 94, can't fall asleep before midnight, and treats every test like a verdict on their worth. Maybe it's a teenager who used to talk to you and now gives you one-word answers from behind a closed door.

Bright, sensitive, neurodivergent teenagers are often struggling in ways adults misread. What looks like laziness is often an ADHD brain that can't get started on things it can't feel. What looks like drive is often fear wearing a nicer outfit. And what looks like withdrawal is often a kid who has concluded, quietly, and too early, that something is wrong with them.

Sound familiar?

Capable of the work but unable to start it, then panicking or shutting down as deadlines collapse

Holds it together at school, falls apart at home

Perfectionism that turns small setbacks into catastrophes, or into not trying at all

Anxiety about grades, college, friendships, or disappointing people

Harsh self-talk that would break your heart if you could hear it

A gifted mind that overthinks everything, including itself

Where parents fit

You're not handing your kid off. You're part of the work.

We start with a parent conversation, so I understand what you're seeing at home and at school. From there, sessions belong to your teen, and a meaningful degree of privacy is what makes teen therapy work. Teenagers don't open up to an adult who reports back on them.

That privacy has clear limits, and I'm transparent with both of you about them from the first session: safety concerns are always shared with parents. Along the way you can expect periodic check-ins about themes and progress, how it's going, and how you can support what your teen is building, without turning me into a surveillance device your teen learns to route around.

If what your family needs most is support for the parent side, how to respond to shutdowns, how to lower the temperature at home, that's a conversation worth having too, and I'll say so honestly in the consultation.

My teen says they don't want therapy. Now what?+

Very common, and often a good sign of self-respect rather than a problem. I usually suggest framing the first session as an experiment, not a commitment: meet once, see what it's like, then decide. Most reluctant teens are reacting to an image of therapy (being analyzed, lectured, or "fixed") that has little to do with what actually happens in the room. One honest conversation usually settles whether this can work.

Will you tell me what my teen says in session?+

Anything involving safety, always and immediately. Beyond that, I share themes and progress rather than transcripts, and I tell your teen exactly what I'll share and why, so nobody feels ambushed. This balance is what lets teens actually use therapy. We'll agree on the specifics together before the work begins.

Does my teen need an ADHD diagnosis first?+

No. Many teens I work with have a diagnosis; others are somewhere in the "we suspect, but haven't tested" zone. Therapy works with the patterns in front of us: starting, finishing, focus, shame, and anxiety, regardless of the label. If formal testing would genuinely help (for school accommodations, for example), I'll say so and point you to the right people for evaluation.

In person or online?+

Both. In-person sessions happen at the Rockville office; secure video sessions are available anywhere in Maryland. Many teens do well online. It meets them in their own space, and it removes the after-school logistics that make weekly consistency hard. We'll figure out the right format in the consultation. About online sessions →

What ages do you work with?+

Psychotherapy is available for clients ages 14 and older; hypnotherapy is available for clients ages 8 and older. If you are unsure which kind of support fits, we can talk about that in a consultation.