Therapy No Filter

Most adults with ADHD know exactly what they're bad at.

Ask them about missed deadlines, unfinished projects, procrastination, or impulsive decisions and they'll have a list ready to go. But ask them about their strengths? That's often a much harder question.

The VIA Character Strengths Survey is one of the most widely used tools in positive psychology. Researchers identified 24 character strengths that show up across cultures and throughout history. While we all possess all 24 strengths, most of us naturally lean on a handful more than others.

For adults with ADHD, identifying these strengths can be incredibly helpful. Instead of asking:
❌ "What's wrong with me?"
We start asking:
✅ "What already works?"
✅ "What gives me energy?"
✅ "How can I use more of that?"

Understanding your strengths can become a roadmap for motivation, resilience, and self-understanding. Have you ever taken a strengths assessment?

Read the full blog here: https://teletherapymaryland.com/strengths-based-therapy-for-adhd-stop-fixing-weaknesses-and-start-using-what-works

Cognitive reframing is NOT pretending everything is fine.

It’s learning how to look at the same situation from a different angle.

Think of it like looking out different windows in your house.

The outside world didn’t magically change.
The view just shifts depending on where you’re standing.

That’s what cognitive flexibility does.

Humor can help create that shift.

Because:
“It’s just a flesh wound”
hits a little differently than:
“My entire life is ruined.”

(Yes, Monty Python fans, I absolutely mean the Black Knight scene.)

Humor can help the nervous system loosen its grip just enough to consider:
➡️ Is there another way to look at this?
➡️ What part of this CAN I control?
➡️ Is my current perspective helping me or hurting me?

That doesn’t mean:
✔️ Your frustration isn’t valid
✔️ People aren’t difficult
✔️ Systems aren’t exhausting
✔️ Your boss isn’t incompetent

Sometimes your interpretation IS accurate.

But accurate and helpful are not always the same thing.

Because if your emotional survival depends on:
➡️ politicians agreeing
➡️ people behaving rationally
➡️ your family becoming emotionally mature overnight

…you’re probably going to stay stressed for a while.

Humor can help people shift from:
“I’m completely trapped by this”
to:
“This situation still sucks, but maybe I’m not powerless.”

That shift matters.

Our newest blog, “If You Don’t Laugh, You’ll Cry,” explores humor, cognitive flexibility, stress, trauma recovery, and therapy that actually feels human.

📖 Read the blog: https://teletherapymaryland.com/if-you-dont-laugh-youll-cry-using-humor-in-therapy-to-make-it-more-approachable
🎤 Register for the webinar: https://www.aaemerald.com/readiness

What’s a movie quote, joke, or perspective shift that instantly helps you calm down?

Harry Potter fans already know this lesson.

The boggart — a creature that turns into your greatest fear — is defeated by turning it into something ridiculous.

Because humor changes your relationship to fear.

Not by pretending difficult things don’t exist.
Not by denying pain.
But by reducing the power those thoughts hold over you.

That’s part of why humor can help during stress, anxiety, perfectionism, and conflict.

Sometimes the nervous system needs perspective more than another round of panic.

That’s also why I sometimes use ridiculous metaphors in therapy.

For example:
Imagine your boss throwing a fit like an overtired baby that just needs to fart or p**p.

Immature? Absolutely.
Surprisingly regulating? Also yes.

Humor can interrupt emotional intensity long enough for the brain to step back and think:
“Okay… maybe I don’t need to emotionally combust over this.”

A lot of our stress comes from things outside our control:
✔️ Politics
✔️ Gas prices
✔️ Other people’s behavior
✔️ Family dysfunction
✔️ Systems that make no sense

And while:
“If people would just get their s**t together”

is technically accurate…

waiting for the entire world to suddenly become reasonable usually keeps people stuck feeling powerless.

Humor can help create enough flexibility to refocus on:
➡️ What CAN I control?
➡️ How do I want to respond?
➡️ How do I keep this from consuming me?

The goal isn’t avoiding reality.

The goal is reducing fear and helplessness enough to move through it differently.

Our newest blog, “If You Don’t Laugh, You’ll Cry,” explores humor, stress, trauma recovery, relationships, and therapy that actually feels human.

📖 Read the blog: https://teletherapymaryland.com/if-you-dont-laugh-youll-cry-using-humor-in-therapy-to-make-it-more-approachable
🎤 Register for the webinar: https://www.aaemerald.com/readiness

What fictional character, movie, or ridiculous mental image instantly helps you feel less stressed?

You know that voice in your head that replays every awkward interaction, mistake, typo, or mildly embarrassing moment at 2am?

Yeah. That one.

Perfectionism usually sounds less like:
“I’d like to improve.”

And more like:
“You absolute idiot, why did you say that?”

That internal critic LOVES replaying the agony over and over.

One of the ways I help clients work with that voice is by giving it a nickname.

“Little Miss Perfect.”
“Captain Overthink.”
“The Internal Yelp Reviewer.”
Whatever fits.

Because oddly enough, humor can help create distance between YOU and the perfectionistic thought spiral.

Instead of:
“I am a failure.”

It becomes:
“Oh hey Little Miss Perfect, we got this, you can take a break”

That tiny shift matters.

Not because the discomfort disappears.
Not because mistakes suddenly feel amazing.

But because playful language can increase self-compassion and make difficult therapeutic concepts feel more approachable.

(Also, sometimes “parts work” sounds a little too much like assembling IKEA furniture emotionally.)

The goal isn’t pretending perfectionism doesn’t exist.

The goal is learning how to respond to yourself with a little less shame and a little more flexibility.

Our newest blog, “If You Don’t Laugh, You’ll Cry,” explores humor, stress, perfectionism, trauma recovery, and therapy that actually feels human.

📖 Read the blog: https://teletherapymaryland.com/if-you-dont-laugh-youll-cry-using-humor-in-therapy-to-make-it-more-approachable
🎤 Register for the webinar: https://www.aaemerald.com/readiness

If your perfectionism had a nickname, what would it be? 👀