We’ve seen a lot of clients over our combined 25+ years of experience. Often, they’ll come to us frustrated, discouraged, feeling like they’ve been living their lives wandering around with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake and no plan. Some have spun their wheels fast enough to achieve some big milestones in life, but exhausted, wilted and worn out, sometimes with little progress to show.
In trying to identify and capture how we approach our work and help our clients, we were reminded about the parallel between ADHD and the orchid.
The orchid has been thought of as delicate and difficult to maintain. If it doesn’t have the right environment and care, it won’t flower. What we do know about orchids is that they take patience to grow and don’t flower right away. Much like a person with ADHD, the orchid can blossom under the right circumstances. Many of our clients have felt like an orchid in Antarctica (the only continent where orchids don’t grow!), unable to root and flower. Their ADHD gene that has often been thought of as a disability, hasn’t been cultivated under the right circumstances. It has been said that “Environment and experience can steer a person up instead of down. Risk becomes possibility; vulnerability becomes plasticity and responsiveness. Gene variants generally considered misfortunes can instead now be understood as highly leveraged evolutionary bets, with both high risks and high potential rewards: gambles that help create a diversified-portfolio approach to survival.” This is where we come in. Working with the team at Orchid can change your entire perspective and help you create an environment in which you can flourish.
When a person identifies their need to work on themselves, they often discount the effect the environment plays on those changes. It’s difficult to alter your own habits, and even more difficult to maintain new habits when your environment stays the same. We recognize the needs of our clients to make both internal and external modifications.
Studies show the combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Executive Function coaching techniques are the cornerstone of making positive changes for individuals with ADHD. At Orchid, we recognize the importance of a two-pronged approach involving CBT and coaching to help our clients reach their personal goals.
Using diagnostic measures and a comprehensive intake, we deliver therapeutic and educational supports and interventions to provide care through a variety of models specifically tailored to meet the needs of individuals, families, or groups.
