adhd solutions therapy & dbt solutions therapy with kat zwick
Kat Zwick (they/them, she/her) offers a limited number of spots for individual gender affirming, queer affirming, and neurodivergent affirming DBT therapeutic solutions and ADHD/Executive Functioning therapeutic solutions based on their years of experience and expertise in these areas. Kat is offering these services only to adult clients at this time.
ADHD Solutions Therapy
ADHD Solutions Therapy is solutions-focused and skills-based work that utilizes a number of modalities and strategies to assist neurodivergent clients, in an individualized manner, in identifying their specific ADHD traits and areas of task and executive functioning management that may need improvement, accommodation, or creative (and even FUN!) compensatory strategies. The client and Kat develop action plans and goals together to move the client towards the change they’d like to see in a judgment-free, non-moralizing working relationship.
Kat utilizes principles, philosophies and skills from DBT, CBT, Internal Family Systems and more to creatively connect clients to their executive functioning and other ADHD-related goals and create emotional and relational connectivity around even the most mundane and annoying tasks that clients would like to accomplish. Kat depends upon the evidence-based work and strategies of Dr. Hallowell, Dr. Powell, Dr. Barkley and other thought-leaders in the science of ADHD. While not all thought-leaders are inherently neurodivergent affirming, Kat translates the work to clients to be such.
Kat’s dynamic and frankly hilarious approach to ADHD/executive functioning therapy assists clients in embracing instead of judging their ADHD traits and becoming more and more “do what works” focused in their lives, while understanding that ADHDers do things differently as compared to a neurotypical paradigm— and that’s ok. Kat also recognizes the genuine challenges ADHDers face in a neurotypical-oriented world and validates these realities while not seeking to alter the stuff of who the client is.
Kat is a diagnosed ADHDer themself and utilizes lived experience for decades to help clients connect to strategies in a more accessible way.
As of March 2022 Kat is currently completing a certification training to become an ADHD Certified Professional through PESi and Evergreen Certifications.
Kat takes a strong stance against ABA as “the way” to intervene with neurodivergent clients as well as other approaches that assume neurotypical behavior, mannerisms, timelines, and ways of being in the world are inherently “correct.”
Kat also recognizes ADHD adults may indeed have behavioral goals for their lives, and Kat utilizes compassionate, non-judgmental, non-moralizing strategies to assist clients in achieving their own goals.
One of the biggest paradigm shifts Kat offers clients in ADHD Solutions Therapy is to help remove shame, judgment and punishment as a motivator for action and behavior change.
One of the biggest paradigm shifts Kat offers clients in ADHD Solutions Therapy is to help remove shame, judgment and punishment as a motivator for action and behavior change.
Advanced DBT Solutions Therapy
DBT Solutions Therapy is also skills-based work designed to assist clients in identifying trouble spots in their lives, outlining goals, and using the skills needed to achieve those goals.
Kat centers DBT Solutions Therapy on helping client’s locate their own Wise Mind, which by another name is intuition, while also helping clients identify and remove barriers to change behaviorally, emotionally, cognitively and interpersonally.
Kat uses humor, deep expertise, and always the utmost respect and compassion for every human being as a cornerstone of their DBT Solutions Therapy to assist clients in moving through challenging situations with more ease, less self- and others-judgment, and hopefully a laugh or two.
This therapy is most effective for clients who already have significant familiarity with DBT, such as former clients of RtW’s DBT Group series at or of other DBT programs or treatment centers. DBT Solutions Therapy may be a brief intervention for some clients looking for a “tune-up” for a specific situation or trouble area in their lives.
This may also be a helpful approach for other professionals trained in DBT who would like solutions-oriented assistance with a trained DBT professional.
Kat tinkers around quite a bit with DBT to make it more social justice oriented, inclusive of nonviolent communication approaches, neurodivergent affirming, gender affirming, queer affirming, and supportive of recovery from oppressive systems.
Kat pulls from Marsha Linehan’s manual, Martin Bohus’ DBT-PTSD protocol, RO-DBT, and the Neurodivergent Friendly Workbook by Sonny Jay Wise as well as from their own work with diverse clients in DBT over the last 10 years.
Kat tinkers around quite a bit with DBT to make it more social justice oriented, inclusive of nonviolent communication approaches, neurodivergent affirming, gender affirming, queer affirming, and supportive of recovery from oppressive systems.