Hannah Mckenny- Therapist & ADHD Specialist

10/11/2025

ADHD mornings 🥶☕️🥱🐢

Mornings can look very different for many ADHDers and even if they appear “typical” from the outside, there’s often a high chance that person is masking to appear neurotypical.

Here’s what an average morning looks like for me:

☀️ Wake up: The moment I open my eyes, my brain floods with noise a jumble of thoughts about everything I didn’t manage to do yesterday, mixed with a huge list of everything that needs to be done today.

🥶 Freeze: Those thoughts can be paralysing. Even if I manage to sit up, you’ll often find me perched on the edge of the bed (like I am now), unable to move to the next step. The freeze often comes from having to make decisions, even simple ones like what to wear.

🐢 Slow: My mornings are slow. Coffee doesn’t energise me; if anything, it makes me more tired. Getting into any kind of rhythm takes a huge amount of effort and some days, it just doesn’t happen.

Sound familiar?

Accepting ADHD can be really difficult. Many of my clients feel deep frustration about it… and honestly, so do I at times.
That frustration usually shows up when we’re trying to live in a way that doesn’t align with how our brains actually work.

If you spent your day squinting and straining instead of putting on your glasses, you’d end up frustrated and exhausted. This is no different, you don’t need fixing; you just need to live in a way that fits you.

Start exploring what works better for your brain and begin to see yourself more clearly 👓

How do your mornings usually go?

29/10/2025

Supporting Neurodivergent Clients: Finding Clarity, Connection & Self-Acceptance

Working with neurodivergent clients is something deeply close to my heart. Many of the people I see come to therapy carrying years of shame, confusion, and unhelpful habits that have built up from a lifetime of masking or trying to fit into a world that wasn’t built with their brains in mind.

My approach is integrative, a blend of therapy that holds space for both the present and the past. Together, we explore the patterns and experiences that shaped you, while also looking at what you need right now to live more authentically and comfortably in your own skin.

Alongside therapy, I bring in elements of coaching, not in the traditional sense of pushing for productivity or rigid goal-setting, but as a way to help you reconnect with yourself. Coaching, for me, is about peeling back the layers of “shoulds” and unwritten rules that have guided so much of life before diagnosis. It’s about rediscovering who you are beneath the mask, and learning to live in alignment with your true identity.

The work we do together is never scripted. I don’t plan sessions, I show up with trust: in my clients, in myself, and in the process. The sessions unfold organically, and that’s where the magic happens. I meet you exactly where you are, not to tell you what to do, but to help you discover what you want to do and how to get there in a way that feels safe, empowering, and sustainable.

This process is not one-sided. My clients’ courage and vulnerability are powerful mirrors that deepen my own self-awareness and remind me, session after session, of the strength that comes from being fully seen and accepted as we are.

Together, we work towards understanding, clarity, and acceptance gently unpicking years of self-doubt and learning to build a life that truly fits.



🌿 www.hannahmckenny.com

24/10/2025

In today’s edition of conversations had with acceptance of my neurodivergent brain….

Daughter: what time are you going to the gym tomorrow?

Me: today’s me is going to get up and go straight out to the gym in the morning so I feel productive and don’t talk myself out of it.

Daughter: ok cool

Me: however tomorrows me may get up and sit around procrastinating for several hours and then go.

Also me: I also may eventually go later in the day

Also me: Or I may not go at all

Also me: I may even go both tomorrow and Sunday

Also me: So basically I have no idea, it’s out of my control….but in this moment going is a good idea

Daughter:…..ok, let me know when you know 🫤

Me: I will if I remember this conversation

💜 So accepting how my brain works hasn’t changed how I struggle to make decisions….but it has changed how mean I am to myself about it.
Now I own my struggles and try to find some humour in it when possible.
It’s ok to be really honest about how hard these fairly simple things can be to us 💜

21/10/2025

ADHD is Brutal

It’s not quirky.
It’s not “just being distracted.”
It’s a lifelong challenge that many people will never truly understand.

It can steal your focus, your time, your energy and sometimes your hope.
It can shake your confidence, strain your relationships, and make everyday life feel like a constant uphill climb.

ADHD isn’t just about forgetting things or missing appointments,
it’s about feeling lost in the noise and chaos of your own mind.

You try to do better. You plan, you set goals, you mean well.
but your brain doesn’t always follow through.
And every stumble chips away a little more at your self-worth.

It’s exhausting.
It’s lonely.
It’s overwhelming.

People say, “Everyone’s a little ADHD,”
but not everyone lives in a brain that argues with them every single day.

ADHD can lead to burnout, shame, depression, and self-doubt.
It can make you question your worth, your abilities, your future.

But if you’re still here, still showing up, still trying,
you’re not failing.
You’re surviving something most people can’t see.

Living with ADHD isn’t easy
it’s learning to fight a battle that happens inside your own mind,
and still finding ways to keep going.

29/09/2025

Many of us carry wounds from childhood, sometimes they’re the result of obvious trauma, abuse, or neglect. But often, they’re formed in more subtle ways too: a lack of emotional support, positive communication, or being left to manage big feelings alone.

As adults, these wounds can show up in how we react to situations. Instead of responding from our grounded, adult self, we may find ourselves reacting from the hurt and frightened child within us.

Therapy offers a safe and compassionate space to reconnect with your inner child, to listen to their pain, and to begin offering the comfort and care they never received. Healing doesn’t erase the past, but it allows the “little you” to finally feel seen, heard, and nurtured.

✨ You don’t have to carry this alone. Together, we can begin the gentle process of healing.

29/09/2025

🌟 Living with autism in a world not tailored for you can be a challenging journey. In our latest blog, I explore the profound topic of autistic masking and share ways to navigate this experience with compassion—from practicing self-care to educating those around you. Let's take this step together toward understanding and acceptance. 💛 [Read the full post here]

Living with autism can sometimes feel like navigating a world that wasn’t designed with you in mind. You might find yourself constantly adjusting, adapting, and sometimes hiding parts of who you are just to fit in or avoid misunderstanding. This experience is often described as autistic masking. I...

04/09/2025

🌸 Why Women with ADHD May Struggle with Overeating

If you’re a woman with ADHD and find yourself turning to food more often than you’d like, you’re not alone and it’s not about “lack of willpower.” ADHD affects the way our brains regulate dopamine, emotions, and routines, which can make eating habits feel complicated.

Here are some common reasons:

🍫 Dopamine Seeking
ADHD brains run lower on dopamine. Foods high in sugar, carbs, and fat give a quick boost, which can temporarily improve focus, energy, or mood.

💜 Emotional Regulation
Food can become a tool for soothing big feelings, overwhelm, or rejection sensitivity when other strategies feel out of reach.

⚡ Impulsivity & Executive Function
Planning meals, grocery shopping, and eating regularly can be difficult. Skipping meals often leads to eating more later.

🎭 Masking & Social Pressure
Women often mask ADHD traits or overcompensate socially, which is exhausting. Eating may feel like a way to recover. Diet culture only adds to the cycle of restriction and overeating.

🌸 Hormonal Influences
Hormonal shifts across the menstrual cycle, perimenopause, or menopause can worsen ADHD symptoms and increase cravings.

👅 Sensory Needs
Food provides consistent sensory input taste, texture, chewing which can feel comforting and grounding.

✨ The takeaway: overeating is often a form of self-regulation, not a weakness. When ADHD is better supported (through routines, therapy, or sometimes medication), eating patterns often become steadier.

You are not broken, and you are not alone. 💜

01/09/2025

💜 Women with ADHD & Emotional Dysregulation

For many women with ADHD, emotions can feel like a rollercoaster 🎢—intense highs, overwhelming lows, and moments where it feels impossible to “switch off.”

👉 This isn’t because you’re too sensitive or overreacting. Emotional dysregulation is part of how ADHD shows up in the brain.
👉 Many women mask their struggles for years, making the inner chaos feel even heavier.
👉 The truth? Your emotions aren’t wrong—they’re signals. They deserve compassion, not shame.

🌱 Some gentle ways to support yourself when emotions feel too big:
✨ Pause and name what you’re feeling (even “I don’t know” counts).
✨ Try a grounding tool—movement, cold water, or a calming object.
✨ Give yourself permission to take space, without guilt.

💬 You are not broken. You are human. And learning new ways to work with your emotions, instead of fighting them, is possible.

💜 If this resonates, you’re not alone.

15/08/2025

✨ The “oh wait, I forgot what I was doing” Olympics ✨

Some funny little quirks of adult ADHD in women:

• Starting 5 tasks… finishing none (but the cupboards are slightly reorganised)

• Forgetting what you were saying mid-sentence and just… smiling through it

• That moment you walk into a room with purpose, only to instantly lose the plot

• Switching between tabs like you’re DJ-ing the soundtrack of your brain

• Thinking about doing laundry… and finding yourself deep-cleaning the fridge instead

🧠 ADHD isn’t all chaos, sometimes it’s unintentionally hilarious.
💜 Which one feels the most you?

15/07/2025

💫 ADHD & S*x – A Woman’s Perspective

ADHD doesn’t stop at the bedroom door.
It follows you into your most intimate moments with all the intensity, distractions, and emotional undercurrents it brings.

🧠 Your brain might be too loud to focus on your body.
💡 You may want intimacy, but your nervous system says, “not now.”
🔥 You crave deep connection, but sometimes feel disconnected from yourself.

S*x isn’t just about desire it’s also about attention, vulnerability, and regulation. And for women with ADHD, those things can feel complicated.

✨ You might:
• Zone out mid-s*x and feel ashamed for not being “present”
• Feel overstimulated by certain touches or textures
• Struggle to communicate what you want without guilt or fear
• Crave novelty and intensity but also deep emotional safety

And here’s the thing: none of that means you’re broken.

👉 Your experience of intimacy is real, valid, and worthy of compassion.
👉 You don’t need to “fix” yourself to be desirable, connected, or confident.
👉 You can build a s*x life that works with your neurodivergence, not against it.

You deserve pleasure that feels safe, grounding, and fully yours.

💜 If no one ever told you this: There’s nothing wrong with the way your brain experiences intimacy.
💬 Let’s start talking about it. What shows up for you when it comes to ADHD and s*x?

*x *xualHealth