I’m a Psychologist Who Tried Online Therapy at ADHDAdvisor.org — Here’s What Happened

I once saw a social media post that said getting support when you have untreated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is like completing an obstacle course that’s been created specifically to be impossible. As a psychologist who has ADHD, I can tell you that it’s true: You have to reach out, sometimes to several providers, wait months for an appointment, remember to go to your appointment, possibly keep track of your records, and if you get connected with the correct support, track your treatment. And it doesn’t end there — there may be more appointments, medications to keep track of, and so much more.

ADHDAdvisor.org is a telehealth company that provides assessments for ADHD, as well as medication management, individual therapy, and coaching. As a psychotherapist with ADHD, I’ve tried more than 10 online therapy services. I was curious to see how well ADHD.org was able to deliver virtual care, so I tested it out for one month. Here’s my experience.

The first step in signing up for ADHDAdvisor.org is to take a diagnostic assessment to determine if you may have ADHD. On the home page, I filled out the free self-assessment, which takes about 10 minutes to complete. Following completion, I was prompted to schedule an official assessment, which was a live video appointment scheduled for 30 minutes. However, I filled out the self-assessment a second time, answering “no” to all the symptom questions and was still prompted to schedule an official assessment.

The first parts of the self-assessment consisted of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, which are common screening tools for mental health issues. Then I completed the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS), a screening for ADHD symptoms in adults. All this took about 15 minutes. The assessment did not label these screenings, but I recognized the questions from my own clinical work as a psychotherapist.

After completing the questionnaires, I was asked if I was looking for a professional diagnosis of ADHD and then prompted to schedule a 30-minute intake. I noted that I didn’t need a professional diagnosis, since I already have one, and was able to continue the process.

Appointments for the assessment were available within two days. I had to schedule this before I could request an appointment for therapy or coaching. I completed some general intake paperwork with questions about my history and my family medical history.

The sign-up process took about 15 minutes total, which felt sufficient and manageable for someone seeking support for ADHD. I had to upload photo identification to confirm my identity during the sign-up process before I could confirm my appointment. The system then matched me to a licensed clinical social worker and I was able to choose my appointment time.

After signing up for my assessment, ADHDAdvisor.org set me up with a portal that allowed me to view documents about my treatment, schedule appointments, make payments, and chat with my providers. I paid $20 to hold my intake, and the remaining $130 for the diagnostic interview was charged after the first appointment.

Some Red Flags

However, as a mental health professional myself, I noticed a few things that raised red flags:

Red flag #1: The website states that you’ll get a “full refund if not satisfied” with the service you receive at ADHDAdvisor.org. While this might sound like a positive thing, mental health providers typically don’t offer refunds, for ethical reasons.

Red flag #2: A standard diagnostic interview is 60 minutes in length, and many providers conduct 90-minute interviews, because 60 minutes is not always sufficient to get a thorough history and accurate diagnosis. A 30-minute intake, which is what ADHDAdvisor.org offers, doesn’t seem like enough time to truly determine whether someone has ADHD.

Red flag #3: As I completed the scheduling process, I was given a non-optional release of information to complete for my primary doctor. While it can be important for care teams to communicate with each other about treatment, individuals still have the right to decide how their private information is shared and should have the option to opt out. In my case, since I was trialing the company for this review, I didn’t want to give them access to my records or healthcare providers. I ended up typing “I do not consent” in each box instead of my doctor’s contact information because I couldn’t continue without filling out and signing the release.

Red flag #4: I wasn’t able to view my provider’s profile or get more information about her before my appointment, which was disappointing. As a client, you have the right to know who is treating you. It’s important to note that social workers typically don’t receive training in assessing and diagnosing ADHD. I decided to Google my assessor and was relieved to find her online profile, which showed that she did indeed have training in clinical assessment and diagnosis. For people using this service, I recommend looking up your provider’s credentials to ensure that they are able to diagnose ADHD.

The website also doesn’t provide information about crisis services. Usually, companies that provide mental health services include a disclaimer about the limitations of their capabilities, with a referral for crisis resources for anyone who needs them.

For my assessment, I met with the social worker for 30 minutes, and she asked me questions about my childhood, current and past mental health, family history, and current symptoms. She went through the ASRS questions again as well.

Going over my history and symptoms in such a short amount of time felt rushed, and I’m not sure that it was possible to provide all of the relevant information in that time period.

Immediately following the appointment, I received an email saying that my evaluator recommended “Success Coaching” for my treatment plan. The fact that I received a response so quickly suggests that it was automated rather than individualized to my symptoms and needs.

My Diagnosis

The letter noted that in addition to ADHD, I was screened for “Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder” — but it didn’t indicate if I met the criteria for either of those diagnoses. I was advised to follow up with treatment “as appropriate.” That was the extent of the documentation provided. I didn’t receive a report with additional details about my symptoms or confirming how I met the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. I was also not given an explanation as to why they recommended coaching over therapy or psychiatry as my treatment plan. While the types of documentation used can vary widely, usually a provider who issues a diagnosis needs to be able to give evidence for why that diagnosis was appropriate.

Overall, ADHDAdvisor.org’s assessment process was not up to my standards as a psychologist who diagnoses ADHD. I would have required much more background information to confirm that a patient’s symptoms were due to ADHD rather than another diagnosis, and I would have provided details as to how I confirmed that the criteria were met.

I attended one coaching session with ADHDAdvisor.org. When I requested a coaching appointment via the website portal, I was matched with a coach and prompted to schedule a 45-minute appointment. Appointments were available within a week.

My Coaching Session

I received multiple email and text reminders before my coaching appointment, which I found very helpful. My appointment was via Zoom, and the link arrived in my email and via text message in the multiple reminders. I had no technical issues signing in or during the session, which I found encouraging.

At the start of our meeting, my coach told me that she has training in coaching and supporting people with ADHD. I asked her how she defines coaching and how it differs from therapy, and she said that coaching has a narrow focus on immediate goals and the “now” and doesn’t dig into the past or offer treatment for a mental health diagnosis.

As a psychologist, I found this answer satisfactory — and I recommend that you ask the same of your coach if you meet with one. This will tell you how well your coach understands their scope and whether they have the appropriate training to help you.

Next, my coach asked questions about my current symptoms and helped me articulate specific goals for managing my ADHD symptoms. She gave me specific tools and information on how to implement them. I felt empowered to use those tools, and she gave me strategies for how to tweak the tools to fit my brain if I ran into roadblocks. She primarily guided the session but was open to my feedback about what I needed. The timing (45 minutes) was more than enough to get through everything we needed to discuss.

She recommended monthly appointments and said I could use the scheduling feature in my portal to sign up. As a professional, I did not find it unusual for sessions to be monthly, as some therapy is done on a monthly basis. However, at the start of treatment, more frequent sessions are common as you develop goals and build trust with your therapist. She noted that if I had trouble finding a time that worked with my schedule, I could send her a chat and she would send me additional availability.

Messaging Between Sessions

ADHDAdvisor.org has a secure messaging system that you can use to contact your provider in between appointments. When I scheduled the initial assessment, I received a message that appeared to be a generic response, with information about what to expect in that appointment and an introduction to my assessor.

When I scheduled with my success coach, I didn’t receive a message, but rather an empty message thread appeared in my chat, giving me a direct line of communication to her right away. To test it out, I sent a request for resources and tips, which she responded to within one business day, sending an article that directly answered my question. It was very helpful.

In addition to messages from my support team, ADHDAdvisor.org sent me many other emails and text messages. I got several reminders about my appointments and invitations to schedule services. When I didn’t schedule my coaching right away, I received multiple messages with a coupon code encouraging me to schedule and offering a 30 percent discount. While the follow-up was helpful to me as an ADHD-er who might possibly forget to schedule, it did become a bit excessive after a while.

Additional Resources

However, there were other options in my portal that I found helpful. For example, you could create goals for yourself — a one-time goal, daily goals, or weekly ones. When you create a goal, a sample goal pops up: “Drink 8 glasses of water,” with the description, “Staying hydrated supports energy levels and contributes to overall wellness.” There’s also a checklist that you can use to track which goals you’ve achieved. I found this helpful as someone with ADHD who struggles to form habits, since I could automatically populate a daily to-do list with self-care activities.

ADHDAdvisor.org also offers therapy and medication services, though I did not test either one since I was given a recommendation of coaching. Each person with ADHD is an individual and will require a personalized treatment plan. Medication, therapy, coaching, or some combination of the three can be beneficial depending on individual needs, so it is useful that all three can be accessed in the same place.

Therapy sessions can be scheduled weekly, monthly, or as needed. Sessions are 45 minutes in length.

If you’re interested in medication management, you can schedule monthly medication management appointments. The prescribers can prescribe nonstimulant ADHD medication (such as Strattera) in all 50 states; they can only prescribe stimulant medication (such as Adderall) to residents of California.

Although ADHDAdvisor.org specializes in ADHD treatment and support, the company says it’s an inclusive platform and doesn’t require clients to have an ADHD diagnosis to receive help. It specifically notes that it also treats trauma as well as anxiety and depression. This can be beneficial, as those with ADHD are at high risk of also having another mental health issue, and it’s important for providers who work with ADHD to have an understanding of other issues that their clients may experience. However, the fact that ADHDAdvisor.org provides services for those who don’t have ADHD may indicate that it’s spreading its services thinner to access a larger clientele, rather than specializing.

I’ve tried about 10 other online therapy platforms, but ADHDAdvisor.org is the first platform I’ve used that specializes in ADHD treatment and support and offers an assessment and diagnosis of ADHD as well. It’s generally required that a client receive a specialized assessment in order to receive an ADHD diagnosis, and most online platforms don’t offer this service, including Brightside, Teladoc, Doctor on Demand, and TalkSpace. Some platforms, including Headway, offer coaching as an option for support.

At the same time, its assessment process was very brief and significantly less thorough than what other telehealth platforms provide. I was very aware of this as a client who had previously been evaluated for ADHD and as a licensed psychologist who conducts ADHD evaluations in my practice. I have professional concerns about how minimal the assessment was and the minimal documentation provided afterward. I wonder if the report provided would be accepted by other mental health or medical professionals. While I haven’t tried other companies that offer ADHD assessments as a client, others do offer more detailed reports, including Talkiatry and Cerebral.

I conduct telehealth assessments for ADHD both through my private practice and with another company, ADHD Online. I reached out to ADHD Online’s chief medical officer, Barry Herman, MD, to get another professional’s perspective on my experience with ADHDAdvisor.org. He agreed with my concerns about the report. “It says nothing about the basis for the diagnosis other than you took a screener, provided history, and had a clinical interview. That would not be particularly helpful to another provider who would be rendering treatment,” he said.

Dr. Herman also commented on the short appointment time: “In general, I believe an acceptable standard of care from the standpoint of length of visit for a single synchronous clinical diagnostic evaluation would be at least 45 minutes. This allows sufficient time to establish diagnostic criteria and to consider confounding factors associated with comorbid diagnoses.”

Therapy and coaching sessions at ADHDAdvisor.org are 45 minutes in length, which is considered standard in the mental health field and similar in length to what you will find on platforms such Brightside Health and Online-Therapy.com. This length is much more appropriate than the session length on Talkspace and Doctor on Demand, which both offer 30-minute talk therapy sessions. However, neither platform focuses on treating ADHD.

One of the biggest downsides of ADHDAdvisor.org is that it doesn’t accept health insurance, which several competitors do, including Brightside Health and Doctor on Demand. Coaching is typically not covered by insurance, but mental health parity laws require coverage for mental health services, including therapy and assessments. At the same time, it can be difficult to credential with insurance companies and receive adequate reimbursement, which leads many providers to opt out of accepting insurance.

Many other platforms I’ve used in the past offer additional resources, though ADHDAdvisor.org’s setup for writing and tracking goals was unique. Although people with ADHD can benefit from physical exercise, I’m not sure why so many of the journal resources focused on weight, including an option to track waist circumference, and it’s especially concerning that these tools are presented to everyone, without consideration of the high rate of co-occurrence between ADHD and eating disorders. That said, I found the goal-setting feature helpful in creating and maintaining to-do lists, especially with the option to make activities repeat daily or weekly.

Doctor on Demand, Brightside Health, and other platforms offer prescription services, but ADHDAdvisor.org is the first I’ve tried that prescribes stimulant medication — though this service is only available in California at this time. That said, while I haven’t tried it myself, Talkiatry can prescribe stimulant medication too.

ADHDAdvisor.org offers pay-as-you-go or subscription options, and you can choose the approach that fits your needs. This is great for ADHD-ers, who will need a variety of approaches. It also offers medication, therapy, and success coaching to meet different preferences and needs for treatment of symptoms. This flexibility likely allows them to serve a variety of clients successfully.

The coach I met with had excellent suggestions and feedback, and she tailored her approach based on my input, while helping me figure out exactly what I wanted out of our meeting. The website portal provides tools to help you set goals and track progress, and it’s free to access after you schedule your assessment, regardless of whether you continue treatment with ADHDAdvisor.org.