This week I’m talking with Kara Cruz, a licensed marriage and family therapist and Certified Perinatal Mental Health Professional with over 15 years of experience supporting women through life transitions. Kara’s work focuses on the intersection of ADHD and reproductive mental health—helping women navigate the complex terrain of hormones, identity, and self-trust.

In our conversation, Kara and I dig into how ADHD symptoms can change and intensify across different hormonal stages - puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause - and what that means for real-life functioning. We also get into how ADHD in women often goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed as anxiety or bipolar disorder, and how learning to track your cycle, protect your energy, and build realistic routines can make a world of difference in your adhd management.

This week, I’m talking with Rita Ramakrishnan, a seasoned strategic executive and leadership coach with over 15 years of experience. Diagnosed with both ADHD and Autism Spectrum during her undergrad years, Rita reframed what could have been limitations into strengths and now looks to uplift other neurodivergent women in leadership roles.

Currently, she is pursuing a master's degree in neurodivergent leadership at the University of Pennsylvania, intensifying her expertise in coaching and organizational strategy tailored to neurodivergent individuals.

Over the last few weeks, it has been increasingly difficult for me to keep myself focused on what I want to be focused on. I don’t think I have to particularly speak to the reasons; we’re all handling the state of the world in our own ways - in many ways, it has a similar feel to the beginning of the pandemic, where I felt like I needed to pay extra attention to the news because so many people around me were ignoring the alarm bells.

Trying to deal with all of this while also having to grapple with the cognitive dissonance of having to go on with real life while all of this is also going on at the same time can be incredibly difficult. It feels like we should be able to press pause on all the other things going on in our life. 

This week, I’m talking with Dr. Judy Ho, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist with a PhD in clinical psychology. She focuses on mental health, ADHD, and various psychological disorders. She is triple board-certified and is a tenured associate professor at Pepperdine University, where she teaches graduate-level psychology.