February 2026 Update
Dear Reader,
In my effort to check off that I wrote a blog post this month, I am writing an update post. Mainly because I attempted to write two blogs this week (one at almost 4000 words and the other at 1600 words and requires citations) and realized I will not publish either of them by tomorrow (which was my goal). So this will have to do. :)
I Hired an Assistant/Case Manager
Okay, this is new, but it’s also not new. I hired an assistant/case manager, Sagrario, to join my practice. She has been working with me since September 2025 and I’m so happy to have her join the team!
On the administrative side, she is the one who helps me with marketing: she asks the questions that inspire me to produce/create anything. She reads over some of my written stuff to make sure it makes sense (but she didn’t edit this post), edits videos and uploads them for me, and I’m eternally grateful for that as I’m anti-all-of-that-stuff. She’s also my way of having to be accountable to someone. Turns out, without the accountability, it’s hard for me to complete things.
On the case management side of things, when clients are needing a little extra support in-between sessions (i.e. learning specific coping or executive functioning skills), she has been bridging that gap. She checks-in, provides information, and helps clients practice skills.
My Goals for February
I wanted to focus more on being consistent with showing up on social media and blogging. It’s funny, because marketing is a couple of things:
It’s making yourself visible so people know you exist
It’s building a relationship with people so they can trust you
Well, if you know me - as a person or as a therapist - you know that I’m socially awkward. Creating and building relationships can be such a difficult thing for me… which again, makes the whole “I’m AuDHD” such a “no, shit” type of response. But, alas, if I want people to work with me, then they need to know I exist and how I might be of service to them. But not in a “let me prove my worth” type of way because marketing is definitely not that deep. I mean, it can be that deep, but not my-worth-as-a-person deep.
So, that’s why I’m writing this blog post because this is me showing up.
I was double guessing writing this specific post because it’s not anything directly helpful and is more personal. But then I thought how showing this part of myself as a neurodivergent person (therapist, business owner) can help normalize a common experience: executive functioning outside of a structured setting can make doing things really hard.
What do I mean by that? Alison Lore Alert: In school, I was generally a “good” student - I turned in my assignments and got decent grades despite the fact I consistently procrastinated on assignments and cut corners (not cheating, btw) as a High Schooler. In my undergraduate program, I really tried hard in completing assignments and learning the material because it was about my special interest: Psychology. As an undergrad, procrastination was still a thing, but I had a better strategy on how to do it so I could continue doing well in school. Afterall, I wanted (at that time) to go into a PhD program in Clinical Psychology which was (and is) super competitive and required good grades as a minimum. My procrastination continued with graduate school (master’s program) as I continued to dive deeper into my special interest. I always did well when in an environment where there were expectations, consequences, and the path made sense. I excelled when I loved the topic.
As a business owner, that structure is non-existent. When I started my private practice, I appreciated the to-do list for the logistics, but after that it’s whatever I want to do. Talk about no accountability other than to yourself. Yikes! Except, I didn’t know how much I needed that structure and would have saved me a lot of frustration had I realized that in 2020. I found that out in the summer of 2024 when I was getting paid to write and research for a week; I found myself getting bored of reading, but felt the pressure to push through (with scheduled breaks) because I knew I was getting paid. Turns out accountability is everything to me.
Now that I have the insight, I’m trying different ways to create some accountability outside of myself to help. I think writing and sharing this is another way I’m trying to do that: saying the thing out loud and then stepping up. It’s an ever evolving process because I’m not going to know what’s going to work until I actually try doing something different - it’s just part of the process of figuring out my systems. I talk about that in sessions with clients and I practice that with myself in my own personal and professional life.
What’s Coming Up
My goal for March 2026 is to continue showing up. That means posting at least one video onto YouTube Shorts and IG per week and writing at least 1 blog post per month. The two posts I’m working on now is about:
Shame and guilt
Unfocused: why it might be happening and what to do about it
We’ll see how that goes. Haha. Wish me luck!
Toodles,
Alison
P.S.
On a random note: I was very proud of myself this week for updating my “About Me” page. It’s been a few years (I think) since I last updated it and it feels fresher to me. AND, in setting it up, I got to use HTML - that felt very 1998-2000s. When I was in junior high, I used to have an oddly specific website (which I forgot the name of) that focused on Hey Arnold and Selena y los Dinos and I loved/hated maintaining that site and personalizing things with HTML. Brought up a lot of warm and fuzzies.