The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast

What if anxiety isn’t always something we need to get rid of?

In this episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, Kate Brownfield talks with Dr. Tracy Foose, a board-certified psychiatrist, Associate Professor at the UCSF School of Medicine, and former Director of the UCSF Anxiety Disorders Program.

Dr. Foose helps parents understand fear and anxiety differently: as uncomfortable but protective emotions that can carry important information. Kate and Dr. Foose explore how parents can better understand anxiety in kids and teens, respond without becoming consumed by the anxiety themselves, and help children build a healthier relationship with fear rather than simply trying to make it disappear.

Dr. Foose has spent more than 15 years studying and treating anxiety and continues to teach about fear and anxiety at UCSF School of Medicine.

Learn more about Dr. Tracy Foose:

ADHD parent coaching with Kate Brownfield:

Free ADHD Parent Reset:

What if the goal of homework isn’t just getting tonight’s assignment turned in?

When homework becomes a nightly cycle of reminders, frustration, missing assignments, and “Did you check Google Classroom?”, parents can easily end up carrying more and more of the responsibility. In this solo episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, Kate Brownfield, ACC, ADHD Parent Coach, explores how to tell the difference between supporting your child’s executive-function skills and becoming the skill for them.

Kate shares her experience helping her son manage school organization, why ADHD homework struggles are often about more than academics, and how parents can identify where the process is actually breaking down. She discusses task initiation, emotional resistance, after-school decompression, body doubling, practical scaffolding, and why the right support should match the child in front of you.

Most importantly, this episode zooms out to the bigger goal: helping children with ADHD get through school in a way that builds capability, self-understanding, self-advocacy, and less shame while protecting the parent-child relationship from becoming consumed by homework management.

In this episode:

Free ADHD Parent Reset:

ADHD parent coaching and resources:

My guest is Lorelei Brush, author of The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, a novel that explores what can happen inside a family when a young child begins showing signs of ADHD and neurodivergence. Lorelei is a former assistant professor of child development and the parent of a neurodivergent child, bringing both professional knowledge and lived experience to the story.

We discuss the fear of labeling a child, ADHD across generations, school struggles, marriage and family dynamics, and why supporting a child with ADHD often requires looking beyond symptoms and strategies to understand the whole family.

We also explore something different: the power of fiction. Research and expert guidance can teach us a great deal about ADHD, but a story can let us experience a family from the inside, sometimes offering insight, empathy, and even healing that factual information alone may not reach.

We talk about the meaning behind a “butterfly mind,” the importance of recognizing a child’s strengths, and why there may not be one right way to help a neurodivergent child thrive.

Learn more about Lorelei Brush and The Boy with the Butterfly Mind:

FREE ADHD Parent Reset

Get the free guide:

For private ADHD parent coaching and the Anchor Your ADHD Family community:

Timestamps

(00:00) Lorelei Brush and The Boy with the Butterfly Mind

Why can a child with ADHD know exactly what they need to do and still feel unable to start?

Homework, chores, schoolwork, and everyday responsibilities can quickly turn into procrastination, avoidance, frustration, or conflict. But what if there is something happening beneath the behavior?

In this episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, Kate Brownfield, ACC, ADHD Parent Coach, talks with ADHD and executive function expert Brendan Mahan, author of Overcoming the Wall of Awful, about the emotional barriers that can make it difficult for people with ADHD to start, continue, or complete tasks.

Brendan created the concept of the Wall of Awful to describe the emotional barrier that can build from repeated experiences of failure, disappointment, rejection, frustration, and shame.

He explains five ways people try to get past the Wall of Awful and why some approaches work better than others. Kate and Brendan also explore practical ways parents can help, including creating a “door” through the wall, climbing it, body doubling, scribing homework, reducing pressure, and gradually fading support as a child builds confidence and independence.

For parents who find themselves asking, “Why won’t my child just do it?”, this conversation offers a different way to understand what may be happening beneath the struggle.

Instead, we might ask:

“What is making this task feel so hard, and what support would help my child move forward?”

Learn more about Brendan Mahan and Overcoming the Wall of Awful:

FREE ADHD Parent Reset

Get the free guide here and learn practical ways to reduce power struggles and better support your child with ADHD.

For more ADHD parenting support, visit ADHDKidsCanThrive.com.

ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences, school struggles, and feeling different can leave neurodivergent kids questioning where they fit and parents wondering how to help them build confidence, independence, and a sense of belonging. What helps a child move from struggling to truly believing in themselves?

In this episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, ADHD Parent Coach Kate Brownfield, ACC, talks with Riley Mulcahy, founder and executive director of The Riley Project, about dyslexia, neurodivergence, belonging, self-advocacy, and helping kids who learn differently find their voice and understand their strengths. Riley shares his own journey from significant early learning challenges to graduating college with honors in English.

Riley explains the difference between simply fitting in and truly belonging, why neurodivergent kids need opportunities to hear the experiences of others like them, and how parents can gradually help children develop self-advocacy skills as they grow. Kate and Riley also discuss IEPs and 504 plans, school support, learning differences, strengths-based parenting, and why behavior is often communication.

You’ll also hear thoughtful insights on the impact of school and social exhaustion, the importance of including young people in conversations about their own needs, and why children need to hear more than what they struggle with; they also need help discovering who they are and what they can contribute.

Most importantly, Riley reminds parents that a child’s struggles today do not define what they will be capable of tomorrow and that every neurodivergent young person deserves to feel seen, understood, and that they belong.

Learn more about Riley Mulcahy and The Riley Project:

ADHD Parent Coaching + Resources:

ADHD, academic pressure, homework stress, executive function struggles, and the pressure to succeed can leave kids overwhelmed and parents wondering when to push and when to step back. What does success really look like for a child with ADHD?

In this episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, ADHD Parent Coach Kate Brownfield, ACC, talks with Dr. Denise Pope, Senior Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and co-founder of Challenge Success, about ADHD and school stress, student well-being, academic pressure, and redefining success for kids who may not thrive on a traditional path.

Dr. Pope explains why some students are simply “doing school” rather than truly engaging in learning, what happens when academic demands exceed a child’s coping skills, and how parents can support executive function, emotional regulation, belonging, and motivation without adding unnecessary pressure.

You’ll also hear practical insights on homework overwhelm, playtime, downtime, and family time, different learning paths, screens and social media, and how AI may affect students with ADHD.

Most importantly, Dr. Pope reminds parents to look beyond grades and achievement and keep seeing the whole child in front of them.

Learn more about Dr. Denise Pope and Challenge Success:

ADHD Parent Coaching + Resources:

Is bedtime one of the hardest parts of your day?

For many children with ADHD, autism, or other forms of neurodivergence, sleep struggles are not simply behavioral. Brain biology, sensory sensitivities, anxiety, delayed circadian rhythms, and difficulty transitioning can all make it harder to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake feeling rested.

In this episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, Kate Brownfield, ACC, ADHD Parent Coach, speaks with pediatric sleep expert Dr. Melisa Moore about why traditional sleep advice may not work for neurodivergent children and what parents can do instead.

Dr. Moore is a clinical psychologist, board-certified specialist in behavioral sleep medicine, and author of The Good Sleep Guide for Neurodivergent Kids. Drawing from her clinical expertise and her experience raising a neurodivergent child, she explains why persistent sleep challenges are not necessarily defiance or a sign that parents are doing something wrong.

Kate and Dr. Moore discuss:

• Why ADHD and autism can affect sleep

This conversation offers practical ADHD sleep strategies, a more individualized approach to bedtime, and reassurance for exhausted parents who feel as though they have already tried everything.

Learn More About Dr. Melisa Moore

The Good Sleep Guide for Neurodivergent Kids

ADHD Parent Support

Anchor Your ADHD Family

Private ADHD Parent Coaching

For more ADHD parenting resources and podcast episodes, visit:

If you feel like you are saying the same thing over and over to your child with ADHD and nothing is changing, this episode is for you.

In this solo episode, I explain what ADHD parent training is and why changing a parent’s approach can sometimes change recurring patterns at home. I discuss how ADHD can affect executive functioning, emotional regulation, transitions, time awareness, motivation, and follow-through; why more reminders, pressure, lectures, or consequences do not always build the skills a child needs; and how parents can look differently at struggles involving homework, screens, mornings, bedtime, and emotional outbursts.

I also share a practical question parents can use when they feel stuck:

What can I change in the environment, expectation, or response that might help my child succeed?

Free ADHD Parent Reset:

Private ADHD Parent Coaching:

The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast:

(00:00) ADHD Parent Training: What If Your Child Isn’t the First One Who Needs to Change?

About Kate Brownfield, ACC

Disclaimer

What does the science really say about ADHD? In this episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, Kate Brownfield talks with Dr. Stephen Faraone, one of the world’s leading ADHD researchers and founder of the ADHD Evidence Project, about ADHD medication, misinformation, co-occurring conditions, and evidence-based treatment. This conversation helps parents better understand what’s supported by research, what gets overstated online, and how to think more clearly about treatment decisions for kids and teens with ADHD.

In this episode:

ADHD myths vs. evidence

stimulant vs. non-stimulant medication

ADHD medication and addiction concerns

anxiety, depression, and other co-occurring conditions

behavior therapy, CBT, and skill-building support

Resources mentioned:

Enjoyed this episode? Follow, rate, and share with a parent who wants a more grounded, research-based understanding of ADHD treatment, medication, and support.

If your child looks “fine” at school but falls apart at home, melts down over everyday expectations (homework, transitions, getting out the door), or is sliding into school refusal, this episode will help you make sense of what might be going on, especially when autism, AuDHD, and anxiety are part of the picture.

On this episode of The ADHD Kids Can Thrive Podcast, host Kate Brownfield sits down with Diane Gould, founder of PDA North America and co-author of Navigating PDA in America, for a grounded, parent-friendly conversation about Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) (often reframed as a Pervasive Drive for Autonomy). Diane explains why PDA is best understood through a nervous system lens (not “defiance”), why many traditional behavior plans can backfire, and what actually helps kids who experience everyday demands as a threat response.

This episode is especially helpful if you’ve heard “PDA” mentioned in an evaluation, therapy, or online, and you’re trying to understand what’s real, what’s misunderstood, and what supports are most effective at home and at school.

What PDA is and how the definition has evolved (and why there’s still debate)

Why PDA often overlaps with autism and/or ADHD and why it’s frequently missed or mislabeled

PDA vs. ODD: how “oppositional” behavior can look similar on the surface but be driven by something very different underneath

The common pattern of masking at school and meltdowns or shutdowns at home, and why parents are often told, “They’re an angel here.”

Why school refusal is so common for PDA kids (and what Diane is seeing in families today)

Why rewards, consequences, sticker charts, strict routines, and compliance-based strategies often don’t work and what to try instead

The role of relationship, trust, and co-regulation, especially as kids get older and school support gets more fragmented

Practical ways parents can reduce stress, protect the nervous system, and support learning without crushing autonomy

What PDA can look like in adulthood and why support systems and interdependence matter

Book: Navigating PDA in America (Diane Gould & Ruth Fidler): Amazon Link

Enjoyed this episode? Follow, rate, and share with a parent who needs a clearer, calmer framework for PDA, demand avoidance, school refusal, autonomy needs, and nervous system support.