Jun 10

This week Tracy welcomes Grace L’Orange to episode #135 of ADHD for Smart Ass Women. Grace is a school psychologist, behavior specialist, and suicide prevention coordinator working in public education with a B.S. in Psychology and an advanced Education Specialist degree in School Psychology. Grace is passionate about equity, inclusion, and advocacy for all students, especially those with disabilities and other differences. In addition to her direct work with students, she collaborates with and educates other adults to better understand and address the specific impacts these differences have on daily life.

Grace recently implemented systemic changes in her district by developing updated policies and procedures for special education and suicide prevention/intervention focusing on equity and best practice. She serves as Director-At-Large on the board for her state school psychologist association. She also collaborates with the broader community through the Suicide Prevention Coalition in her county. Initially drawn to school psychology due to the school struggles of her brother with ADHD, little did Grace know that she would be diagnosed much later at the age of 32. Since then, Grace has been integrating this new ADHD facet of her life in the context of being an educator working with students with disabilities and behavior challenges.

In this episode Grace shares the circumstances surrounding her ADHD diagnosis, what has changed since she was diagnosed, how learning about her ADHD shifted her understanding of how ADHD presents in girls and helped her better notice symptoms that are often overlooked in female students, information surrounding the alarming number of ADHD women who have attempted suicide and the societal factors that may contribute to these high rates, signs of suicidal ideation to look out for and ways you can responsibly help someone who may be at risk (resources listed down below), how she uses audio journaling to move past perfectionism, externalize her thoughts in order to process them, and speak more kindly to herself, and her key to living successfully with ADHD.