What this is, and what it is not
This is therapy for adults with ADHD. It is not an assessment service.
A formal diagnosis in the UK comes from a psychiatrist or a specialist ADHD service, and only a doctor can prescribe or manage medication. Most of what you will find searching for ADHD in London is assessment, because that is where the money is. This is the other thing, and it is the part that is harder to find.
You do not need a diagnosis to come. Many people arrive having recognised themselves, often after a child or a sibling was assessed. Nobody here will tell you whether you have ADHD, and if an assessment would help, you will be told so and where to go.
What therapy does that medication does not
Medication, where it suits someone, can change attention and impulsivity, sometimes dramatically.
What it does not touch is the twenty or thirty years that came before it. The school reports. The jobs that ended badly for reasons never quite explained. The friendships that faded because you did not reply. The accumulated private evidence that you are lazy, unreliable, careless or not very bright, assembled patiently since childhood and believed completely.
People often describe the medication working and the self-criticism continuing unchanged, which is disorienting, because it was supposed to be the answer.
That gap is what this work is for.
Late diagnosis, and the grief nobody warns you about
Being diagnosed at thirty-five or fifty is rarely the relief people expect it to be, or not only that.
Relief comes first, and then something harder: anger at the years, at the teachers, at the parents who were told and did nothing, at a system that noticed the disruptive boys and missed you entirely. And grief for the version of your life that might have happened if someone had seen it.
That phase is normal, it is rarely talked about, and it is one of the most common reasons adults come to therapy after a late diagnosis.
Addiction, eating, and why they travel with ADHD
The overlap is well established and it is not a coincidence.
Impulsivity, difficulty tolerating delay, and the search for stimulation all make substances more likely, and alcohol, cannabis and cocaine are effective short-term regulators of a state that is either understimulated or overwhelmed. Many people describe their drinking or using as the first thing that ever made their mind quiet.
The same mechanism shows up around food. Binge eating in particular is strongly associated with ADHD, and for the same reasons: impulsivity, poor interoception, and eating as a reliable way to change state quickly.
Addiction and eating disorders are two of this practice’s core specialisms. That matters here, because it means neither gets referred elsewhere at the moment it becomes relevant.
What it looks like in a relationship
A great deal of what gets read as not caring is a difference in how attention, sensory load and emotional processing actually work.
The forgotten arrangement is heard as indifference. The interrupting is heard as arrogance. The partner who takes on every administrative task becomes resentful, then parental, and the dynamic calcifies into one adult managing another. Both people are usually exhausted and neither is being unkind.
Naming it correctly changes the argument entirely. Where that is the main difficulty, couples therapy is often the better route.
Who you would see
This work is offered by a BACP registered psychotherapist with an MSc, working with adults around ADHD, addiction, eating disorders, anxiety and trauma, under Dr Jacquet’s clinical supervision.
Every therapist at the practice is in regular supervision with him, and the practice takes collective responsibility for the standard of the work. You are told who you would be seeing, and on what basis, before you book.
Where sessions happen
In person at Harley Street W1 and at 45 Fitzroy Street in Fitzrovia, and online by secure video. Evening appointments are available.
Starting
A first conversation is confidential and without commitment. Write to the practice and say briefly what has brought you.
Dr Philippe Jacquet is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, a Jungian analyst and an HCPC registered art psychotherapist, with twenty-five years of clinical practice. His Professional Doctorate in Analytical Psychology at the University of Essex examined male eating disorders from the perspective of analytical psychology. Registration can be checked on either public register.
Common questions
Do you carry out ADHD assessments or diagnosis?
No, and that is said plainly rather than discovered later. A formal ADHD diagnosis in the UK is made by a psychiatrist or a specialist ADHD service, usually through your GP or privately by direct referral, and only a doctor can prescribe or manage medication. This is a psychotherapy practice. The work here is with what happens around ADHD: the shame, the patterns, the relationships and the coping strategies that became problems in their own right.
Can I come without a formal diagnosis?
Yes. A good number of people arrive recognising themselves without having been assessed, often after a sibling or a child was diagnosed. The therapy does not depend on having a label, and nobody here will tell you whether you have ADHD. If an assessment seems useful, that is said, and where to go for one.
Is therapy useful if I am already on medication?
Often it is the point at which therapy becomes most useful. Medication can change attention and impulsivity, and it does not touch twenty years of believing you were lazy, unreliable or careless. People frequently describe the stimulant working and the self-criticism continuing unchanged. That is the part therapy is for.
Why does ADHD come up so often alongside addiction and eating difficulties?
Because the links are real and well established. Impulsivity, difficulty with delay, and the search for stimulation make substances and binge eating more likely, and both are effective short-term regulators of an understimulated or overwhelmed state. This practice specialises in addiction and in eating disorders, so these are not treated as separate referrals.
Where do sessions take place?
In person at Harley Street W1 and at 45 Fitzroy Street in Fitzrovia, and online by secure video. Sessions are fifty minutes, usually weekly. Evening appointments are available.