Rethinking ADHD – Free Live Event with Gabor Maté and Terry Matlen

ADHD is often talked about as though it were a fixed label with a fixed outcome. Yet many clinicians, healers, and thoughtful adults have sensed there is more to the story – something more human, more relational, and more hopeful than a purely symptom-based view allows.

This workshop opens a deeper conversation about attention, impulsivity, motivation, and emotional regulation through the lenses of development, stress, attunement, and healing. It offers a grounded way to look beneath behaviors so the person behind them can finally be seen more clearly.

For therapists, counselors, coaches, and healing professionals, this is a chance to broaden your understanding in a way that is both compassionate and clinically useful. You will leave with a richer framework for supporting children, teens, and adults with ADHD while honoring the lived experience beneath the diagnosis.

And for anyone personally touched by ADHD, this conversation can bring relief. When struggle is understood in context, shame begins to soften – and new possibilities for growth, self-trust, and healing can begin to emerge.

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Why Attend “Rethinking ADHD with Gabor Mate and Terry Matlen: From Origins to Healing”

Many professionals have been trained to see ADHD mainly through symptoms and management strategies, yet that approach can leave the deeper story untouched. This workshop invites you into a more humane and developmentally informed understanding, so the behaviors you see begin to make more sense in the context of stress, environment, and early relational experience.

Gabor Mate brings a perspective that has resonated with readers, clinicians, and families for years because it does not reduce people to deficits. Terry Matlen adds decades of frontline clinical wisdom, especially around adults and women with ADHD, which means you will hear both a broad developmental view and practical insight that can be applied in real life.

When ADHD is understood with more compassion and nuance, treatment conversations can become less shaming and more effective. That shift matters for practitioners and caregivers alike, because it opens the door to interventions that support regulation, self-understanding, and healing rather than only control.

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What You’ll Learn During “Rethinking ADHD with Gabor Mate and Terry Matlen: From Origins to Healing”

In this session, you will begin with a fresh framework for understanding ADHD, so the usual assumptions about genetics, behavior, and disorder can be examined with more care. You will look at how early stress, emotional attunement, and developmental conditions shape attention and regulation, which means the conversation moves beyond labels into lived human experience.

You’ll also explore how ADHD shows up across the lifespan, and then see why children, teens, and adults may need different kinds of support. Terry Matlen helps bring that picture down to earth, so you can better understand adult functioning, women with ADHD, and the relational and emotional challenges that often go unseen.

We’ll also look at healing-centered directions for support, so that psychoeducation, environment, self-understanding, and clinical strategy can work together more effectively. You will leave with ideas you can bring into therapy, education, family life, and personal reflection, which means the learning can keep unfolding long after the workshop ends.

Here’s just a little bit of what you’ll learn:

• Why ADHD may be better understood as a neurodevelopmental response than a fixed defect
• How stress and emotional attunement shape the developing brain
• What impulsivity and tuning out can reveal about adaptation and survival
• Why genetic sensitivity is not the same as genetic destiny
• How to understand oppositional behavior in a less pathologizing way
• Ways to support intrinsic motivation instead of relying only on rewards and consequences
• How ADHD presents differently in children, teens, and adults
• Why women with ADHD often face distinct and overlooked challenges
• When medication helps, where it can be misused, and how to think about it with greater nuance

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Who This Is For

This event is especially well suited for therapists, counselors, social workers, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, physicians, addiction counselors, and other healing professionals who want a deeper lens on ADHD. It also serves practitioners who are ready to integrate trauma-aware, developmentally informed thinking into the way they understand attention and behavior.

It can also speak powerfully to adults with ADHD, parents, educators, and anyone supporting a child or loved one with attention challenges. If you are looking for a conversation that is compassionate, intelligent, and less mechanical in its view of healing, this workshop will likely feel meaningful.

• Mental health professionals seeking a more nuanced ADHD framework
• Therapists working with trauma, attachment, or emotional regulation
• Coaches and healing professionals supporting neurodivergent clients
• Adults living with ADHD who want a more compassionate understanding of themselves
• Parents and caregivers of children or teens with ADHD
• Educators and school-based professionals supporting attention and behavior challenges

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About Gabor Mate, MD and Terry Matlen, LMSW, ACSW

Gabor Mate, MD is a retired physician, bestselling author, and internationally respected speaker whose work has influenced conversations around trauma, addiction, childhood development, stress, and illness around the world. After two decades in family practice and palliative care, he spent more than 10 years working in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients facing addiction and mental illness.

He is the author of five books published in nearly 40 languages, including Scattered Minds, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, and The Myth of Normal. For his medical work and writing, he has received the Order of Canada and the Civic Merit Award from the city of Vancouver.

Terry Matlen, LMSW, ACSW is a psychotherapist, consultant, author, and leading advocate for women with ADHD. For more than 25 years, she has helped women feel more understood, supported, and less alone as they navigate the realities of ADHD in daily life.

She is the author of the award-winning The Queen of Distraction and Survival Tips for Women with ADHD, and her work has been featured by NPR, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, TIME, BBC, HuffPost, CBC News, and many others. Together, Mate and Matlen bring a rare blend of developmental insight, clinical clarity, and lived understanding to this conversation.

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Reviews

“One of the most comprehensive and accessible books about Attention Deficit Disorder.”

– Publishers Weekly

“This delightful, helpful book is a welcome addition to the literature on ADD. I would enthusiastically recommend Scattered to anyone touched by ADD-adults, parents, and professionals.”

– John J. Ratey, M.D., co-author of Driven to Distraction

“Utterly sensible and deeply moving… The most plausible account to date of one of the current mysteries of the human mind and personality.”

– Vancouver Sun

“Caring, sympathetic, supportive, and helpful. It is an extremely well-written and engaging read.”

– Georgia Straight

“Those with ADD, their loved ones and physicians will profit from reading this book. People who do not yet know they have it will be transformed.”

– Canadian Medical Association

“[A] rare and…richly textured explanation of the complex and subtle interactions of nature and nurture in the developing personality. You won’t find a drug chart or Seven Easy Steps to the Road Less Scattered here. You will find family stories, an accessible description of brain development and sound information. You will also find hope.”

– The Globe and Mail

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Frequently Asked Questions

When and where does the event take place?

This free online event takes place on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM Pacific Time. You can join live online from anywhere.

Who are Gabor Mate and Terry Matlen?

Gabor Mate, MD is a physician, bestselling author, and internationally known speaker whose work explores trauma, childhood development, addiction, stress, and healing. Terry Matlen, LMSW, ACSW is a psychotherapist, author, consultant, and longtime ADHD advocate known especially for her work supporting women and adults with ADHD.

What will I learn during this event?

You will learn a more developmentally informed way of understanding ADHD, including the role of stress, attunement, environment, and relational experience. The workshop also explores practical ways to support children, teens, and adults with greater compassion, clarity, and effectiveness.

What if I can’t attend live?

You can still register. If you miss the live event, you will receive free access to the recording for 3 days.

How long is the event?

The live event runs for 3 hours, with one 15-minute break during the program.

Do I need any special equipment to participate?

No special equipment is required. A stable internet connection, an updated Zoom application, and a laptop or desktop computer are recommended for the best viewing experience.

Who is hosting the event?

This event is hosted by PESI.

Is this event suitable for beginners?

Yes. The material is presented in a way that is accessible to both professionals and thoughtful attendees who are newer to this perspective on ADHD.

Is this event religious?

No. This workshop is educational in nature and welcomes people from all backgrounds and belief systems.

Will there be an opportunity to go deeper after the event?

Yes. Registration includes information about CE upgrade options, and attendees may also learn about additional resources connected to the training.

What can I expect to feel during the event?

Many people leave conversations like this with more clarity, compassion, and hope. You may also feel challenged in a good way as familiar assumptions are replaced by a more human and healing-centered understanding.

Can I share this event with friends or colleagues?

Yes. This event may be valuable for colleagues, caregivers, educators, and anyone who wants a deeper understanding of ADHD and healing.

Is this event really free?

Yes. You can register for free and attend the live virtual event at no cost. Optional CE upgrades are available for those who want them.

How does this workshop rethink ADHD?

Rather than treating ADHD only as a fixed genetic brain disorder, the workshop examines it as a neurodevelopmental response shaped by stress, environment, emotional attunement, and lived experience. This perspective opens more room for compassion and change.

Will this event cover children, teens, and adults with ADHD?

Yes. The training includes material on the ADHD child, the ADHD teenager, and the ADHD adult, so attendees can better understand how support needs change across the lifespan.

Will medication be discussed?

Yes. One section of the event addresses the use and misuse of medications, offering a more thoughtful and balanced conversation about their role.

Is this event relevant for therapists and counselors?

Yes. Therapists, counselors, social workers, psychologists, physicians, marriage and family therapists, and addiction counselors are all part of the target audience for this training.

Will women and adult ADHD be addressed?

Yes. Terry Matlen brings particular expertise in adult ADHD and the special challenges faced by women, which adds an important practical dimension to the training.

Are CE hours available?

Yes. You can upgrade and earn up to 6 CE hours. Registration details include information about live and self-study CE options for mental health professionals.

What should I do to prepare for the live webinar?

It is recommended that you update your Zoom application before the webinar and join from a laptop or desktop computer if possible. Giving yourself a quiet space and arriving a few minutes early can also help you settle in.

Will I have access to the recording of the event?

Yes. The on-demand replay is expected to be available about 24 hours after the event ends, and free registrants will have 3 days of access to the recording.

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