Close-Up Talk Radio spotlights About You Counseling & Coaching

Fernandina Beach, FL – You don’t tell a person who needs glasses to squint harder in order to see, but according to Michelle Rampone, that’s exactly what we tend to do with kids who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Michelle Rampone is a licensed clinical social worker and founder of About You Counseling & Coaching, where she specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD, a behavioral disorder that affects an estimated 10 percent of school-age children. Kids with ADHD often have trouble focusing, are hyperactive and act without thinking.

“For these kids, school is very difficult, both academically and socially,” says Rampone. “They’re aware people are judging them. Teachers think they’re lazy or disruptive. They’re defined by being distracted. They try to hold themselves together but they can only do it for so long.”

And Rampone knows firsthand, having suffered with ADHD for most of her life without knowing it. Today, Rampone draws on her own experience with ADHD to help other people in the way she wishes she had been helped.

“I am the first person to say if you don’t live it, breathe it and suffer through it every day, you couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like,” says Rampone. “You can have all the expertise in the world but if you don’t connect with your clients and they don’t feel comfortable and understood, it doesn’t work.”

For parents with children suffering from ADHD, Rampone encourages them to educate themselves about the condition, treatments and effective parenting strategies.

Says Rampone: “I’m proud to work with families and schools to make a child’s life better. Most people can’t do what I do, so I feel like my work is a gift.”