About

About Me

Welcome to the Untangled program! My name is Ana Paula Francisco and I am both an adult and child/adolescent psychiatrist. I did both specializations in Brazil.

I am a psychiatrist in private practice in Brazil. I diagnose and provide treatment, including Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Psychotherapy and medication treatment. But this is not the service that I will provide in the Untangled Program. In this program I am an ADHD coach.

After my training, I completed a two-year fellowship with a specialization in ADHD at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Canada. There I did consultations, diagnosis, and treatment only for patients with ADHD. During that time, I worked with children, adolescents, and adults with ADHD. I also learned more about the physiopathology of ADHD updated myself on the latest scientific literature about ADHD.

I decided to start the Untangled Program after noticing that most of the patients that I was treating would need a coach to help them to overcome and untangle their ADHD difficulties. I began to read about and study the strategies and the coaching process that would benefit people with ADHD. I implemented those strategies with a diverse group of patients.

I enjoy developing individualized strategies for each person and for each difficulty. One of the approaches that I employed was to create a video for my patients and their families to help them learn more about ADHD. The video was made in collaboration with other individuals involved in my training. Our video was in a competition, the IHDCYH Talks (Canadian Institutes of Health Research), and it was selected as a Special Commendation video. You can watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA_UwaZ3UuY&feature=youtu.be

I created the Untangled Program to teach persons with ADHD some of the possible strategies to overcome their difficulties and to help them to untangle their ADHD. I tailored a program specifically for persons with ADHD, using my deep knowledge and understanding in this area.

This learning program has different goals. The Untangled program:
– Educates on how ADHD brains work.
– Translates the science behind ADHD. I am always updated on the most recent studies in the area.
– Coaches persons with ADHD to build skills related to time management, planning, organization, prioritization, distraction management, emotion regulation, and more.

I am a skilled and passionate professional with many years of experience in treating ADHD.

In this program, I will only perform the role as a coach and teacher for ADHD. I believe that my experience in diagnosing ADHD and its comorbidities, as well as treating patients with ADHD with the available medications, makes my coaching process stronger.


Together we will find a way to unlock your potential and untangle your life.

Since it is built to be a learning/coaching program, it is important to highlight that I will NOT perform a diagnosis or psychiatric treatment during the program. I still work as psychiatry in my private office in Brazil, where I do diagnosis and treatment for patients. But this is not the service that I will provide in the Untangled program. If you are looking for an ADHD diagnosis, I suggest you discuss it with your doctor or your psychiatrist. Also, I will NOT be prescribing any medication treatment during your learning program; this needs to be discussed directly with your physician. I can work together with your doctor, and I am always open to talking about the learning/coaching process to help with your improvement.

ABOUT THE COACHING PROGRAM

  • It focuses on client’s specific needs.
  • It is a supportive, goal-oriented process.
  • I will work with you to develop the tools, strategies, and the confidence necessary to help you reach your potential and counteract the individual difficulties. This training is not intended to be psychotherapy and is focused on tactical issues.
  • The strategies are designed specifically for you.
  • I will provide encouragement, recommendations, feedback, and practical techniques that will help you achieve your goals.
  • This training is a client-driven process. To be successful, you must have a robust desire for personal growth and improvement. It will work best when you are motivated to reach your goals.
  • We will usually decide together some tasks that you will do and some activities that you will need to complete between our sessions. The program will work better if you complete them. Don’t worry; we will find a plan for you to do them also!
  • This program can help you with a short-term project that you are struggling with or with long-term goal achievement.
  • We will talk about ADHD, and you will understand the neurobiology behind it. Psychoeducation is an essential piece of the puzzle. If you understand how ADHD works within your body, this will increase your chances of accepting the fact that you were diagnosed with ADHD. It will also make you stronger to change the things you want to change. Remember, knowledge is power, and the more you understand about ADHD, the less scary it can be. This process can also help you feel better about yourself and about living with ADHD.
  • The brain can learn skills! Once you learn certain skills designed for your life, you can keep practicing them even without my support. This learning program follows the idea that you should teach someone fishing instead of giving them the fish.
  • It is very important to realize that you are NOT lazy, broken or profoundly damaged! The difficulties you have are due to your ADHD symptoms and challenges in executive functioning. They are NOT personal failings

    • Are you tired of being tangled by ADHD’s challenges? Achieve your goal, unlock your potential and untangle your ADHD with me! This training is international and by phone or video call (Zoom). I can do the coaching in English or Brazilian Portuguese. If the time works for you, then we can do it!

    For this training, if I notice that there are other overriding problems such as depression, anxiety, drug/alcohol addiction
    or other medical issues, I will suggest that you look for support with the appropriate healthcare worker. If necessary, we can pause your sessions while you treat those conditions, and afterwards, we may continue with our program. In some
    situations, the program may not work or be appropriate. If you are unsure if this program suits you, we can discuss it in your free 20-minute session.

    Where did the name
    ‘Untangled’ come from?

    Through my experience working with persons with ADHD,
    I learned that they feel that their life “feels like a mess” that it is “too complicated to do things,” that they feel “constantly confused” and “feel that they are tied up.” Often, they feel “there is something holding them back.”

    As I would explain what ADHD was and what the possible causes and symptoms were, they usually would feel relieved to know that the things they were experiencing had an explanation and that someone understood them.

    I brainstormed many possible names for this program, and one of them was Untangled. What I wanted was to create a program that makes life easier, with fewer day-to-day knots for persons with ADHD. I feel that the first step in that process is to make it easier to understand what ADHD means.

    The name Untangled stood out and felt in line with my goals!

    Questions and Answers

    Yes, it is. I call it a learning program instead of coaching, though, because I intend to provide a blend of different things, including coaching with psychoeducation, an understanding of neurobiology and some science translated from the most recent research on ADHD.

    No, this is a learning/coaching program. I am a psychiatrist, but I only provide psychiatric assessments and treatment for patients in person at the moment. I have an office in Brazil where I work as a psychiatrist. In the Untangled program, if I notice that you need psychiatric treatment, I will suggest that you look for a psychiatrist or family doctor. I will not prescribe any medication for you. We can discuss medication, however, in a way in which I will explain all the available options at the moment and their effectiveness based on the neurobiology that involves ADHD. In this program, I am an ADHD coach.

    The Untangled program is designed to give you information about ADHD to help you better understand it and, therefore, find it easier to cope with ADHD difficulties. It may take a few sessions to work through a specific topic, and the results are not immediate, maybe taking a few weeks. The results may vary from person to person. The results will depend on how much you are practicing the skills that we will be working on in our coaching sessions.