About Heather
Heather DeAngelis Hambleton is a premier specialist in the assessment and treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) / Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and neuroatypical brains.
Heather, a native of New York, graduated from Columbia University with a Master’s Degree in social work, and holds an Advanced Certificate in Family & Couples Therapy from the world-renowned Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City. She is currently enrolled in UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center Intensive Practice Program to deepen her knowledge of mindfulness meditation and its impact on ADHD symptoms and executive function skills.
Heather serves as resilience chief for behavioral health programs at Fortune 500 companies, and is a preferred provider for employee assistance programs (EAPs) nationwide. Heather is a Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP), and has trained supervisors and staff in a variety of settings, including outpatient mental health centers and nonprofit organizations.
With a background in corporate counseling, executive coaching, and leadership development, Heather is highly sought-after by companies to address mental health challenges in the workplace, helping to improve employee productivity and company profitability.
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City, Heather served as the onsite behavioral health advisor at Goldman Sachs in downtown Manhattan. She was responsible for providing trauma recovery and crisis management services to employees at the investment bank, and advised management and human resources how to navigate through a workplace crisis.
Big Law, schools, and companies like Citigroup, Bloomberg LP, and Morgan Stanley rely on Heather’s “boots on the ground” expertise to assess psychological trauma, assuage organizational anxiety, and reaffirm security and safety when dealing with a crisis such as reorganization, school shooting, employee death or crime.
In addition to her private practice, Heather facilitates psycho-education groups on topics such as goal-setting for teens, life skills for adolescent girls and an ADHD support group focused on the brain-gut connection. She regularly presents workshops and trainings to businesses, schools and hospitals on topics important to all brains, and has appeared as the featured expert on national television shows to speak about mental health, parenting, and relationship issues.
I’m an Ivy League-trained psychotherapist, and I’m also one of the 15 million people living with ADHD in the United States.
ADHD wasn’t on my radar until I was diagnosed as an adult. To this day people never suspect I have ADHD. They don’t describe me as distracted, spacey, or hyperactive, and I don’t experience myself that way either.
I always did well in school – got good grades, had lots of friends, and graduated from a prestigious university. I started a successful private practice in New York City in my late 20s, got married, had a family. Life was good. On the outside, at least.
Inside, I felt like a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. On some days, I’d fit together just fine, a comprehensive, predictable pattern of corner, middle and end pieces. On other days, I’d try to force wrong puzzle parts into empty spaces or I’d be missing pieces entirely. And yet on other days, I’d break apart and have to start all over.
To make matters worse, I pretended I was fine. I hid my stumbles. And I minimized who I was. It was as if my square peg brain and its unique machinery didn’t fit the traditional round hole of life.
That’s why I won’t ever minimize you or your child’s ADHD.
Today I wear my diagnosis as a badge of honor.
My ADHD makes me who I am. I don’t see ADHD as a disorder or a “deficit” of anything, and you’ll never hear me call it a disability. I now see it as a gift…on most days. And like all gifts, it requires attention and fine tuning.
So yes, I’m here to alleviate what’s causing you trouble, AND I’m also here to challenge the way you think about your brain and reframe the narrative of what it means to live with ADHD.
I’ll help you stop pretending, hiding and minimizing who you are, and reauthor your own story.
Because your story can be one where you maximize your strengths and use the perks of adversity to your advantage.
NY: LCSW-R #069599 • CA: LCSW #95155 • CEAP: #36798