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The Adolescent & Young Adult Collective (AYAC) 2026

From Disruption to Regulation: ADHD, Emotional Dysregulation, Inhibition, and Trauma in Adolescent Treatment (1A)

Marissa Dvorscak, LMFT
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Description

This presentation examines ADHD through a neurodevelopmental and trauma-informed lens, emphasizing emotional dysregulation and impaired inhibition as central mechanisms driving adolescent dysfunction. Moving beyond an attention-only framework, this workshop explores how deficits in behavioral inhibition and executive control significantly impact belonging, identity formation, communication, and risk in teens across treatment settings. The presentation reviews the psychological research underlying ADHD-related emotional impulsivity and its interaction with trauma exposure, highlighting how these combined vulnerabilities intensify stress reactivity, shame formation, relational rupture, and impulsive risk behaviors. Participants will explore how these mechanisms manifest in residential and outpatient care, often leading to misattribution of behaviors as oppositional, manipulative, or personality-driven. Additionally, the workshop addresses the clinical and systemic challenges of accurately conceptualizing and treating adolescents with co-occurring ADHD and trauma, including diagnostic overlap, risk assessment complexity, and family communication breakdown. Evidence-informed strategies will be presented to support executive function scaffolding, emotional regulation development, trauma stabilization, and more precise risk evaluation. Through this integrated framework, participants will gain practical tools to enhance case conceptualization, improve treatment alignment, and reduce diagnostic and relational missteps across levels of care.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Differentiate between attentional impairment and inhibitory dysfunction in ADHD using contemporary psychological research models.

  • Explain how trauma exposure amplifies emotional dysregulation and stress reactivity in adolescents with ADHD.

  • Identify the mechanisms through which inhibition deficits and trauma disrupt belonging, attachment security, and peer integration.

  • Describe how repeated dysregulation contributes to identity distortion and shame-based self-concept in adolescents.

  • Apply a risk assessment lens that incorporates emotional impulsivity, trigger sensitivity, and recovery duration when evaluating suicidality in ADHD populations.

Educational Goal

The workshop addresses the clinical and systemic challenges of accurately conceptualizing and treating adolescents with co-occurring ADHD and trauma, including diagnostic overlap, risk assessment complexity, and family communication breakdown. Evidence-informed strategies will be presented to support executive function scaffolding, emotional regulation development, trauma stabilization, and more precise risk evaluation.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Marissa Dvorscak, LMFT
Marissa Dvorscak, LMFT has been dedicated to supporting teens and their families in navigating mental health and addiction challenges since 2006. Specializing in adolescents and young adults engaging in high-risk behaviors. Marissa believes that meaningful change happens when we lean into resistance with curiosity, honor individuality, and embrace the creative potential within each client and family system. Marissa is passionate about fostering strong, authentic therapeutic alliances—spaces where clients feel truly seen, heard, and empowered to take an active role in their healing journey. She views treatment as a transformative, collaborative, and an evolving process and within the layers of support Residential treatment at Mission Prep at San Diego can provide, client and their families are awarded opportunities for communication safety, connection, and validation. Her practice integrates innovative and evidence-based approaches, including Dialectical Behavioral Therapy skills, strength-based and client-centered treatment, and clinical case management with a specialization in neurodivergence. Marissa is known for weaving creativity and flexibility into her work, tailoring interventions to honor each client’s unique voice and needs while encouraging families to embrace new ways of relating and supporting one another. In addition to her clinical work, Marissa has served as a Board of Behavioral Sciences-approved Clinical Supervisor since 2017, mentoring the next generation of therapists with an emphasis on ethical practice, cultural humility, and the transformative power of therapeutic relationships. Marissa Dvorscak is currently a member of the San Diego Psychological Association and the California Association for Marriage and Family Therapists.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers