Sabrina Batista Steele

Why ADHD and anxiety

There's a kind of suffering that rarely gets taken seriously, because from the outside it looks like laziness. The person is bright, full of ideas, starts things — and can't sustain them. Over time they stop trusting their own intentions and begin describing themselves as someone who "never finishes anything".

As more people arrived with that story, two things became clear. Most had already tried to fix it through willpower, repeatedly, and failed. And there were evidence-based tools for exactly this that almost nobody had shown them.

That's the work: moving out of morality and into method.

Who I see

Adolescents and adults. Brazilians living in Brazil, Brazilians and Portuguese speakers living abroad, and people of other nationalities who can work in Portuguese or English. What changes between them is the language, the pace and the tools — not the care.

I hold dual Brazilian and American nationality, and I work in both languages. That gives me footing in two cultures, which matters in the room when someone is living between two countries, two languages or two sets of expectations.

How I work

I practise Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. In practice that means therapy with explicit goals, periodic review and work between sessions. You know what we're doing, why, and how we'll tell whether it's helping.

I also use Dialectical Behaviour Therapy skills, developed by Marsha Linehan, particularly for emotion regulation, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness. That tends to be the part that matters for people who understand perfectly well what they should do, but can't reach it when the emotion is high.

Training

Further training and supervision

• CBT training with Dr Fernanda Landeiro
• Clinical supervision with Dr Cíntia Martins (UFBA)
• Study group with Dr Haroldo Tuyoshi (USP)
• Obesity and weight management — Oxford Protocol
• Systemic approach training — Instituto Nephesh Criações Sistêmicas, São Paulo

Teaching and research

• Was a lecturer in the medical programme at UNIDOMPEDRO, Bahia
• Research participation through Fiocruz
• Visits to mental health institutions abroad during undergraduate training