The Experts Behind
ADHD Success Training
Gina Pera and Arthur L. Robin, PhD, bring decades of expertise to ADHD Success Training.
We produced the first clinical guide for ADHD couple therapy based on the evidence of what works for Adult ADHD and what works for couple therapy in 2016: Adult ADHD-Focused Couple Therapy.
Our collaboration began much earlier, though. Starting in the early 2000s, we regularly co-presented at conferences on the topic of ADHD and relationships.
When a major publisher of clinical guides asked us to produce the first professional guide for ADHD couples counseling, we embarked on a four-year journey of intense collaboration—and many drafts!
We share a bedrock belief: That is, adults with ADHD and their loved ones can create lasting progress when given a solid education on Adult ADHD and training in core strategies and tools.
We based our comprehensive online training, Adult ADHD: Solving the Four Essential Puzzle Pieces, in part on the principles of Adult ADHD-Focused Couple Therapy: Clinical Interventions.
Please see individual biographies below.
Arthur L. Robin, PhD
Arthur L. Robin, PhD, is the director of Psychology Training at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at Wayne State University, and a licensed psychologist in private practice in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
He obtained his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1975. He was on the faculty of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, from 1975 to 1979, and has been at Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Wayne State University in Detroit since 1979.
In addition to functioning as a pediatric psychologist at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Dr. Robin has devoted his 37-year career as a clinician, educator, and researcher to children, adolescents, and adults with ADHD and related problems.
Publications
Along with many articles, chapters, and grants, he has authored ADHD in Adolescents: Diagnosis and Treatment (Guilford Press, 1998) and has co-authored three books:
- Negotiating Parent-Adolescent Conflict: A Behavioral Family Systems Approach (Guilford Press, 1998)
- Defiant Teens: A Clinician’s Manual for Assessment and Family Intervention (Guilford Press, 2014)
- Your Defiant Teen (Guilford Press, 2014).
The last two books were co-authored with Russell Barkley, PhD, a preeminent expert on ADHD. Dr. Robin is also the primary author of the published assessment instrument, the Parent-AdolescentRelationship Questionnaire (PARQ).
ADHD Through the Lifespan
Over the past three decades, as the children and adolescents with whom he worked grew up and married, Dr. Robin came to see the adverse impact of ADHD on their adult relationships. Trained in Cognitive Behavior
Therapy and family systems therapy, it was natural for Dr. Robin to innovate in combining these techniques to help these couples. Thus, for the past decade, Dr. Robin has been treating couples where one or both individuals have ADHD.
In 1989, Dr. Robin was himself diagnosed with ADHD and has had personal experience in his own marriage coping with ADHD. He finds that this personal experience nicely complements his professional experience with ADHD.
Clinician Training
As the director of a psychology internship accredited by the American Psychological Association, Dr. Robin has pioneered innovative clinical-training techniques, particularly in the area of competency-based education. He has applied these techniques in training clinicians to work with adults and couples affected by ADHD, making numerous presentations at conferences on ADHD and relationships.
He also brought to the task of editing this book his extensive experience in teaching clinicians how to implement evidence-based family intervention techniques.
Professional Associations
Dr. Robin is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the Journal of Attention Disorders. He has also served as a guest reviewer for many other journals.
In 2002, he was inducted into the CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) Hall of Fame for his lifetime contributions to the field. In 2007 he became a Fellow of the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12) of the American Psychological Association.
To learn more about his private practice, visit this website.
To learn more about Dr. Robin’s published works, visit his Amazon Author page.
Gina Pera
Gina Pera is an author, workshop leader, private Adult ADHD consultant, and international speaker on Adult ADHD, especially as it affects relationships.
In 1999, however, she was a veteran award-winning print journalist who had the same misunderstandings of ADHD that most everybody had then (even now!).
A Personal Discovery
Her career path changed when her 37-year-old husband was diagnosed with ADHD. The couple learned of the possibility not from their repeated attempts at couples counseling. Instead, she had randomly picked up a new neurobiology title at the library. As luck would have it, it touched upon Adult ADHD.
This discovery—and the positive difference it made in her husband’s life, her life, and their marriage—launched her desire to educate the public on this poorly recognized condition.
Expertise Began with Service
Grasping the enormous damage that ignorance about Adult ADHD can wield, she devoted her efforts to creating awareness and offering support. She began by organizing guest lectures and launching support groups for both adults with ADHD and their partners in the San Francisco Bay Area. All free and open to the public.
In 2004-2005, she conducted an extensive survey of the partners of adults with ADHD. To date, this is the most comprehensive Adult ADHD and relationships.
Her online group, ADHD Partner, has averaged 1,000 members since its inception, 2004. Hundreds of individuals found a lifeline in the group during COVID. The 10,000th member jointed the group.
Highly Regarded Body of Work
These activities, combined with in-depth interviews of preeminent experts and investigation into the literature, informed her first book: Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?: Stopping the Roller Coaster When Someone You Love Has Attention Deficit Disorder (1201 Alarm Press, 2008).
It is as popular today as it was then. Translated now into Turkish and Spanish, the book garnered four national awards, including ForeWord Magazine’s Psychology Book of the Year.
Dr. Russell Barkley invited Pera to contribute the first-ever chapter on couple therapy to his leading ADHD clinical guide: Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (Fourth Edition) (Guilford Press, 2014).
Speaking and Blogging
Pera has participated in several documentaries about ADHD as well as numerous news programs and articles. She serves as resident ADHD expert at WebMD and writes the award-winning blog ADHD Roller Coaster
By invitation, she has presented to public and professional groups worldwide. She served as a plenary speaker for the 2013 International Congress on Psychopharmacology in Antalya, Turkey, and the 13th Annual CADDRA ADHD Conference
In the past six years, she and Dr. Robin have co-presented at national conferences to clinicians on relationships and ADHD.
Pera has served, in a pro bono capacity, as coordinator of CHADD Silicon Valley for almost 20 years. She was named CHADD 2007 National Volunteer of the Year.
In her previous career as a print journalist, her work for USA Weekend Magazine won both the prestigious Best Magazine Edition Award from The Association for Women in Communications and a Unity Award in Media, recognizing accurate exposure of issues affecting minorities and disabled persons.
She holds a BS in Mass Communications (magna cum laude) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.