Meet Erin Harkey, LMSW
Erin Harkey is ADAPT Network’s specialist for adult ADHD and anxiety — and her approach goes well beyond symptom checklists and coping tips.
Erin looks at the whole picture: how your mind and body interact, what environments and habits are working for you (and which aren’t), how your nervous system responds to stress, and how to build practical strategies that fit your actual life — not a textbook version of it.
Her clinical toolkit for ADHD and anxiety includes:
- Holistic ADHD management — understanding your ADHD pattern, building structure that actually works, and reducing shame around how your brain operates
- Anxiety treatment — identifying the patterns that have become automatic and building the skills to interrupt and shift them
- Gottman Method — for couples where ADHD or anxiety is affecting the relationship dynamic
- Sport performance counseling — for athletes where anxiety or focus challenges are affecting performance
Erin sees clients in person at ADAPT Network’s Columbus, GA office, via telehealth throughout Georgia, and through walk/talk therapy sessions outdoors.
Adult ADHD: What It Actually Looks Like
ADHD in adults — especially women — is widely misunderstood and underdiagnosed. Most people picture a hyperactive child. The adult reality is often quieter and more complex:
- Chronic procrastination despite genuine intention to start
- Starting many things, finishing few
- Difficulty with time — consistently underestimating how long things take
- Emotional dysregulation — intense reactions that feel disproportionate and hard to control
- Hyperfocus on things that interest you, complete inability to engage with things that don’t
- Mental exhaustion from the effort of appearing organized and on top of things
- A long history of being told you’re not living up to your potential
- Anxiety that may actually be ADHD — the nervous system’s response to chronic disorganization and perceived failure
Many adults don’t receive an ADHD diagnosis until their 30s, 40s, or later — often after a child is diagnosed and they recognize themselves in the description. Wherever you are in that process, Erin can help you understand what’s actually going on and what to do about it.
Anxiety: Beyond Worry
Anxiety is more than worrying too much. It’s a nervous system response — a pattern of activation that can become chronic, automatic, and deeply woven into how you move through the world. For many people, anxiety shows up as:
- Racing thoughts that won’t quiet, especially at night
- Physical tension, restlessness, or a sense of dread with no clear cause
- Avoidance of situations, conversations, or decisions
- People-pleasing and difficulty saying no
- Perfectionism as a protective strategy
- Irritability, difficulty concentrating, or feeling constantly on edge
- Panic attacks or sudden waves of intense fear
Erin’s approach to anxiety goes beyond management techniques. She works with you to understand where your anxiety comes from, what it’s protecting, and how to address it at a level that creates lasting change — not just temporary relief.
Walk/Talk Therapy — A Different Kind of Session
For clients who feel cooped up, restless, or find that sitting face-to-face across a desk isn’t their thing — Erin offers walk/talk therapy: sessions conducted outdoors while walking.
Movement helps. Fresh air helps. And for many people — especially those with ADHD — the combination of motion and conversation unlocks things that sitting still never could. The side-by-side dynamic of walking together also shifts the relational experience of therapy in ways many clients find more natural and less pressured.
Walk/talk sessions are available weather-permitting for clients in the Columbus area. Ask Erin about this option when you schedule.
LENS Neurofeedback for ADHD and Anxiety
For clients whose ADHD or anxiety hasn’t responded fully to talk therapy — or who want to address the nervous system dimension of their symptoms more directly — LENS Neurofeedback is available at ADAPT Network.
LENS works by delivering a gentle, non-invasive signal to the brain that helps the nervous system recognize and shift its own patterns. For ADHD, this can improve focus, reduce emotional reactivity, and support the regulatory capacity that makes everything else — including therapy — more effective. For anxiety, LENS helps the nervous system down-regulate out of chronic activation.
ADAPT Network has two Ochs Labs-certified LENS providers — making integrated care genuinely accessible. Many clients work with Erin in therapy and add LENS sessions with Christy Hubbard or Katie Krieg, creating a layered approach that addresses both the behavioral and neurological dimensions of ADHD and anxiety.
Who We Work With
Erin works with adults experiencing ADHD and anxiety across a wide range of life circumstances, including:
- Adults newly diagnosed with ADHD or exploring whether ADHD explains their experience
- Women with ADHD that was missed or misdiagnosed for years
- High achievers whose anxiety is tied to perfectionism and fear of failure
- Military service members and veterans managing anxiety, hypervigilance, or difficulty transitioning
- Athletes dealing with performance anxiety or focus challenges
- Couples where ADHD or anxiety is affecting the relationship
- Adults managing ADHD and anxiety alongside depression, burnout, or life transitions