Lauren Mallon, MSW, LSW
Online Therapy for ADHD, Anxiety & Feeling Overwhelmed
You may know what you need to do—but actually getting started, staying focused, managing everything on your plate, or keeping your emotions from taking over can feel much harder than it seems like it should.
Maybe you're constantly overwhelmed, procrastinate until things become urgent, struggle to stay organized, or feel like your mind is always moving in ten different directions. For children and teens, these challenges may show up differently—through big emotions, frustration, difficulty with routines, school struggles, or behavior that is often misunderstood.
I help children, teens, young adults, and families better understand what's getting in the way, develop practical skills for managing everyday challenges, and create more stability at home, school, work, and in relationships.
Online therapy available in Ohio, Idaho, and Florida.
When Everything Feels Harder Than It Should
Struggling doesn't mean you aren't trying.
You may feel like you're constantly trying to catch up—at school, at work, at home, or even with the everyday things that seem like they should be easy.
You know what needs to get done, but getting started can feel impossible. You make a plan and have every intention of following through, but something gets in the way. Small things become overwhelming. Emotions get big quickly. And after a while, you may start wondering, “Why is this so hard for me?”
For parents, it can be just as frustrating and confusing. Your child may be bright, capable, and caring, but struggle with routines, transitions, schoolwork, organization, frustration, or emotional regulation. What looks like defiance, lack of motivation, or not listening may actually be a sign that something is getting in the way.
Does Any of This Feel Familiar?
✓ Difficulty getting started or following through
✓ Procrastinating until something becomes urgent
✓ Forgetfulness, disorganization & losing things
✓ Overthinking & worrying about what could go wrong
✓ Feeling overwhelmed by seemingly small tasks
✓ Big emotions or becoming frustrated quickly
✓ Difficulty with transitions or changes in routine
✓ Trouble focusing—or focusing so intensely everything else disappears
✓ School, work, or home responsibilities becoming a constant source of stress
✓ Feeling like you're trying harder than everyone realizes
Sometimes the first step isn't trying harder. It's understanding what's making things hard.
Therapy can help identify what's underneath the overwhelm, develop strategies that fit how you or your child actually functions, and build skills that make everyday life feel more manageable.
How I Can Help
Support for when emotions, expectations, and everyday life start to feel like too much.
ADHD & Executive Functioning
ADHD can affect much more than attention. Getting started, staying organized, remembering what needs to be done, managing time, shifting between tasks, and following through can all become frustrating—even when you know exactly what you're supposed to do.
Therapy can help you or your child better understand how ADHD affects everyday life while developing realistic strategies for organization, planning, focus, emotional regulation, and follow-through.
Anxiety & Overwhelm
Anxiety doesn't always look like obvious fear or panic. It can look like overthinking, perfectionism, avoiding things that feel overwhelming, needing constant reassurance, irritability, difficulty making decisions, or worrying about what might happen next.
We'll work on recognizing anxiety patterns, understanding triggers, developing coping skills, and building confidence in handling uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and situations.
Emotional Regulation & Big Feelings
Sometimes emotions seem to go from 0 to 100 before there's time to figure out what happened. Frustration, anger, disappointment, sadness, or overstimulation can quickly become difficult to manage—and calming back down may take time.
Therapy can help identify triggers, recognize what happens before emotions become overwhelming, and develop skills for communicating feelings and responding more effectively.
Children, Teens & Family Challenges
When a child or teen is struggling, it rarely affects only one person. School concerns, behavior changes, family conflict, trauma, changing family dynamics, parenting stress, or difficulty communicating can leave everyone feeling frustrated and unsure what to do next.
Together, we'll work to better understand what's happening beneath the behavior, strengthen communication, develop coping and problem-solving skills, and create practical strategies that can be used outside of therapy.
The goal isn't to make you—or your child—fit someone else's definition of “normal.”
It's to understand what's getting in the way and build skills that make life work better.
What Therapy With Me Is Like
A space to feel understood, supported, and equipped for what happens outside of therapy.
Starting therapy can feel like a big step—especially when you or your family have already been trying to manage a lot on your own.
My goal is to create a space where you feel heard, valued, and supported without judgment. We'll work together to understand the emotions, behaviors, triggers, and relationship patterns that may be contributing to what's happening.
Therapy with me is collaborative and tailored to your goals. I won't expect you or your child to fit into a predetermined approach. We'll work at a pace that feels safe and manageable while developing practical strategies that make sense for your life.
And the work doesn't stop when the session ends. We'll focus on skills and strategies you can use where they're actually needed—at home, at school, at work, and in relationships.
CARING & NONJUDGMENTAL
You deserve a space where you can talk openly without feeling judged.
COLLABORATIVE
We'll work together to understand what's happening and decide where we go next.
SAFE & MANAGEABLE
We'll move at a pace that supports meaningful change without making the process feel overwhelming.
INDIVIDUALIZED
Therapy will be tailored to your needs, goals, strengths, and what works best for you.
PRACTICAL
We'll develop strategies and skills you can use in everyday life—not just during therapy.
You don't have to figure everything out at once. We'll start with what's happening now and take the next steps together.
LOOKING BENEATH THE BEHAVIOR
My Approach to Therapy
Understanding what’s happening—not just reacting to the behavior.
Whether I’m working with a child, teen, adult, or family, I believe it’s important to understand what’s happening beneath the surface.
Behaviors, emotions, and relationship patterns don't happen in isolation. We'll look at what may be contributing to the challenges you're experiencing, identify strengths that are already present, and develop practical strategies for creating meaningful change.
My approach is trauma-informed, strengths-based, collaborative, and grounded in evidence-based practices. Treatment is individualized to your needs, goals, relationships, environment, and the systems that may be affecting everyday life.
There's usually more to the story than what we see on the surface.
Instead of focusing only on stopping a behavior or reducing a symptom, we'll work to understand what may be contributing to it.
That can include emotions, triggers, patterns, relationships, stressors, expectations, environment, and the ways you or your family have learned to respond when things become difficult.
BUILDING ON STRENGTHS
Therapy isn't only about what's going wrong.
We'll also identify what's already working—your strengths, your child's strengths, supportive relationships, successful strategies, and the things that have helped you get through difficult situations before.
We can use those strengths as a foundation for developing new skills, increasing confidence, and creating healthier patterns.
CHANGE THAT WORKS IN REAL LIFE
Skills need to work where life actually happens.
Therapy should translate into everyday life. We'll develop strategies that can be practiced at home, school, work, and in relationships—not just talked about during a session.
When working with children and teens, treatment may also involve parents, caregivers, and other important supports when appropriate so that everyone has a better understanding of what helps.
Approaches I May Draw From
Trauma-Informed Care • Strengths-Based Practice • I-FAST Principles • Cognitive Behavioral Interventions • Family & Systems-Based Work • CANS-Informed Assessment
The goal isn't simply to manage what's happening today. It's to understand the patterns, build on what's already working, and develop skills that support lasting change.
About Lauren
Families are complicated, kids don't come with instruction manuals, and sometimes we all need a little support figuring things out.
I’m Lauren Mallon, MSW, LSW, a social worker and therapist with a professional background centered on supporting children, adolescents, families, and individuals navigating complex behavioral, emotional, and life challenges.
My path in social work has given me the opportunity to understand children and families from multiple perspectives. My experience includes child welfare, developmental disability services, intensive care coordination, program supervision, community-based behavioral health, and intensive home-based family therapy.
Those experiences have shaped how I approach therapy today. I understand that what happens in a therapy session is only one part of someone's life. Family relationships, school, community, available supports, past experiences, and everyday stressors can all influence how someone is doing.
My goal is to bring those pieces together while helping you or your child feel understood, identify existing strengths, develop practical skills, and create changes that work beyond the therapy session.
Who I Work With
I work with children, teens, young adults, and families. I support individuals and families navigating anxiety, ADHD, emotional and behavioral challenges, trauma, depression, family conflict, parenting stress, and difficult life transitions.
Education & Credentials
Education
Master of Social Work (MSW) Cleveland State
Licensure
Licensed Social Worker
Registered Clinical Social Worker
Certifications & Specialized Training
Certified Child & Adolescent Needs Assessor (CANS)
Intensive Home Based Therapy (IHBT)
Integrative Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST)
MULTISTATE TELEHEALTH
Online therapy available in
Ohio • Florida • Idaho
**Licensure and authorization vary by state. You must be physically located in a state where I am authorized to practice at the time of your appointment.*
READY TO GET STARTED?
You don't have to have everything figured out before starting therapy.
You may know exactly what you want to work on, or you may simply know that something needs to change. Either place is okay to start.
If you think we may be a good fit, you can schedule an appointment with me. If you're not sure which Haven therapist would be the best match, we'll help you figure that out too.