Gina Pera and Arthur L. Robin, PhD, are the co-authors of Adult ADHD-Focused Couple Therapy.
They met when Gina Pera attended one of Dr. Robin’s presentations, on Adult ADHD and relationships. That was more than a decade ago, at the International CHADD conference on ADHD. A few years later, they began regularly co-presenting at conferences to mental-health professionals, on the topic of ADHD and relationships.
This book is a natural outgrowth of their shared mission to elevate the clinical treatment standards for Adult ADHD. They are honored to have the endorsements of preeminent experts in the fields of both Adult ADHD and Couple therapy.
The next step in revolutionizing the standard of care for Adult ADHD therapy — for individuals and couples – is online training: Solving Your Adult ADHD Puzzle
Please see their individual biographies below. For an overview of the book, visit: Skyrocketing Demand for ADHD Couple Therapy
About Gina Pera
Gina Pera is an author, workshop leader, private Adult ADHD consultant, and international speaker on Adult ADHD, especially as it affects relationships.
She was a veteran award-winning print journalist when, in 1999, her 37-year-old husband was diagnosed with ADHD.
The couple learned of the possibility not from their repeated attempts at couple therapy. Rather, they learned by Pera’s chance reading of a neurobiology book that touched upon Adult ADHD.
Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D. Breaks Ground, 2008
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.
She began by organizing guest lectures and launching support groups for both adults with ADHD and their partners. These meetings, in the San Francisco Bay Area, are all free and open to the public.
In 2004-2005, she conducted an extensive survey among the partners of adults with ADHD. These activities, combined with in-depth interviews of preeminent experts and investigation into the literature, informed her 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). With Dr. Robin’s help, she included an entire chapter of logistical strategies, a long-ignored but critical area of couple support.
First-Ever Chapter on Couple Therapy for Russell Barkley’s Clinical Guide, 2014
Translated now into Turkish and Spanish, the book garnered four national awards, including ForeWord Magazine’s Psychology Book of the Year. Pera was also invited to contribute the first-ever chapter on couple therapy to a leading ADHD clinical guide: Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (Fourth Edition), edited by Russell Barkley (Guilford Press, 2014).
Presentations and Blogging on the First Website on Adult ADHD
Pera has featured in several documentaries about ADHD as well as numerous news programs and articles.
She writes the award-winning blog ADHD Roller Coaster and provides online instruction. By invitation, she has presented to public and professional groups worldwide. In 2013, she was a plenary speaker for the 2013 International Congress on Psychopharmacology in Antalya, Turkey. In 2017, she gave a plenary talk on Adult ADHD Couple Therapy for the annual CADDRA conference.
In the past six years, she and Dr. Robin have co-presented at national conferences to clinicians on relationships and ADHD.
Award-Winning Journalist Turned Adult ADHD Expert
In her previous career as a print journalist, she earned several national awards. 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 (summa cum laude) from the University of Tennessee.
About Arthur L. Robin, PhD
Arthur L. Robin, PhD, is the director of Psychology Training at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. (Dr. Robin has since retired but retains a private practice.)
He is also 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.
Professional 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; and 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-Adolescent Relationship Questionnaire (PARQ).
Pioneering Couple-Therapy Approach
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 received his own ADHD diagnosis. His personal experience coping with ADHD-related challenges in his own marriage nicely complements his professional experience.
More Professional Credentials
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 brings to the task of editing this book his extensive experience in teaching clinicians how to implement evidence-based family intervention techniques.
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 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 of ADHD. In 2007 he became a Fellow of the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12) of the American Psychological Association.