ADHD Therapy in St. Louis Park: Why Your Partner Thinks You Don’t Listen (When You Actually Do)

You’re nodding along while your partner is talking, but then—oops—you realize you missed half of what they just said because your brain took a quick detour to “Did I switch the laundry?” territory.

Cue: your partner sighing, rolling their eyes, or hitting you with the classic, “You never listen to me.”

Sound familiar? Yeah. Welcome to life with ADHD.

In my therapy office here in St. Louis Park, serving adults across the Twin Cities, this is one of the top complaints couples bring in when ADHD is part of the relationship dynamic. Spoiler: it’s not that you don’t care—it’s that your brain has its own playlist on shuffle.

Why ADHD Makes Listening Hard

It’s not that you don’t love your partner or that you’re tuning them out on purpose. ADHD brains are wired to chase novelty and stimulation. Which means:

• Attention drifts. You’re “listening” but also planning dinner, replaying a text, and wondering if raccoons have thumbs.

• Interruptions happen. You jump in mid-story because your brain is desperate not to lose the thought.

• Details slip. You heard the gist but forgot the part about needing to bring snacks to the soccer game.

• Shame kicks in. The more you get called out, the more guilty (and defensive) you feel.

How ADHD Therapy Helps Couples

When clients come to me for ADHD therapy in St. Louis Park, we don’t just laugh about the listening fails (though, yes, we do that too). We work on:

• Building tools to stay present during conversations.

• Learning ways to show your partner you’re listening, even if you miss pieces.

• Creating systems so important info doesn’t fall through the cracks.

• Helping partners understand that ADHD ≠ indifference.

Once both of you see the difference between “not listening” and “listening differently,” the tension eases up big time.

Why This Matters in the Twin Cities

Relationships in Minneapolis–St. Paul are already balancing jobs, kids, and stress. ADHD just adds more noise. Therapy helps couples stop turning listening mishaps into all-out wars and start working as a team again.

Bottom Line

If your partner swears you don’t listen—but you know you do (just not in the way they want)—ADHD therapy in St. Louis Park can help you bridge the gap, drop the guilt, and finally feel like you’re on the same page.