In drama, when a scene doesn't work, nobody is told off. The director just says "let's go again", and you try it a different way. That simple idea is at the heart of one of my favourite parts of an ADHD session: Take 2.

What is Take 2?

Take 2 is a chance to replay a real situation from the individual's own week, and practise how it could have gone better. It might be an argument with a sibling, a comment in class that came out wrong, or the evening a deadline slipped by.

Made-up scenes are useful for learning a strategy like Stop-Think. But a real situation carries real meaning. The individual already cares about it, knows the people involved, and is likely to face something similar again.

How it works

1. Retell it briefly. Who was there, what was said, what happened next. No need for every detail.

2. Replay it as it happened. I take on the other person's part. We keep it light and don't dwell on the difficult bit.

3. Find the stop point. I ask, "Where could you have hit Stop?" The individual chooses the moment, rather than me pointing it out.

4. Replay with Stop-Think. We run it again from that moment, trying one or two different choices and seeing how each one plays out.

5. Swap parts. The individual plays the other person, and I play them using the new response. This helps them see the situation from the other side.

6. Plan for next time. We agree one sentence or action they'll use if it happens again.

My ground rules

The individual chooses. I never bring up an incident for them, including one a parent has mentioned. Being handed a list of your mistakes feels like a telling-off, and that is the opposite of what Take 2 is for.

Low stakes first. We start with mildly annoying moments before anything that still feels raw.

It's a do-over, not a mistake review. Many people with ADHD have had years of being corrected. Take 2 is framed like a director's cut: the first version wasn't wrong, it was just Take 1.

Knowing the limits. If someone brings something genuinely upsetting or serious, we put it to one side, and I'll suggest it's shared with a counsellor or other appropriate professional. Take 2 is for everyday situations.

Why it helps

Take 2 connects what we practise in sessions to real life. Each replay builds a "next time" response that is already rehearsed, in a situation the individual actually faces. Over time, many people start running a quick Take 2 in their own head, which is self-monitoring in action.

I often end sessions by asking, "Anything happen this week you'd like to replay?" It's become one of the parts people look forward to most.