Julie Legg chats with Theresa Lear Levine—an EFT master practitioner, hypnotherapist, business coach, author and fellow ADHDer, about tapping into joy and presence.
Diagnosed with ADHD at 42 Theresa describes the experience as finally switching on a light in a room she didn’t know was dark. This self-discovery reframed years of internal tension and helped her release long-held guilt, particularly in her roles as a mother and entrepreneur. Together, they explore how therapeutic tools, like EFT and subconscious reprogramming, can shift emotional patterns.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- What is EFT? Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a therapeutic method that combines gentle tapping on acupressure points with focused verbal therapy. EFT may help clients release emotional blockages, heal past traumas, and regulate their nervous systems—especially helpful for those with ADHD whose emotions can be intense and quickly dysregulated.
- What is Law of Attraction Coaching? This is not just about positive or wishful thinking! This coaching approach teaches individuals to shift their thoughts, feelings, and energy to align with their goals. For ADHDers, this method can be empowering, helping redirect negative self-beliefs toward possibility and intentional living.
- Subconscious Healing: Many ADHD challenges stem not just from executive function struggles but from limiting subconscious beliefs and nervous system dysregulation. By working at this deeper level, clients often experience transformation in both mindset and outcomes.
- ADHD Resources: Listeners are invited to join Theresa’s Becoming More Me community, which offers free access to tools, workshops, and coaching resources—especially geared toward those with ADHD looking to overcome internal blocks.
LINKS
- Theresa Lear Levine – Instagram
- Theresa Lear Levine – Website
- Theresa Lear Levine – LinkedIn
- Becoming More Me – Book by Theresa Lear Levine
- Email ADHDifference Podcast
- The Missing Piece: A Woman’s Guide to Understanding, Diagnosing and Living with ADHD – by Julie Legg
TRANSCRIPT
JULIE: I’m Julie Legg, author of The Missing Piece and diagnosed with ADHD at 52. Welcome to ADHDifference. In this episode I chat with Theresa Lear Levine. She’s an EFT master practitioner, hypnotherapist, business coach, and author of Becoming More Me. She helps ADHD entrepreneurs to heal past trauma, release limiting beliefs, and create a pleasure-fuelled, joyful life. We talk about how the subconscious mind and the nervous system play in their success. Well, welcome Theresa. Really lovely to have you on today’s episode.
THERESA: I’m so excited that we could find a time that worked for both of us.
JULIE: I know. [It’s good to be here.] Yeah, brilliant. Early start for me and mid-afternoon for you? [You got it.] Brilliant, brilliant. You were diagnosed at 42 after your children had already received their diagnosis. What was that late discovery like for you?
THERESA: Yeah it was, wow. It was like flipping on a light in a dark room could be. But it was as if I didn’t know that the room was actually dark. So I always chalked things up to being a little scattered, very high energy. I could be a little forgetful, overly sensitive. But when my boys got their diagnosis, I’m a mom of four boys and all but one of them’s been formally diagnosed and the youngest is actually in the process right now. I started seeing myself in their traits. So suddenly everything from my own childhood, how I managed motherhood, my marriage, my business, it all made a lot more sense. And I also felt a lot of compassion for all the versions of me who had been trying so hard without really understanding what was going on beneath the surface. And it wasn’t that I didn’t… it wasn’t like a surprise to me that I had ADHD, it’s just there’s something that comes with an actual diagnosis that has a little bit of a different weight to it. Like it’s questions are definitely answered and as a mom it helped me to let go of a lot of guilt, you know. I stopped seeing things as what I should be doing better and started seeing through like the lens of understanding, which really helped to shift family dynamics and you know, more grace, less shame, that kind of thing.
JULIE: Absolutely. It is bit of an eye opener once you understand how your brain works the way it does. And so personally and as a mother your perspective on ADHD shifted, as you said, with self-compassion, which is brilliant. Now you’ve got a really interesting career. You’re an author, you’re an EFT practitioner, a hypnotherapist, and a law of attraction coach. Tell me about your journey into this work.
THERESA: I mean it’s like the perfect ADHD thing right Julie. It’s like I took all the different things that I like and I just threw them in one thing, and I just like gave myself a title and made a business. Clients asked me this morning she’s like “You know, I’d love to know like who your mentors are and everything.” And I started to think about it and I was like, there’s like hundreds of people whose work I… like I stand on the shoulders of giants and yet like it’s like kind of the metabolizing of it all and the integrating of it all that makes it unique, and different, and fun. And from an ADHD standpoint keeps me interested and not bored. Like I’m always learning new tools for my toolbox and applying things to my clients and myself in new ways. I’m my ultimate guinea pig for all the work that I’ve done. I wouldn’t be helping people with things like nervous system nourishment or subconscious mind reprogramming if it hadn’t been immensely helpful for me. So that’s kind of how my journey brought me to what I do because I kind of realized at some point in my late 30s, and now in my mid-40s, that you know from the outside everything looked pretty darn good and yet I was kind of in this groundhog day of unwanted outcomes. And this feeling of a lot of lack. A lot of lack and scarcity thoughts and beliefs that were clouding things up for me. And not understanding how or why that was necessary because life’s pretty good, you know. I’ve got four healthy boys. I’ve got a great marriage, beautiful roof over my head, you know. There’s so much to… so much abundance and so much goodness and everything else. And it was then that I really recognized how difficult it was for me to be present. And I think that can be really hard for people with ADHD. And so my work is essentially helping people enjoy the never-ending journey of getting present and evolving.
JULIE: Is this part of the EFT practitionership? Could you tell me what it is and how those techniques help your clients?
THERESA: Yeah so EFT Julie is like we bring together ancient Chinese medicine and modern-day psychology and you may have heard it called tapping. Have you heard that term before? [Yes I have. Yes.] Yes. So EFT master practitioner also tapping, it’s just that I’ve got a lot more training than a lot of people in it. So and it’s been around since the ’90s and like I said it’s based in ancient Chinese medicine which has been around for thousands of years and modern-day psychology which has been around less, less long but still for a while. And basically, the idea is that using the meridian end points of our body, same places that they’d stick a needle in if you went for acupuncture or something like that, but we don’t need any needles for EFT which makes a lot of people very happy. We can release the energetic blockages and basically what it boils down to is that any dis-ease you have in your life, so anything mental, physical, emotional, spiritual. Anything that you’re feeling can be relieved quite a lot through these techniques, if not completely. And we… it uses the nervous system. So as we begin tapping and talking about whatever the issue, or challenge, or belief is that’s going on, it sends a signal directly to the amygdala, the little almond shaped part of the brain that’s in charge of fight or flight or numerous other f-words that get in the way of our progress, and it calms that down. Actually so much that within 5 minutes of doing EFT tapping you can actually lower your cortisol your stress hormone up to 43%. Doesn’t matter what you’re working on either because when you lower your stress hormone everything feels better. So EFT also has the beautiful distinction of including what we call borrowed benefits and they work in a few different ways. Where maybe you’re working on a physical pain but something emotional feels better or vice versa. And then also as a practitioner it means that if I’m working with you and maybe we’re working on childhood trauma, or we’re working on some frustration you’re having around ADHD, or lack of focus or something, things in my nervous system are feeling better just by practitioning and following along with you and doing the tapping. So at the end of my workday I usually still have great energy. I am not taking on all the funk from everybody else and I feel good. Whereas a lot of therapists tend to feel kind of drained at the end of talk, talk, talking through the day with their clients. Not that I’m not talking but we’re nourishing the nervous system as we do it which makes a huge difference.
JULIE: And tell me about the tapping. Is it literally tap tapping? It is literally…tapping tapping on parts of the skin?
THERESA: So depending on what you’re working on you’ll usually start on like the side of your hand. And then there’s only like nine main tapping points. We have thousands of meridians in our body. If you’ve ever seen one of those acupuncture charts with all the little points all over it, tons of places. But Gary Craig who founded Emotional Freedom Techniques and created it, recognized that we really only need nine main points in order to have a complete energetic overhaul and dissolve any of the things that we’re working on. So really brilliant work that he did to figure that out. And yeah, so you move through the different points from the side of the hand, top of the head, the eyebrow, side of the eye, under the eye, under the nose, under the mouth, the collar bone and then under the arm. And those are the main points and there’s some specifics to the way that you move through the sequence, and how you talk about things, and what you bring up. But as you do that the energy blockages begin to dissipate. Sometimes people will notice that they’re yawning or feeling a little bit of a shift going on. And I always liken it to you know, you’re at a concert seeing a musician that you love, a band that you love, something, and you’re right up next to the stage and all the hustle and bustle. And you know, for some people that’s great. For a lot of people, it feels a little bit like unsafe. A little you know, you don’t know if somebody’s going to dive off the stage over your head or whatever, and you’re up there and then you do a round of EFT tapping and it’s like all of a sudden you’re up in the presidential box suite. You can see everything, the audio is great. You have this like perfect view of everything. It’s like this… you come from the chaos into like logical, rational, reasoning and a calm nervous system that makes you feel really grounded and good.
JULIE: That’s really impressive. And you integrate the subconscious with the nervous system into business coaching. So can you tell me about that, particularly with you know ADHD. Yeah, how does that all work together?
THERESA: Absolutely. I work with a lot of ADHD entrepreneurs and professionals so these systems are really everything. You know, most people try to change their behavior with like willpower alone, which it’s like swimming upstream against your own biology, you know. So for ADHDers, if your nervous system is dysregulated and your subconscious believes that you’re not safe to be seen, or to succeed, or even to slow down. That comes up a lot for the people that I work with because they’re stuck in that hustle, and strive, and push, and a lot of that masculine energy instead of the abundance of like feminine receiving. Then you’ll sabotage every time. You’ll procrastinate. You’ll avoid. You’ll over complicate things or you’ll people-please, try to get the approval, the validation. And when we can create safety in the body, reprogram the beliefs under the surface, then you become available for aligned action. You can finally stop like white knuckling your growth and then you start flowing with it, trusting it, trusting yourself and getting back in tune with your own intuition and your own gut. So it’s not about doing more. It’s about becoming the version of you that can lead with clarity and calm and confidence. So that’s what comes through a lot of the time in the work.
JULIE: Wow. And you’re also a law of attraction coach. Tell me about that.
THERESA: Yeah, I love the law of attraction. I think most people think of like the movie The Secret or the book, and that was a big one for bringing through the law of attraction for a lot of people. But to me it’s about… it’s about becoming an energetic match for what you really desire, what you really want in your life, in your business, with your health. And it’s not just like think positive thoughts, you know. That’s not it. I think a lot of people have felt that backfire for them and felt that separation between what they’re trying to affirm and what’s really happening in their life. But law of attraction is about aligning your inner world like rewiring your beliefs, showing up with embodied intention. And when you believe in your worth and when you have a nourished nervous system, and you’ve cleared out the blocks in your subconscious, you naturally start attracting the people, the opportunities, the experiences that reflect your frequency. So I teach my clients how to create from pleasure instead of that hustle and strive, to create from presence and from their own power, their own wholeness. Not from scarcity and fear, or having to prove themselves. And that’s where the magic unfolds. That’s where the law of attraction really gets to do its thing.
JULIE: Now you’re an author too of course, can you tell me about your book and does this incorporate all we’ve talked about so far?
THERESA: Yes, it definitely incorporates everything that we’ve talked about so far and then some. So my book is called ‘Becoming More Me: Tapping into Success, Subconscious Secrets of an ADHD Entrepreneurial Mom’. And it was a really cool part of my own journey. I started to write this book several times on my own. And, like a lot of ADHD entrepreneurs, I came into blocks or I found myself doing a lot of the behaviors that I help people to get through doing. And I found myself in that hustle and strive and trying to… “I should write this many pages a day. And I should be done my first draft by then. And I don’t need anybody’s help, and I’ve got this.” And then two weeks into this process I’m like not doing it at all and it’s not feeling good either. And I actually ended up writing about the book writing process in the book, on top of like my whole story of how I came into this, and everything with my family, and my marriage, and stuff that I’ve done with clients. But it ended up that I put the project aside. I actually used my EFT techniques to kind of release myself from the project and I ended up spending the year after that just doing things like I’m doing here with you today Julie. Just hopping on podcasts, doing live speaking events, getting to know what people really valued from what I could offer, and how I could really help people in the ways that they wanted to be helped. And little did I know, I mean that wasn’t like my plan, but it brought through exactly what the book needed to be infused with. And so when I picked up the writing again about a year later, I decided first of all I’m going to hire a coach. I’m a big proponent in investing in myself and I think you know that’s one of the best things anybody can do. Invest in somebody that can help you on this journey, that can be a lighthouse for you, that can guide you. I think we all, we all need that. So I invested in a coach. I got a publisher. I had all the things lined up. Those deadlines helped me more than the self-imposed ones. And also having the support to know that I don’t have to edit. Editing is not my jam. I don’t want to edit anything. I’ll hand that off. I’ll source it out. Like what can I outsource here so that I can just focus on the brilliance and the process? And then I also invested in working with a coach to bring through pleasure. So that was infused because it was really important to me that every single word in that book got written through the lens of pleasure and joy, not me trying to push a chapter out because “today’s the day I’m supposed to write chapter 2.” You know, so that was really important. So I felt like I practiced what I preached in all the pages, and throughout the process and that felt really good to be able to do that. And in fact I was just… I was just going back and reading some of it today because I hadn’t in a while and it was like I was like learning from myself. Like as I approach new stages of evolution, new challenges in my life and things, I was like “Oh hey I already have the answers. I’ve done this before but for other things.” And so many issues and challenges are really just the same process that we need to go through again and again and again. So yeah, the book was a really interesting time in my life and it includes for anybody who’s getting a copy, it includes a lot of EFT tapping rounds in it that you can do that’ll be really helpful. The audio version has them all and then there’s bonus resources, and hypnotherapy audios, and videos and things that get included with the book too. So it really it’s an actionable resource not just a story. And I really believe that that’s super important because I always say, and I have a beautiful free community on the platform called ‘school’ and amazing, amazing people in there. And I always say you know, if intelligence or you know reading another book, or taking another course, or getting another certification meant that we were going to be feeling good and feeling successful, I would have the most successful feel-good group of people together. Because you know, we’re all like super like smart cookies, intelligent and yet there’s that stuckness. There’s those challenges of not having embodied something completely. Just… because we can learn about things on a conscious level but that doesn’t integrate it to the level where we show up differently in our lives. And that to me is what this work is about. And that’s what you know, creating the resources in my book and things is about too giving people tangible differences that they can create through the resources.
JULIE: Wonderful. Two things spring to mind. I want to talk about authenticity and also pleasure-fuelled living. So the first one: I think Becoming More Me I think it’s a brilliant name for a book. I think as an ADHDer, we want to be ourselves and we want to be the best version of ourselves. And being diagnosed later in life we’ve had to mask for so long and some of our qualities we’ve kind of squashed down a bit. They might be brilliant qualities. We try to hide maybe some of the bad ones, the ones that come across negatively but we also dampen some of our brilliance as well. So I think the idea of ‘becoming more me’ is marvellous to allow ourselves to be the best version of us. Tell… talk to me about this pleasure-fuelled life. You’ve mentioned pleasure and joy a lot so far. Can you expand on that at all?
THERESA: Yeah absolutely. I mean I really do feel like pleasure is the ultimate fuel for success and that unfortunately, a lot of us have gotten stuck in thinking that we have to be performative. And you know, so pleasure isn’t just about like luxury or indulgence. It’s about like what brings you into your body, what brings you into your truth, your authenticity, and your power. So like for me that looks like letting joy and connection and alignment be a compass, be a guide. Whether I’m singing in the shower or dancing around my kitchen while I make myself lunch, or recording a podcast in flow. I’ve been known to record podcasts just literally off the mic on my phone while I’m out taking a walk because it feels more pleasurable. It feels more in flow for me. And I’ve learned that people don’t really care a whole lot about the audio quality as much as what’s coming through and the energy of it. But that was something that I used to judge myself about. And then I was like you know what, it’s so much more pleasurable here and from that I create a different frequency that is attractive. So yeah, it’s all… it’s all very like sacred. And I want my kids, I want my clients, I want you know all the people in my world to see that success isn’t about sacrifice. It’s not about hustling. It’s not about getting ourselves to the point of overwhelm and burnout. It’s about wholeness and it’s about honoring your desires and trusting that they are divine and that they are worth it.
JULIE: You help ADHD entrepreneurs, you’re one yourself. How does their subconscious mind and their nervous system actually play to their strength in their success and their drive?
THERESA: What we can create with upgrading subconscious mind beliefs and things like that, is how we can leap into those next levels of success. So you have to kind of think about what are the negatives? And I love that the work that I get to do allows us to look at the negatives because a lot of times I think we’re all kind of told “Oh look at the bright side. Everything’s good.” Or you know “Isn’t there something positive you can focus on.” But if we don’t look at the underlying things, the negative root causes, the negative beliefs, then they’re always going to be under the surface. So it’s kind of like planting a garden without pulling out the weeds. Eventually the weeds are going to overtake the garden. So if we can pull those out first and we can look at those beliefs that get in the way that maybe we don’t feel worthy of success, or maybe we have some money blocks that come from things that you know we overheard our parents saying when we were younger. Or other things that are getting in the way. Those are things that are really great to use hypnotherapy to upgrade. But essentially we have to go in and get rid of the limiting negative belief. And then we can create the belief that you want to have in a way that you’ll receive. I always say I think a lot of people kind of give themselves, especially entrepreneurs, kind of this goal trauma you know. We set a big goal for the quarter, or the year, or a project that we’re working on, and then if we don’t hit it then we take on all these beliefs about what that means about us or whatever. And sometimes we forget you know, how much we can do in a year versus sometimes how little we can do in a day. And you know, some days are more productive than others but once we can start moving those beliefs out and creating ones that our body actually will receive that don’t feel like traumatizing, like certain goals that we’ve had before but actually feel like ah yes this is possible, can do this, then the way that we show up to do our work, the way that we show up to serve our clients, or to create something, or write something, or whatever it is that we’re passionate about doing totally changes. And I love that I get to do this work with people while they’re life-ing you know. It’s like you have a session, you get rid of some beliefs that weren’t serving you, you upgrade some things. You have your nervous system more nourished and then you go and you have to figure out the stuff with work from that new place. And things come up. Things continue to come up and then we can face those things too. Or you go home and you realize “Oh man I’m still doing this people-pleasing boundaryless thing with my husband, or my kids, or whatever,” and your awareness is raised. So all of a sudden you’re not quite willing to just numb your way through it or push it aside because your consciousness is elevated through doing this kind of work. So I think this was kind of a long story long on the question that you asked, but it’s… it all leads to greater success. I mean I always say like this work impacts the three main areas of life that everybody cares about: health, wealth, and relationships. And when you can find ways to tangibly make improvements in those areas then all the things that you value, all the things that matter in your life change for the better.
JULIE: I think too you know, there’s this battle isn’t there, between your self narrative and an external narrative, and which one is accurate. And often neither of them are you know. We give ourselves a pretty hard time. Recently I’ve been… if I’m coming up against a challenge I’ve sort of said “What wouldn’t I do?” And I do that. I completely flip it on its head. And I’d normally be outraged at this time but you know what? I’m not. I’m going to be just really calm and chilled. What an interesting outcome, you know. So it’s particularly when I’m stuck I just completely need to look at things in a totally different way. I know that’s… [I love that.] Yeah, it’s not as deep as the work that you’re doing, I understand but it’s certainly interesting change of direction.
THERESA: Hey it doesn’t really matter how deep anything is. If it works, it works and that’s what we’re all looking for right? The things that make us feel better. And hey, I’m all for letting that be easy.
JULIE: Yeah. Now, so your coaching, I’ve got lots of links to add to the show notes, your website. Also too you’re a podcast host yourself. Can you tell me about your episodes and your pods?
THERESA: Yeah, absolutely. My podcast is also called Becoming More Me just like my book. I’m obsessed with the journey of integration as you can probably tell already, so body, mind, soul, spirit. I bring on guests who have done interesting work themselves, who have dared to live differently. Also do solo episodes where I dive into things like nervous system healing, and subconscious blocks, and ADHD of course, parenting, pleasure, success, marriage, relationships, all the things. So I want my listeners to feel inspired and seen and activated so they can you know stop performing and start to finally relax into their truest expression. And that’s what comes through on a lot of the episodes of Becoming More Me. Yeah. Is it possible to give your… a gift to your listeners? [Absolutely, please do.] I would love to because you know, the best place to find me which I’m sure you’ll have in the show notes is on Instagram. But I have a free Becoming More Me community on ‘school’ that I mentioned earlier. So, tell you what, the best thing that any of you listening can do is to pick up your phone, hop on Instagram and find me. I’m Theresa Lear Levine. So that’s T H E R E S E A L E A R L E V I N E. Send me a one-word message. This is so ADHD friendly. You don’t have to go to the show notes. You don’t have to think about anything or erase and rethink your message that you’re sending. Just one word. Just send me ‘Julie’ and when I see her name I will know that you listened to this podcast and I will grant you entrance into my amazingly valuable yet free community where you can dig into over like $10,000 worth of actionable, transformative, resources that will nourish your nervous system, rewire your subconscious so that you can start overcoming challenges and manifest the health, wealth, and relationships that you desire. And if you are somebody who’s listening who is so like ready for transformation, then I have a discount for Julie’s listeners also. So getting to the root of your issues and challenges and creating that change, if that feels aligned then just also just text me the word ‘ready’ and I’ll share with you about those next steps and what that looks like.
JULIE: Fabulous. That’s wonderful. All of those links will be in the show notes. So thank you so much for your time today. It’s been wonderful chatting and yeah, and we look forward to chatting again one day.