Regulate First, Communicate Second: Our Nervous System Explained

This week Dr. Kim talks with Dr. Shawn Horn, PsyD,  a licensed clinical psychologist and author of Thrive Socially with Adult ADHD: A Shame-Busting Guide to Building Better Relationships Through Neuroscience, Polyvagal Theory, and Social Executive Functioning. Dr. Horn specializes in helping adults with ADHD who care deeply about connection but struggle with emotional reactivity, rejection sensitivity, and social overwhelm. Her work reframes social difficulties as a nervous-system and executive-function issue—not a character flaw—and offers a practical, shame-free path forward. Through her Social Executive Functioning (SEF) model—grounded in neuroscience and informed by polyvagal theory—Dr. Horn teaches people how to understand and map their nervous system states, identify what each state needs for regulation, and build the executive functioning capacity required to access social skills when it matters most. Her work is clinically informed, shame-free, and deeply hopeful. Find out more at https://www.drshawnhorn.com.