Meet Our Team - Charlie Todaro
Charles (Charlie) Todaro, Psy.D & CMPC
Position at the Hallowell Todaro ADHD Center:
Mental Performance Coach
How long have you been working at Hallowell Todaro ADHD?
I worked at the California center in 2021, and started at the Seattle center in January of ’24.
Where did you grow up?
I lived on the east coast – Boston and New York Metropolitan Area – until I was 14, then went to high school in Seattle and college at Berkeley.
What are your favorite books / TV shows / movies?
The Color of Water by James Mcbride; The Americans; The Shawshank Redemption
What’s your favorite sport and/or sports team?
To play, golf. I’ll happily watch most sports, and I root for a lot of teams.
Complete the following sentences:
When I’m not at work, you can find me...
usually, at home.
When I want to de-stress, I...
do yoga, go outside, or go to a sporting event.
My favorite time of year is...
late winter / early spring.
My favorite thing to cook is...
breakfast.
If I could travel anywhere in the world, I’d go to...
I’m not picky, I love to travel.
The best gift I ever received was…
a surprise wedding anniversary trip.
What led you to pursue a career helping others?
Around age 3 I became very interested in sports. Working in the industry was always on my radar, but it took me a while to figure out the right path. After college, I pursued a career as a sportswriter and even took steps toward becoming a professional scout. As a competitive athlete, I found a lot of value in using sport psychology resources to improve my mental game and wished I had the opportunity to work with a sport psychologist. Eventually, I realized I wanted to work inside sports organizations as a supporter of athletes and teams. Once this clicked, I enrolled in a program to pursue a Master’s in Sport Psychology and halfway through that program decided to pursue my doctorate in Clinical Psychology as well.
What education, skills and expertise do you bring to your role?
I am grateful for my training because I was able to engage in two different paths, happening at the same time, in pursuing my degrees. One path emphasized working with various groups of people as a mental health counselor and learning psychological assessment. The other path focused on supporting individual athletes as a counselor and working to help organizations and teams maximize their performance. This diversity in experience has helped me feel comfortable working in a variety of settings and exposed me to a lot of innovative people who have shared their unique ways.
Who/what inspires you?
Seeing those I have worked with be successful and achieve what they set out to do. Especially as a counselor when you are privy to the lows and difficulties that those individuals – or teams – faced on the way to reaching that peak, I feel a sense of humility in knowing that it is a privilege to be a part of other people’s journeys to success.
What’s your personal philosophy/approach toward the work you do?
The most important thing for me is building a relationship where the people I support trust the space we’ve created. If people or organizations I work with don’t feel I am authentic in my intentions and care for their well-being, I don’t feel I’ve been successful in cultivating that working relationship in a way that allows for openness and facilitates growth.
What is one small thing people can do to increase their happiness?
Often when people are struggling, getting the most out of life can feel unattainable. Which in turn can make someone struggling feel even worse. If reaching for happiness feels beyond your grasp in a certain moment or situation, try shifting your perspective towards how I can make this moment or situation feel less worse. For some, this can help our brain to gravitate towards something that feels more attainable than forcing yourself to feel positive or find happiness in a difficult moment when it doesn’t feel authentic. Acknowledge where you are and chip away at reducing discomfort. Know the simple, small, repeatable, reliable actions that help you fill in your proverbial foundation and create solid ground for you to stand on when things are difficult.
We provide a range of support for people with ADHD.