It is now accepted that the most effective treatment for ADHD is a combination of medication and coaching or psychotherapy. I offer coaching support for adults with ADHD and for parents of children with ADHD. Face-to-face coaching sessions normally last an hour, with the initial meetup session usually lasting for 90 minutes. If you’d like to arrange an ADHD coaching session with me in Bangor, somewhere else, or online, please use the contact form and I will get back to you.
Why ADHD-specific Coaching is Important
Any person with ADHD will have to cope with the normal life-challenges that anyone has to address, as well as the particular difficulties that can arise from living with an ADHD brain. These difficulties can be overwhelming and completely disabling in terms of basic life function.
Working within a Neurodiversity paradigm, it is important in ADHD coaching to adopt a strength-based approach, focusing on the distinctive strengths and abilities of the ADHD brain beyond the diagnosis of disorders or the experience of disability.
Coaching support in this regard is not designed to ‘fix’ the person with an ADHD brain, or to help them work harder so they can learn to operate like everyone else. The trick is to find a balance between professional demands for more efficient productivity, better time management, and greater work focus, and the person’s own need to have their strengths and personality accepted, validated, and celebrated as a different way of being in the world.
ADHD coaching does help people operate more effectively in professional life, but that’s really only a small part of the work. The rest of ADHD coaching, indeed the vast majority of ADHD coaching, relies on a deep knowledge of the characteristics of an ADHD brain and the dynamics of the ADHD personality.
People with ADHD brains live in a world that is not designed to suit us. A lifetime of working against the grain of the world often leaves us with fragile self-confidence and low self-esteem. It also means that we often experience a profound sense of unbelonging and loneliness throughout our lives. When someone works with an ADHD Coach who has a brain like theirs, it can provide a deeper level of support and validation than working with someone who does not have the experiential knowledge of how this kind of brain works. It’s not necessary that an ADHD coach share their experience, but it can really help.
Most of ADHD coaching is encouraging a person to make more time for themselves, their many interests, their exuberance, and their self-care in a holistic sense, within and beyond the demands of business. The more autonomous and self-sufficient a person with ADHD feels, the more confidence they will bring to their personal and professional development, and the more successful they will be in their endeavours.
This is why specialist ADHD coaching is vital for people with an ADHD diagnosis. If a person is only coached on organisational skills and executive-function ability, with no regard for ADHD-specific issues, then their stress will usually increase, and their ability to undertake their work will likely suffer, with serious consequences for their mental health.