What is ADHD Coaching?
- Feb 27, 2025
- 7 min read
Good question!
Maybe you're curious about coaching? A little skeptical?
When you haven't had coaching before, coaching might seem like a mystery, a way to get advice, find strategies, or answers to how to move forward in life when you feel stuck.
I had never heard of Life Coaching before and was a little skeptical and soon realized that coaching was what I had been looking for in therapy.
I had a discovery call and felt moved to give coaching a shot.
Coaching was just what I needed. As we began, I did thought provoking, written exercises between sessions (sometimes just a couple hours before), and began to discover insights in ways I hadn't before.
I realized what I had needed all along was a thinking partner. Someone who could ask the right questions to shift my focus from what wasn’t working to what was possible for me.
For me coaching was life-changing. I felt lighter having someone who listened, didn't give me advice, was curious about me and what I want, and could help me gain insights I didn't see on my own. Getting a coach and committing to the process, however mysterious it felt, are two of the best decisions of my life.
Let's start with what coaching is not
Coaching is not therapy. Therapy often focuses on healing past wounds, processing emotions, or diagnosing mental health conditions. Coaching, on the other hand, is forward-focused and action-oriented, helping you develop strategies and tools to move toward your goals.
Coaching is not advice-giving. A coach doesn’t tell you what to do or prescribe solutions. Instead, coaching is a collaborative process where you are supported in discovering what works best for you. ADHD Coaching may involve some education around ADHD and will offer helpful resources, and consulting when asked for and needed.
Coaching is not training or consulting. While ADHD coaching may involve education about ADHD and useful resources, it is not about telling you how to live your life. A coach may offer insight when requested, but the focus remains on guiding you to your own answers.
Coaching is not a quick fix. Personal growth takes time. Many coaches require a 3–6 month commitment to allow for meaningful progress.
Real change isn’t about quick solutions. Change is about building sustainable habits and ways of thinking that support long-term success.
Coaching is not about “fixing” you. We often come to coaching feeling
overwhelmed and wanting to be fixed. You are not broken. Coaching starts from the perspective that you are already whole and capable. It’s about working with your strengths, not against them, to create the life you want.
A Path to Growth
I like this coaching definition: "ADHD coaching is an ongoing collaborative partnership that empowers the client to understand and manage his/her attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, and ADHD coaching is not medial treatment, counseling, consulting, psychotherapy, financial or legal advising, training, or advocacy." PAAC
What you focus on grows
When you bring attention to your strengths, possibilities, and what truly matters to you, those areas naturally expand.
Our brains are wired to scan for problems, which means it’s easy to get stuck focusing on what’s not working. The more we dwell on struggles and frustrations, the bigger they seem, and the harder it feels to move forward.
Instead of reinforcing what holds you back, coaching nurtures what moves you forward.
ADHD Coaching Designed for You
There’s no “one way” or “one size fits all” here. Your journey is uniquely yours. Together, we’ll clarify your hopes and goals, then explore creative and engaging ways to move from where you are now to where you want to be.
A Thinking Partner in Your Corner
Coaching is a space where you are truly seen and heard. You already know a lot about your ADHD, but you might sense that something is missing. Something that could help you feel even more confident and capable.
Rather than telling you what to do, I’ll meet you where you are, offering insights, tools, and support when and where they’re most helpful.
An ADHD-Friendly, Strengths-Based Approach
ADHD coaching is different from general life coaching. It includes a coach with specialized ADHD training (or should!). So, it’s important to choose wisely. Ask about their certifications and credentials!
Coaching Credentials Matter
The ICF (The International Coaching Federation) defined coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.
According to PAAC (Professional Association for ADHD Coaches), coaching is a collaborative partnership with a person experiencing ADHD, where the coach utilizes specialized knowledge and skills to empower the client to manage their attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, enabling them to make positive changes in their personal and professional life by leveraging their strengths and understanding their unique brain processing related to ADHD. Essentially coaching is a client-centered approach that focuses on utilizing ADHD-specific strategies to achieve goals and improve quality of life.
"Coaching accelerates the individual's process by providing greater focus and awareness of possibilities leading to more effective choices. Coaching concentrates on where individuals are now and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future." Caitlin O'brien Bauer
"Through coaching, individuals identify and utilize strengths to improve effectiveness in planning, organization, time management, self-regulation, and social interactions to take charge of their lives." Diane McClean
Coaching is going after what you want:
Coaching is a catalyst for "ah-ha" moments, when that lightbulb comes on and you have clarity you didn't before. When that happens there is a feeling of excitement about trying what you came up with in your coaching session.
ADHDers are often caught up in what they "should" be doing, or "should" be able to do, and don't give themselves the freedom to want.
Coaching Honors What You Truly Want
Fans of Friends might remember when Joey asked Phoebe if she wanted to help put together Ross’s new furniture. She replied, “I wish I could, but I don’t want to.”
It’s a funny moment, but in coaching, this is actually an important clue. "I don't want to" is gold.
Of course, there are things we have to do, like paying bills. But instead of pushing through with a sense of obligation, coaching helps you get curious and move forward in new ways: What would make this feel less like a ‘should’ and more like a choice?
Benefits of Coaching
Coaching is a bridge between where you are and where you want to be. As your coach, I walk that path with you, helping to close the gap and make the journey smoother, clearer, and even a little faster. By the way, slower is faster! We start small, and then leaps happen.
At first, ADHD coaching helps to understand how ADHD affects your life. Most ADHDers are surprised to learn that their challenges are tied to ADHD.
These can include sensory, decision making, and even challenges around food. ADHDers are also often not aware how much their environment affects them and how effective they are in the right context.
As the coaching relationship progresses, clients begin to gain new perspectives, appreciate their strengths, find life and work more satisfying, transition in ways that are a better fit, working with their brain rather than against it.
Narrow in on what really matters
As idea people brimming with creativity and possibilities, ADHDers often have struggle to prioritize what matters most, setting aside often great concepts for later or for someone else to pursue.
Coaching provides valuable support in this process, helping ADHDers to narrow in and focus on what truly matters to them, and creating actionable steps toward their targets.
Pay attention to what you're paying attention to
We wouldn't expect a plant to survive much less thrive in an unfriendly environment. When we neglect to understand what plants need, they wither and fail to thrive.
If we take the time to understand what a particular plant needs to thrive, such as the environment and watering, it will come back to life. When we pay attention to our needs we start to recognize what truly matters to us, making decisions with greater confidence and ease.
Meeting our needs prevents burnout and helps us show up fully in our lives, relationships, and work.
Instead of pushing through or ignoring what we need, we learn to support ourselves with kindness and understanding. When we acknowledge our needs, we can make adjustments that lead to sustainable progress rather than temporary fixes. When we care for ourselves, we show up more authentically for others, fostering deeper and healthier connections.
When we Feel better we DO better.
Partnership
Instead of going in circles or being hard on yourself, coaching helps you focus on what works, so you can build strategies that truly support you.
Sometimes what you really want surfaces as you process aloud and hear your own words reflected back to you.
Coach Client Relationship
The coach and client work in partnership. The coach provides a safe, supportive presence, offering guidance, structure, and encouragement, but the client is still the one taking action. Together, they navigate the process, ensuring the client feels empowered, capable, and in control of their own growth.
The client is the expert in their life. The coach is not an expert, healer, or teacher in the client's life
A coach offers resources, education, referrals and sharing of ADHD knowledge when appropriate or asked for
The good news!
Your brain is capable of real change!
That’s the power of neuroplasticity—a big word, but an even bigger deal. It means your brain can adapt and form new pathways, leading to fresh ways of thinking and being.
Picture a well-worn path in the woods. It’s familiar, easy to walk, and requires no extra thought, but it doesn’t lead anywhere new.
To create change, we need to step onto a new path. At first, it’s unfamiliar and overgrown, but with each step, it becomes clearer and easier to follow. Meanwhile, the old path slowly fades, covered by new growth.
Have Questions about coaching?
How would it feel to realize that if you pay attention to and take care of what you need, learn where you will thrive, what lights you up, that you can move forward in a direction you want?
No pressure. No commitment. Just a complimentary 30-minute session to experience coaching for yourself and see what feels possible.
You can book a call if you have questions about coaching, want to get started with finding a coach, find out more about my approach to coaching, or to find out if we're a fit for your needs.
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