You want to know how ADHD coaching helps adults. Maybe you’ve decided you want to work with a coach to treat your ADHD. Alternatively, you might just be curious as you begin considering your options for treatment. In either case, you want to know the specific benefits you will receive if you take this route, right?
And you want to know more than, “They’ll help you get your stuff done.” Of course, there is a fair amount of serendipity that can happen in your relationship with a coach. So, I can’t tell you exactly what you’ll gain from coaching. In fact, you might be surprised at the benefits you receive beyond what you initially expected.
However, all good ADHD coaching should deliver on several accounts. Generally, as Dr. Edward Hallowell, author of many books including Driven to Distraction, notes, the focus of ADHD Coaching is on:
“… building skills and taking action. Good coaching definitely helps people to improve their business focus, interpersonal skills and ability to get things done in such a way as to lead a more productive, fulfilling and rewarding life.”
Let’s see how engaging an ADHD coach can help you achieve these results.
Find the Clarity You Need to Create the Right Goals
I know you have a general sense you are not doing what you need to do to achieve your goals. And, perhaps, you’re receiving feedback from other people you’re not living up to their expectations, either. That’s why you’re looking for support, right?
Yet, you might be confused about what changes you want/need to make to reach your goals, where to start and how to create effective change. After all, you’ve tried several strategies already, maybe met with some success but not enough. Now you’re feeling a little discouraged.
An ADHD Coach will help you clarify:
- your values — what’s important to you.
- how to create goals that align with your values and strengths.
- where in the various areas of your life you want to make changes and where you are satisfied.
- what is within your control to make your situation better.
- how to make the changes you desire that are in sync with your preferences and needs, including how your ADHD brain is wired.
Then you can stop spending endless hours in your head, not knowing what to do to make your situation better. Because you will have the clarity you need to take the next step. And you will feel relief when you realize you can reach your goals — one step at a time — in a way that works with your ADHD.
Understand the Impact of Your ADHD Symptoms in Your Life
Having clarity about what areas in your life you want to upgrade and what’s within your control to accomplish this is the first step.
Throughout the coaching journey, you will also learn about the impact of your ADHD. This information will empower you when you realize you are not “crazy lazy or stupid.” And, as you learn more about your brain wiring, you will be in a better position to create the right workarounds.
I know you have learned quite a bit about ADHD through books and online resources already. An ADHD Coach can help you expand on this learning and apply the information to your unique situation. As you learn more about your “specific flavor” of ADHD, you will be in a better position to identify:
- the professional and personal environments that are a good fit for you.
- what it looks like to operate well and be effective in your various domains.
- which strategies, skills, and tools will help you be more effective, and how to successfully adopt them.
- your strengths, including ADHD traits, and how to use them to support your efforts in working effectively with your ADHD.
- people, such as organizers, body doubles or accountability partners, who can help you.
- what aspects of your personal and professional life you can/want to delegate because you have no interest in learning how do them effectively.
Having the help of an ADHD coach to answer the above questions will help you close the gap.
Start Where You Are Now and Close the “Gap” with Compassion
You may think you need someone to force you to do your important work because you are just not following through. This thinking is likely due to a long history of people telling you, “Just work harder!” So now you might be wondering if an ADHD coach can do this for you.
They won’t. Because force doesn’t work to motivate adults with ADHD. So, an ADHD coach will not push you beyond where you are willing and ready to go.
An ADHD Coach will help you persist in working towards your goals by providing validation and compassion, though. And support you to building this in yourself. Because this is what works! Don’t worry, though. They won’t let you off the hook! 😊
With your permission, they will point out where you are not being, acting and thinking in ways that will help you reach your goals. And, as you build your self-awareness and understanding of how to do better, you will build your sense of self-efficacy — your belief in your ability to succeed.
Then you’ll able to effectively collaborate with your coach. And this powerful synergy will help you implement the skills, strategies, and tools you need to reach your goals, which might include:
- clarifying your short and long term goals.
- prioritizing the tasks related to your goals and responsibilities.
- following through and completing your tasks.
- choosing and implementing the appropriate tools and strategies.
- enhancing your communication skills.
- managing your time more efficiently.
- creating balance in your life.
- gaining control over your life.
- learning how to make decisions with greater ease
- managing your ADHD symptoms without losing what makes you uniquely you!
With help from an ADHD Coach you can close the gap between where you are now and where you want to end up.
How ADHD Coaching Helps Adults
You’ve tried to do this on your own, and have not met with the success you want, yet.
If you decide to work with an ADHD Coach, you will get more traction, as you learn how to leverage your strengths and work with your challenges, including your ADHD, to take the most effective actions to reach your goals.
You will achieve these results in part because you will have a partner in the journey and will no longer have to figure it out on your own. So, to get the best results make sure you lean on your coach for support as you experiment. That’s what they’re there for.
So that over time, as you learn and implement new strategies, tools, and skills, you will become more self-reliant. And then, when you complete your coaching journey you will know what “tool” to pull out of your “toolbox” to achieve what you want in the various contexts in your life.
Interested?
Both Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) and ADHD Coaches Organization (ACO) provide directories to help you find a coach who would be a good fit for you.
Of course, if you’re interested in finding out more about my coaching services, feel free to reach out and schedule a complimentary consultation.