What Is an ADHD Coach?
Your ADHD medication helps with focus and impulsitivity — but you still struggle with time management, organization, and self-esteem. Could an ADHD coach be the solution you need? Read on to research the pros and cons of coaching.
What Is an ADHD Coach?
An ADHD coach is a “life coach” specifically trained to help adults (and teens and kids) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) better manage their lives.
For example, perhaps you want to switch jobs or stop chronic disorganization and lateness, which have been hurting your marriage. Or perhaps your child needs help with completing the piles of homework he gets, now that he’s in middle school. Or maybe you’re looking to better yourself all around — in areas like physical fitness, emotional growth, social skills, financial planning, and the workplace — and need guided motivation.
The solution, in each case, may be to team up with an ADHD coach.
What Can Coaches Do for People With ADHD?
A good coach can lead you to your goals by helping you develop
- planning and management skills
- healthier self-esteem and relationships
- clearer judgement
- self-motivation
- time management skills
- a greater sense of self-efficacy
The key, of course, is finding the right one. “You need to be an educated consumer,” says Harold Meyer, co-founder of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), of New York City, and The ADD Resource Center. “You should know what you want to change in your life and whether a particular coach can help you make the change.”
[Looking for an ADHD Coach? Find One Near You via ADDitude’s Directory]
While a prospective ADHD coach should have experience working with clients and knowledge of the condition, the chemistry between the two of you determines success.
“One coach might have the ability to motivate you, while another will leave you frustrated,” says Meyer.
“Many clients walk into a coach’s office expecting one thing and getting another,” says Dee Crane, S.C.A.C., A.C.C. “Remember that ADHD coaches aren’t therapists, medical experts, or mentors. They help you achieve specific goals. If you only want to talk about how your parents didn’t understand you, a psychiatrist is a better bet.”
Similarly, Sandy Maynard, an ADHD coach, says coaching is proactive, and doesn’t necessarily deal with psychological issues. “Psychotherapy deals with healing psychological issues and is generally long term and intensive dealing with inter and intra personal issues as well as cognitive and behavioral development,” she said. “The focus is often on past history and how it relates to that individual’s development.”
One mistake clients sometimes make is hiring a coach who doesn’t specialize in ADHD. “They don’t realize that strategies that work for clients without ADHD often don’t work for people with ADHD, whose brains are wired differently,” says ADHD coach Michele Novotni, Ph.D., S.C.A.C., coauthor of What Does Everyone Else Know That I Don’t?(#CommissionsEarned)
Can Anyone Be an ADHD Coach?
While there is currently no regulating body that certifies ADHD coaches, many well-known institutions have laid out robust criteria for who can be considered an ADHD coach. The ADHD Coaches Organization (ACO), for instance, vets coaches for proper training before they can appear on its List of Professional ADHD Coaches.
One caveat before you start the search, however: “Just because a coach is a graduate of a top program — or has multiple certifications — doesn’t guarantee that he can help you,” says Meyer. “Experience and innate ability are more important than formal training and diplomas.”
[Click to Read: Coach or Therapist – Who Should You See First?]
How Do I Find an ADHD Coach?
There are many ways to go about finding the best ADHD coach for you and your family. One way is through the ACO, as it is an international member organization that offers resources for those searching for a coach and those who want to become one.
Other coaching organizations and training academies, like the ADD Coach Academy, JST Coaching & Training, and the International ADHD Coach Training Center also offer directories and resources. Your local CHADD chapter may also know which direction to point you to, as may your doctor or psychologist.
The International Coach Federation (ICF) certifies programs that deliver coach training, though it doesn’t necessarily focus on ADHD coaching. You can search its site to find accredited organizations and programs worldwide.
After you have made a short list of potential coaches — three is a good start — figure out which one is the best fit for you. Look for a coach who is qualified and has worked extensively on the problems you want to address, and whose schedule works with yours. Most important, find someone with whom you click.
You can interview candidates on the phone or in person. In most cases, the initial interview is free. “Coaches are willing to give 15 or 30 minutes of their time for you to ask questions, and see if the fit is right,” says Sarah D. Wright, former president of the ACO. If a coach is unwilling to make interview time, cross him off your list.
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ADHD Coach Listings: Find an ADHD coach who can help you tackle one thing today (and tomorrow and the next day…).
Questions to Ask an ADHD Coach:
1. Do you work with clients who have problems like mine?
Before you call or visit with a coach, write down what you want to tackle, suggests Nancy Ratey, Ed.M., M.C.C., S.C.A.C., strategic life coach specializing in ADHD. “If you cram to make deadlines, think of the first time that happened, and describe it to the coach.” You may choose to work with a coach on a short-term, goal-oriented basis (completing a stalled project or switching jobs), to help you achieve long-term goals (improving finances or a relationship), or to address pervasive issues (chronic disorganization).
[Read This: How ADHD Coaching Works at Different Ages and Stages]
2. Do you specialize in working with a parent, child, single adult, or business executive?
Be specific about what you’re looking for. If you need a coach for your child, ask about relevant experience. If you’re a budding entrepreneur who wants to launch a business, look for a coach who has worked with clients who have started their own businesses. One of Wright’s specialties, for instance, is working with college sophomores who struggled through their freshman year.
3. Can you refer me to another coach?
If a coach doesn’t specialize in what you want to address, ask if she can refer you to one who does. “ADHD coaches are a small community, and most of them know the specialties of fellow practitioners,” says Novotni.
After meeting with you, a prospective coach may suggest that you work with a therapist or psychologist, instead. Some clients have medical or psychological problems, such as a major mood disorder, anxiety disorders, or a deep-rooted fear of success, that should be managed by a mental-health professional before getting involved in coaching. Offering medical or pharmacological advice to clients is against the code of ethics for coaching.
4. Do you coach in person? Over the telephone? Via Web?
Coaching by phone, whether that means by landline or the internet, can be done anywhere and at almost any time. “If there isn’t a coach in your hometown, you can find a capable coach hundreds of miles away,” says Wright.
“Telephone coaching is time-effective — you don’t have to drive to an office and wait — and it’s discreet. If you don’t want your colleagues to know about your ADHD, you can talk with a coach on your cell phone in your car during lunch, and go back to your office when the session is over.”
If you like the dynamic of being in a group, some coaches work with several clients on the phone at once. Telephone coaching isn’t for everyone. Some people with ADHD are visual processors, who require face-to-face contact with their coach to focus on practical strategies. For them, in-person coaching, or “meeting” with a professional via a webcam or videophone, may be best.
5. How long are the sessions?
Some coaches meet or talk on the phone with a client for an hour once a week. This may be too long for those children and adults who can’t focus for an extended period. Many coaches and clients find that half-hour sessions, followed by one or two quick “check-in” phone calls, are ideal.
If you need daily reinforcement, some coaches will work with you via e-mail, in addition to seeing you once a week. “I have clients who e-mail me their to-do lists or who tell me that they’re going to exercise,” says Ratey. “If exercise is their goal, they want to be accountable to me and follow through, instead of getting sidetracked by re-grouting the shower or brushing the dog’s teeth. I will often answer, ‘Great! E-mail me when you get back, and let me know that you’ve finished your exercise session.'”
6. Do you have personal experience with ADHD?
“Many ADHD coaches have ADHD themselves or have a close family member who has it,” says Wright. “This may give them a deeper understanding of the issues.” An ADHD coach’s main responsibility is to help clients better understand the effects of ADHD.
People with ADHD tend to focus on the negative — “Oh, I screwed up again” or “Somebody is mad at me.” “It’s similar to having a broken arm and feeling like you’re just your broken arm,” explains Wright. “You’ve got two good legs, another good arm — there’s much more to you than that broken arm. An ADHD coach should help you focus on your successes while you learn from your mistakes.” A coach should never judge or condemn you for making mistakes. If he does, find another.
“There are some bad coaches who have been doing it for a long time, and there are some good coaches who have been doing it for a short time,” says Ratey. “Before I coach anyone, I spend a full hour with them, on the phone, to make sure that it’s a good match. I want to be sure that I can help the person on the other end of the line.” If you aren’t sure about a coach after your interview, you may want to pay for a trial coaching session before making a longer commitment.
How Much Is an ADHD Coach?
Statistics on the average cost for ADHD coaching services are not widely available. Costs are comparable to therapy, say some experts, and can range from pro bono sessions or even up to $1,500 a month. The average, however, falls between $300 and $600 a month.
Once you’ve chosen a coach, you usually have to sign an agreement or contract. The terms largely depend on individual goals. If you’re using a coach for a specific project, then that will determine how long you commit to the process. If you are using a coach for general self-help, it could become a long-term relationship if you want it to be.
“Many coaches use three-month agreements, and some ask for full payment up front,” says Novotni. “There is good reason for this. Around the fourth or fifth week, most clients lose interest in the process. “If they commit to three months, they tend to stick with it, and they usually make progress during that time.”
After three months, most coaches require month-long agreements. As with other professional services, missed sessions or cancellations, without 24-hour notice, will incur a standard session charge.
Still, if it is clear that the partnership or coaching arrangement is not working for you, most coaches will let you stop immediately.
Is ADHD Coaching Covered by Insurance?
Most coaches take credit cards, but rarely use a sliding scale for fees. Insurance plans don’t typically cover coaching, but there may be other ways to defray the expense. Says Novotni: “Ask your human resources department about possibly picking up the cost. I’ve been hired by employers to coach employees who are having trouble in the workplace.” Dee Crane has worked with clients who pay through their flexible spending accounts (FSAs) offered by their employers.
FSAs are plans that let you set aside pre-tax dollars for healthcare expenses not covered by your insurance (glasses, acupuncture, etc.) You can talk with your employer about setting up an account.
Another option is to ask your physician to write a prescription for coaching, the cost of which may be written off on your taxes.
If you’re self-employed, you might consider deducting a portion of the ADHD coach’s fees as a business expense, just as you would for the services of a consultant, tax advisor, or anyone else who assists with the business.
While affordability is no small matter, consider how an ADHD coach might be a financial investment down the line before ruling it out. A coach, for example, can help you avoid all-too-common monetary consequences of disorganization, impulsivity, and poor planning, like late payment and overdraft fees, parking tickets, spoiled groceries, and other unnecessary expenses.
What Happens After Finding an ADHD Coach?
After you’ve signed and returned the agreement, you and the coach will schedule your first session — on the telephone, by webcam, or in person. Expect the first meeting — called an “intake” or “foundation” session — to take longer (between one and two hours) than the ones that will follow because the coach will want to get to know you.
They will ask questions like:
- What strategies are working for you?
- What do you think are your biggest problems?
- What would you like to accomplish?
- Why do you think you need a coach?
During the first session, tell the coach specifically what issue you want to address, and, along with the coach, plot the steps to achieve this. The coach will assign you homework, and subsequent sessions will often begin with a review of the assignment.
Says Wright: “Coaches may ask, ‘What did you get done that you planned to get done? What didn’t you get done? Did anything come up that derailed you, or presented a major problem? What strategies might we try to sidestep the problem? Is there anything in particular you’d like to work on today?'”
Doing homework is critical to making progress. “Coaching is a partnership, but the client is in charge,” says Novotni. “Coaches are not there to nag. We’re there for support, to ask questions that get people thinking about whether certain strategies work.” If they don’t work, it’s the coach’s job to suggest others.
Clients should be clear about the kind of support they want — having the coach call or e-mail them between sessions to troubleshoot, or to reserve discussion of problems for the next session.
A coach should cheer your successes and tweak those strategies that didn’t work. “Sometimes the same goals will remain on the to-do list for weeks,” says Wright. “In such cases, the coach might say, ‘Why isn’t this one moving? Is it not that important to you? What’s getting in the way?’ The coach monitors your progress and fine-tunes strategies until you get results.” If you feel that the strategies they are suggesting aren’t working, ask them to come up with new ones.
Making Progress — or Not
You should see small improvements — whether in controlling clutter on your desk or your child’s finishing his homework in a tough subject a little quicker — after the first session.
Improvement should continue during the first month, but clients’ interest and resolve often lag around the fifth week. “This is a pattern that many clients experience,” says Wright. “Change doesn’t seem as exciting after the first month. I warn my clients that this will happen, and that this doesn’t mean they’re not succeeding.”
But what if you don’t make progress — or you stop clicking with the coach? A good coach, experts say, will probably notice the problem before you do, and will gladly discuss how to proceed. The coaching relationship is most effective when you honestly feel that a coach has your best interest at heart and sees you as more than a paycheck. If, however, your coach has exhausted her strategies and you are no closer to achieving your goal, find another professional.
“I worked with a woman for three months on her goal of succeeding in her job,” says Novotni. “After trying several strategies, it felt as if we were putting a square peg into a round hole. So she changed goals — she wanted a new job that suited her strengths — and now she’s elated.”
The coach should give you a plan at each session, and provide perspective on mistakes you may have made. “Sometimes clients come in feeling demoralized, and they say, ‘I had a bad week. It didn’t work. I said something stupid,'” says Wright.
“A good coach should put those feelings in perspective — called ‘normalizing’ and ‘endorsing’ — by focusing on what you did accomplish.” It’s important to remember that if a coach bad-mouths you at any point, you need to call him on it or find a new coach.
Crane and other coaching experts say that a good gauge of progress is when you start solving problems that used to overwhelm you. “The coach isn’t there to fix you, because you’re not broken. She’s there to empower you to achieve your goals,” says Crane.
Winding Down
Sessions are usually weekly for the first three to six months. When you and the coach finally identify the strategies for achieving your goals, sessions are often cut back to bi-weekly or even monthly.
In most cases, coaching isn’t a long-term commitment. Once you’ve internalized the strategies, regular sessions become unnecessary, although most coaches are willing to be called for “tune-ups.” As new life stages or new challenges crop up, a client might come back and say, “Hey, my first child is getting married. I’m not sure how to meet the challenges,” says Crane, “I’ve coached some clients for six or seven years, seeing them every six months.
Coaching becomes a tool, a resource. The real goal of coaching is to change how you perceive yourself and, ultimately, teach you how to coach yourself. As a client, you should expect nothing less.”
What’s in an ADHD Coaching Degree?
Training in ADHD coaching tells prospective clients that the coach has some knowledge on how to help clients with the condition. Consumers, however, need to understand what constitutes training.
Here are some well-known institutions that offer training specifically for ADHD coaches:
- ADD Coach Academy (ADDCA)
The ACO, additionally, says it endorses and supports certification for coaches through the Professional Association for ADHD Coaches (PAAC) and the Center for Credentialing and Education (CCE).
Many ADHD coaches, moreover, start off as life coaches first, before gaining experience in working with ADHD clients. The International Coach Federation, which accredits programs that deliver coach training, has a search service on its site that can be used when reviewing a potential coach’s credentials.
Sort Through the Alphabet Soup
Many coaches list credentials and degrees after their names: L.C.S.W. (licensed clinical social worker) and M.S.W. (master in social work), for instance, might seem impressive to consumers, but they have nothing to do with coaching or ADHD. “A client should always ask a prospective coach if he has been trained to work with clients with ADHD, and, if so, for how long,” says Ratey.
Here are some credentials and affiliations you will come across when searching for an ADHD coach, what they stand for, and what it took to earn them.
- C.A.C. (Certified ADHD Coach): This certification was offered by the Institute for the Advancement of ADHD Coaching (IAAC) prior to the organization shutting down in 2013. This certification, however, is still seen today. To earn this certification, a coach must have been actively engaged in ADHD coaching at the time of application and met the following requirements:
- Two years of ADHD coaching experience; 500 hours of ADHD-related client coaching (15 clients minimum and 50 hours maximum of pro bono coaching)
- 65 hours minimum of ADHD coach training, as well as 60 hours minimum of general personal and professional coach training.
- Passed written and oral exams on ethics and conduct, knowledge of ADHD, and the ability to ask questions that move the client toward his goals.
- S.C.A.C. (Senior Certified ADHD Coach): This certification was also offered by the IAAC prior to its closure. For this certification, a professional must have been be actively engaged in ADHD coaching at the time of application and meet the following requirements:
- Five years of ADHD coaching experience; 1,500 hours of ADHD-related client coaching (40 clients minimum, 150 hours maximum of pro bono coaching)
- 65 hours minimum of ADHD coach training
- 60 hours minimum of general personal and professional coach training.
- As with the C.A.C. credential, the applicant must take written and oral exams.
- A.C.C. (Associate Certified Coach): This certification is granted by the International Coach Federation (ICF) for life coaches. It doesn’t indicate a specialty or training in ADHD. A.C.C. requirements include 10 hours of training with a qualified mentor coach, a minimum of 100 hours of coaching, and a minimum of eight clients. Ask whether a coach has training in ADHD and has experience working with clients who have the condition.
- P.C.C. (Professional Certified Coach): These coaches, certified by the ICF, have coached a minimum of 750 hours and have worked with at least 25 clients. Ask whether they have training in ADHD and have experience working with clients who have the condition.
- M.C.C. (Master Certified Coach): These coaches, certified by the ICF, have a minimum of 2,500 coaching hours and have worked with at least 35 clients. Ask about their training in ADHD and their experience working with clients who have the condition.
- ACO (ADHD Coaches Organization): ACO isn’t a credential; Anyone who is interested in ADHD coaching may be a member of the ACO. However, not all members may be on the ACO’s list of Professional ADHD Coaches.
[Read This Next: The 7 Most Essential Benefits of ADHD Coaching]
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