Coaching for ADHD
Living with undiagnosed ADHD can be an exhausting, demoralising, unpredictable and overwhelming experience, as can managing the complex ongoing challenges of ADHD even when an accurate diagnosis has been received.
The one consistency of living with ADHD is its inconsistency. Increasingly research is drawing attention to the "situational variability" of ADHD. One of the greatest sources of frustration for those living with ADHD, and for those close to them, is the "uneven skill set" associated with the condition and of not knowing if, when or whether their skills will show up for them.
Put simply the precise ways and the severity with which ADHD manifests, and the extent to which the core impairments associated with ADHD impact negatively, varies significantly from one person to the next, and for the same person depending on the external environment in which they live, work and learn.
In the right environments and with the right level of support and understanding, specific strengths associated with ADHD come to the fore.
The implication of this is that people can not only thrive and succeed in spite of their ADHD but by actively harnessing strengths implicitly associated with their ADHD.
Similarly research into mental resilience identifies our perception of the "breadth choices available to us", "the level of control we believe we have to initiate positive changes in our lives" and "hope for the future" as integral factors to improving our overall mental well-being.
All of the above can be eroded by the experience of living with ADHD, a condition with which comorbidities are the norm rather than the exception. It is estimated that approximately 50% of people with ADHD also suffer from one or more co-existing conditions and often ADHD is missed altogether due to its similarities with, or the presence of, other conditions. The most common of these are:
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Depression
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Anxiety Disorders
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
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Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
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Learning Disabilities
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Language Disabilities.
The more we can understand the specific ways our ADHD is sabotaging our efforts to move forward, and develop customised structures, systems, support networks and habits which complement our ADHD brain wiring, the more we increase our confidence in the resources available to us to manage our own ongoing ADHD challenges.
A Strengths Based Solution Focused Approach for ADHD
Translating a Strength Based Solution focused Coaching approach to specialist ADHD Coaching in no way trivialises or negates the very real and often unseen challenges of living with ADHD.
What it does do is approach ADHD from the perspective of "neurological difference" rather than deficit.
I support clients to gain greater insight and knowledge into their own ADHD, and work with them to develop individual strategies, underpinned by customised ADHD Coaching tools and techniques, which increase the resources available to them to manage the ongoing practical and emotional challenges associated with ADHD.
Integral to this coaching approach is working with clients to surface their strengths, and increase their awareness of the situations and environments in which their strengths naturally show up or where ADHD traits can be positive assets in identifying, driving and delivering the personal and professional Goals which are important to them.