“Therapists and life coaches can be of huge assistance to many adults with ADHD once they have begun a course of effective medication. Please understand, though, that there is no scientific evidence this kind of treatment will suffice on its own. It can, however, help you face the specific, unique issues you’re dealing with. Or it may help fill in the gaps left when medication is simply not sufficient to address all aspect of you ADHD or at times of day when medications simply cannot be used. “Numerous strategies and tools for dealing with any remaining symptoms and impairments in the various arenas in which you operate are at your disposal. Consulting a psychologist or coach is one way to tap into them.” (p. 144)

Russell A. Barkley, PhD, Taking Charge of Adult ADHD

 

 

 

“Yet despite the best efforts of their parents, some children and many adolescents and adults need more specialized help to recognize and over-haul self-defeating assumptions and attitudes developed in reaction to their ADD syndrome. … For others it may be necessary to consult and employ a professional counselor, a psychotherapist, or an ADD Coach to provide perspective and support for the process of self-change that may be needed, especially in the early stages of coming to terms with an ADD diagnosis.” (pp. 282-283)

Thomas E. Brown, PhD, Attention Deficit Disorder

 

 

 

“A coach can work one-on-one with a girl on a regular basis to help her reach her goals. . .  A coach can help her become aware of how she functions, learns, manages her time and makes choices. Then utilizing this unique profile of her strengths and weakness, the coach can help her expand her repertoire of automatic behaviors by providing the opportunity for consistent supervised practice of skills. A coach . . . gets involved on the nitty-gritty level and helps her with the executive functioning difficulties that are so central to ADHD. In addition, a coach serves as a . . . provider of detailed constructive feedback.

 

“. . . A coach also can help to develop a set of long-range goals, as well as explicit plans for meeting those goals. After identifying a girl’s personal roadblocks to success, a coach also will work on self-advocacy skills. When the struggle between parent and daughter over academics or other responsibilities become a central and harrowing aspect of their relationship, it its time to consider ways for the parent to divest herself of some the centrality of her role. . . . A coach can broaden the support network and enlarge the safety net. . . .” (p. 239)

K.G. Nadeau, PhD, E.B. Littman, PhD, P.O. Quinn, M.D., Understanding Girls with ADHD

 

 

 

“. . . I have come to understand and appreciate more about what ADHD is in the brain and what coaching offers in response to this type of brain difference. One of the biggest problems for patients with ADHD is that they cannot sustain the motivation to accomplish their goals, even when they have the talent and skill to do so.

 

“Most individual with ADHD eventually learn that they need something to help them gain control over their lives, and those who come looking for help are, at various levels, ready to change. As a psychiatrist, I work with my patients on therapeutic issues, diagnosing and fine-tuning their medications. Often, however, as these issues are being worked on, some of the daily living issues persist. When patients are at the point of really wanting to tackle these issues and become masters of their own lives, they seek out the service of a coach to move forward on their own.

 

“The brain is amazingly plastic . . . eventually, the more practice that individuals with ADHD have structuring, planning, and anticipating ADHD-like troubles, the more they are training their brain to develop new habits.”
(p. xi–xii, xiii)

Forward by John J. Ratey, MD.; Nancy A. Ratey, Ed.M., M.C.C., S.C.A.C., the disorganized mind