Frequently Asked Questions
Why did you start coaching?
I’m lucky enough to know and love a number of people with ADHD, and I realized many of them have traits that I admire. They can be spontaneous, creative, driven, energetic, and able to hyper-focus when something interests them. I also see a lot of traits that hold them back: they often don’t know their own potential, are dismissive of their accomplishments, underestimate their abilities, and are prone to burnout. I believe that when someone with ADHD is able to fully use the best aspects of their unique brain, they are capable of doing things neurotypicals simply can’t.
What's your approach to coaching?
While I know a lot about the tendencies and chemistry of a brain with ADHD, you are the expert on how you think. Together, we’ll tap into my expertise and your individual strengths to identify ways for you to accomplish your goals, large and small.
My coaching style is to learn what matters to you. From there, we’ll work together to develop an agenda focused on your goals. You may bring an idea ready to go or we might identify an area in your life in which your ADHD seems to be preventing progress, or causing frustration. We can continue to work on the same thing as long as you choose or pivot to something different.
My primary goal is to understand what matters to you and help you to achieve it – but the outcome should always be your health and well-being, not productivity for the sake of productivity. Too often, my clients come to me with long-held negative beliefs about what it means to have ADHD. A big part of our work will be helping you to unlearn these negative beliefs, and to unlock a deeper understanding of yourself and what’s possible for you.
You’ll never be in trouble with me. We’re coming up with ideas for you to try, but if you don’t end up trying them, I won’t be angry or disappointed. That’s just information we can use to develop alternative ideas that might work better. Over time, we’ll find patterns and strategies that work for you.
What does a typical session look like?
While every session is different, I find my sessions focus primarily on three things:
Celebrating your accomplishments
Identifying your blockers
Developing a manageable plan for you to achieve your goals.
Whether you’re trying to tackle your laundry pile or your PHD thesis, we’ll find ways to break down the task into smaller parts that keep you on a path of productivity. I’ll keep track of what you’ve told me is important to you, and help guide our conversation back to check in on longer-term goals to see how I can help.
What does this look like over time?
As we continue to work together, we’ll make time for regular check-ins about what’s working and what isn’t, so we can adapt accordingly. We’ll focus on your goals for as long as it takes to achieve them, or to decide you’d like to focus on something else. The measure of when your goals are achieved is up to you, not me. We can work toward something defined and specific, or we can find ways for you to tackle the little things that you feel are weighing you down, and we can also pivot between the two.
My long-term goal for you is to identify and celebrate your strengths, and integrate your ADHD into a more balanced and satisfying life. This might look like starting with regularly scheduled sessions, and eventually transitioning to meeting on an as-needed basis to help you work through a specific challenge.
How much does it cost?
You can check out my rates here. If for any reason the rates are not attainable for you, we can have a conversation about how to make the cost more accessible.
How is coaching different from therapy?
First of all, you set the agenda.
Therapy can be more about going into the past and coaching is about pushing into the future. We’ll be focused less on why you are the way you are and more focused on how you can be the person you want to be.
In therapy you do the work in the session; in coaching you do the work in between the sessions. This doesn’t mean unnecessary or additional homework; it just means we’ll develop ways to tackle the day-to-day tasks that you already want or need to complete. We’ll dig into what we can learn about you from what happened during the week, whether you felt the strategies were successful or not, regardless of how closely you were able to stick to your to-do list.
You’ll have my full attention and every session will end with some actionable ideas for you to try, which we’ll discuss in the next session. Everything will be tailored to you and optimized based on what works.
If you’ve been to therapy, you might have experienced the dreaded “Well, our hour is up” when you reach the 50 minute mark. When you meet with me, you’ll have the full 60 minutes. If you need me to hold you accountable to that, I can end at 60 minutes on the dot. But if the conversation needs more time, I can often be flexible about adding a few extra minutes to make sure you get the time you need.
What’s your cancellation policy?
I’d prefer 24 hours notice, but I understand people with ADHD can struggle with time management. If you’ve paid up front for your sessions, we’ll find a way to work in the session you’ve missed, or discount the next one.
