For most ADHD/ life coaches, adults find their services because the client feels that he/she could benefit from coaching. But I am working mostly with students with ADHD. There are some differences:
- Students (middle school and high school) don’t always notice they need support either because of their age, their ADHD or both.
- Most of my clients find me because mom and dad are at their wits’ end or because the student’s grades are not very good. Even some of my college-aged students find me because their mom and dads feel they need support. It isn’t really a choice for them to work with me, unlike my adult clients. It adds a layer of trust building because coaching is a partnership.
For my practice it works like this:
- Consultation/Intake – Usually in their home but sometimes via Skype. We talk for about an hour. I collect information that can give me a good picture of what is going on. I feel it is imperative that have a chance to check me out before I end up in the middle of their life. I also check out if the student is coachable.
- Coaching sessions are done in-person or virtually depending on location and age of the client. We start by exploring strengths, struggles, values, needs, processing modalities, what is currently working, goals, and dreams. Often I am the first person to ask a student client what his/her values are or what he/she feels like he/she needs. Sometimes we use a metaphor to track our progress but only if it helps to the client. It is my part of the partnership as the coach is to listen, create a safe place for the client to share openly, be curious, ask questions, notice perspectives, help shift negative perspectives, distinguish contradictions I hear, provide educations, provide accountability and be supportive. The client’s job is to come to coaching prepare with a topic and a willingness to share deepen than surface level.
That’s it! I do work on a model of Awareness-Action-Accomplishment. Meaning that together we explore awareness of what is going on and how the client is feeling, the gap between awareness and action, the experience of action (whether follow through happened or not), the gap between action and accomplishment and appreciating the accomplishment. It is a partnership; the more a student brings to coaching, the more benefit he/she will get out of coaching.
If you know a student, who could benefit from this type of support please click here.
