Many students with AD/HD are extremely intelligent with advanced academic skills. They know what to do. They just don’t do what they know. This is not your fault. Success in school depends on a lot of skills that don’t come naturally to people with attention deficit disorder. ADD is medical diagnosis that means the neurotransmitters in the prefrontal cortex of your brain aren’t flowing properly. This can cause problems in executive function which translates into forgetting things, being disorganized, procrastinating, not knowing how to plan or keep your commitments, spacing out, feeling restless or hyper so you can’t focus or listen very well, and other symptoms depending on who you are.

If you come to me for coaching, I will help you with the practical aspects of life – time management, organizational skills, planning, memory or focus issues, and any other difficulties you may be having. If you have just been diagnosed with ADD or haven’t discussed it much, you may have lots of questions. Why are certain things so hard for me? What will help? Will my ADD get better or go away? What does this mean for all the areas of my life? During coaching, I can address most of your questions.

We’ll sit together at a table or talk on the phone. I’ll help you figure out how your AD/HD is affecting you and the best ways to get things done with your particular symptoms. For example, most people with ADD find that being bored is unbearable. I’ve heard it described as “like being in hell.” So we would explore ways to make what you have to do stimulating enough to keep your interest and motivation. I can help you break down long term assignments or other overwhelming things into smaller more manageable chunks. If you tend to procrastinate, I’ll help you get going. We might look at everything you have to do for the next week and plan it out in detail. Then I would help you stick to your plan by calling you in a few days to see what got done, what didn’t, and what got in the way.

Because you are a whole person and school is not 100% of your existence, I also work with students around the other aspects of life – forming routines for taking care of yourself, balancing the things you want to do with the things you need to do, relationship and communication concerns, or any other ADD related issues you want to discuss.

I’m not any kind of authority figure and I’m completely on your side. As a coach, I believe that you are the expert in your own life. My job is to ask lots of questions so you can decide what strategies, tools, or external structures will benefit you the most. What can I do that will be the most help? We won’t spend a lot of time analyzing why you do things that are holding you back. We’ll mostly figure out what is happening and what will help you take action so you can live the life you want. When you discover what you need to manage your symptoms, experience success, and meet your goals, you will truly be in charge of your life.