FAQ’s
Answers to commonly-asked questions about ADHD coaching with Susan McGinnis, CALC
What is a Certified ADHD Life Coach?
A coach who has completed an ICF-accredited training program that covers both life coaching and ADHD.
ADHD coaching brings together life coaching, skills coaching, and ADHD education, and is a proven tool for ADHD management.
How does ADHD coaching help adults with ADHD?
Coaching is a structure for conversation that opens up new ways of thinking and new possibilities for action. ADHD coaching brings in education about ADHD, when it shows up in your experience. ADHD coaching supports building new skills including cognitive flexibility, self-awareness, and self-advocacy, so that you can recognize what works best for you and create your best life, with ADHD.
What do we talk about in a coaching session?
You bring your topic to a coaching session: an area of challenge; we explore to get a fuller understanding for new possibilities. Work and career, home/personal life, and larger goals, are all potential areas to source your coaching topics.
How do I know that ADHD is behind my difficulties?
If you think you might have ADHD, it is helpful to get a professional evaluation. For a formal diagnosis (which is usually needed to have ADHD medication prescribed), your general practitioner may be a good place to start. The CDC site includes an overview of an ADHD diagnosis with information from the DSM-5, or American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition. Arlington, VA., American Psychiatric Association, 2013.
Where do I go, to get ADHD coaching?
Coaching is available by phone or videocall, typically using Zoom, with Susan in the Eastern Standard Time zone (EST).
How is coaching different from therapy?
ADHD is not a mental illness. It is a life-long neurological condition affecting self-regulation that benefits from the external support of a coach for learning self-management skills. Emotional regulation skills and building self-awareness are the primary focus of ADHD coaching, as they allow for the executive functioning needed for planning and executing on goals. Many coaching clients participate in therapy as well, for specific mental health support. Therapists, doctors, and coaches can share information and work together, upon request and authorization of the client.
Do I need to be diagnosed with ADHD to seek coaching?
A formal diagnosis is not required for coaching, but we will keep the ADHD lens in mind. You may decide to seek formal evaluation after some coaching experience.
Don’t adults grow out of ADHD?
ADHD is a life-long, neurodevelopmental condition. Adults in the right environments can certainly thrive. Transitions and life changes - including hormonal shifts - can bring out challenges related to ADHD at any point in a lifetime.
Tell me about your professional development:
I trained as an ADHD coach with Laurie Dupar’s International ADHD Coach Training Center, followed by work with mentor ADHD coaches Cameron Gott and Jeff Copper, as well as an ICF process coaching lab under MentorCoach’s Anne Durand. I continuously participate in ongoing personal and professional development. I maintain membership with ICF, the International Coaching Federation professional standards body, and with the ADHD-coach-specific ACO, the ADHD Coaches Organization, for staying up-to-date with continuing industry best practices and education. I also am an active member of both CHADD and ADDA - the ADHD awareness, education, and advocacy organizations - to support their ongoing outreach.
What people say about the benefits of coaching:
“I found coaching to be really helpful in both understanding my ADHD and learning how to work with my attention. I spent a long time just trying to force myself to focus, which led to a lot of wasted time and feelings of inadequacy. Coaching helped me come up with realistic strategies based on how I work best. Within the first few coaching sessions, I began feeling a greater sense of direction and less anxiety.”
“Everything in my life is going so well and getting better all the time. I have made major progress with finances and taxes. Laundry too! And my planner and schedule has become one of my vital tools and such an anxiety reducer. I still talk about coaching at least once a week. It was such a great experience and I am constantly building on all of my skills and tools I learned in coaching. Thank you again for such a life changing experience. I get to feel so good about myself more and more all the time and my life feels so much better and more peaceful.”
"[Coaching] has massively impacted my ability to work, and to find and do work that I care about and know I am able to do. I was hoping to get some useful tips out of it but the scale of the success has been so much higher than what I anticipated.”
