ADHD Coaching and Academic Strategies

ADHD coaching provides the supports necessary for clients to address the impact of their symptoms.

Understanding ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurological disorder that affects our ability to control impulses, focus on tasks, and pay attention to details.

ADHD symptoms may begin in childhood and continue into adulthood, causing significant difficulties in everyday life. People with ADHD often face daily challenges in managing time, organizing their environment, and completing tasks. On the other hand, they can be spontaneous, creative, resilient, intuitive, observant, energetic, funny, and courageous, with extraordinary problem-solving abilities and excellent presentation and speaking skills.

The Effects of ADHD

ADHD can profoundly affect an individual’s academic, social, and daily life. These conditions can jeopardize learning in many ways, creating problems such as difficulty paying attention in class, trouble managing frustration and regulating emotions, challenges with self-control and impulsiveness, weaknesses in planning and time management, and lack of organization.

ADHD can cause various difficulties, such as decreased academic performance, low self-esteem, and problems with social interactions. It can also lead to deficient self-regulation, which can cause anxiety and depression in some individuals. ADHD coaching can help alleviate these
problems by supporting and guiding clients, helping them learn to manage their daily lives more effectively.

ADHD symptoms include:

High distractibility and forgetfulness
Difficulty holding information in working memory
Challenges demonstrating knowledge and ability in testing situations
The inability to summon and sustain effort and regulate alertness
Difficulty in understanding and retaining information

We Support All Age Groups

From elementary school to higher education, Evoke creates a supportive environment for students where learning thrives and educational goals are achieved.

What Is an ADHD Coach?

An ADHD coach is a practitioner specifically trained to assist people with ADHD in building effective strategies to address their challenges and improve their academic and personal lives.

Evoke’s ADHD coaches include registered social workers, certified ADHD coaches, and psychotherapists trained and certified in cognitive behavioural therapy, who have experience working in a coaching, therapy, and/or academic strategy role with neurodivergent students.

At Evoke, we provide clients with the tools they need to understand and address the symptoms of ADHD in order to achieve their academic and personal goals.

Mindfulness and Meditation

ADHD coaching often incorporates mindfulness and meditation practices to help clients improve focus, manage impulses, and cultivate self-awareness. This increases their ability to sustain attention on tasks, strengthens emotional regulation, and reduces impulsivity.

Task Breakdown

Coaches assist clients in breaking down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. This approach helps people overcome feelings of being overwhelmed and encourages a structured approach to completing tasks. Outcomes include improved task initiation and completion rates and a greater sense of accomplishment and self-esteem.

Visual Aids and Reminders

ADHD coaches may use visual aids, such as charts, calendars, graphs, and sticky notes to serve as reminders and prompts for important activities and routines. These enhance memory retention and recall and reduce the likelihood of forgetting important tasks or deadlines.

Self-Monitoring and Accountability

Coaches implement accountability systems to encourage consistent progress. This involves regular check-ins, progress reports, or mapping out actionable steps. The benefits include improved self-reflection and follow-through.

Psycho-education

Our coaches provide clients with research-informed and up-to-date information about the neurobiology of ADHD, its most common comorbidities, and clarify misconceptions.

Strength-Based Approaches

ADHD coaching methodology leverages a strength-based approach to build on the client’s existing skills and talents. This encourages individuals to recognize their strengths, fostering a sense of empowerment and confidence.

Cognitive-Behavioural Techniques

Cognitive-behavioural strategies, such as cognitive restructuring and reframing negative thoughts, are used by Evoke’s ADHD coaches to help clients manage their emotions and develop healthier habits.

Our coaches understand the biological underpinnings of ADHD, the core symptoms, and their frequent comorbidity with executive dysfunction.

ADHD coaching addresses the academic, emotional, and interpersonal difficulties resulting from these symptoms and helps our clients find ways to overcome their challenges. Through individualized support, our coaches help clients concentrate on where they are now, where they want to be, and how to get there to realize their goals.

Consistent Communication and Personalized Guidance

Efforts made by clients between coaching sessions are just as important as the work completed alongside their coach. Evoke coaches assign action plans to reinforce strategies and skills.

These action plans are instrumental in facilitating change. They serve as an opportunity for clients to engage in self-reflection and take decisive action. They encourage follow-through on established plans, promote weekly goal setting, and assist clients in identifying barriers that might get in the way. By offering personalized guidance, coaches help clients enhance their awareness of their current position, envision their desired outcomes, and formulate effective strategies to reach their intended goals.

Our coaches understand each student’s unique needs and offer a supportive learning environment that fosters growth and progress.

Collaborative and Goal-Oriented Approach to Coaching

Our coaches employ a collaborative and goal-oriented approach, supporting clients to actively participate in their learning process.

This personalized approach enables the development of practical, research-informed skills and strategies tailored to each client’s unique needs and aspirations. By working in close partnership with clients, our coaches foster an environment of mutual trust, open communication, and shared responsibility.

To ensure progress toward identified goals, the coach and client co-create a well-defined plan that outlines the steps necessary to achieve them. Weekly sessions and developed action plans provide opportunities to track progress, address challenges, and fine-tune strategies. This ongoing support and accountability are key to empowering clients to take ownership of their learning journey and build the self-efficacy required for long-term success.

Through this dynamic coaching process, clients improve their academic and personal performance and develop critical life skills, such as time management, goal-setting, and problem-solving.

Our coaches are dedicated to cultivating these abilities, empowering clients to become confident and self-aware, and preparing them to navigate educational and personal challenges.

Benefits and Outcomes of ADHD Coaching

Clients who engage in our ADHD coaching develop enhanced self-determination skills, gain self-awareness, engage in more positive thoughts and behaviours, take greater responsibility for their actions, use goal-attainment skills to manage stress more effectively, and improve executive function and learning strategies.

ADHD coaching offers many benefits, including a better understanding of the neurobiology of ADHD and its unique challenges and strengths. By working with an ADHD coach, Evoke’s clients develop inter- and intrapersonal skills and growth, learn strategies to help manage their ADHD symptoms, and improve their academic and personal performance.

Clients participating in ADHD coaching often report better communication skills and improved organizational skills. Clients learn to steadily master executive functions, determine which environments are most effective for them, and self-advocate. Coaching can also help clients with significant transitions, such as moving from high school to postsecondary education, from postsecondary to the workforce, or from one job opportunity to another.

Coaching offers strategies to help them manage their symptoms and improve their academic performance, and increase their confidence and sense of well-being.

Additionally, ADHD coaching can help students overcome negative thoughts and emotions, understand settings and environments that exacerbate their ADHD, and learn how to manage symptoms.

Evoke’s ADHD coaches help clients identify and prioritize their needs and advocate for themselves.

The Gold Standard

As ADHD affects everyone differently, the treatment of ADHD is a multi-modal approach. The gold standard in ADHD management involves behavioural intervention, academic intervention, and pharmacotherapy.

Addressing ADHD requires a comprehensive approach with interventions tailored to the unique needs of the individual.

ADHD is not a single entity and is an extremely complex and multifaceted condition which manifests differently across the population. It varies in severity, presents with different comorbid conditions, and creates a range of difficulties. Evoke’s ADHD coaching is informed by cognitive behavioural therapy as part of a best-practice intervention.

ADHD coaching is a proactive, creative, resourceful, and solution-focused intervention that helps our clients understand themselves and enhance their capabilities.