Many people with ADHD come to coaching with goals or purposes around focus and executive function. Often these relate to home management or work place tasks and they are struggling with organisation, deadlines, time management, clutter and mess, distraction or task paralysis.
ADHD coaching is often associated with these practical strategies and we spend a lot of time working collaboratively with our clients exploring ideas around what has worked before, what to try and how it works out. But at the same time we can also support our clients to identify and challenge their unhelpful and limiting beliefs.
Many ADHD coaching clients have low self esteem and think very harshly about themselves. The voice in their head could be telling them they are lazy, useless and broken, or unworthy, unsuccessful and unloved. This inner critic can be a huge barrier to the client?s progress, getting in the way of trying new things and seeing any joy or success.
I do a lot of work with my clients around identifying and diminishing the inner critic and developing and enhancing the inner coach. So while we work on trying out practical strategies around function and focus, we also address what they think about themselves. We work together to reframe those limiting thoughts into supportive and compassionate words and phrases which encourage and inspire.
Cameron Gott’s adaptation of Maslow?s Hierarchy of Needs is a useful way of visualising these ideas. Check it out below.
