Who is Neurodivergent Coaching for?

Neurodivergent Coaching a specialised form of coaching designed for neurodivergent individuals.

Usually a coach will be specialised in working with particular types of neurodivergence - in my case ADHDers, AuDHDers or Autistic people.

My coaching is open to both diagnosed and undiagnosed people, as well as those who are taking and not taking ADHD medication.

What does a Neurodivergent Coach do?

When I meet people in introductory calls they often tell me they’ve asked other coaches this question or googled it, but still feel confused! (No shade to other coaches - in fairness it’s a bit of a difficult thing to answer, in part because Neurodivergent Coaching is still an emerging field).

Personally, I find it easiest to explain by comparing us with what a regular coach does.

Regular Coaching

Traditionally, coaching is about supporting someone with their growth, self-empowerment and personal (or professional) development.

The way coaching works is based on a fundamental idea that you are resourceful, and have the answers you need inside you, but may need someone to ask thought-provoking questions to help you find them - this is what the coach does. In this way, coaching is a bit different to other kinds of support where the helping professional mentors, consults or tells you their opinion - it’s a bit more of a partnership. There’s a fairly intuitive principle in coaching that change has to come from within, and if we try to advise someone we could easily get it wrong, or put them off (because who likes being told what to do!). True change has to come from within and be wholehearted.

A coaching conversation is a very intentional one. Each session, the client is asked to decide on the topic and what they want to aim for - in coaching, this is called ‘the agreement’. (e.g. “I want to talk about my email inbox, and I want to walk away feeling less overwhelmed and with a plan to help me reduce my unread emails”). It’s the coach’s job to help keep the conversation on track with the agreement, and help the client find their way towards their aim through open-ended questions. Hopefully ones that evoke insight or deeper self awareness about, for example, why it matters, what’s in the way and what might help.

Coaching is about growth and personal development and helping you see what’s possible now, and encouraging you to take steps towards a more fulfilling life. So as the conversation unfolds and change feels more possible, the coach’s questions will also become more action oriented.

How Neurodivergent Coaching is different

Whilst I love traditional coaching principles, I think there are a lot of ways in which they don’t quite work for neurodivergent people.

For example, when the subject matter almost always relates back to one key thing - your experience as a neurodivergent person - you probably want to talk to someone who gets it, otherwise the conversation could end up being really unhelpful. So pretty much all Neurodivergent Coaches are neurodivergent themselves, and have some training in the neurobiology of ADHD and/or Autism, and how to be neuro-inclusive.

And if I have that training, and you have a blindspot in your understanding of ADHD or Autism, it would probably be quite weird for me not to share some information or a resource.

Sometimes asking open questions can make a neurodivergent brain go blank. So where appropriate I may also share examples, personal lived experience, or things others have tried and tested, to help give your brain something to bounce off.

Sometimes a question or problem feels too big and triggers overwhelm, avoidance or picking the easy answer instead of the right one. So I may, for example, be more conscious about helping you break it down.

I also need to be aware of how people pleasing and masking might show up in the coaching space, because a lot of us have learned to do that habitually, and sometimes we’re not even conscious of it!

Or sometimes being asked questions at all can make some neurodivergent people feel suddenly demand avoidant and shut down. I might need to pivot and help you emotionally regulate, and then approach things differently with this in mind.

And when it comes to taking away actions or insights, those of us with are liable to forget as soon as we leave the session. So checking my ADHD clients have things written down or in a reminder can be really important, otherwise they might not move forward!

Trying to get the balance right between making adjustments for you and still making sure I’m empowering you by adhering to those traditional coaching principles is an important but tricky dance, and we may not always get it right. (This is why I think it’s important for coaches to regularly see a supervisor!).

Anyway, I know that was a long answer but hopefully a helpful one - I think it’s important you’re given the chance to look behind the curtain and understand what you’re signing up for!

How is coaching different to therapy?

This is going to be a simplified answer because there are a lot of types of therapy out there these days, including ones who are also coaches; and some coaches are more comfortable with bringing therapeutic skills or methods into sessions where needed (myself included).

But in general this is how they differ:

So they do have some crossover e.g. they both help you with self awareness, personal growth and development. But their focuses, approaches, and intended outcomes are generally different.

Coaching generally concentrates more on goal achievement, performance enhancement and skill-building. Therapy generally centres around resolving past issues, emotional healing, and psychological wellbeing.