How I Collaborate with my Coach to Create “My ADHD Coaching Journey”

My Coach has always been patient with me and always meets me where I am at! I have altered the structure of our sessions many times over our time together because as I and my needs evolve so does how we work together. We both have a commitment to each other to meet 1x a week for 45 minutes, and we meet through Zoom.

How we plan our sessions

I will admit that, like many people with ADHD, I HATE paperwork. I will tell you if they want me not to do something, just throw a bunch of paperwork at me It is one of my biggest nemeses.

My coach did provide forms I use in our coaching together, but she is flexible in how I choose to use them. We started with two weekly forms: a session goal planning form and an after-session reflection form. I had no issues filling out the first form, but the after-session form was different. I’m not sure what bothered me about it so much, but it was like my brain would “forget it.” I didn’t even realize I had stopped turning it in for several months. My coach wasn’t mad at me for that. Even with the sheet I am handing in with my weekly session goals, I still sometimes change what I want to work on during the session. I’ve told her, “Hey, something happened to me today, so I want to work on that instead,” or sometimes I just need a “vent” session to help me emotionally process something. Sometimes I do 100% of my stated weekly goals, and sometimes I do 0% of them. When I don’t do them, we examine if it was because I needed to break it down further or if I didn’t want to do that.

Goal Planning

My coach has never set a limit on how many goals I can have or demands that I pick, not pick a specific goal to pursue. Sometimes, I have come to her with something I feel 1000% I want to do. Still, when she presented me the possible scenarios and we self-reflect together, I realized that I 1000% percent should NOT have that as a goal. I am grateful when I reflect on some of the things she caused me to pause. However, there are other times when I mention a goal and walk back on it because even though I want to do it, I feel like it's "too big" for me to accomplish, and I don't have the strength, skills, or confidence. She helped me work through my negative self-beliefs and self-imposed limitations at those times. She helps me make that goal possible by breaking it down and working with me through the process.

How we work with my Processing Style

Through my work with her, I realized that I process through writing. She knows that writing is therapeutic for me and allows me to process certain situations through writing. During difficult periods, she's allowed me to email her daily journals. It was through the process of emailing her my journals that I came to realize I wanted to do an online journal. She assisted and supported me in the process of creating one, which has now been an essential tool for me on my ADHD coaching journey, and I will often show her my online journal posts in our sessions.