What is ADHD Parent Coaching?

ADHD parent coaching is focused on helping you change the dynamic between you and your ADHD child so that you are more confident as a parent, and your parenting strategies are more effective. Your child’s ADHD significantly impacts her perception of and reaction to the world around her — including rewards, punishments, relationships and time. As you’ve probably figured out by now, traditional “discipline” – that kind of straight-forward discipline that seems to work for everyone else – very often doesn’t work for your child. And, the things that will work for your child aren’t always obvious or intuitive. As an ADHD parenting coach I help you understand how your kiddo may be seeing the world and how making shifts to your parenting strategies can make a world of difference in both changing your child’s behavior AND maintaining a more positive household for your family.

When is ADHD Parent Coaching Helpful?

The best part about coaching is that it can work for your family wherever you are on your ADHD journey. Maybe your child has just received a diagnosis of ADHD and you want to get a strong start; maybe you’ve been struggling for a while and nothing seems to be working; or maybe you don’t have a formal diagnosis* but your child is exhibiting ADHD like crazy!

Something is missing — you’re overwhelmed and confused. You’re unsure of yourself as a parent. Your family life may be chaotic and overwhelmingly negative. Perhaps medication isn’t doing “the job” you thought it was going to. Perhaps your therapy or doctor appointments aren’t teaching you how to help your child in the day-to-day. Your relationship with your other children and/or your spouse may be suffering.

You know a diagnosis of ADHD shouldn’t be such an insurmountable hurdle for your child, yet it seems to be.

Most importantly though, ADHD parent coaching is most effective when you are ready to make a change in order to help your child thrive. Despite all of your valiant attempts at helping your child so far you realize that something still isn’t working and you are ready to shift your approach and put in some dedicated work to help your family.

* As a parenting coach I am unable to diagnosis your child with ADHD or any other health condition. If you are seeking a diagnosis, make an appointment with a medical professional.

Why Focus Coaching On Parents?

Because it works. Whether you like it or not, you – the parent – are the most important factor in your child’s future success. You guide your child through the world 365 days a year. As you already know, you are the bridge between doctors, school, and therapy appointments and that’s a huge burden to carry. There are very few resources to teach you how to help your child navigate his life successfully every day while accounting for how his ADHD makes him approach things a little differently. This is a positive, healthy approach to daily management of ADHD and most clients find that the tools they learn are good for everyone in the family, ADHD or not.
Several recent studies support this approach having shown significant improvement in children’s social and behavioral ADHD symptoms after parents went through coaching. (DeMars 2014; Fabiano et al. 2012; Tamm, Nakonezny & Hughes 2012; Wentz, Nydén & Kreveres 2012; Lerner, Mikami & McLeod 2011.)

The bottom line is that I focus on parents because it worked for me and our family. In fact, the enormous impact our personal ADHD coach had on my understanding of ADHD and how to help my son propelled me to become a coach in my own right. I am determined to help bring these skills to every mom and dad willing to learn.

What Should I Expect From ADHD Parent Coaching?

ADHD parent coaching is focused primarily on “doing” — not on “feeling”. We spend most of our time trouble-shooting your parenting challenges with the goal of providing you tangible strategies to put to use after each coaching session. While we may spend a great deal of time talking about how you and your child feel about various situations, we do so in order to uncover what is really motivating your child to exhibit certain behavior and to decide which parenting strategies may work best to address it.

Once we determine your biggest pain points we create a plan together focused on helping you make changes that will help your child thrive. We create goals, decide on which techniques to try and then troubleshoot together until you feel like you’ve got it.

ADHD parent coaching is empowering, educational, and collaborative. If ADHD parent coaching sounds like something you and your family may benefit from, fill out the form below and I’ll be in touch shortly. I look forward to meeting you.