ADHD coaching to untangle the struggles and get beyond them - into all the things you really want to be focusing on.
You've never lacked creativity or ideas. You’ve got more of those than you can squeeze into the day, but how do you access it all when you’re buried under the weight of very real ADHD struggles? You can be brilliant in so many ways, but that’s easy to lose sight of when the so-called basics take up all your energy.
Why ADHD coaching?
You might be formally diagnosed, self-identified, or just starting to wonder. Finding out about your ADHD can be a relief and a reckoning all at once. It explains so much, but it doesn’t necessarily make life easier, or get you where you want to be.
Before I understood my own ADHD, I thought I just needed to try harder - even though I’d been trying everything for decades. Maybe you’ve felt that frustration too: when the productivity app, the therapy, the mindset ‘hack’ or career change didn’t end up ‘fixing’ anything for longer than a few weeks.
You get used to trying and failing, and you end up concluding that the problem is you. But it’s not you, and it was never laziness or a lack of trying. You’re probably very self-critical after all that, and building up your self-compassion and trust is core to the coaching process.
Not just for the sake of ‘being nice to yourself’ but because a more positive - and accurate - sense of self actually creates the right conditions for practical changes to take hold.
ADHD coaching isn’t based on quick fixes (even though changes can happen fast) or pretending it’s all plain sailing (although it increasingly can be). It takes time for your brain, body and routines to adjust to a completely different way of understanding yourself.
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What we work on in ADHD coaching, and how it helps
You might come in with clear goals, or we can figure them out as part of the coaching. There’s no set programme - each coaching process is unique - but these themes come up often for ADHD clients.
Getting things done
Unopened post, half-finished projects, or a to-do list that never seems to shrink - it can feel impossible to stay on top of the practical stuff.
We isolate where things actually get stuck for you, then experiment with changes that bring more ease to things like time-management, getting started and prioritisation.
Energy and capacity
You might go full power in hyperfocus, then crash. Or constantly feel like you’re behind, even when you’re working flat out.
We’ll look at how to pace your energy and build in active recovery, so you can achieve your goals without burning out or losing yourself in the process.
Motivation and focus
You know what you want to do, but getting yourself to do it is another story. We explore your natural attention cycles, and how you initiate tasks or switch between them.
You find new ways to get the boring stuff done, finish what you start, and direct your energy more effectively.
Getting off the emotional rollercoaster
ADHD emotions can feel fast, big or hard to explain. You might react quickly, feel everything all at once, or find yourself shutting down.
We look at building in pauses and tools for self-regulation, so you can keep things more steady - without just pretending to be fine.
Self-perception and confidence
Masking, compensating and ‘trying to keep up’ all take their toll - you hold things together on the outside, while feeling like you’re falling apart behind the scenes.
This comes with self-critical thoughts that we identify and shift in coaching, supporting you to see your strengths and build a more accurate, generous sense of self.
Over time you build up a clear picture of your version of ADHD, and what solutions you actually need to get beyond survival mode.
You understand your executive functioning, coping strategies, emotional patterns and ways of thinking. You get why the conventional advice never stuck for you, and you know what to do next.
Why I specialise in ADHD coaching
Being diagnosed with ADHD - alongside autism and dyspraxia - in my late thirties changed everything. It made sense of the intensity of my life up to that point: the constant effort to keep up, the mismatch between what I knew I was capable of and what actually showed up on the outside.
As that self-understanding grew, my coaching evolved too. I moved into specialising in neurodiversity, grounding my coaching in lived experience as well as professional training.
I work with ADHD clients because I understand the mix of brilliance, ambition and exhaustion that so often churns beneath the surface. I've been an ADHD coaching client myself - during and after my diagnosis - and that experience is a big part of why I went on to become an accredited ADHD coach.
Some things to know about me
I love dancing, making art, and jumping in the sea whenever I can.
You’ll often find me cooking up a storm at home, or heading out for a long walk to decompress.
Creativity is a big part of my life, and before becoming a coach, I ran creativity retreats where we used collage and painting as tools for self-discovery.
I live in Bristol, though I’m originally from Ireland and try to get back there a couple of times a year to catch up with family.
Click below if you'd like to explore my professional training and credentials.
How ADHD coaching works
Coaching with me follows a clear structure, but it’s not rigid or linear. We roughly follow these stages within a session, and across the coaching progress as a whole - but we jump around them too as new insights and learning come in.
Between sessions, you’ll take actions that match your goals and capacity: sometimes small experiments, sometimes bigger steps than you thought were possible. We review what happened together so you can see what’s working, make adjustments and keep momentum.
Clarifying what you want
Setting goals can be a nightmare when you’re neurodivergent. You can’t decide, or it’s hard to believe you can actually get there because you’ve failed in the past. We take all of that into account and spend time finding out what you really want and how you can actually get there this time.
Understanding what’s been in the way
We look closely at what’s been holding you back or keeping you stuck; getting specific and realistic about the obstacles through the lens of neurodivergence. We also get clear on your neurodivergent traits and how they’re impacting you.
Creating new ways forward
During sessions we think together on your goals, and our conversations surface new insights and possibilities. Sometimes the focus is your inner world - shifting beliefs or perspectives, for example. At other times we’re designing practical steps towards your goals that feel sustainable and achievable.
Reviewing, adjusting and integrating
As you take action, we pay attention to your mind and body states. We celebrate progress, reflect on strengths, and anchor new beliefs about what’s possible. Transformation happens when we focus not just on what you got done, but on who you’re becoming in the process.
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Christina is a supportive and encouraging coach, she helps you to really focus on what your goals are, to quieten your inner critic and to feel calm and empowered. She is an absolute pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend her coaching.
RA
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Working with Christina really helped me tackle my fears about setting up a business as a neurodivergent person. She has a unique and empathetic approach which blends really well with her pragmatic tasks/solutions. For me she felt like a business advisor and a therapist rolled in to one ha! Would highly recommend and will most certainly be coming back for some more support when my business grows to the next stage!
KB
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Christina is the best listener I have ever worked with. She is everything in a coach that I aspire to be. She provides space for thinking, gentle prompts, clarification when I'm muddled and an ability to summarise my thoughts in a way I have never experienced before. Thank you for everything you do for me (and my business) Christina, you are invaluable.
HG
1:1 coaching package
If you want to explore 1:1 coaching with me, book in a free call and we'll talk it through together.
Using Access to Work funding?
I offer price adjustments and different package structures if needed for those using Access to Work funding - book in a free call and we'll figure it out.
FAQs
Common questions people ask before we start working together.
Our focus in coaching is your unique experience of life, so the coaching is just as effective even if you aren't sure about a particular diagnosis. Even people who have the same diagnosis will have completely different traits and lived experience. We can map out your traits, and work towards the outcomes you want in a way that works for your brain without needing to know which clinical diagnoses would apply for you.
No. Plenty of the people I work with are self-identified, on a waiting list, or still working out whether they want a diagnosis. What we work from is how things are for you day to day, and any support you need through the diagnostic process.
You don't have to wait unless you want to, and it's useful because you can start putting positive changes in place before getting assessed. It can also mean you go into your assessment feeling more confident and better prepared for the process.
I work with many clients on rejection sensitivity, whether their main goal is to reduce their sensitivity, or whether it just comes up in the process of working on other goals. Coaching can support you to understand what's happening, and to increase your resilience and tolerance around rejection, perceived rejection and fear of criticism.
Yes, I work with many clients who take medication or who are in the process of deciding whether to take it. For my ADHD clients in particular it often comes up as part of the conversation on managing their ADHD. Of course I'm not a clinician and I don't give medical advice, but the coaching can include conversations about your experience of taking medication, and can be adapted for you whether you are taking medication or not.
Yes, I work with people on building better habits. People often struggle to do this on their own, especially given the challenges around executive functioning as a neurodivergent person. We look closely at your motivation for the habit, go deeper into the blocks, and design learning experiments where you make small changes and we review them together in sessions.
Many neurodivergent people have struggled with goals, building up a negative association with the process of goal-setting and even with the word 'goal'! When your neurodivergence is at the heart of the coaching, you can start to build a new relationship with goal-setting. We work with the idea of 'experiments' where you take action towards a desired outcome, and you learn what genuinely works for you rather than 'just pushing through'.
Many clients are overwhelmed when we first start working together, and it's such a common neurodivergent experience. We work together to truly understand what's happening, and work on the most relevant layers for you. For many people it's a combination of nervous system regulation, work on executive functioning, and creating new awareness and internal narratives.
Need more information?
Book a free 30-minute call and ask me anything that isn't answered here.
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