In a recent article on PsychCentral.com, titled "ADHD Coaching: Look to the Willow Tree" talks about how ADHD might be better well treated if looked at as not a diagnosis, but as a behavioral issue that can be "coached" through.
For example, much like a mentor, or a personal trainer, an ADHD coach would address a teenagers troublesome behaviors, like forgetfulness, by teaching them new behaviors that would help them adapt to their issues, like using reminder technologies or forming new routines to make everyday items easier to find.
Overall, the idea behind coaching for ADHD teens is to empower them to acknowledge their issues and to formulate ways to handle them on their own terms, on their own, so that they can cope successfully as adults.
Of course, this may work for some of our Foster or Adopted kids, and might not work for some, but we feel that empowering the kids that CAN learn to deal with their own behavioral issues or habits, well, you should at least try. We are all coaches everyday in some way.... we just need to concentrate our efforts perhaps with our ADHD kids as they grow older on teaching them how to help themselves.
Read the article below, what do you think?
Partnering
with a coach of any kind can lead to rewarding self-discovery. Whether
specified as executive, life or career coach, these people are
essentially teachers at their core. And as progressive educator/ liberal
philosopher John Dewey remarked throughout the context of his life’s
work in educational reform, you cannot so much teach individuals, or
impart knowledge, as actually only help those who desire to learn.
The best teachers are essentially mentors (and counselors of sorts),
drawing out any little glimpse they can sense and intuit that someone
near them has even the smallest seed of will or fascination to learn a
new fact or method. Such learning may not come easily, though,
especially with a learning-disabled student or individual.
There are coaches who specialize in helping those with attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder as well. One such coach in Pittsburgh,
Penn., Susan Lieber, is an impassioned counselor for those struggling to
make sense of their debilitating neurobiological condition.
Lieber’s focus is to help her clients “develop a language to advocate
for themselves.” This is no small task for those whose esteem is
shredded by their lessened ability to prepare for important tasks,
establish daily routines, see tasks to completion and remember where
everyday objects were placed — not to mention having a loss for words
other than the pat self-label
ADHD
to describe their challenges. “I have a hard time with managing
unscheduled time” would be one way to define yourself to the outer
world, Lieber posits, as opposed to saying “I am ADHD.”
A former occupational therapist versed in
cognitive-behavioral
strategies, as well as a former pain clinic researcher, Lieber decided
to go into coaching for the reason many do — a deep interest in
significantly applying her existing skillset and keen ability to
effectively work one on one with folks. Many of her clients are high
school students diagnosed with ADHD, and others have similar problems.
In the case of the former, she tries to help them move toward an adult
life on their terms and in a manner that “makes sense to them.”
This involves “developing an awareness” of behaviors and actions. It
is apparent from talking with her that Lieber masterfully culls those
slight seeds of desire for change and improvement in the lives of these
young people who may be frustrated with themselves and their place in
the world.
Her work as a coach is behaviorally-based and focused on education,
as she has observed that really all ADHD individuals “want change… want
better outcomes.” So Lieber figures out “what kinds of support the
client needs.” She stresses here that the ADHD experience “is unique to
each individual, and for a lot of reasons.” She has an apt term,
pivoting — “getting clients back on track to where they need to be”– to describe the goal of her coaching sessions.
Through the coaching process, ADHD individuals can, according to
Lieber, “gain a better understanding how their brain works” and learn
tactics “to manage day-to-day demands.” Identifying solutions comes
about in a mutual manner, with the coach encouraging honesty, humor, and
“a steadfast belief” in themselves, which she exemplifies. “Coaching is
all about asking questions and really listening,” she says.
Lieber also is a certified organizer coach, providing a more in-depth
service to select individuals who are coming to her for ADHD counsel.
Here she models and continues to identify effective strategies for the
ADHD client, evaluates effectiveness and joins in helping that person
develop some “habits for lasting change” in their home environment or
elsewhere.
ADHD coaching, as addressed on Lieber’s website, “can help you sort
through the physical and mental clutter that is limiting you….” She
defines her help as empowering — truly helping people set up a life
“which includes supportive persons, routines and spaces that is aligned
with the things that matter most.” As Lieber also describes it, “Imagine
replacing feelings of frustration with understanding and confidence…
and developing a deeper awareness of what’s significant.”
After some coaching sessions, some family members have said things
such as “now I understand my loved one doesn’t do this [lose keys or
can’t get out the door on time] on purpose.” And the clients themselves?
Instead of “feeling like you can do it all but falling short,” they are
learning new behavioral approaches that speak to their unique lives,
yet fitting those individual lives better into the larger whole of
society.
The
New York Times recently ran an
article about the possible connection between
sleep
disorders and ADHD, suggesting that ADHD may be really be a sleep
disorder in disguise. Nevertheless, the symptomatology is debilitating,
and an ADHD coach such as Lieber can effectively address what is
disrupting an otherwise fulfilling life.
Read more here:
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2013/adhd-coaching-look-to-the-willow-tree/
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