Working through the definition of ADHD Coaching

Note that opinions I make in this article are my own and not opinions of organizations I’m affiliated with such as the iACTcenter, the ADHD Society of the Philippines, Kahel Press, Uniplan Overseas Employment, Inc. or the BEA program.

One of the exercises that I was tasked to do prior to graduating from the International ADHD Coach Training Center (iACTcenter) is to state the definition of our profession in our own words. Now that I’ve been working for that same center for a few years as a mentor and assessor, I’m revisiting this exercise – albeit a little more comprehensively and informed by my own unique experience. Needless to say, this is my personal working definition of ADHD coaching and I have no doubt that others who practice what I do will have their own. Upon reflection, the three crucial elements in my working definition of ADHD coaching involve what I actually do, its distinction from other practice as well as the lens of ethical practice:

Defining ADHD coaching in terms of what I actually do

ADHD life coaching is a modality in which a professional (coach) helps the person with ADHD (client) using empathic partnership and techniques that evoke deep awareness in an agreement-setting to moving-forward process – all while seeing the unique experience with ADHD as part of the client’s wholeness and not in need of fixing. The empathy here lies in the coach being informed and trained specifically on ADHD – and typically the coach has ADHD themselves or has a personal stake in it (e.g. they are a parent of someone with ADHD). The techniques for evoking deep awareness include powerful questioning, reflecting and maintaining presence. While the coach is equipped with specific tools towards direct executive functioning intervention, this is not the main feature of the modality as many might assume it to be. Dr. Russell Barkley, one of the world’s leading researchers and authorities on ADHD, famously described ADHD as “not a disorder of knowing what to do, but of doing what one knows.” Thus my profession posits that once the client with ADHD has a deep awareness – such as what is keeping them stuck, what their true priorities are and the like, organizing what to do is much easier. In all of this we note that ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which means that we are born with the condition and will likely experience its symptoms for the rest of our lives. As such, we suffer a tendency to constantly compare ourselves to people who don’t have it – leading to a deficient and “broken” view of ourselves. Nevertheless, we have our own strengths, values and the like that we may have forgotten to tap into given our current situation. ADHD coaching based on this description, is a profession that is uniquely designed to reinvigorate us from this deficient view to this strengths and values view.

Defining ADHD coaching in terms of its distinction from other practice

At this point, I think any casual search of ADHD coaching easily distinguishes it from therapy, consulting, teaching, mentoring and the like. Over time I’ve realized more and more how distinct this practice is from what psychologists, occupational therapists, psychiatrists and other help providers to ADHD do. It is so distinct that when called for, I find it relatively straightforward to refer clients out if needed, when the modality of ADHD coaching clearly isn’t working for the client and know with more precision what is missing for this client, why I can’t provide it and who can. Consequently, I have never found a psychologist or any other type of professional who does things remotely close to what my training has taught me to do. The one example that I’ve observed that stood out to me is how a coach is expected to be with the skill of listening and holding presence. I’m sure any respective helping profession has its version of “to listen openly while the client is talking.” When I practiced Mentor Coach Specialization (MCS) for the students of the International ADHD Coach Training Center (iACTcenter) using ICF standard references such as the ACC Minimum Skills Requirements or the PCC markers, some of these students learning coaching who were psychologists, social workers and educators have remarked the same thing: listening and holding space as a coach, is a different skill altogether especially when compared to their respective disciplines. Specifically, how we look at the skillset, what we’re specifically listening for and even how we treat saying “mhmm” while the client is talking are areas of difference. And this is just ONE aspect of the practice! When you consider putting all of the skills together and the unique knowledge and empathy we have of ADHD as well, the distinction becomes all too vivid.

Defining ADHD coaching through the lens of ethical practice

The fact that I get to even say this before actually getting paid by a client – “…if I violate confidentiality and/or give harmful advice, while I’m not a local licensed professional in my country, you can complain through the International Coaching Federation website through a process done by the organization’s Ethical Review Committee” – is a big step for the ADHD coaching profession as a whole given that earlier journal articles on the profession has repeatedly pointed out that “While the practice should be considered as a part of a multimodal approach, ADHD coaching is not a regulated profession…” The statement, while still technically true as of this writing in 2026, will probably change soon. From discussions on manualization, to being included in internationally recognized ADHD intervention manuals and to a pretest-posttest design research with favorable results, ADHD coaching has come a long way in terms of its accountability as a profession and its ethical practice especially with the ICF mentioned by aforementioned third party sources as a consideration for coaches. In fact, my experience has been that the discussion around ethics and practicing ethically has not just been on the mind of ADHD coaches I’ve worked with, but it’s basically a passion within the culture. We have faculty meetings in which half the time, we’re talking about better ways for data privacy and contracting. The ICF credentialing exam, extremely challenging in and of itself, is full of ethical scenarios where we pick the best and worst answer. Free seminars on this exist at any given time with an ICF membership and ethical review complaints detail how they were handled and concluded via an annual report. Reminders on accurately representing ourselves, our skillset, expectations, guarantees and the like are constant reminders we get – and we are encouraged to call one another on it in accordance with a code of ethics.

Thus my current working definition (while trying very hard to reduce words and probably failing): “ADHD coaching or ADHD life coaching is the practice / modality of empathic partnership in an agreement-setting to awareness-evoking, moving forward process, administered by an appropriately-trained individual whom we call the coach, towards an individual whom we call the client, who is always to be presumed to be different yet whole and completely capable, in which it is also a thoroughly distinct practice from all other helping professions especially in that it does not consult or diagnose, in which currently, unbiased third party resources refer to organizations such as the ICF as its source of accountability and ethical practice.”

Note: This article is NOT AI-assisted (I love writing too much to do that) apart from looking for and compiling the sources below

FIEL JOHN MERIA, PCC, A-CALC, CMC, MCS-ACC, MCS-PCC

Originally posted at neurodevcoach.com