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Why Hire a Well-Trained Coach?
2) Reframes the client's ADD. The improved understanding the coaching relationship brings to the client creates a new awareness that explains their underperformance in the past. These explanations help diminish the self-blame that has contributed to feelings of poor self-esteem, and produces a feeling of relief, and acceptance that what happened was not their fault. It simply was a function of their unique ADD brain wiring.
3) Reminds the client of their uniqueness. As the coaching relationship grows their old paradigm of: "I'm a broken toy in need of repair," gives way to "I'm a uniquely wired individual, who has unique and brilliant skills, and is capable of achieving success in a unique way." The coach provides them with evidence of their unique style and where it has produced successful results.
4) Explains and Plans for the Paradoxes of ADD. ADD is paradoxical and situational. The ADD coach can explain why in specific situations their ADD challenges manifest, while in others they don't, i.e. The client can sustain focus with the completion of a specific task or can read a book for 45 minutes. However in other situations they fall asleep or daydream. The ADD coach helps to identify these paradoxical situations so that the client can be coached around prioritizing and focusing their energy and skills for the appropriate tasks.
5) Pinpoints the client's attentional challenges. The ADD coach partners with their client to identify different attentional challenges that can occur in a variety of situations. These include:
1) focusing on the intended stimulus
2) sustaining focus
3) shifting focus at will and when do they:
4) hyper-focus (a super intense, trance like concentration) or hypofocus (daydreaming).
The ADD coach will work with their clients to determine which attentional challenges occur during specific situations, and co-develop proper strategies to effectively manage them.
6) Helps the client articulate their ADD challenges. ADD can manifest a variety of impulsive, hyperactive, and attentional obstacles that impair the quality of an individual's life. A well-trained ADD coach can not only identify the challenges, getting in the way of progress, but can provide clear and concise descriptions for their clients to communicate with health professionals providing support services. An ADDer's ability to provide specific descriptions of their impairing challenges is a tremendous benefit to physicians attempting to diagnose and treat an ADD individual.
7) Asks the client if they are taking their meds. ADDers forget to take their meds all the time. They also have a tendency to take the medications when they feel like it, or only when it is necessary, i.e. they will take their med's at work, but not at home. The result is improved performance at work, but procrastination or inattention at home. The ADD coach reminds their client of the importance of taking their medications, as prescribed, to improve daily functioning and inevitably enhance their quality of life. The ADD coach will also support the client in creating a simple, system that reminds them to take their medications at scheduled times.
8) Assists the client in developing questions for potential health providers. The ADD coach will help the client create a list of specific questions to ask a physician, diagnostician, or therapist who specializes in ADD. Questions will include some of the following areas:
- percentage of ADDers in their practice
- treatment philosophy
- referrals
- how diagnosis is determined
- the parameters and specific process of the relationship
- ADD organizational affiliations, conferences attended or presented at
- familiarity with coaching
Asking the appropriate and specific questions can provide important information that facilitates selection of health professionals. Effective questions will also give the client a sense of a professional's willingness to work with them, as well as their ADD knowledge and experience.
9) Identifies the client's learning/processing style. An ADD coach assists their client in identifying how they learn, by educating them about the various ways ADD individuals process information and stimuli in their environment. There are six modes of processing or learning styles that ADDCA (ADD Coach ACADEMY) COACHES focus on with their clients: visual, verbal, kinesthetic, conceptual, auditory, and tactile. ADDCA coaches look at these six processing styles and identify the client's preferred learning style, which is used to sustain focus and concentration and their dominant style of learning used to comprehend whatever they were focusing their attention on, i.e. in college I would rock (kinesthetic, preferred style) on my rocking chair to sustain focus on my class notes, and I would sing (verbal, auditory, dominant style) my class notes, while rocking on my rocking chair, in order to understand the class notes I had been paying attention to. ADD coaches assist their clients in learning how they learn and then work with them to integrate these new learning skills into their lives.
10) Reflects back to their client what they are paying attention to. ADD coaches pay attention to what their clients pay attention to. If they are placing their attention on negative beliefs and stories handed down to them, that's what will manifest in their lives. Unfortunately, ADDers pay attention to past stories of poor performance and failure. These stories are based on other people's standards about who they are supposed to be, and what they are supposed to do, have, and acquire. Through ADD coaching, the client quickly begins to understand, that ADDers are NOT WHAT THEY DO. Their value as a human being is not dependent on their past or present performance. Their value is based on WHAT THEY BELIEVE about themselves. The ADD coach makes the client aware of their true strengths, passions and internal character traits that have always been there, but have gone unnoticed. Once the client becomes aware of their natural abilities and decides to use them consistently, they experience success. These new experiences provide the client with confidence and an ability to KNOW they are capable of creating what they want and what they BELIEVE is important in their lives.
BONUS Reason:
Listens to their client with Belief. ADDer's not only have difficulty paying attention to the world around them, they have difficulty focusing on the world within them. ADD coaches listen to who their clients are and who they want to be. They listen with unconditional belief, compassion, and understanding and reflect back to their client what they are observing. Through the supportive, and non-judgmental coaching environment and relationship, the client gains the insight and courage to employ and experience the skills and strengths they have always possessed.
TOP TEN REASONS FOR selecting AN ADD COACHTM
The Top 10 Strategies for Adults to Model for their ADD Children
The Top 10 Strategies that ADDers Need to Know
Written and developed by David Giwerc, MCC
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