FAQs for ADHD Doctoral Students
Fossil Rim Wildlife Center Glen Rose, TX
How will coaching work?
Coaching is a strengths-based approach to change. I ask each of my clients to take the free VIA Character Strengths survey. The report will show us your signature strengths. During coaching sessions, we will
shine a spotlight on your strengths. People who use their strengths on purpose have a greater life outcome. They reach their life goals, they’re healthier and happier. This approach to coaching resonates with doctoral students with ADHD because we focus on using your intrinsic strengths to circumvent any roadblocks and get across the finish line.
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How long will ADHD academic coaching take?
I recommend a 12-session commitment. This is the sweet spot to gain traction for the changes you want to see in your ADHD journey. We will schedule the sessions to fit with your calendar commitments.
Focus strategies that other people use don’t work with me. What type of strategies will you use?
Coaching is a co-authoring relationship. We will collaborate to explore and discover what will work for you. The human brain is a wonderfully complex creation, and we can learn to use it optimally. Here is an
illustration. Everyone has eyes, a nose, and a mouth on their face and yet everyone’s face is unique and recognizable. Similarly, everyone’s brain has the same structures and neurological networks. If we compare the complex networks to the freeway system, everyone has the main interstates. However, what makes your brain unique are the exits and the neighborhood streets being formed by your life experiences. The strategies we will use will align with what we know about neurological processes in the brain and customized to support your current needs.
Why do I need an ADHD doctoral coach?
When I work with you as your ADHD doctoral coach, what I bring to the table is insights as to how ADHD
impacts the learning processes and the life management processes.
I feel so overwhelmed with work, school and home life. Can you help?
As a doctoral student you have to keep showing up as a professional adult at work, at school and at
home. ADHD dissertation coaching will help you find the strengths that have always been in your toolkit.
Dust them off, oil them up, sharpen them and use your strengths to create do-able, step-by-step action
plans to get from point A to point B each week for the three main categories of your life: work, school
and home. ADHD doctoral coaching will help you determine priorities and focus on next steps to get
things done.
I work on my every growing to-do list and still feel behind. How can I know I haven’t forgotten
something? How do I know what to do next?
Doctoral work is characterized with heavy reading, processing information, and formulating knowledge.
This exacts a demand on energy. It takes energy to focus and sustain focus. It takes energy to process information and produce writing. It takes energy to manage your most precious ability – focus.
Managing your focus is a skill that can be learned.
To feel assured that you haven’t forgotten something essential takes planning and mapping it all out. During coaching I will help you translate your thinking into a visual that makes sense to you so that you can see it and make quality decisions about what is next.
It should not be this hard. Do you think I can finish?
The application and admission into a graduate program is a rigorous process. Then the course work and
research are another layer of academic rigor. Many of my doctoral clients are surprised to find it all so
difficult. They think that since they are in the doctoral program, they should not struggle to do the
academic work. Since doctoral work is so hard, often my doctoral clients think that maybe they do not
have it in them to actually finish. This is called the imposter syndrome.
What if my committee (lead professor, advisor, supervisor) asks me a question I can’t answer? Or if
my committee finds flaw in my logic?
This is a common concern. It can be intimidating to meet with your advising professor to discuss the
direction your research work is going. It’s easy to think that you don’t know enough. Didn’t read enough
articles. Didn’t analyze enough data. This is called the inner critic.