When I started my Life and ADHD coach training four years ago, my mathematician/scientist, evidence-driven husband asked me, “How do you know that coaching works?” Other than my own experience with a business coach and the experiences reported by my coaching cohort (we coached each other for the first year), I had no evidence that I could point to.

Intuitively, I knew that coaching has improved my life and business greatly.

But I get it. Intuition isn’t hard evidence. Well, now I have proof of the pudding!

This past year, researchers at Maryland University of Integrative Health, University of Maryland, and the University of Pennsylvania reviewed 19 studies on the outcomes of ADHD coaching. Their review shows ADHD coaching contributes to improved outcomes in client well-being, time awareness and planning, organization, and other executive function-related skills and behaviors.

The researchers presented their findings at the 2018 Annual International Conference on ADHD. The conference brought together ADHD experts—coaches, clinicians, educators and ADHD individuals—to focus on best practices, new research, strategies, and community support.

A follow-up conference session described how to use assessment tools as a measure of coaching effectiveness. I had only been aware of assessments used by executive coaches for their business clients, so this is of great interest to me. In 2019 I will be researching assessment tools I might use to help my clients see their progress and document the effectiveness of their coaching experience. I’m really excited about the possibilities …

For the rest of December and January, I’ll be blogging about what else I learned at the ADHD conference. Stay tuned!