I am Samantha (Sam).

I completed my training with the iACT Centre as a Certified ADHD Life Coach in June 2024, and am completing my required hours to be an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation.

I work with ADHDers around self-esteem and confidence, job seeking, skill and talent identification, and seeking calm, rest and play.

I’m a late-diagnosis ADHDer. Learning, and learning to work with my ADHD, has profoundly changed my life for the better, and I want to work with you to do the same.

I am a new parent, and have a deep insight into the pregnancy, birth and new parent journey, and how being an ADHDer interacts with all three.

I live in Naarm | Melbourne on the unceded sovereign land of the First Nations people of the Kulin nation. I identify as LGBTQIA+ and promote a body positive mindset.

I have experience in the arts, theatre, education, project management and paper pushing.

I have had a number of amazing life experiences – creative, professional, and personal – as well as many struggles. I have learned to appreciate the good things, and people in life, and look forward to hearing your story.

A Certified ADHD coach is someone who collaborates with folks with ADHD to approach practical, day-to-day tasks, build their confidence, strengthen their problem solving skills, and improve their quality of life.

Often looking at day-to-day practicalities, by developing self-awareness and embracing your uniqueness, I can help you clarify and move towards your goals. This is about seeking more satisfaction in your life, by helping you find out the difference between how you think you should be, and how you actually want to be.

The Certified bit comes from the course I did – there are a small amount of organisations in the world that are Accredited by the International Coaching Federation to deliver a course in ADHD Coaching – the one I went with was the International ADHD Coach Training Center.

This course went for a year, was run by experienced ADHD Coaches, and had minimum contact hours, assessments, mentoring, and pathways to continued professional development.

You can only be a member of the Australasian ADHD Professionals Association, and be in the Australasian ADHD Coaches Directory if you have completed an accredited course. If you don’t end up going with me as a Coach, I will direct you to these two places to find someone that you will click with.

Coaching is not a regulated industry (along with, fun fact, Ultrasound Technicians), which means anyone can call themselves a Coach. Some Coaches that don’t have accreditation might be fantastic, some might not, and let’s be honest, some might even be trying to start their own cult, but that just sounds like a lot more admin than I am willing to take on.

Basically when you know your coach has done a certified course, you have a bit more assurance they know what they are doing.

If you have any more questions about this, please don’t hesitate to ask.

The word should comes up a lot for ADHDers – that word has been directed towards us by people we love, people in authority, people we are in awe of, and people we respect.

The word should, whether it comes from yourself or others, can come from a place of care. But it is also completely bloody useless.

There are some things about your brain difference that mean you do things best when you do them your way. The way everyone else wants you to do something, may not always work for you, or if it does, can be really stressful when you’re doing it.

The place the ‘should’ is coming from doesn’t understand the how, when and why of your unique brain.

We all need support at different times in our lives – being open to this support is a beautiful mindset to be in. You can do this, but also figure out how to do the things you want to do, your way.

Figuring out strategies builds confidence, and self awareness, and makes the challenges that follow less bloody daunting.

All sorts of things – in general it’s the parts of your life that you may be struggling with, in particular when combined with your ADHD. Things like:

• your current job

• career changes

• organisation

• study – challenges and decision making
• home life
• parenting (especially becoming a new parent)
• navigating IVF
• relationships
• energy management and rest
• getting active
• reducing overwhelm
• making other changes in your life that may seem overwhelming

I take a strengths-based approach – we will look at where we can build on your strengths, talents, passions and values to work on your challenges.

It’s all about helping you find the inner resources you have to find your own way forward.

No. ADHD Coaching is complementary to the other supports you or your loved one are seeking for ADHD.

One of my jobs is to know where my limitations are as an ADHD Coach, and when to refer you to other professionals when we cover topics that are not within my scope of support.

A Coach helps you with your goals and moving forward. A psychologist does what you could call psychic bookkeping. Both are important.

I see a psychologist, psychiatrist and GP, and I value the support they provide – and I see a coach too.

I am always happy to be contacted by health professionals you are working with if and when appropriate to discuss or share information

I coach anyone who is ready to reach out or curious about how coaching can help them – but generally here are a few groups of people I work with:

Late diagnosis ADHDers

Like me! I can work with you for the huge change in perspective that is an ADHD diagnosis. I can also work with you through what can be called a ‘grief process’ as you take stock and look to the future

Often you will have spent years finding solutions and strategies already, without realising you were doing this to support your ADHD. We can work together to affirm your resourcefulness, learn some new strategies, and also learn more about your unique ADHD traits.

Parents of children and young people with ADHD

It’s all about building your confidence so that you can collaborate with, and advocate for, your child and young person. Their diagnosis may also bring some stuff up for the parent – I’ll help you navigate this, so that you can move towards showing up for yourself, so you can feel confident showing up for your child.

Young people

Yes you young person – getting to know yourself is a lifelong journey, and can be awesome if you know what you are capable of, and what to ask for when you need help, and feel confident that what you are asking for works for you

Late diagnosis ADHDers – take note – we are learning this too!

ADHD is something that makes your brain a bit different to other people, and can make you spend time in the world in a different way to other people.

People with adhd are really caring, creative, curious and kind.
Sometimes we feel misunderstood.
Sometimes we are misunderstood.
Sometimes we do or say things without thinking about it first.
Sometimes it’s hard to do things other people want you to do that you think are boring.
But when we are doing something we love to do, we are so happy, and feel like we could do it forever.
We can learn how to be friends with our ADHD and ourselves, and care about ourselves as much as we care about other people

I do all three, but coaching can be the most sustainable solution for an individual client, and it’s the most fun!

Executive function is linked to the initiation, sustaining and completing of tasks.
Tasks can include day to day chores or a big project at work.

ADHD brains have a unique relationship with their executive function, especially when it comes to tasks they don’t feel connected to, or that are multi-stepped or complex. They can also struggle with switching or transitioning tasks in the same way as everyone else.

Because we live in a world that values productivity and task completion, sometimes an ADHDer’s struggles working with their executive function can be interpreted as moral failings, laziness, or a lack of respect.

This can produce feelings of shame. Let’s see what we can do about addressing the moral misconceptions, while finding ways to help you achieve your goals, and feel good about yourself on the way

It is the least spoken about trait in medical and diagnostic circles, but I have never met an ADHDer without some form of rejection sensitivity – and it can be the most painful and potentially the most destructive aspect of your ADHD.

It means being extremely sensitive to either actual or perceived rejection. It means having a big emotional response when you feel this way – sorrow, embarrassment, anger, sadness, social withdrawal, isolation, and shutting down.

It can also mean developing perfectionist tendencies in an attempt to avoid ever feeling rejected at all.

These big emotional responses and perfectionism can be why people spend years being misdiagnosed, in particular with conditions related to anxiety, before they come across this trait and learn it is an integral part of the ADHD experience.

Oh the temptation to give advice! I understand – from our deepest wells of compassion, we just want our loved ones, and hopefully ourselves and the people around us, to be happy – creative, resourceful and whole.

But giving and receiving advice, while sometimes useful, can sometimes be counterproductive in the long term.

I think Lou Brown from Thriving with ADHD has described what can happen if we only focus on advice giving and receiving:

“It robs [ADHDers] of the opportunity to develop self-awareness and personal empowerment, and can result in them:

• Feeling infantalised and like their challenges are not valid or understood
• Becoming more anxious about making mistakes, especially if they interpreted the strategies as being mandatory instructions rather than ideas they can experiment with
• Experiencing overwhelm due to the sheer volume of suggestions offered to them or
  the number of steps involved, which can trigger procrastination or make them want to give up altogether
• Excitedly trying a recommended strategy only to discover that it didn’t work for them, or that the strategy had a use-by date due to the role interest plays stimulating dopamine availability and therefore self-regulation capacity.

These experiences can leave people with ADHD feeling like a failure and fuel any deep-seated negative self-beliefs.”

The goal of coaching is to help the client understand that they are creative, resourceful and whole, and that once they focus on their core values and strengths, they can address the barriers and stories that could be holding them back.

No. Only a psychiatrist can approve the dispensing of medication for ADHD by themselves or a GP in Australia. Your doctor should be able to talk you through the process – or refer you to someone who can.

I can coach you through strategies to tackle the process so you don’t feel overwhelmed, and also do check ins to ensure you are on track, but I cannot respond to the process itself for you, or provide you with an outcome.

No. Your doctor should be able to talk you through the process though – or refer you to someone who can.

You don’t need to have been officially diagnosed with ADHD to be coached by me though – access to diagnosis and support can be really overwhelming, expensive and tricky, and has been the focus of a lot of discussion with the right people lately.

I can help you find the best approach to navigate this process that works for you, if you choose to do it.

It’s not the most straight forward name for a business, is it?

But when I thought of it, it made the most sense for me. The definition for off-piste made me think of how much my life, and the lives of others have improved just when we have become more confident treading the path that works for us. It’s an unusual name, but I embrace it.