And without further ado, here they are. Hi, guys. Wonderful to see you. Just absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us. As you might imagine, it's been quite a long night. I happen to know one of you also had quite a long night. And I think we're all enormous fans of the importance and power of coaching and the life changing difference it can have. And it's something we really wanted to highlight in this conference. And so I want to thank you for coming. You're also part of our ADHD UK system. You volunteer and support the charity and you provide support groups and as well as often conversations with me to educating us on what's what's needed. Like, it's you are wonderful. So.

Bear that in mind when I get to the questions. They're wonderful and charming. Right. Let's do introductions. I'm reading for a pre it's been a long night. Hopefully, you've all know what I'm about to say. So Kim Tew, founder of ownyourinferior.com, certified ADHD coach. Lex Harvey Bryn, neurodivergent coach and therapist and head of training at Head Stuff. Katie Freeman, ADHD coach coach trainer, TEDx speaker and director of Gold Mind Neurodiversity Limited. He's a positive psychology ADHD coach and laughter yoga leader. And and if you want to try a taste for all of these people who come to one of the sessions that they do with ADHD UK supporting.

Bringing what they do to people at no charge. They they don't charge for their time to us and it enables us to and to get support to everyone. It's a very important thing. It's a wonderful thing. And if you're in the market for a coach, also a wonderful way to test out a coach, see what they are, and and see different coaches and get and start to work out which you think you're gonna gel with. And that's better for everyone. It's better for the coach, better for you because you find someone who you're gonna gonna gonna gel with. It's a it's a really great thing to do. Natasha Hickling, ADHD life coach for adolescents, families, young adults, and couples. And when we first met her, she was in Singapore.

And recently become a coach and moved back now back into The UK, but a wealth of serious abolitionists. Alex Campbell, ADHD therapist, speaker, mental health first aid instructor. He provides basically zero cost mental health first aid training for all the staff here which is really a wonderful thing and we are very grateful for what is important. Think in the intro I'm not quite sure if you heard it. We talked about some of the really significant mental health risks around ADHD and working and so being able to know what to do in a crisis is very, very important and we thank him for it. He's founded adhdalex.com I think. Yes. Before I go into the questions, I thought I'd start with a question for Alex. How are you feeling, Alex?

Well, had a great with ADHD New Zealand at 3AM this morning. And and and my daughter has been sick all night. So I have been up a bit longer than I had anticipated. So I'm currently operating on little sleep coffee and concerto. There we go.

Fair enough. We we be fair, there's a pretty similar mix on this side of the table. Not quite identical, but, like, not so far off. Yes. And we've been obviously, it's been a long night, and we were very excited. So we've got a lot of people joining us now. We had a bit of excitement like during the night where the feed went down for a short short period. I got a panicky call or not panicky, like a sensible call here. What what what what like, and we together got it back up very, very quickly. But as a result of that, actually, we got to see because when you're getting live, don't get to see your your data. So it then renders, you get to see your data. And we found out that we've had 4,400 attendees so far. We.

Are pretty excited about that. And so I want to thank you and your help and support in this. And it's a big deal what we're trying to do, bring, you know, raise awareness and understanding of ADHD. Our our tagline, I love it because I wrote it, you know, is to help people globally, nationally, locally, and individually. And this is nothing like blowing your blowing your own chocolate. We've got questions. And people, so if you've got questions, do put them go to globaladhd.com, go to q and a. You can put them there. You can also upvote, downvote other people's questions. And you can also because, like, we're for Charlie, like, you can also boost it. And so overall, everyone's upvote voting. Put yours at the top.

And it's just it's an excuse to donate. That's really what it is. So do consider if you're putting in a question, you consider donating? We can't do this without without your support. We get no money from government. Please please consider doing that. Natasha, like, apparently, your answer is the first question. I believe you've all seen these questions beforehand, potentially, possibly very, very recently because I'm pretty sure some of them have been worked on earlier today. We've got Natasha. How does coaching with adolescents and children compare to adults?

Well, pressure first person. Well, it it's very much people think it's very different, but it's actually very much the same with teens and with adults. With adults, you know, we really wanna coaching is about empowering the client. Right? And the client brings the subject, the client brings the topic. And with teens, it's very much the same. Obviously, there has to be a bit more scaffold, but it's very much the same because if I was to give a topic to a teen, firstly, they're not gonna wanna do it. And secondly, they're not gonna empower to take it on themselves. And I find that when I work with teens, with younger children, it's all about giving them the empowerment to bring things themselves.

Obviously, when they're under 18, there is a bit of a difference because we have parents involved and we have other people involved. And the communication, have to work with that. But but fundamentally, the coaching is very much the same. There might need to be a bit more scaffold. There might need to be a bit more because, obviously, when you're 14 to 18, the self awareness is not always there. So there needs to be a bit more involvement with parents, with the family. However, the fundamental thing is it is the same. When it comes to kind of younger children, it is more work with parents and more work with the family around versus the child themselves. But when it comes to kind of 14 and up and the self awareness is already there.

It is very much the same. And I feel that that's a massive kind of misconception that it's very different and the coach is gonna be more hands on. But it's if I was more hands on, it wouldn't work anyway. And that's why it really is about empowering the teen and empowering them to take it on themselves. We do have to have communication with parents. I do get parents to have their say. But at the end of the day, when the parents have their say, it's brought to the the adolescents and say, what do you think about this? And it's about bringing that family communication and that family coherence. Everybody is on the same page.

So, yeah, it might not just be me meeting the the the adult and that's it. It is me meeting the teen and there is a bit of that parent communication. But it's very much the same because, you know, the teen is living in a house with parents, with siblings, with everything else. When you're an adult, sometimes you're living by yourself or with one other person. When your team is like could be four or five people in the house. So there is that communication. But it is very much the same and that's why I absolutely love it because it empowers them to take it on. And then when they get to adults, they've got those skills and that self.

That self that they can do it because someone's not told them what to do. Someone's listened, and someone has helped them build the skills that they need to be able to do that as an adult and take that on. Hope that answers the question.

It did. Thank you very much. It was a it was a it's a good answer. And I think a part and then part of what you said was the involvement of the, what, the more scaffold well, actually, well, involving the family, involving the other people, obviously, the the family unit. When you say scaffolding, what does that what does that mean?

So, like, what I mean by that is, you might need to use, a few models or something to kind of or a visual to get the conversation going. So let's say a child comes to me and says, you know, I need to get my homework done. Right? It it and then you you start to kind of when you go into the exploration, you can't quite figure out what's going on. We might need to I don't know. Let's say this is time management. We might need to bring something in there to start the conversation because sometimes at 14, we don't have that awareness.

Because our executive functions are not you know, we're going through that kind of developmental period that our self awareness might not be there. So sometimes we use scaffold just to start the conversation, just to start that awareness. But it's still much on their terms then bringing it.

And so in summary, scaffolding is building the knowledge and understanding using models of either ways of describing Yeah. That that help that help explain that that aren't aren't, you know, metaphors and other things. It's it's it's only because I but I remember a long time ago, someone talked to me about a financial model and I was like, what's it like? I had visions of people building things without sort of balsamic, but I couldn't get my head around how that was financial. Later discovered it was a spreadsheet. And so I thinking sometimes in this context worth worth just helping build build out. This is supposed to be an informational. So, okay, it's over to you. Okay, over to you.

Why might a student with ADHD struggle more at university than their peers? I think this is such an important question because we see so many people and I I spoke with a senior university person not so long ago and they said, you know, the challenge with ADHD is it's not that they can't come they they can't do it, it's that they don't finish. Right And over over to you.

It that's so so true. It's so true that the fact that so many students actually with ADHD end up not completing their degrees and, you know, dropping out, myself included. I actually dropped out. I actually was only diagnosed in my fifties, but looking back now, that is exactly why. That's exactly what happened to me. And it's interesting, Natasha, that you were talking about scaffolding because I think what happens when students who are either undiagnosed or already diagnosed, when they go to university, a lot of that scaffolding, that sort of emotional support, that structure at school and at home that kept them kind of just about ticking over, that that kept them safe, that kept them motivated. All of that is taken away.

And and suddenly they're on their own. So even if they've gone with friends, it might be that, you know, they're missing their family pet. They're missing their family. It's even things like doing the laundry, looking after yourself, cooking for yourself. Quite often people's diets suddenly fall off a cliff. Obviously, there's lots of you know, if you think about freshers week and all the drinking that's out there, there's lots of temptations, and we know that people with ADHD tend to be more impulsive. So that's another issue. And I haven't even got got started on the academic work and organization yet. So there's all this sort of emotional stuff going on. And we know that lots of people with ADHD, especially if they're not diagnosed.

Feel like they don't quite fit in, and then they feel a bit broken. And we do know that. And, obviously, for the undiagnosed students, they come in and they suddenly feel like a fish out of water. That's one of what one of my coaching clients said to me. I just didn't know where I was. If for lots of people that maybe their their accent sounds quite different, they're within another part of the country, and they're somewhere completely new. And then once you start getting with the academic work, it's all that they've gone for quite a lot of them have gone for having three or four different subjects that kept their interest up and structured timetables. And then suddenly.

They might only have five hours of lectures a week, and they're expected to do lots of reading in between. And we all know that people with ADHD have trouble with working memory. So quite often, people might read a book and then have forgotten what they've read, or they don't quite know how to do note taking. There's not been that they've not learned how to organize or prioritize work or they struggle with that. And, obviously, we know that when people have got high emotions, when they're stressed, when they're anxious, their executive function skills decrease. So it's all these things compounded. It's almost like a perfect storm.

And I'm always I'm always surprised as well that the university year starts in September because most people, they'd actually struggle with that change of the seasons. So September, October, their nights are getting longer, and everybody's energy drops. And, and it's something we don't really think about, in terms of students, but it does have a real impact. We know that students, more and more students are struggling with mental health these days. And, you know, even more over the last two years with COVID, people have had to negotiate online lessons, so they've not been able to meet people in the same way. There's been so many additional pressures on students. And and there's also that expectation pressure.

Especially in the final year when you've got to apply for a job and look for jobs at the same time as finishing your degree, finishing your dissertation. And we do know that people with executive function issues really struggle to do both of those things at once. They're both huge things. And quite often what happens is that students with ADHD who actually manage to finish quite often then finish, and it's kind of like, oh, what now? I haven't thought about what's next because, of course, we live so much in the present moment and can't really future future focus so much. I mean, what I'd like to see, Henry, more than anything is that if I think about students investing about £10,000 per year in their education.

I just think, you know, we've been talking about screening for people, in the youth vending system and prisons. Why can't universities screen students for ADHD or for other neurodivergencies when they start? It just feels like, you know, people are investing in their education and parents are investing in their children's education. It just feels like such an obvious thing to do for universities to actually do a screening and just pick out. And then if they can offer that support, some people would have much, much easier and more enjoyable time. And it would, you know, it would reduce mental health issues. It would reduce deaths. You know? We know that suicides are a big problem at universities in The UK.

So that's that's my plea to universities, and I think it would just take one university to be the first to do it, and and hopefully everybody else would would see the results and and be inspired by it.

I'll stop you. No. You're alright. I was busy in the background.

That's okay.

Although I worry you can't quite you can't see me moving for for reasons that are unknown, but I think you can see me. Well, so we're going to move on rapidly to the next question once you see a frozen picture of me. Is what it is. Katie, if we can ask you, what do you love about coaching ADHD women?

So I was originally a leadership coach and, I kind of feel like, late diagnosed women are are your ultimate leaders. They have so much influence, and, you know, fingers in so many pies. And so as someone who kind of wants to affect change, I feel like, you know, women are are where it's at. In some of my group coaching, you know, I often have women who are listening to other women and appreciating their strengths, and and they kind of come alive because they're inspired by seeing the strengths of others and think, actually, maybe this is what other people think about me. And, you know, selfishly, I get that every day because I get to to coach these amazing women, and I and I'm having that same kind of beautiful mirror effect.

And and it's I just think there's so much potential, with ADHD women. And and, you know, coaching is about empowerment, and women are often disempowered for many, you know, intersecting reasons. We've got misogyny. We've got an onslaught of hormones later on in life, which doesn't help with ADHD. We've got the mother lode, or let's call it the woman lode because it might not be anything to do with kids. There's stuff out in the media at the moment about, women now working full time way more than ever but still doing 40 to 60% more housework. That's a load. If you've got ADHD on top, this is huge. That's disempowerment. There's the mother load, and the fact that often ADHD women have ND kids.

And therefore we are often, executive function for our children, which is ridiculous when we can barely manage our own. We might also be the executive function for partners. We're navigating diagnosis often for more than ourselves. And so you know Natasha's talking about, the importance of having that support for children. I also think that, if parents can lead with their diagnosis and their understanding, that's very, very powerful. Just like, you know, when leaders can lead with their identity, that's gonna have a massive effect on on psychological safety for everyone in their team. It's kind of the same thing. So I absolutely love working with women because when you do coaching.

It's like they've got such a tight belt on, like a corset. Let's talk about women's oppression. A corset that's so, so tight. And what we're doing is we're starting to expand and really feel ourselves in our space and and realize the potential that was there, and I I love that. So I'm sorry I've given you a load of metaphors, Henry, but I hope that answered the question.

It did. Thank you very much. And you can now see me in in in moving glory. No. That was it's it's it's important that we've actually one of the reasons we ran late was we were talking about ADHD in women from specialists particularly around medication. It's obviously an incredibly important area and there's been a historic under diagnosis. It's a historic underdiagnosis for the entire population but it's more so in anyone who's not little boy who's hyperactive. Everyone else, donors. Inattentive boy, women, girls. But it's more there's, obviously, difference, which we're going to go on to. I think it's Kim. Wonderful to have have you here. So this is this is the extremely awkward question for the middle aged white bloke. Okay.

Good question. It's he always feels like he's nikey. The well, what what's your obviously, like, one of the the areas you particularly coach around is around being an ethnic minority and the difference that that a a has. And I think we've talked about the the you've been talking to me about the cultural differences, the impacts of different perceptions and that's obviously So what is your advice on giving to people in ethnic minorities about pursuing a diagnosis, the impacts, what are the sort of things you you you find yourself coaching around?

Yeah. So I think it's a very important topic and one which is why I trained myself to be a coach because I just didn't see, like, representation and talking about issues that I thought was important, you know, in the topic of neurodiversity in general. And most of my clients have been people of color, very surprisingly, because I don't know. I didn't expect that, but it just shows that people do want help. But they just want to feel like they can, you know, see somebody that is similar to them that can offer that help. So I think that's really important. So I think what is really important to highlight is that neurodiversity has been I guess it's been talked about.

In kind of one lens and not so much in the lens of kind of different cultures or anything like that. And I think it's really important to mention that. I guess in my culture, it's very shameful to, you know, have a neurodiversity. There in my culture, it's long years, you know, behind what we view. I mean, we're still working on neurodiverse views here, you know, in in Europe. But in different cultures, it's it's very it's very shameful. And it and that is what I find when I'm coaching my clients is that they're not only dealing with the practical stuff of ADHD learning skills.

They're dealing with a shame, and they're dealing with the fact that they don't have family support. And we know that one of the healing, you know, elements of having ADHD is having a family support network. It's really important. So if you don't have that, you're really just working on skills and you're not really fundamentally kind of thinking about, okay. Well, how how does being a neurodiverse person of color means to me and my existence? And I think that is really hard and that's not really spoken spoken about. About. And I think that also prevents a lot of people of color seeking a diagnosis because they don't they don't want that label, and they don't they find it you know, there could be a lot of shameful.

Aspects and emotional trauma to deal with. Right? Because at least in I can say in my Asian culture, there's a lot of pressure to do well in life, you know, be a lawyer, be a doctor, and stuff. And I definitely worked extremely hard all my life to meet those kind of expectations and never met them. And then when I was diagnosed, I felt very ashamed. I was really ashamed of it because I tried really, really hard. So there's a lot of feelings to that and, yeah, that makes it really hard to go seek a diagnosis in the first place. Right? So I I think my advice is that, hopefully, in my eyes, as more and more discussions of neurodiversity for through an intersectional lens becomes, you know, mainstream.

More more people would want to kind of share those experiences like myself, like Sam Hu, who I met along my journey of advocacy and discovery. I think more and more people of color or from ethnic minorities will feel safe to come forward and actually get a diagnosis and believe that getting a diagnosis and working on all these things will help them move forward. And my other advice is, I know it's really hard because sometimes you feel like you really want that approval from your family, you really want that support. And I don't I honestly don't have any of that from my family, but I've got that support network from everybody else, you know, everybody in the community through ADHD UK.

Through, you know, WhatsApp group that I built for women who were diagnosed late. Like, you can find these communities online. And it you know, maybe you won't ever get that family approval, but it's all about carving support and identity away from whatever culture binds you to in terms of expectations. So I hope that makes sense. And thank you for asking the questions. I do think it's really important.

Well, thank you. And I think it is very important. And I think it's also very important that, you know, the middle aged white bloke doesn't just shy away from it for fear of getting it wrong, which I think can be very easily done. It's not something we are I actually I thank you because you are helping us build and you do a support group particularly with us focused on being an ethnic minority in ADHD. And it is very important and having talked to people when they talk about that intersection, it's very clear how important that discussion is and having people who are in the same situation to talk about. And so thank you for your pardon that and thank you for answering that. I missed a question and jumped over Lex. And your question is what.

Is rejection sensitive dysphoria? How is it linked to ADHD and how might a coach help? And I think it'd be interesting to talk about, like, well, where where it sits in terms of what people's perception of it because I think it was over to you.

Well, I love the irony that I'm talking about RSD, you forgot that one, Henry. But, ultimately, how I paraphrase RSD, which is quite often the thing that people find quite painful when they realize they experience ADHD, that there's this coexisting thing called RSD, rejection sensitivity dysphoria. And how I put it in a nutshell is essentially, could actually be happening, but it's more so when you're perceiving that you're failing to meet your own or other people's expectations. And once that's triggered, so you're perceiving that you're either meeting not meeting someone else's or not meeting your own expectations.

It hits you like a an adrenaline punch, like, right in the wherever it hits you, that's where mine goes, right into the chest. And then what happens after that is a snowball of of, sort of catastrophizing. And what causes that once you've had those triggered thoughts is an adrenaline spikes. But our central nervous system is is incapable of knowing if, the difference between someone stood at the door trying to harm you or a spelling mistake on a report that your manager's just raised with you. So it's so it's one of those things that is quite often a light bulb moment for people, newly die who have just become diagnosed or just become aware of of of RSD, because you can see the patterns and how they've influenced.

Your life right from a very early age. And quite often, as well as the thing that started to put your mask on when you were at school, is that, sort of real draw, of wanting to meet the expectations of your peers and your teachers. More so teachers, I think, when you're younger because our executive dysfunction starts to come out and sort of very quickly recognize that we're not quite the same as everybody else, a number of different ways. And that can often be the first memories that people have of putting the mask on. So it's it's something that is, for me, as a coach, is is because I work with people who are diagnosed later in life predominantly.

Is realizing and understanding and and mapping out how that has impacted life and how how you can manage that moving forward. Sadly, it's something that you'll never completely get rid of, but it is something that we can strategize and and develop some tools in the in the in the in the bag of tools that you can use to manage all of our ADHD traits, that we can we can minimize the impact that it can have because it can feel in the moment, it feels catastrophic, and can feel like you're fine, everything's great, and then it's it we can really seriously catastrophize sort of throwing the towel and ending it, especially damaging with relationships. I mean, we've talked about in education how.

A lot of us didn't finish, and that's for lots of different reasons. But I certainly remember vividly several times quitting because I just thought, can't do this done before I realized I experienced ADHD, and I have autism and and RSD. So it's one of those things that we can as we pan back in life, we can see just how devastating it has been to our whole picture, but equally, it's something that we can put in place some really good tools to manage moving forward.

Thank you. One of the things around rejection sensitivity nailed me on. There is a whole load of debate about does rejection sensitivity dysphoria exist and that it hasn't had full academic research. Therefore, you know, it's not part of the psychiatric formal guidance, etcetera. And I do think that kind of misses like, from my perception, it feels like it misses the point, which is that a whole load of people have real sensitivity about rejection. And as a coach, them with that is extraordinarily helpful. Like and it doesn't matter if it's got a formal name or not. What matters is here is someone who's got a problem that you've met many.

Times before and have an understanding of. I think it would be useful to go through that full, you know, so that we can build up more tools and people can have research and provide more you know, even more guidance.

But I I do feel like that debate gets a bit polarized as well as, you know, not formally recognized, but does it really matter? Like, if someone's coming to you with that? Like No. It's it's it's how it's it's the only important thing is how if if somebody identifies with how someone explains RSD and they go, wow. That happens to me. It's irrelevant if it's diagnosed or not. We work on that because it's real and it's painful and it's and it's damaging. Yeah. And and equally feeds into that whole, if you can't see it, it doesn't really exist mentality that we have around neurodivergent in its entirety. We don't I get I don't you don't look autistic probably three or four times a week.

And and I think that's that that in itself, those are quite harmful things that that we experience as as as human beings who are neurodivergent.

Yeah. I do think that, yeah, that's, yeah, you don't look autistic. And on ADHD, was talking to someone, I was running late and I was like, oh, I'm running late. I've got ADHD, I'm running late. I'm actually just trying to be like, I can't do the thing you want me to do because, like, at the moment, actually, shocker, I'm going to be on, you know, I'm going to do your thing. And they were like, no, look, everyone runs that. You can't have that one on ADHD, mate. And I was just like, oh, I bit my tongue.

Oh my goodness. I don't have that with keys. With keys for, like, forty two years. Can't you just put your keys in the same place? No. No, I literally can't, but thank you for I have alarms that just I put on them now because there's no point trying to there's no point trying to talk to myself with that one anymore.

So, yeah, absolutely understandable. My my wonderful wife is is buying us, yeah, the the the tags. Like, it's mostly because I'm changing. In the last two weeks, I've I've left my keys in the front door four times. Yeah. I've done that. It's like was it's Life show. It was very well, it's the whole burglary problem. Like, murdering you and being murdered in your sleep issue. Oh, Katie's I a greater hand on murdering me, like and so not sure where this is going, but okay. Go for it. And then it's Alex, and then we've got some questions that have been submitted.

I I just wanna ask a question of the panel, really, because this comes up in my coaching. People get told this. You don't look like you have ADHD. You don't look autistic. What's your best response personally that you've come back with to I'm gonna like, Henry, Lex, Alex, anybody? Natasha's raised her hand. She's she's Go on, Natasha. I say, well, you don't look neurotypical.

So I I do that because because or or I say or I say, well, what does ADHD look like then? And that that usually I ask that. So it's usually it depends what sort of day I've had. If I'm sensory overloaded, it's you don't know what I do. If it's a day where I'm where I've got that capacity, then I say, what do you think ADHD looks like? Because I feel that opens the conversation into then educating and teaching someone what it could be.

That's such a wonderful coach answer. It's either I'm gonna coach this person into understanding. I'm gonna help them. What do you think it means? Or it's just like, no. Like, you don't look normal, mate. Said with longer words. It's absolutely wonderful. Good question, Katie. Next time you're in charge, I'll give you the camera. Alex, what is the difference between ADHD coaching and therapy?

I got asked this question at 3AM as well, so I feel like I'm primed. But I had less executive functioning available to me on that call. And I like to think of the difference as an analogy that a good coach friend, Tony Cowart, uses, which is, you know, if a car is broken down, the therapist will help you understand, like, why you got to that point. Like, what happened when the car broke down and you're here and what we're gonna do about that. The coach is like, you figured out why the car's broken down, and now you're figuring out where you wanna move forwards. What do you wanna do now the car can get back on the road and how are gonna get there? And and so it's there's a difference of focus in terms of past and future.

With therapy and coaching. But I wanna caveat this. The coaching in the therapy field is so super diverse that often if you ask a different therapist, you might also be a coach, you might get a little bit of a different answer because there's so much crossover. But there is one thing I think that does delineate the two, which is that a therapist is trained to work with mental health issues, and they're there to also work with things like suicide. Right? And that often a lot of coach training does not go into that level of depth of training. They're not trained to work with someone who's acute and suicidal. And in my.

Foundational coaching training, they explicitly said that there is a point by which it's not your remit to support someone if they're acutely suicidal. So I think it's there are some quite clear boundaries around this. But beyond that, if someone has ADHD and they've got some things that they wanna work on around their ADHD, it might be more appropriate to go seek a coach. One other thing I would say is it's about the lack of awareness and training that therapists have had about ADHD in particular. I know many clients who I see as a therapist come to me because their ADHD has been pathologized.

Or has been described as simply trauma. Now we know that there is something of trauma intersecting with ADHD, and I'm not disputing that. But I think it can be quite damaging some for some ADHD individuals where actually the therapeutic healing support that they needed from that therapist wasn't there because of ignorance. And funny enough, Katie Friedman and I are trying to correct that by developing a course for such things for coaches and therapists. But which is an ICF accredited course. But I think that there is something about often, if you're an ADHD coach, you have ADHD. So there is this there is this lived experience and this knowledge and this understanding, what I call profound empathy.

That can happen when two ADHDs get together to talk about things that are really personal and really quite intimate. And you really need to know that's something that you can trust someone with. And in my experience, that happens more than ADHD coach than a can with a therapist. And I think that's just a knowledge gap. But I hope that I went off a bit there, but I hope that helps delineate the two a bit. It did.

I think it was wonderful metaphor and it's wonderful to bring in Tony and Sandy can't be be here today. And bright questions. I had some questions submitted and actually very heavily upvoted. How hard is it to learn coaching skills? I teach and manage mental students, some of whom have ADHD as I do. How would I and colleagues just go about learning some basic coaching skills to use the neurodivergent students and colleagues and how big an investment of time would you expect this to be? Who wants to take that? Crickets. Katie, over to you. Hi, Katie.

Well, if you are a manager, which sounds like you are, then, certainly our twenty hour course, would be, well suited to you. We're piloting it at the moment this month, ADHD, awareness month, and, it should be, ready for, sign up for February. We are, specifically, encouraging ADHDers onto that course. So if you didn't have ADHD, you'd be getting a very rich experience through the lived experience that all the participants bring as well as, obviously, the training that both Alex and I have. And, yeah, I I think it's very important, not to, that in the autistic community, they talk about nothing about us without us, and I think that's really important when it comes to education. I've seen some pretty dire courses that have been.

Run by, neurotypicals and use words like, how to deal with neurodivergent clients. So, you know, I just think you're in much safer hands if you have well trained leaders of a course who understand learning and understand that learning can be really different even within the ADHD community because they have very different processing preferences and communication preferences, so leaders who can hold different ways of learning and keep up the pace because let's face it, focus is a thing.

Henry, do you mind if I just add on to that? Sorry to interrupt. No. I do not. Go for it. I just wanted I also wanted to build on from that, Kate, because the other thing I hear a lot is, well, how will it benefit neurotypical minds? And one of the things that's really important to understand is that anything that benefits neurodivergent minds hugely benefits all minds, because we need clarity. We need no ambiguity. We need clear communication, and all of those things benefits benefit all minds. And just on the end of that question that was just had about how how long would it take? I think for if you're looking at coaching as an entirety, think it's a lifelong thing. Once you have the aptitude for wanting to coach.

And you have those in sort of integral skills and desire, it's a lifelong journey. We're always we're always researching and looking and and enjoying and indulging, all of the different and new theories that come along. We're just hearing about Alex and Kate's course course now, and we're super excited about that. And it's because we're constantly seeking and learning and developing and adapting. So it's definitely a lifelong, whether you're you're coaching or or in leadership positions as well.

Thank you. Can I just add as well, Henry? I think, sometimes I think we're we're prone to over complicating things as well. And actually, just the importance of listening, like really listening to somebody else's lived experience and and not dismissing it is absolutely crucial. So if somebody tells you, you know, that they're having a really difficult time because they can't organize their work and they then actually listen to them and believe them. I think there's so much in that and just and meeting somebody human to human, you know, that that's what we do as coaches, but you can do that without any coaching training. It's just a a case of caring enough, being compassionate, really listening, and really wanting to help people.

And, actually, that doesn't take any training. It's it's about your values and and how you see other people.

No. I think that's a wonderful insight. I I can also see the value of, like, learning the constructs of of how to question someone in that openness. And if someone feels that they don't have those skills, I often think someone who's asking that kind of question usually has the right mindset, which means because if they're asking it, they've already got the insight that they they know to do it differently. And that's kind of the big leap ahead of time.

It is. But I think if you're managing a team of people, it's really important that the people in the team, the ones who have that sort of face to face contact with students on a daily basis, that everybody knows that about the importance of listening and about that mindset. It's about getting that message down to everybody within, you know, within the university or within the organization, whatever it is. Sorry. I will shut up now. That's right. It's an ADHD meeting.

Know. And you've been very good at everyone raising their hands. Can good job team. We've had another question which is what level of professional qualification or accreditation should someone look for when choosing an ADHD coach? And the answer is not my qualification that I'm doing. No, you're allowed to answer the question Alex. I'm teasing. I think Alex has raised his hand, and let me know any other takers.

So there are a few different, like, I guess you could call them governing bodies or bodies of that that kind of represent coaching professions. And one of the main ones is the ICF, the International Coaching Federation. And for a lot of us, it's they hold up the standard of the code of ethics by which we agree with and we operate in as coaches. And so, technically, the coaching profession isn't a protected category. So anybody could call themselves a coach whether they've done training or not. But what I would also say is if you're exploring coaching in terms of going on a course, see if they have met some kind of ethical standards of their training. There's also the someone's gonna have to chip in here, the European.

No. The Association for Coaching. Lex is definitely gonna be well placed to pick up from here. But, yeah, I would say to look at something that has some kind of meeting standards. It just gives you a bit of peace of mind, you know, that someone is is is got accountability and due diligence.

Thank you. I think that an overarching body is a good thing. Certainly in something like ICF also demand at least one hundred hours of coaching, which is going to segue nicely into. So, as a charity, we think finding good coaches is incredibly important. We've created the coach marketplace, I think you're all on. So, thank you very much. And it's also a kindness because a percentage comes to us, which is very gratefully received in terms of helping the charity fund itself. But it does come from a primary thing of trying to help people find the coach that's right for them because we know how life changing that can be. We are intending over the next couple of weeks to start a new segment.

Which is going to be for people who want who are have just trained but are looking to who don't have that experience yet. And so we know that there are people who can't yet, you know, who can't afford a coach or, like, don't don't have the means. We wanna put them with those people who also wanna give out free or very, very low cost training hours. And in doing so, like, it's a wonderful symbiosis of helping both parties. One, get their qualification, which can be tough trying to find clients, and the other looking to and we want more people trained in coaching who really understand ADHD. We want to facilitate this. But it's a really it's a lovely win win.

That we see. So that's gonna be happening in the next next next few weeks. We've obviously already got the infrastructure infrastructure to do it.

That's it. Kim's raised her hand. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Can I add to that? Yeah. I think it's, again, it's really important about the governing body so that people can understand is that I think it's the philosophy of coaching. Right? I remember getting a coach before kind of being certified, and I immediately recognized the difference between my training and versus me getting a coach and then checking, you know, the qualifications side, etcetera. I think it's really important because the mindset through coaches empowering the the client. It's not about suggesting things. And, yeah, that is just it's just very different.

So you will notice when you kinda talk to a coach who who is who did go through that rigorous training and that philosophy that there is a whole difference different approach to coaching, which is about empowering you and it's never suggesting things or yeah. It's it's very different. So I just wanted to add that.

No. Thank you. Thank you. And, Alex, and then we've got to gotta cut it. Lex or go Lex, sorry.

It's just so I just wanna add tag on to the last of ethics around coaching is is some other key things are making sure that people have insurance as well as being qualified. And I totally agree with everything around being associated with professional bodies. There are like, Henry has the marketplace which cuts out, any needs because it can feel quite overwhelming. There's so many coaches if you Google them, but there are some places which already hold people to account. So Henry uses the marketplace. There's also companies like Headstuff that also holds their coaches to very high account and already done their due diligence as far as insured qualified. And.

And and those sorts of places can give you that peace of mind because they're I mean, Henry puts us all through our paces, as does Sarah who Sarah Templeton, who met last night, to hold hold people to a high standard. So there are companies like that also that can really help you, sort of go through that process without feeling overwhelmed trying to access coaching because it can feel it can feel quite overwhelming with the amount of people that there are. So five people like Henry and Sarah who hold us to account.

Thank you. Well, look at well, you're just wonderful. You're always wonderful. That's it for this segment. We have to move on. It'd be great, like, just so if people can well, they can all contact you through the marketplace. But do want to tell it'd be just nice if you could tell people where they could contact you. So perhaps just a sign out thank you and you can reach me at your web address if you could. You're all happy to do that. We'll do it in the order on the screen, which in this case you actually can see. So we'll start with k and then go whatever. I'm assuming clockwise. So the k, Alex, Natasha.

Kim, x, Katie. Oh, thank you, Henry. And thank you, everybody. It's been it's been fascinating. I could I could talk for hours. I'm sure I'm sure we all could come and get a cup of coffee and talk for hours. But anyway so, yeah, if you wanted to talk with me, my name is Kaye, and my web address is happieru. So k@happieru.co.uk. And I also work with head stuff with Alex as well. Thank you.

Yeah. Likewise. It's been really, really great to be with some friends and colleagues today and share and spread the word. So you can contact me at Alex@ADHDAlex.com. Hopefully, that should be easy to remember. But all information on me is a d h d alex dot com.

I'm gonna third that. Say, been a nice start to my morning, and I feel for people that have been up all the night, and it's really great to an honor to be here. I've wrote mine down so I wouldn't forget, and it's ww.indigo-hub.com. And, yeah, you can.

Kim?

Yes, I'll go next. I think the easiest is if you go to ADHD UK marketplace and find me, Kim To. I will also be on head stuff pretty soon as well. Or you can contact me directly via my website, which is own your flare, and flare is spelled as f l a I r.

There you go. Thanks, Kim. Rex?

I'd like again, I'll set I'll set forth all of that. Thanks so much to Henry and the team as well in the background. I know that they've been working super hard. But I work exclusively through, head stuff or, you can find my profile on ADHD UK.

Thank you. And Katie?

Yeah. I just want to thank you, Henry, because I think, you know, all these amazing coaches do great stuff. We're often absolutely overloaded with, you know, the stuff that we do, and we don't get time to platform and have a voice and you provided that. So thank you so much. So, you can find me at goldmindneurodiversity.com. My TED talk's there. Or find me on LinkedIn, k t Friedman p c c, and also on, ADHD UK market.

Nice. Good plug at the end. Guys, you've been amazing. Thank you so much. I've loved spending this hour with you. I think we've we've answered some important questions around coaching and you've and obviously, your support of the charity and all you're doing and your of individuals is just wonderful. Have a great rest of your day. See you soon, no doubt, and thank you again.

Thank you. Bye, Henry. Thank you so much, Henry and the team, everybody. Bye. Bye. Bye, guys. Bye.

Right. Handing over. So that was a wonderful session.