Coaching vs. therapy
When it comes to ADHD, it's often hard to know what approach will help the most!
Therapy focuses on healing, processing emotions, and addressing mental health or trauma.
Coaching is forward thinking — it targets executive dysfunction, action planning, and building practical scaffolding for daily life.
Therapy is just as goal-oriented as coaching — the distinction lies in what is blocking the goal. When the blocker is internal (trauma, nervous system dysregulation, or internalized shame), it requires a therapy goal; when the blocker is structural (executive function deficits, system friction, or lack of external structure), it requires a coaching goal.
But with ADHD, a lot of the executive function deficits are directly related to internal stressors. And vice versa! Your best bet is to find a professional (either a coach or therapist) you trust who is well-trained in what they do, who follows the neurodiversity paradigm, and uses a strengths-based approach to guide you toward untangling both the emotional and practical friction.
Below are some examples of goals and their blockers that hopefully make the choice a little clearer:
Client: "I'm constantly exhausted"
Stated goal: "I want to stop feeling constantly exhausted and figure out who I am."
Goal deconstruction: The blocker is internalized shame, late-diagnosis grief, and an overworked nervous system.
Best fit: Therapy. Processing identity shifts and healing forced-masking trauma requires clinical space, as forcing productivity routines right now would exacerbate burnout.
Client: "I'm procrastinating and stuck"
Stated goal: "I want to stop procrastinating and submit work reports on time."
Goal deconstruction: The blocker is executive dysfunction — specifically task-initiation friction and time-blindness — rather than emotional distress.
Best fit: Coaching. She needs project-chunking strategies, body-doubling support, and customized visual tools to bridge the gap between intention and action.
Client: "I want to reduce my RSD"
Stated goal: "I want to hold boundaries with my family without panicking."
Best fit: Therapy Goal. Setting boundaries safely requires somatic emotional regulation, trauma-informed processing, and unlearning deep-seated codependency.
Praise for Katy’s coaching:
"I feel 100% like a different person!"
"Katy is real, honest, no-nonsense and also approachable and funny. You’ll like yourself more after working with her."
"I cannot say enough great things about Katy! ... She saved my sanity and my health!"
"Katy is a fantastic coach! I highly recommend working with her. She really helped me change my mindset."
"Working with Katy was an integral part of my journey after discovering I have ADHD. Her coaching helped me accept the way I move through life, take ownership, and approach my goals with more flexibility — without feeling like I had to follow the “typical” rules for getting things done. Every session offered value, and I appreciated that it wasn’t a generic 'five steps to success' approach. It was thoughtful, personalized, and truly bespoke."
"I feel very supported and love our weekly sessions! My level of insight into myself and the world around me has gone to a new level. I feel more accountable and more thoughtful about what I do. Katy really does have a massive gift of insight & connection."
"Thank you for all of the work you did with me. I got so much from our sessions, and I feel like I have some tools to use when things get challenging and I find myself in chaos mode!!"
"I would absolutely recommend the coaching, especially if you are learning more about your own diagnosis. After listening to Katy’s podcast, I really felt Katy understood the middle-aged ADHD woman, and her coaching gave me more insight and understanding about who I am. Her approach is so positive and reaffirming!"
"Our sessions have had a real, positive impact on me. Thank you again for all your wisdom and for gently nudging me along in the right direction.
This coaching has been truly impactful and an invaluable resource so far for me."
"Katy's coaching truly created a positive shift for me. I have more body awareness and am developing the ability to catch my patterns better!
Usually, I focus so much on the negative aspects and ignore my strengths. What I loved was the chance to articulate what was working for me. Focusing on the latter in our sessions, I believe, was fundamental for this attitude shift for the better."
"Katy is the most REAL and genuinely caring ADHD coach out there. Before I got to work with her as a coach, I could tell just from her podcast that she genuinely cares about helping women with ADHD, and that everything she offers is to serve her clients.
I have found other ADHD coaches to be too sales-pitchy and inauthentic. Working with Katy both in her small group coaching experience and one-on-one has truly changed my life. It has given me the validation and tools I need to accept who I am and work WITH my brain to accomplish my goals. I feel so much less alone and immensely grateful that I stumbled upon Katy's podcast."
