ADHD Coaching and ADDA – History in the Making

By Sarah Wright

ADHD Coaching has been in use for over twenty years helping adults affected by ADHD live more productive and satisfying lives. Not surprisingly, ADDA, the world’s leading adult ADHD organization, has played a pivotal role in its development.

The DSM III, in which Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) was first defined and named, was published in 1980. In the ensuing decade, support groups formed all over the country to educate and help people affected by ADD. This was many years before the Internet, and also many years before much of the research on ADD/ADHD had been done, so locating and sharing information was difficult. These groups realized that to be more effective, they needed to band together. This resulted in the incorporation of ADDA in August 1989 as a collective of independent ADHD support groups.

CHADD, founded in 1987, originally stood for “Children with Attention Deficit Disorder” and was – at the time – focused exclusively on children, school, and parenting issues. Thus, in 1994 that ADDA decided to change its focus to adult ADD issues and began accepting individual memberships, becoming the organization we know today.

By 1994, ADDA had released its first publication: “Organizing and Maintaining a Successful Support Group: A Practical Guide.” It had also begun publishing a monthly newsletter, a series of monographs on ADD/ADHD, and The ADDAlog, which was a catalog of ADDA materials for sale.

A number of ADHD Coaches — along with many doctors, therapists, and other professionals — were instrumental in the founding and development of ADDA. The first president of ADDA, Mary Jane Johnson, was an ADHD Coach. Other well-known coaches who at various times were also president of ADDA include Nancy Ratey, David Giwerc, and Linda Anderson.

Perhaps the most important contribution ADDA made to the evolution of ADHD Coaching was the development of “The ADDA Guiding Principles for Coaching Individuals with Attention Deficit Disorder.”

In 2002, with ADHD Coaching gaining in popularity and yet no clear guidelines or consensus as to what ADHD Coaching was, ADDA formed a committee to develop a document that would clarify the principles of ADHD Coaching for both professionals and the general public.

ADDA’s Subcommittee on ADHD Coaching was chaired by Nancy Ratey and comprised by Linda Anderson, Victoria Ball, Ed Barniskis, Linda Barniskis, Sue Coleman, David Giwerc, Hope Langner, Mary Jane Johnson, Barbara Luther, Theresa Maitland, Jane Massengill, Sandy Maynard, Harold Meyer, Cynthia Runberg, Linda Sepe, Terrence Sole, and Sue Sussman.

The result of the committee’s year-long effort was The ADDA Guiding Principles for Coaching Individuals with Attention Deficit Disorder, which was the world’s first attempt to codify ADHD Coaching. You can still find this document online at NancyRatey.com (link to http://www.nancyratey.com/adhdcoaching/adda-coachingprinciples). A similar document, based largely on ADDA’s original work, was published by CHADD in 2003 and updated in 2009. You can find that monograph online at Coaching for Adults with ADHD (WWK18) (link to http://www.help4adhd.org/en/living/coaching/WWK18).

ADHD Coaching, with its roots in adult learning models, is a natural fit for adults with ADHD, and therefore a natural fit for members of ADDA. As a testament to that, at the most recent ADDA conference in Orlando, Florida, a multitude of presenters were members of the ADHD Coaches Organization (link to http://www.adhdcoaches.org/). Together, ADDA and ADHD Coaches are helping adults affected by ADHD live better lives!

Thanks to Nancy Ratey, David Giwerc, Terry Matlen, Donna Soldano, and Mary Jane Johnson, both for their contributions to ADDA over the years and to this brief history of ADDA and the development of ADHD Coaching.

Sarah D. Wright is an internationally known ADHD Coach, well respected as a presenter and author on topics related to ADHD and coaching. She is a founding board member of the ADHD Coaches organization, the 2012 recipient of that organization’s Founders Award for Distinguished Service to the Professional ADHD Coach Community, co-author of the perennial favorite Fidget To Focus, and author of the recently published book, ADHD Coaching Matters: The Definitive Guide. Find her online at SarahDWright.com