Research History

ADHD Coaches are coaches who are specifically trained for coaching those with ADHD.
The ADHD Coaching field first emerged in the 1990s guided by the influential work and
leadership of Nancy Ratey, Sue Sussman, and Madelyn Griffith-Haynie. Over the next several
decades over a dozen ADHD Coaching schools formed and professional organizations emerged
as the ADHD Coaching field became formalized. During these years, the industry established
standards for certification and defined key elements of ADHD coaching.

After nearly 30 years of steady growth, ADHD Coaching witnessed a sudden explosion of
activity the early 2020s. A desire to understand this rapid expansion of ADHD Coaching in the
U.S. sparked the current survey.

In December 2023, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s held a workshop on adult ADHD diagnosis, treatment, and drug development. This meeting was attended by several members of the research team, ADHD Coaching Organization (ACO) leadership, and several advisory committee members.

Over two days of presentations, we reflected on data shared by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) indicating a spike in FDA-approved ADHD stimulant medication prescriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We learned that this unprecedented increase in stimulant medication utilization was largely driven by prescriptions to women, particularly those in young and middle adulthood. We also learned about the rise of several large digital health startups during the pandemic promoting new, remote, online prescribing models. To meet the growing demand for ADHD medication services, we learned that many nurse practitioners were newly stepping into the fold to begin treating individuals with ADHD.

But what about trends in non-medication care for ADHD? Was there also spike in non-pharmacological help-seeking during the same time period?

For those of us who had spent time in the ADHD digital space, it was difficult to ignore the
recent explosion in online content about ADHD. Google and TikTok trend analyses show rapid
increases in ADHD-related online content engagement beginning at the start of the COVID-19
pandemic and continuing upward several years later. Non-medication support services offered by
ADHD Coaches became prominent in this growing digital space. With help-seeking for ADHD
exceeding the capacity of traditional providers (e.g., psychologists, mental health therapists,
physicians), had ADHD Coaching surged as a comfortable and accessible form of support for
people learning to live with ADHD?

By January 2024, many eventual contributors to this project gathered again at the annual meeting
of the American Professional Society for ADHD and Related Disorders. We were struck by the
glaring disconnect between the maturity of ADHD Coaching as a profession and the infancy of
its science. That is to say, ADHD Coaching has been going on for decades and likely has
expanded exponentially in recent years; yet, almost nothing has been systematically documented
about who ADHD Coaches are, what practices they implement with clients, how working with
an ADHD Coach can help people, and where ADHD Coaches want their field to go from here.

Both the ADHD Coaching community and researchers studying public health trends in ADHD
recognized a mutual need to collect survey information about the experiences of individuals
providing ADHD Coaching services to clients in the United States. The ACO hopes to use these
data to form an agenda and organize the coaching community. The research team hopes to better
explain ADHD Coaching to the world and draw attention to its growing prominence and
opportunity to improve the quality of life of those with ADHD. As a result, collaborative work
on the U.S. National Survey on ADHD Coaching began with a targeted launch date of August
2024.